What is this thing they call "Karate"?

I went and visited a martial arts class at the East Oakland Youth Development Center yesterday. I was interested in volunteering my time there and I had time yesterday to turn in my application. Anyway, I sat in on a class of about 10-15 young people (probably ages 5 - 12). The teacher looked to be a mid-30 something Black man. All the kids themselves were Black. I watched as this teacher lined up his students and had them do striking-to-the-head drills. Although this is similar to how my own Sensei taught young people in our dojo, it felt inappropriate to watch this man teaching these young kids how to hit someone in the head. I was also a bit perturbed (okay, I was outright disturbed!) by the sloppy approach he had in running through these exercises. I kept thinking, these young kids need to sweat. They need to be moving around their bodies. Not lined up in messy formation trying to block-punch each other. That doesn't teach them s***. I don't know why I was thinking this. I just felt that there needed to be a holistic approach to what was going on. Martial arts is not all combative technique; there needs to be physical activities that promote flexibility and cardiovascular strength and body movement, etc. (I mean those things go hand-in-hand). Especially at that age; the older kids can be learning the more dangerous stuff, maybe. Anyways, a lot of the kids said the word "karate" in reference to what they were doing. And at first I thought this guy was teaching them some type of Shotokan-style karate because he had them all do Heian Shodan. It was weird to watch them all do whatever this messy kata was set to a too-fast count by the teacher. I was like, "what the hell is the point of having them do that?". They aren't learning anything by running through some form that they aren't even going to explore the bunkai for. And besides that's inappropriate anyways to be showing them any of the brutal techniques in those kata at that age. They could probably learn a lot more by doing a non-martial related aerobic exercise. Or just like have them doing some kind of physical activity that promotes the development of whatever areas that would be necessary for their martial development. I think it was Bruce Lee that said something about martial arts being a "vigorous" activity. That's what I'm itching for in my own training. Again, martial arts or karate in particular should be, and was holistic. That means you are physically fit and you are developing martial skill, among other things. I waited till the end of the class to speak to the instructor. He was Afro-centric in his thinking; similar to what I've encountered in Detroit. He told me he was teaching from an "African perspective" and an "urban" perspective. I thought "okay". Then I asked, "what does 'urban' mean?" I said, "do you mean like you are trying to teach how violence would happen on the street?" Then he got up and explained something about how the "Asian styles" they teach "stances". And I was like, "There are no such thing as stances", remembering what I had read been reading from Iain Abernethy:

 "We don’t get into a stance to do techniques; we do techniques by moving into stances."

What I meant to say of course was that what was typically taught as "stances" were actually just intermediate movements to show how the student should be positioning their body weight in the midst of executing their technique; and that these labels for such things were the result of this mass-based style of teaching that has occurred in the karate world only in the last 100 years or so. And this teacher was right when he said, "Have you ever seen a brother on the street go into a 'stance'?" And I was like, "Of course not dude." What I wanted to say was, "But that's not the problem of an 'Asian' style. That's the problem of karate being taught in a watered-down way when it was formally introduced to the public in the early 20th century." I mean it's insulting to think that my Okinawan karate ancestors would be thought of as stupid enough to be teaching their art in a fragmented way as it is taught today. I was like, "you need to be doing your reading brah. You can't be passing on the same narrow-minded concepts and misconceptions that even some of these 'Asian' instructors are doing. I don't give a f*** what your 'African' perspective is. That's more like a political statement and has nothing to do with teaching them indigenous fighting arts from that great continent." Of course, I said all that in my head. But maybe I made the mistake of sort of getting into it with this guy. I mean, I was already unimpressed and a bit disgusted with his teaching style, so that's my fault. I wasn't at all trying to challenge his knowledge base. It's just that I hate it when people say they doing "karate" and they don't even know what the f*** that means. And even more so, it's like these kids aren't even being given the richness of what that art is. I mean I feel like some kind of "Okinawan karate renaissance man", even though my own training and physical ability is lacking. But that's what I truly want to embody for real. And I'll admit that on this blog and hold myself to that standard. I think cultivating "kisshu fushin" is what a karateka should be about. And of course I should add, what do I know about teaching any of this stuff? Can I do any better? And if I think I know how to do it better, why ain't you doin' it then? If I think this instructor sucks so bad and I think his martial arts skill is nothing, then what do I have to back my words up? I recognize that you really can't challenge the dominant pedagogical approach unless you yourself are a "badass". And what I mean by that is you gotta be wicked at what you're doing. You gotta have a wicked "demon's hand". It's gotta be good. For example, I don't think Bruce Lee could have said any of the controversial things he said if he wasn't any good. He was good. That's why people paid attention to him. Same thing with me. If I'm no good with my karate then I really can't be whining and complaining about how all these teachers don't know how to teach or what to teach. If I'm so concerned about all that, then you do it (talking to myself). That's it right there. That's the standard. You gotta be good. You don't need to be "the best". But you need to strive for always broadening your horizons, always challenging yourself (dialectical thinking) and always training. Don't be telling a student to "drop down and give me 50" if you ain't gonna do that yourself (or can't do that yourself). I don't care if you're Black or Asian or White, whatever. The color of your skin does not determine the quality or content of your teaching character. You need to kick ass with what you know in your chosen field and with what you do. You need to be a "professional". That's what I believe my own Sensei was. But I'll talk about that in the next post.

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até