Lessons from listening to stories

A very long time ago when I was training with Tristan Sutrisno and learning a bit about his arts Sutrisno family Shotokan, Aikido, Tjimande and Kobudo, he used to spend much time with telling stories about his father.

   

His father was an Indonesian doctor and back in the mid 1930 when Indonesia was under Japanese control, he was drafted to serve as a doctor in the Japaese navy. That meant he had to attend the Japanese Naval War College and while studying there he studied Shotokan under Funakoshi and Aikido under one of Usheiba[‘s students. He had also studied his family version of Tjimande as well as a variety of Kobudo.

  

His father  began his training when he was age 4 with Tjimande basics. However his father did not directly train him in Shotokan, rather it was his father’s senior students who did that, working to do so out of respect for his father.

 

He told me many stories about his father.

 

1, One of them was that his father was often invited to give clinics for a variety of other schools. Everyone always wanted the best stuff and his father always gave that to those in attendance. But his style of teaching the was ‘the technique of no technique’ He showed them one move after another, over and over and over. They were shown material so quickly the average person could not retain what was shown. In realiy he was giving nothing away.

 

 Years after I had begun training with Tristan, he came up to Derry and gave a clinic for my students and friends in the area. The Club had just purchased a video tape for us to use, and I recorded that clinic and captured an example of the technique of no technique.

 

Tris had decided to share some examples of his 3^rd and 4^th level bunkai from several of the Heian kata. Those bunkai were throwing and takedown techniques. What he did was he would demonstrate a technique only once. Then go around watching what everyone was doing. Most times they were doing something different from what he had shown.. Then he would work to correct whatever they were doing. After that on to the text technique and again and again.

 

What he was really doing was teaching me for he knew I would remember them. What he worked at was what the students there actually worked on.

 

That was the only time he employed the technique of no technique for my students. He worked with them at times for years after that.

 

Many years later a friend held a  weekend clinic with Dan Insanto. A continual group of clinics. I choose to attend the one on Saturday afternoon on empty hand defense against a knife. It was interesting, but what he did was employ  the technique of no technique throughout the clinic. Every 3 minutes he did another technique. Over and over again he kept changing techniques. And non of those attending could remember them. The exception was a group of his own students from Princeton, it became an exercise in remembering all of them. I am not a superhuman, but I owned and read his book on the Phillipean Arts. Almost all of what was shown was in there. I did not go back and teach empty hand against the knife. But I acquired much knowledge about who Dan Insanto was.

 

2. Another time Tristan described how his father taught a clinic. He would pick someone he did not know from the audience of attendees. Someone who was large and powerful. Then he would ask that individual to attack him with vigor, and when they did so employ the technique he was teaching and immediately drop them to the floor like a rock. When everyone saw him do that, everyone immediately

 

Again quite a few years later I was again making a friendly visit to a large school just to work out with someone. I was requested to take the class. Now when asked to share at other schools I almost never shared Isshinryu, as my art was too personal as how I would teach it. But I had a large group of techniques from other arts I had studied, Technique I knew everyone would find interesting. So here I was teaching to a large group of black belts I really did not know. But remembering that story I knew what to do.

 

I selected the largest. Strongest student from that group and then asked him to attack me vigorously. He did so and I applied that technique, immediately dropping him like a rock. Everyone having seen me do that, they were very attentive and easy to work with after that.

 

It never hurts to pay attention to when someone tells you stories.