Amateur

Maybe I should put that word into the title of this blog somewhere so people don't get the wrong idea. I'm not that "good" of a martial artist. Meaning, I lack the experience that lets me know I can function successfully in a fight (that means being able to prevent an aggressive person from further attacking me so that I can escape to safety). I've never been in a fight. I've had someone punch me in the head before and I've punched and kicked others out of anger (yes I've been a bully), but I've never had a fight with another person. That's not to say I necessarily want or need this experience (nor am I saying I don't want to experience that). I mean most certainly I'm not the type to go out looking for fights to test my skill. That may be one way of learning. I don't know how I can go about learning this for myself except in a dojo environment that trains for functional fighting skill for the purposes of dealing with Habitual Acts of Physical Violence. I mean, functionality is one part of the totality of martial arts, but it is an important part I believe. And what I mean by "fight" is the chaotic, unpredictable nature of human on human violence; not a UFC/MMA/Boxing match with rules and regulations. Functionality with what you do, in any field of skill/craft, breeds confidence (for the most part). Yeah, it could breed arrogance too, but that's why it's only one part of the TOTALITY. That's why Nagamine Sensei stressed "ken zen ichinyo" (karate and zen are one). Point is, I'm not a professional. I'm an amateur. I say that too because I mean if you look at how many hours I actually train in one week (and not how many days) then you can see that 4x/week only adds up to like 4~5 hours of actual skill development with the guidance of a teacher. That's nothing. What's that study of how many hours it takes for a person to gain mastery of something? I mean, the real training takes place outside the dojo; like doing your homework. That's something I learned with my Sensei. The dojo is like going to the classroom. If you don't do your homework though, you don't really get a good grasp on what the lesson is about. This is the importance of having good training partners as well. Training alone can only give you so much. Guess I'm still trying to figure out how to make my training schedule work in order to develop "functional spontaneity".

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até