Too serious?

Maybe I'm being too serious with the kind of training I'm looking for? As I look online and ask around to get myself involved with martial arts related things I've definitely come across some interesting groups, but they sound better "on paper" (like reading about them online) than they look in person. I'm just being scared perhaps? Afraid of really getting my feet wet? I don't know. Maybe. All I know is that there is a lack of "realness" with a lot of training out there. I mean, it may look and sound real; the shouting, the militaristic all-in-formation stances, the punches and kicks. But "realness" to me isn't something that can be put on display like for entertainment. Doing fancy looking kata may be crowd-pleasing but when it comes down to that kid having to fight to prevent further harm to their body, do they understand that they too will also get hurt? Do they understand that unless they have been trained for the situation that they will not know how to act? It's far better I think to have one's martial fantasies come tumbling down in the dojo than it is to have it ripped apart in front of your eyes on the street. There are mean and vicious people out there. You will get hurt. You're training has to be as safe as possible, but if it's so safe that you don't know what it feels like to get punched in the face or knocked down to the ground, I don't see how you can expect to be prepared for real life. It's more like you are preparing yourself for a choreographed fight on a movie set. The world is in need of real, honest and genuine martial artists. Not a bunch of tough guys with mean faces and little manners. Not a bunch of loud-mouthing "masters". But just real people with real experience willing to teach the rest of us lay-people what it takes to maneuver through violence in our modern world. Put your belt away, hang up your uniform and ask yourself honestly, "Am I prepared for violence?" A simple honest assessment can possibly save your life. Or at least bring you back down to earth.

 Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até

Safe in the City?

Man, it's hot today. 80 degrees, 50% humidity. I shouldn't complain though. Detroit summer was a lot more sticky and sweaty. At least in the Bay you got that breeze.

Took the BART on my own today for the first time. I walked to the Fruitvale station with my friend Eric, he went off to work in Downtown and I continued on to the West Oakland station just so I could check it out. I found my way back to Fruitvale station with no hassle. BART really is just freakin' convenient. It cost me $3.50 total round trip.

As I was walking to get lunch near the West Oakland station I saw a posted paper on the window of a local business. It was typed out like a letter and was addressed to the "three young men that robbed me on April 13th..." or something like that. Apparently this woman had been robbed at gunpoint and had typed out a sort of letter/flyer that expressed her concern/love for these young men who apparently were 10 - 13 yrs. old. Not sure if that was written as part of an organization or if it was of her own doing. There was another paper flyer posted that read "Stop Violence" from the Oakland based violence prevention group Youth ALIVE!. I sat there eating my subway sandwich lunch thinking about all of that and feeling jittery. Oakland's a great place for me to be. But the quality of life sucks due to these personal safety issues.

When I got off at the Fruitvale station I noticed the large movie posters for the soon-to-be-released film Fruitvale Station. I thought about the young man it was based upon, Oscar Grant, whose life was taken by BART officers right at that station on New Year's day 2009. Walking home along Fruitvale Avenue I kept thinking to myself, "What's it gonna take to make these communities safer?" Noticing the school children walking by me in groups I thought, "What's it gonna take to bring the neighbor back to the 'hood?" I thought about all that and I thought about my martial arts/personal safety training. Things are still unclear, but I'm hoping to make an impact whatever I do. I'm not running away from Oakland just cause the quality of life sucks. It's the responsibility of those of us living in these neighborhoods to make things safer. Not the police. Not the city council. Not the mayor. Not the governor. A real "safer cities" initiative starts from people who actually give a damn about where they're living; who aren't content to just leave the trash lying in piles on the street corner to the responsibility of the city workers; who aren't content with seeing the young women prostituting themselves all up and down International Blvd; who aren't content with the high rates of robberies of fellow residents (Oakland is the robbery capital of the US, with the Fruitvale district being a robbery hot spot); who aren't content with the fear and threat of violence period. The solution to me isn't more police. It isn't more business investment. It isn't moving out to the suburbs. It's about building beloved community. It's about stringing the web in your neighborhood, connecting from one concerned person to another. It's about all the things we are already hardwired to do but we don't do because we're concerned about our careers, our jobs, our material possessions, our maintaining the insanity of the status quo instead of daring to stand up and shout. Don't get me wrong. I'm just as clueless as anyone else on how to make a first move. I think about the Panthers in '66; Huey and Bobby and the rest with shotguns and law books "capturing the imagination of the people" right here in Oakland. A new definition of revolution needs to be declared. It's not the militancy that we need. It's the audacity that we need. The audacity to speak up and speak out and act on what we know is right to do.

Something alive is stirring...

Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até

Building confidence

"I don't want to be afraid to say hi to somebody because I think they might ask me for a favor. I'd like to be able to be on the level where I'm so used to setting my boundaries that I can be open with people so if they do say or ask me something that I disagree with that I don't have a problem saying no."  ~ David Colón

"A clenched fist cannot shake hands."  ~ Indira Gandhi, 3rd Prime Minister of India*

That first quote is from a good friend I was in conversation with recently. I think it speaks directly to the reasons why I believe personal safety should be an integral part of modern karate training. I am beginning to recognize that a real way to build confidence in people is not through some kind of rigid militaristic discipline, but by showing them how conflicts (not all of course) can be de-escalated by knowing how to set solid, affirmative boundaries with other human beings. This is something I'm learning now as I read the Kid Power book. As I've mentioned, this is one of the groups I'm looking into for instructor certification. I included the second quote because I interpret it to mean, if you're always on guard with people because you think they might take advantage of you or attack you, it becomes difficult to hold real respect for them (but that doesn't mean you should be naive either). No one should have to walk out of their front door in fear of another human being.

*Funny side note: I first saw that "clenched fist" quote on Patrick McCarthy's website and I assumed it to be the words of some wise karate sensei as there was no reference given. Subsequently, I began telling people this quote and attributing it to the wisdom of an Okinawan karate master. I finally googled that quote to see if I could locate its source for this blog post; lo and behold, it wasn't the source I thought! Oops!

Anywhere there are people there are bound to be personal safety concerns. I mean, maybe I'm wrong to associate personal safety training with Okinawan karate but I think it's an important element for any person to understand and practice.  Knowing how to de-escalate conflict first with your awareness, words, body language, etc seems to be more appropriate than just knowing how to strike, smash, throw, or break someone. I think the descending order of excellence in Personal Safety is something like what Rory Miller says in Facing Violence:

"It is better to avoid than to run, better to run than to de-escalate, better to de-escalate than to fight, better to fight than to die." (pg. 42)

I think there is this severe misconception out there that your average local dojo is going to be able to teach you how to become proficient in dealing with "personal safety violence" (i.e. common acts of violence such as those similar to what McCarthy calls HAPV; see link below). Maybe some places might even advertise, "Learn how to defend yourself! Only $99.99 for six weeks!". I think the fact of the matter is, unless you are training seriously for more than 1 hour/3 days a week, you are not going to be able to develop a level of functionality suitable enough to successfully handle a physical altercation. You might get lucky, but I don't want to be relying on my luck in a dangerous scenario like that. I mean, think about how the police or military are trained. If you're training for reality, you're not gonna be prepared by taking a few classes here and there; you've got to train seriously for the situation you are going to be in. That doesn't mean you need to come home from the dojo with bruises every week (even though that could happen). It means that the pedagogical model by which you're learning from has to correspond to the reality of violence for whichever context you're in, i.e. civilian, military, etc. The way that a samurai in feudal Japan trained in jujutsu was necessary for actual combat. And remember, that was their job. They were professional warriors. It would be silly and unrealistic I think for a young woman living in our 21st century to take up jujutsu at a local dojo and think she's gonna be trained the same way, or even think that she's gonna be functional in the same skill sets. You have to account for the fact that modern martial arts is not taught the same way it was "back in the day". And I don't think it would make sense to train the same way. We've got to adapt to our changing reality. But that doesn't mean we should lose the practical functionality of what the art was intended to teach. I don't think for example that karate needs to become an Olympic sport or be popularized through tournaments in order for it to be relevant to future generations. I think karate can remain relevant for the same reasons it was for the practitioners of the past; as a way to defend yourself against HAPV (habitual acts of physical violence). Fundamentally, the human being has not changed. We are still struggling profoundly with our Ego, which is the source from which violent conflicts arise. Therefore, it is still a necessity I think to have a level of skill in dealing with this. I'm hoping that the things I'm learning in this field of Personal Safety, whether with Kid Power or not, can help me to become more confident in how to handle conflict in the civilian realm.

"Lacking confidence about self-protection is the mind's subliminal message to the body that more training is necessary to overcome fear. Indomitable fortitude illuminates the darkness of fear." (pg. 104)

Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até

Define your goals

The Wing Chun class went out to lunch this past Sunday after class. Sifu Greg said something interesting in response to some of my queries; "All I teach is how to hit the head". Maybe not his exact words, but close. Basically he was explaining how Wing Chun is about how to hit the head or neck and if countered, how to remove obstructions so as to continue to hit the head or neck area. The purpose of this is to "take out the General"; the "General" being your brain. If you give your opponent a concussive series of strikes, what good is the rest of his limbs in hitting you back? The brain/head is the center, the master control of your body. Without it, you don't work.

*Note: I'm still a new wing chun student so if anything I've described above sounds inaccurate then please correct me.

The point I am trying to make and what I find intriguing is that this act of "hitting the head/neck" is a clearly defined goal/target. Yes there are other actions that Wing Chun teaches, but all those actions, for the most part, are utilized in order to continue to hit the target area, i.e. head/neck. This is a very pragmatic way of doing things. That is why Wing Chun is characterized as being "simple" and "direct". I'm wondering if this is the reason why karate is lost (functionally speaking) today? I mean, what is the goal of using your karate technique? I'm sure Iain Abernethy or McCarthy has already said something about this, but what is the objective of using karate on an opponent? I am sure that the principle is somehow the same or similar. I remember reading something in Abernethy's articles about the movements in kata being the result of first initiating a groin grab, eye poke, or neck choke on your opponent (I could be wrong. I'll have to find and cite that article later). Point is, there isn't any elaborate, superfluous movements "for the sake of". Each movement is designed to achieve a clear objective. I guess I'm saying that with karate, that objective has been obscured. So something about clearly defining what you are employing your methods for makes a lot of sense. It sort of cuts through the bullshit. It's like, when you know what you want, even if you have no idea how to get there, you will find a way. You stop wasting your time; you stop distracting yourself with things that aren't aligned in your interest (hitting the head). Eventually I would imagine that your approach begins to look more straight, more exact, more "direct". You become focused on one thing and one thing alone...to hit. Obviously there's something to be said about applying that approach to life.

Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até

Specialization?

Got an email over the LeBlanc Wing Chun school listserve that had a link to an interview with Sifu LeBlanc's teacher, Sifu Gary Lam. This interview was done by the folks over at Wing Chun Geeks. I wanted to blahg about it because something Sifu Lam said (which I've quoted below) made me pause and think about what my personal goals are with training. The full interview can be read here: http://wingchungeeks.com/gary-lam-interview/.

Excerpt from the interview:

Q: In a previous interview you said people today cannot focus on one marital art, they are all over the place.  What if your Sifu or Marital Arts instructor cannot provide everything you need? For example if I live in an area where Wing Chun is very limited, would I be wrong to fill in the gaps with boxing?

A: There is really no “right” or “wrong” to what I had said. It’s just a matter if you really want to be an expert in one specific art or not. If you mix in too many things, it’s really hard to really consider yourself as a true professional since there are so many other influences. For myself, I also dabbled in Muay Thai and competed in Freestyle Boxing, but I had only done so after I had felt that my wing chun skills were at a very high level. That way none of those other things would be able to disrupt my Wing Chun background. As tough as it sounds, if you want to really take Wing Chun seriously, then you should make extra effort to learn Wing Chun through other means. It’s a matter of wanting to truly excel and devote yourself into your passion. Filling in the gaps with boxing would not exactly be wrong, but it wouldn’t necessarily complete your Wing Chun training. An example I can give would be an aspired Chinese cuisine cook learning to complete his lack of skill in Chinese cooking by learning Italian cooking instead. You’ll be able to be a cook with more diverse skills, but you would not be able to call yourself a true Chinese cuisine master.

I think for the most part I would agree with Sifu Lam. My own Sensei is considered a karate master. More specifically a Matsubayashi-ryu karate professional/master. The problem for me is, I'm not necessarily interested in becoming a professional of a particular martial art as I am with becoming a professional in how to deal with what the art was intended to be used for; in the case of karate, this is civilian violence. I am interested in gaining functionality with "personal-protection/personal-safety" skills. But the other thing is too, I don't consider myself to have "left" karate. I feel like I am still doing karate. But again, because modern karate has lost its real-world fighting functionality in favor of sport, it was important for me to look into other systems that still carried some degree of functionality that corresponded to the close-quarter fighting methods of Okinawan karate. And being that Chinese martial arts greatly influenced the development of karate, it made sense to investigate the Wing Chun system in order to better understand the "engine" of karate. The other thing is too, I don't feel it makes sense to become a "professional" in a system that isn't geared towards building real-world skill (what does training for tournament/competition have anything to do with knowing how to keep safe out in public?). Ironically, that is of course how karate developed; as a way to deal with the most common types of real-world civilian violence (and we know this in light of the research that karate historian Patrick McCarthy has done). The Matsubayashi school itself was even influenced by a pre-WWII master (Choki Motobu) who gained notoriety by testing out his fighting skill in Okinawa's red-light districts. You could view what he did as sort of like "field testing" what was practical and what was not with regards to fighting/violence. I think this is the most crucial missing piece of  the modern pedagogical approach to karate today. It's like students going to flight-school and being taught by an instructor who has never flown; or if he has flown, never takes you up in a plane! Now, while my own Sensei may have actually had real-world experience with violence, the kind of karate that I learned from him had little to do with that. I mean, I'm not suggesting karate students need to go out and pick fights in order to see how physical violence works; I'm saying that if we aren't training in the dojo in a way that corresponds to reality, then excuse my language but, what the f--- are we doing?

Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até

The Little Red Dojo

I was on the phone recently with a friend I had gotten to know in Detroit. He had called to see how I was doing and was asking me about the things I was currently involved with here in Oakland. I told him about a "business idea" I had gotten the notion of recently. It involves three areas:

1. Fitness
2. Personal Safety
3. Karate/Martial Arts

Let me break that down one by one here:

- When I talk about "Fitness" I'm talking about what tends to be commonly associated with that, i.e. regular exercise routine to improve/maintain cardiovascular health, promote/maintain flexibility, endurance, strength, etc. I'm also talking about the nutritional component, i.e. what constitutes a healthy diet, understanding of diet in accordance with training routines, and other basic information centering around nutritional health. And because not everyone is built the same, I think it's important that people have a personalized fitness program/routine that works for them and their needs.

- "Personal Safety". This is an umbrella term I'm using to describe everything from "full-force" self-defense training to "people safety" skills like boundary setting to knowledge of self-defense laws for your particular state. This idea is influenced by the "seven elements" of self-defense training that the author Rory Miller highlighted in his book Facing Violence. Personal safety differs from martial arts training in that this is not about learning the "art" itself. It is about learning the practical skills to deal with aggression/violence in a relatively short amount of time (as opposed to the many years it can take to ingrain a particular martial art in order to have "functional spontaneity" with it). Plus, personal safety isn't necessarily focused on "fighting". That would be only one component of this field as opposed to martial arts which is centered around the strategies and techniques for successful fighting (I'm not gonna get into the semantics here about whether to call it self-defense or fighting. Save that for another post). Personal safety training also deals with understanding, to some degree, non-violent communication and ways to examine how we process and react to things which can lead to violent or aggressive behavior (which is the work that AVP does for example). But those last two things are sort of still in questioning mode right now as to whether or not I feel that actually corresponds to the goals/needs of Personal Safety or if that has more to do with Personal Growth.

- The last thing to break down here is "Martial Arts" or "Karate" in particular (and not just because I'm a karate guy; you could apply to this 3 pronged model to include another martial art like Jujutsu instead). But since I believe that karate needs to get back to its "roots" and become about functionality instead of formality, and because I know from my reading that karate was developed as a civilian self-defensive art, it seems very appropriate to go with karate as being the martial art of choice in the 21st century. And maybe I'm biased cause I am a 4th generation Okinawan American and I still think karate is the original martial cool, at least in the United States. But this field isn't just about developing functional fighting skill; it's about the culture and history of karate; it's about cross-training with other "styles" in order to better understand the principles of karate; holding regular seminars with people like Miller and McCarthy; it's about having at least a basic understanding of anatomy and physics; it's about ways of healing; it's about Zen/spirituality,etc. But I should also note here that this last category is actually integrated with the other two. Which leads me to my next point...

The name I had in mind for this "business" is something like the Shin-gi-tai International Dojo or something (actually that sounds kinda boring). "Shin-gi-tai" literally translates to "mind-technique-body" and is a fairly common term in the karate community to describe what the karate practitioner (karateka) should ideally embody. As you can probably guess, it has to do with understanding karate as a holistic art where each of those elements is seen as one. And each of the fields I've described above roughly corresponds to these elements, although of course they can be fluid as well; Shin = Personal Safety, Gi = Karate/Martial Arts, Tai = Fitness. I don't know, maybe that name doesn't work. I was just trying to find a creative way to incorporate the Okinawan karate philosophy into this 21st century "business" idea. But let me now get into why I keep putting that word "business" in quotes.

I'm actually not talking about a "for-profit" model of business; I'm talking about something that would probably fit more along the lines of a "non-profit - 501(c)(3)" type of organization, but maybe not even that. As you might know from previous posts (there I go again, talking as though I'm actually speaking to a reading audience), I have been concerned with finding/doing work that is "healing and transformative", i.e. "soul work" but that also provides me with a living. So basically I'm looking for like a "career", you know? But that career isn't something that actually exists right now. It's something I want to create. And as I'm contemplating all of this, I'm also thinking about what I want karate training to be about for myself. And then I'm thinking, that's kinda it, "shin-gi-tai". That's what I want to embody generally (personally I want to embody "kisshu fushin"/demon's hand, saint's heart). But so I was like, okay, not everyone wants/needs to become a martial artist, but everyone needs to be healthy (or not) and everyone can benefit from the principles of Personal Safety (especially in urban environments). So I was thinking that as a "service-model" (as opposed to "business-model"), I could get involved with building a space/center that provides Fitness and Personal Safety services to the general public, but only advertises the martial arts/karate to those who are more serious about that kind of training. And these services are of course provided on a sliding-scale and the people who run this center can work with people on a one-on-one basis to set up a payment plan that accommodates for that person's financial situation. For example, a single mother working minimum-wage who wants to do fitness training would work with an "employee" of this center to come up with a payment plan that fits with her monthly budget. And she wouldn't even necessarily have to pay money; there could be "work-trade" opportunities provided; like volunteering to help keep the center clean on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. I mean, even just paying $5/week/month (depending on what works for her) because she doesn't have time to do any work-trade is suitable. I would imagine that this center operates on some combination of grants and customer fees. And the whole point of having people do either work-trade or paying low fees is so that we don't build a culture of "learned-helplessness". That is to say, this isn't a charity organization that just does things for free and doesn't give to people a sense of ownership. It is an organization to provide people with ways to keep fit, active, and healthy and/or the skills to safely maneuver in an urban environment. [I should quickly note here too that this center provides those two services (Fitness and Personal Safety) for people to do separately or together]. And the "employees" of this organization/service/business are people from the community in which the center is based. This is so that we can provide, theoretically, a self-sufficient economic model that keeps the money circulating within that community in order to provide work for people that provides a living but that isn't a job (slavery). As you can probably guess too, this center would be located in an area where you would not normally find such a high-quality training facility. Which leads me to why this post is titled that way.

"The little red dojo" is something my friend on the phone said. He was referencing the idea of the "little red schoolhouse". That is to say, a place-based, small-scale local entity that provides the community it is based in with necessary services. I mean, being healthy doesn't have to be a privilege nor should it have to be an ordeal to work into our busy lives. And Personal Safety is about the common-sense skills we need in order to maneuver our crowded urban society without unnecessary fear and distrust. This idea of the little red dojo is connected to the ideas of Community Building as advocated by James and Grace Lee Boggs as well the ideas presented in The Reinvention of Work by Matthew Fox, but it isn't so much a political idea as it is more about how I personally would want karate training to be about for me. It came about mostly because as I was visiting dojo in Detroit and in Oakland, I noticed that there was little to no attention paid to fitness or Personal Safety. And I don't see how I, as a martial artist can be prepared for the real world (or claim to be a martial artist) if those two things are not incorporated. But, right now, it's just an idea. It's how I think and how I think is constantly changing. But it's an idea I'd like to be involved with somewhere down the line.

Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até

Overload?

Not sure if I'm doing too much or not enough or not on the right track? My goal with karate/martial arts training now is to understand how karate functions as a fighting science/art as well as to gain "functional spontaneity" with it. In order to discover a pedagogical approach to help me in that endeavor, I've begun training in Wing Chun and now I've just started doing Danzan-ryu jujutsu. So it's Wing Chun 3x/week and jujutsu 2x/week. As I've mentioned in previous posts, Wing Chun is fascinating to me because of the similarity of its movements (not all) to the movements done in the kata of the Matsubayashi-system of karate in which I began my training (I mean, I'm sure there are similarities in the kata of other systems of karate but I've only done Shorin-ryu). I'm no expert at karate by any stretch so I could be completely wrong in my analysis, but to me at this point in my training, there are similarities. The reason I've begun jujutsu is because I know from my reading that this was a skill that was incorporated into karate training "back in the day". There is an article by Charles C. Goodin, a historian and karate practitioner/teacher out of Hawaii who wrote an article in which he cited this historical reference:

When Kentsu Yabu came to Hawaii he was asked what the difference was between Karate (which then meant "China Hand") and Ju Jutsu. His reply was remarkable. Think about Ju Jutsu for a moment. Its curriculum is vast. Yabu answered that Ju Jutsu was only 10% of Karate. This was more than an idle boast. We know today that pre-public school system Karate had a comprehensive grappling element, often called Tegumi or Tuite.

Just to give context, Kentsu Yabu (1866-1937) was one of our Okinawan masters of karate who, according to Shoshin Nagamine's Tales of Okinawa's Great Masters, was a "senior disciple" of another Okinawan karate master, Itosu Anko.

Anyway, my point is that I'm not sure if I should just be focusing on one art or if I should just be doing what feels best? I mean, I've never done two new arts at the same time. When I was living in LA, I took up judo for 5 months in addition to going to the karate dojo. But that experience was too much for me physically. Slaving at a job 8 hours a day, then running off to judo or karate was too taxing on my system. But this time around it's a bit different. The way that Sifu LeBlanc teaches Wing Chun is not as physically demanding as the way my Sensei taught us his karate. And so far, the way that Sensei Mike teaches us jujutsu is not as physically taxing either. But according to Sifu LeBlanc, because I'm just starting out in the Wing Chun system, I have not yet been exposed to the more physically demanding drills/exercises. And I'm sure the same goes for jujutsu, although Sensei Mike has not explicitly stated such. And also, I just quit my job as of last week so perhaps all of these factors are what allows me to not feel so tired to do the training. I don't know. We'll just have to see what happens in the next month or so. I may just end up having to focus on one or the other.

Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até

The Genius of Quan

One of the things that has been a hang-up for me in training has been the practice of the kata (form in Japanese). In the Matsubayashi-ryu system of karate-do that I originally started in and continue to practice, there are 18 kata of which I have memorized 15. It should be noted here of course that the number of kata memorized does not correspond to skill level nor does it indicate any actual knowledge of the offensive-defensive themes contained within the forms. My time in Detroit helped me to realize what was so frustrating about Okinawan karate for me as a student and opened me up to understanding what the kata (referred to as quan in Chinese) were actually intended for. But I was also becoming disgruntled at the fact that continuing to simply practice the form was not going to help me develop any functional skill. This changed recently as I was reading this text about the significance of quan in Patrick McCarthy's translation of the Bubishi:

"A second but equally important aspect of the quan is its therapeutic use. The various animal-imitating paradigms and breathing patterns used were added to improve blood circulation and respiratory efficiency, stimulate qi energy, stretch muscles while strengthening them, strengthen bones and tendons, and massage the internal organs. Performing the quan also develops coordination as one vibrates, utilizes torque, and rotates the hips. This in turn will improve one's biomechanics and allow one to have optimum performance while utilizing limited energy." (pg. 187)

So, as you can see the kata/quan were intended to be holistic, not simply as a means of transmitting the offensive-defensive principles of self-defense. The way that the kata were taught to me in my original dojo resulted more in what the above quoted passage speaks to, although those things were not specifically addressed while training. It's not like my Sensei was saying "Okay, now we're going to practice these forms so as to help us improve our blood-circulation, etc, etc". No. It was more like, the kata were just the accepted staple of practice in a karate dojo (when you're starting out you don't necessarily question everything that you're doing; you kind of just accept the word of the master). But anyway, as I was reading that passage I suddenly felt a tremendous sense of elation that I no longer had to feel so frustrated about practicing my forms. I mean, yes I still need to get into the bunkai (analysis) of the kata as that is what is needed in order to have functionality as a karate-ka/martial artist. However, in the meantime, while I don't have a physical teacher to guide me in that analysis (nor any karate peers), I can still do the kata as a way to engage in preventive long-term healthcare (which is how karate is practiced today for the most part, even if you think you're at a "traditional" dojo like I was). And that's important because, as my Sensei liked to tell us all the time, "All you have is your health". And that's what's really cool about these kata. Anyone who's ever done one of these forms knows that even though they can take less than a minute to perform, you can really work up a sweat after just a few repetitions. I have a greater appreciation of the ancestors of these arts as I think about what kind of skill, time and thinking went into creating these holistic mnemonic vehicles. And I have a greater appreciation of my Sensei who is someone that really had us train the kata in ways that the above passage speaks to. Whereas some dojo might simply do these forms as a way to "preserve the ashes" of their style, my Sensei really taught us how to be physical with it (i.e. the twisting, torquing, etc). Which is partly why I'm sure he's so healthy at 68 years of age. Point being, the quan/kata really are an ingenious method of training and even though I don't yet understand their applications, I don't need to give up on them.

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até

Model Mugging?

I'm currently looking into "career" options that speak to doing work that I think is important and necessary. In previous posts I've already mentioned the desire to investigate groups like "IMPACT Bay Area" and similar organizations. One such group is Model Mugging. MM has a history of teaching "full-force" self-defense training to women since the 1970's. I just recently emailed them asking about how I might get involved with becoming instructor-certified in their system. There's a chapter in the San Francisco Bay Area which was encouraging to find. However, now I'm having some doubts about this organization. As I was doing some reading about MM online, I came across this paper, written back in 1993 which basically details some critiques of the organization and revealed some history of the group that was quite shocking. For one, the founder of MM, Matt Thomas was accused of sexually harassing and even groping certain female students. For a group that emphasizes self-empowerment for women and works to prevent rape and other such assaults, this is just downright inappropriate and wrong. I'm doubting now whether or not these types of groups are actually effective at what they do or if it's all hyperbole. I'm interested in their methods because it seems similar to what Iain Abernethy advocates for with karate training, something he terms "kata based sparring" with "non-compliant" partners. This very much resembles the training methods of a group like MM (and IMPACT) where the male instructor dons safety gear so that the female students can actually kick and hit him "full force" while he simulates an attack on them. I'm still in the investigative stages of all of this. Groups like IMPACT were formed as break-away organizations from MM. There are other groups that are of interest as well (Kid Power being one). It is my belief now that the field of Personal Safety needs to be incorporated fully with karate training. I think it is an evolutionary step into what the Okinawan masters of this art before us were hoping to get across to future generations. While karate needs to evolve with the times if it is to stay relevant for future generations, I don't think that means it needs to be "popularized" in tournaments and other such venues (karate doesn't need to become an Olympic sport). Who knows, I could be wrong about what I believe now. I thought I knew some of the history of Okinawan karate in my first 4-5 years of training. It wasn't until I spent some time in Detroit that I realized I knew very little facts (I knew the lies masquerading as facts). And because the karate of Okinawa has such a complex history, I am sure that my thinking will continue to change as I read more about this art. In the meantime, I'm just hoping to find my soul work. Maybe it isn't with the groups that I thought. Or maybe that group doesn't exist yet? We'll see.

Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até

Training Partners

Since I've been doing Wing Chun now I've realized a very important but perhaps overlooked factor in my training, i.e. the necessity for a good training partner. A good training partner, in my opinion, is someone who is just as sincere as you in wanting to train; someone who knows the benefit of pushing themselves; someone who shares a nerd-like excitement in the martial ways; someone who can push you to be better without worrying about you being better than they; someone who likes to feel the push and pull and tug and pain of training; someone who is quietly encouraging; someone with whom you can go hard and hang out later. I say that because, whereas in my karate training my Sensei did not incorporate 2-person functionality drilling, in Wing Chun there are lots of them. And it's hard to practice with someone who smirks every time they push you back a little because they think they are strong or who thinks they need to correct every little mistake without checking their own. And this is all just theoretical, but I think that maybe a good training partner (besides seeking one out for your self) is correlated to the kinds of people that the teacher/facilitators allows to walk through that dojo door? I'm not trying to imply nor do I believe that martial arts training needs to be about privilege or elitism. But I do believe strongly that a person's innate character is a good determining factor in who should be training. I mean, I'm not saying every person who walks into a dojo out of curiosity is an asshole (I was a walk-in myself; and actually some people might consider me an asshole). I'm just noticing that, in order to really excel at martial arts that are for developing functional fighting skill, you need people around you who are on the same page as far as conduct and intent. That doesn't necessarily guarantee a good training partner, but it increases the chance to work with others who are nerds like yourself and who could care less about trying to be like Bruce Lee. 

I'm re-reading what I wrote above and I'm not gonna change it. This blahg is about making mistakes and getting my opinion out there despite my fears. The fact is, I'm jut a beginner with all this martial arts business. Sometimes I think way too idealistically. It's good to just allow for change to change you. I recognize that every martial artist, whether student or teacher, is simply on a different leg of the martial journey. It's not necessary to judge others, nor is it necessary to judge yourself by them. Keepin' it real can be difficult when your ego wants to get in the way, but that's why you gotta keep on keepin' it real.

Elbow SMASH.
- Hiji Até