The Principles

Martial Arts needs to be about training on the principles. Once the principles are understood, then the student can decide what is best for their physical constitution. That's why there can be no "style" other than the one that is unique to the student (or the teacher). Right Miyagi Sensei? 

"Styles...are little more than teaching variations of common principles."  

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até

Pet Peeves

The other day I was a bit perturbed when my girlfriend told me that she had a pet peeve about me "smacking" my food when I eat. I guess my mouth is open when I'm eating. She has a point. But I was a little bit offended like, "Why are you being so critical of me? I don't have any pet peeves." And then today I realized that I do (with regards to martial arts of course):

1. Narrow-minded students (the ones who cannot seem to think outside of their style)

2. Style-Nazis (you know, the dudes who believe their style is inherently superior to all other styles)

I guess both one and two are kind of the same thing. But whatever, those are my pet peeves. Didn't think I had any.

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até

I want training to be...

Athletic, vigorous fun. And about skill building. Physical self-defense is a skill. Like going to trade school to learn how to be a mechanic. And there should be a third element to this training; Personal Safety. This has to do (to me) with things like Rory Miller's "7 elements" of self-defense training: (Legal/ethical implications, Violence Dynamics, Avoidance, Counter-Ambush, Breaking the Freeze, The Fight Itself, The Aftermath). I mean, I think all three areas should be ONE area. But maybe for "business" sake, you could teach all three areas separately? I mean, honestly I think the "skill building" is for the serious martial artist (combined with the other two areas). I think for most people it would be more important or useful to cover the "Athletic, vigorous, fun" and the "Personal Safety" aspects. You don't need to be a martial artist to know Personal Safety principles. And you don't need to be a martial artist to know how to break a sweat and improve your body's physical health. The problem I'm seeing with some of the different dojo I've visited is that they either focus on one area to the detriment of the others. Martial arts or karate in particular is a holistic endeavor. I like karate because it comes with a solid guiding philosophy of conduct as well as an impressive array of skill. Only problem is that the "skill" building (the jutsu) has been lost, for the most part. From my experience the focus is on athleticism and vigorous workouts (and sometimes not even fun).

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até

What I Want, What I'm Looking For

I was in downtown Oakland today buying useful kitchen utensils/appliances at the Salvation Army there. Got a good deal on some stuff. Anyways, as I was leaving the area I passed by a business front for Brooklyn Academy Roots. Their circular logo includes the sub-heading "Fitness + Self Defense". Immediately I thought to myself, that's what I'm looking for. That's what I want. I think those two things go hand in hand. And from what I've been reading about with regards to Okinawan karate, that is how it was originally taught...holistically. The business itself has a bit of what my girlfriend might call a "shi-shi" vibe to it; that is to say it gives off the impression that it's for those who can afford expensive classes (we're talkin' $100 or more a month). And it's in a part of the downtown area that is obviously looking to attract young professional types to rent out relatively expensive lofts. Anyways, point is, that is what I want to manifest for myself: Functional self-defensive skill (not just physical of course; gotta have a Rory Miller inspired curriculum) and maintaining a healthy body (i.e. working on cardio, strength, agility and flexibility for example). Somewhere down the line I hope to be able to get involved with providing this kind of "skill-training" for people in "disadvantaged" socio-economic areas; that is to say for my neighbors in the hood. Why should the "Uptown" people be having all the fun and resources? Unless you're seeking to live a bourgeois lifestyle, why do you need to charge folks so damn much? To put gas in your BMW? To pay the mortgage on your half-million dollar home in the suburbs? To be an ass? Just kidding. But I mean for real, I believe this idea of "fitness + self-defense" can and should be made accessible to just about anyone (but that also doesn't mean the self-defensive stuff will be taught to just about anyone; I personally believe you need to show some kind of sound character). It ain't about making lots of money, but it is about making sure you can make a living in our economy. But to get back again to what I was saying, I think Okinawan karate needs to be about those two things. I think it needs to be a holistic art once again if it's going to have any relevance or staying power for future generations to come.

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até

The Measure of a Martial Artist

I don't know, maybe I'm not understanding something, but I believe that the real measure of a martial artist lies in whether or not their perceived skill actually functions in a "live" setting. I'm wary and tired of seeing a countless parade of martial artists who seem to eagerly cite their "belt" credentials on their websites as evidence of their skill. What does that frayed and old-looking black belt matter if you've never been "battle-tested" so to speak? Who cares if you're a 20th dan; does your experience in dealing with physical violence come from your imagination? Or from reality? Part of a living karate lies with the art being informed by actual live experience with physical violence (a.k.a "fighting"). I mean the whole reason we have karate today is because of the kata; and those kata were created based upon the real experience of the kind of violence that was common at that time (see HAPV). I mean, how can you learn how to cook except by doing it? Martial arts is no different than any other field of human endeavor that requires skill development. The only thing is, what skills is your art developing? Functional fighting skill? Or athletic performance?

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até

The "Threat Paradox"

I was fortunate enough to attend the (free!) "Intro to Personal Safety" event in San Francisco I mentioned in a previous post put on by the non-profit group Impact Bay Area. It was awesome. Yeah, it was only a brief one hour introduction to the organization, their curriculum and a few self-defense/awareness tips, techniques and pointers. But it was awesome. It was exactly what I needed and was looking for. And I'm glad it was what I had hoped to expect (I've been too damn disappointed visiting all these dojo and taking their trail classes and just recognizing that they weren't giving me what I was looking for). It was actually the executive director of the org, "Lisa" that facilitated the intro class. She was great. Very engaging and clear in what she had to say. One interesting note is that, besides being attended by all females, the majority were Asian. I thought to myself, "hmmm. That's interesting. Yeah, there's a lot of Asians in Frisco but they aren't the majority...." Anyway, I just thought that was interesting. (Okay just fact checked the US Census Bureau and "Asians" make up 33.9% of the population as of 2011. Never mind. Thought I was on to something interesting there. Turns out that's probably the result of numbers). Okay. Blah blah bluh. As I was saying the introduction event/class thing was great. I told Lisa that I learned more in one hour about self-defense than I did in 5 years of training at my dojo. Sounds exaggerated but it's true. I'm hoping now to check out more of this group and see if the instructor training is something I'd like to undergo.

But onto why I titled this post "the Threat Paradox"...

If I heard and remembered correctly, this was something Lisa said in reference to the fact that the more a person knows how to defend themselves physically and verbally, the less they will find themselves having to employ those skills. As I reflected on that, something Shoshin Nagamine said in The Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do came to mind:

The ultimate goal of all martial arts is to defeat the enemy without fighting back. (pg. 82)

It's funny because what Nagamine Sensei is saying can come off sounding a bit mystical; like, "how the hell does a martial artist defeat someone by not fighting back? Like is there some magical secret technique that allows me to win without touching the person?" But how then do we defeat the so-called "enemy" without fighting back? I think the answer to that lies with what Lisa said; you need to train yourself to deal with these acts of physical violence and in doing so you'll find that because your inner world is improving with regards to confidence about self-protection the outer-world around you becomes less of a Threat. In other words, you overcome fear. And you find that you project yourself with confidence which is not how you might project yourself if you had a sort of "victim-mentality". Let me be redundant and say it like this (and of course this is only theoretical): If you have a martial pedagogy that develops confidence in the practitioner through the development of functional self-defensive skill, then that person will carry themselves in such a way so as to not come across as being an easy target for predators and thus having less of a need to deploy their martial tools because they are not being targeted as frequently. But I think this is also different for women as opposed to men. Women may be targeted simply because of the fact that they are female. But the essence of not being an easy target lies in that "inner-confidence aura" that one gives off either way...I think anyway. It's probably a bit more involved than I can explain at the moment. But what an interesting phrase, the "Threat Paradox"; it speaks directly to what the Okinawan karate masters were saying. It is ironic that a group like Impact, who distinguish themselves apart from "martial arts" are in fact more closely aligned with the origins of karate and its main philosophical proponents than they think. 

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até

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