Game Theory applied to Isshinryu

 

When I was a beginner I very quickly learned class would be hard and driving, for it was. Then one night it became something else, something I would have never anticipated.

 

Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interaction among rational decision-makers. It has applications in all fields of social science, as well as in logic, systems science and computer science. Originally, it addressed zero-sum games, in which each participant's gains or losses are exactly balanced by those of the other participants. Today, game theory applies to a wide range of behavioral relations, and is now an umbrella term for the science of logical decision …

 

But this was definitely not that kind of game theory.

 

 

We were ready for class to begin, Many of us had been there for at least ½ an hour warming up.   We expected class to begin with our standard half hour warm-up before we got down to karate.

 

Instead than evening Sensei announced “Game Night” and then a very different class began.

 

That class began with a USMC running cadence –  

To the left, to the left, to the left, right, left.

Up the hill, down the hill, over the hill, under the hill…

(as best as I can remember.)

 

We sang and ran in single file around the outside of the dojo over and over  until Sensei shouted finish.

 

Then game followed game. Unfortunately my memory does not recall all of them. We were divided into teams to compete against each other, then that is how it proceeded.

 

I do remember some of them involved a duck walk down the floor.

 

I know the last one was a 2 person race. One person would walk down the floor on their hands. Their partner would be holding their feet, so their hands and arms did all the work. Then when reaching the end point you and your partner reversed roles, your partner doing the walking on their hands and you holding their feet while they walked.

 

The class was very much a training drill and never easy.

 

It was never explained where this came from but I am sure it was something Sensei experienced when he was in the Marine Corps.

 

It was a fun class and definitely shook your cobwebs about training from your mind.

 

It was also something I never experienced anyplace else.

 

Except I did something very like that at least with my youth karate classes at least once a year.

 

I was never teaching kids karate, I only taught karate-ka, not kids.

But I realized that game night had a real value. For one thing it taught that life was unpredictable, an extremely important lesson for karate-ka to experience.

 

I used different games but for the same effect to push their bodies ever more in a fun way.

 

Among the games were some of the one’s I experienced.

 

There were team tag running races up to a point, then back to tag your partner and then it was their turn. Class size did not always allow the same team size, so I at times made one person on a team run twice.

 

That really got their heart moving.

 

Another example of Team was the runner running to someone holding a shield,  then kicking 5 times to run back for their partner to do the same. Or to punch the shield out of horse stance 5 times  and other variations on that theme.

 

Then to conclude the winning team would get 10 team pushups as they were the stronger, and the losing team would only get 5.

 

But it wasn’t only team running competitions.

 

One time it would be ‘Sensei Says’ my own variation on Simon says. I would call out a movement and it first I said ‘Sensei Says’ they should do it. If I did not say ‘Sensei Says’ they should not.

 

Then command followed command, always mixing up when I would say ‘Sensei Says’.

 

Every time someone performed the given command and I had not said ‘Sensei Says’ they would then be removed from the game and sit on the floor and watch what happened next.

 

There wasn’t always a clear winner. At times several students would be perfect following instructions. At those times I would shout faster and faster, but then they would still keep up until I declared both of then ‘Sensei Says’ winners, for they had beaten Sensei.

 

At times I would involve a very different sort of night.

 

They would be informed that night would be focused on Silence for the entire class. The training that evening meant they were not allowed to speak even one word. Should they need to use the bathroom they should just raise their hand and go to do their business then return. The only voice to be heard should be mine.

 

If they spoke there would be a penalty. They would have to finish the class doing non stop pushups. (I wanted to allow them to experience they could actually keep silent through their own efforts.)

 

Then when someone did slip and speak I would put them down on the floor and tell them to start pushing as I returned to the rest of the class.

 

Of course pushups do not really hurt anyone (except perhaps me as they will get stronger and someday I will pay the price for having them do that.) And they never really did pushups for the rest of class as after a short while I would tell them “Enough, return to training.”

 

But the lesson was real.

 

Then on Halloween we would study ‘Ghost Techniques’ as I have recounted elsewhere on my blog.

 

That is the general idea behind my Game Theory as applied to Isshinryu.

 

The real goal is to allow the students to experience unpredictability in a safe way allowing them to learn to respond to whatever presents itself before them.

 

The adults, well we never had enough time to get around to any of that. But they experienced much unpredictability in class.

 

For one thing no two adult classes were ever the same, things were always changing. Ever class was a unique experience, never to be repeated.

 

That does not mean that there was not a structure to classes. It is just that the structure was experienced say over 6 months. Then a new underlying them would be explored.

 

Not so much to the newbies (regardless of the prior rank – from none to dan level in prior arts) more so for the more advanced to the very advanced.

 

To let them get unpredictability rubbed in their faces each and every class. Never to be able to anticipate what was going to come next. Facing the ever changing and then realizing they would adapt to whatever it was,

 

Of course, for the adults I taught, I wasn’t playing games either.