False Assumptions

I was never told this by my original instructors in Salisbury Md, or from Charles Murray. But too soon on my own following what was available (mostly the karate magazines and martial arts books) if it seemed reasonable to me, those words often became fact to me.

 

One example was an article about Mas Oyama (a Korean who learnt karate in Japan under Funakoshi and Yamaguchi) who then developed his own karate system Kyokushinkai. In the article he described his sanchin and the use of Ibuki breathing. Not knowing Japanese or Okinawan nor that there was a difference between those arts, it seemed reasonable to me to believe all of karate was the same, thus Isshinryu Sanchin must be using Ibuki breathing.

 

On reflection I admit I had no idea what was being described in that article, the assumption A meant the same a B was my own erroneous assumption. I never taught that word, but it lingered in my mind for a long, long time.

 

From a very quick bing search on Ibuki”  “The first is called “ibuki” or quick energy breath. Ibuki breathing is done at the execution of blocks, kicks, and punches. The second is “nogare”, or slow breathing. Nogare breathing is usually done when moving from one position to the next or when there is a pause in the kata. “

 

The point is not that there is some potential similarity to the use of other systems breathing terms, the point being just because you read something does not make it true for your system.  It took me many years to remove the term Ibuki from my thoughts because it never was an important issue for study for me. When something sticks in my minds assumptions if often lingers until something else triggers a reality event.

 

 

Another idea came from the many articles about Isshinryu I had read. Again this was not taught by my instructors, but seems reasonable reading it frequently.

 

The assumption was that Isshinryu’s higher stances were better because that meant you could move faster from their use and practice. It seemed reasonable and I never took consideration of the idea further. I didn’t teach it, just thought it was true.

 

Back in 1979 when I started competing at many area karate tournaments to keep pushing myself I met many skilled competitors. One of them at that time was Tristan Sutrisno who was a Shotokan stylist (that is all I knew, of course not realizing that in reality Shotokan could be as diverse as any system._

 

One day we were standing around outside the tournament shooting the breeze. I only knew him then as we ofter were in the same black belt kata divisions. So we were talking this and talking that when I explained the stances in Isshinyu were higher as in our Seisan stance than his Hangetsu stance, meaning such stances allowed us to move faster.

 

Tristan got a bemused look on his face and asked me did I really believe that.

 

I am sure I responded that I did.

 

Suddenly he snapped back in an instant into his deeper Zenkatsu Dachi stance. Then before I could blink he stopped his foot immediately before my mouth. His answer to my statement.

 

 

As time went on I found more and more such examples but unfortunately it was not an easy lesson to learn.

‘DON’T ASSUME what you read is correct.

 

When I first met Joe Swift on the internet I mentioned Kicking practice using the term Geri for kicking. Joe immediately countered that was not correct. I responded I had seen that used that way in many books. He countered they were wrong. I knew Joe was living and training in Japan, worked at that time as a translator for a UN organization, but I knew what I had read too.

 

So I jumped up and pulled a half dozen books from my library and started searching. I found many of them referred to kicking as Geri, I also found those that used the term Keri. Now I was confused for I had never noticed that before.

 

I went back to Joe on line and told him what I had found.

 

He then patiently explained what was reality.

 

In Japan when the kick being described by type and it is a compound word, the correct use is geri, eg: Mae Geri, Mawashi Geri, Yoko Geri and so forth, But when it is used to describe kicks in general the use is Keri.

 

The difference is significant because used alone Geri means ‘Diarrhea’. Which can lead to a very different understanding!

 

What I worked out is that sometime an author not knowing Japanese first made the assumption for kicking was geri because he heard the use with specific kicks. Then other authors just used the term because they also read that first book and then knew what term to use. Then on and on the use became used in time. So the use of geri became Geri I guess (my own literary license)

 

Of course if Joe-san had not explained that to me, I likely would have never known the difference.

 

It is too easy to just use a magazine, a book, or even internet discussion and the to accept what you read as truth.

 

Eventually reality has a different lesson you can learn.