Goal Setting

So in the last entry I wrote about "personal safety". I actually googled that term because I was curious to know what was active in Oakland that spoke to that. I came across two significant things that I'm wanting to get more involved with to see if that fits my style. One was R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense systems) and the other was IMPACT Bay Area. There is actually going to be an "Intro to Personal Safety" seminar/class on the 8th of May put on by IMPACT that I have reserved my space for. I'm excited about all of this because it is exactly the kind of thing I wanted when I walked into my first real karate dojo nearly 6 years ago. Of course I could not have articulated that back then because I didn't exactly have a good understanding of what modern karate actually was. I thought self-defense was a skill that a practitioner eventually just acquired through enough sweat and blood at the dojo. How wrong I was. And my time in Detroit has shown me that. (Don't get me wrong; you definitely need to put in hella sweat and blood if you wanna succeed, but it depends on what you wanna succeed at). This was one of the main things that frustrated me in about the 2nd year of training. I didn't know what I wanted with my karate! And I was confused and angry at myself and I actually quit training for nine months because nothing was making sense to me. What I want with my karate has nothing to do with being a tournament competitor. I never much had an interest in showing off my kata for trophy's or for getting points in a kumite match. While I think it's good to get the experience of performing in front of people (especially for shy guy's like myself), it's really not conducive towards building self-defensive skill. I can't help but think of modern karate as being art for art's sake (a term the author Matthew Fox uses to describe the "consumer mentality" of art) as opposed to art for creativity's sake (a term the same author uses to describe "evolving and for healing people and the Earth"). What I want with my karate now is to be certified in the aspects of personal safety. I want to become a certified "professional" in this area (either through one of the groups mentioned or something else) because I personally believe that this is part of the essence of a living karate. Because karate was developed as "civilian self-defense", I think it's only natural that karateka should be concerned with having functional skill in that area (not just physical skill). Karate was once a holistic martial art. It needs to be practiced as such. Too many people are walking into karate dojo thinking they are learning the "real" thing when in fact it's more like Oriental aerobics. I'm thinking that it might be good for me to continue to train in my style of karate (Matsubayashi-ryu), but of course, while in Oakland I am planning to get involved with other martial arts. Continuing to be a member of my style is what gives me the legitimacy of being linked to my Okinawan roots; but getting certified and becoming a professional in the field of personal safety is what is going to give my karate any legitimacy outside the dojo.

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até