Time – the big Secret

Back in 1984 I attended a clinic with Shimabukuro Zenpo, just to see his karate. It was more than a bit different from my Isshinryu. Even more interesting than the karate, I was able to attend a party for him after the clinic, and had a chance to talk with him.

 

During our conversation a piece of it went like this.

 

Zempo was discussing the concept of rank when he made this statement.

 

“On Okinawa no one wants to study with a nidan or a shodan. Everyone wants to study with someone who has been in karate 50 years.”

 

I am sure there were many layers behind that statement. It was however relating to karate on Okinawa during that time 1984.  Things vastly change Okinawan karate since that time. For one thing that was about the time a small piece of karate was adopted for Okinawan gym classes. Things were and are constantly changing.

 

That in my mind sums up my point quite well.

 

 

When I earned my shodan I had been training around 4 years. Then too soon, alone and without an instructor in my area, I began to instruct the young to remain doing Isshinryu.

 

Of course being a new black belt I really didn’t know what I knew, but fortune smiled, and I acquired some wisdom as time passed.

 

 

I was teaching over a decade and a half, and had students training almost that long, when I began to realize something else. Skill in karate was not just learning any kata or solid execution of that form after being learnt. True skill for any kata began after a decade of work, hard effort, in that kata practice, Only then was it capable of being performed in a more relaxed execution (and I don’t mean slow). When the thousands of executions were really understood within yourself and the kata became more internalized. 

 

 

When your muscles no longer worked against each other, working in greater harmony. Then your center dropped and because of that your power increased. 

 

As an example I would offer what I call Kata Sho. Taught to the newest studengs, studied by everyone. It is extremely easy to learn. It’s use in class binds everyone together when they practice. And the practice continues after dan level training begins. Then you see more clearly the center drop, as it has been done so long, and the power during execution increase.

 

I saw that happening over and over again in my long term students. And as a rule no matter when you learned the kata, it still would take 10 years.

 

Somewhere along the way an idea arose that just learning the kata, being able to execute it well, were enough.

 

When I reflect on what pre 1900 pre-karate must have been like, when you were being trained for a role, of which that martial art. was only a portion of your responsibilities. Just the acquisition of the art was never the goal, Instead when you assumed your role alongside other family members and friends, they most likely shared their experiences in reality. And that sharing added to one’s understanding of their art. That and of course your own experiences added to one’s own understanding.

 

Your art did not reflect stripes on a belt, or any title. It was your life and would continue to grow, and your understanding with it over your life. In time you would share your own experiences with new members, and after a life of service, you might be called on to be an instructor of the young yourself.

 

The certainly observed what time offered those in the art. But this is something rarely mentioned.

 

And there is more than one way this occurs. For when kobudo (any kobudo at all) is added to the mix time again adds another dimension. That kobudo practice becomes another force enhancer to one’s karate. Over the decades of work, working those tools increase the power and dexterity available to one.

 

When age occurs, and of course it does to each in their own way, those decades of kobudo training add more to one’s karate to counter that aging. Creating a synergy between each study.

 

It is not easy or reasonable to explain this to new students (say those under a decade of their own experience). Such as, “Do this because in several decades it will then become clear.”

 

And it is not just in kata execution this applies.

 

Back when I was able to train with Sherman Harrill, he had absolutely great application studies on how to use Isshinryu. But too often, those trainings did not clearly fit into the program I was teaching at that time. (I am referring to the dan training program),

 

I carefully recorded what I saw, worked on it, but as a rule of thumb it would often be 5 or more years before I got around to others working it. Perhaps because it took me that long to be sure I really, really understood what I had seen. Perhaps it was just that time was a component to really understanding something.

 

Never as simple as seeing then doing.

 

By the way, in my time I studied with many great instructors. When I learned something of value I most often would take at least 5 years working on it, before I could decide to share it as one of my student’s subsidiary studies. Much I learned that never fit what I was sharing, for a wide variety of reasons, but when I did share it was most frequently after 5 or more years. Time again.

 

The same applies to martial literature.

 

I once read a great book on Tai Chi can compress 50 years of experience into it. But it then takes 50 years of work to really understand those lessons.

 

In my time I acquired a lot of martial literature.  Far too many times it was 5 years or longer before I really understood what it was saying. Again Time.

 

That Time is the great player is very clear to me. That it is so rarely discussed is perhaps more the realization that few will understand its role in the nature of the arts.

 

There is no magic pill to skip past Time. It is real, it exists and in its own Time you may understand.