A Rose by any other name…..

 

The eternal question of what is real karate. When in a century karate has gone from a practice by what several hundred school boys on Okinawa to something millions practice around the world

 

While there were instructors with serious training backgrounds, most of the instruction provided at the elementary schools were instructors trained at the Teacher College what to teach and how to train the kids.

 

Recognized by the Japanese School board, overseeing all instruction in Japan approved karate as a type of gymnastics.

 

And while some of those practices made their way into many other programs which adopted the name of “Karate” over the long haul their training did not really resemble the school gymnastic karate either.

 

Nor did the teachings that made their way to Japan follow the original Okinawan school karate.  Each with their own root studies .Those instructors changed or did not change what their programs taught.

 

Then over time more and more groups/schools got with the program and called what their school was teaching ‘Karate’, And the die being set, change went on and on and on unto the ends of the earth.

 

But you know Real Karate only needs 3 kata.

But you know Real Karate teaches Sanchin kata.

But you know Real Karate teaches Naifanchi kata.

But you know Real Karate incorporates the makiwara.

Face it the Real Karate list of qualifications goes on and on…..

 

Face it Real Karate is whatever your instructor tells you it is.

 

I have seen programs of all sort which produce incredible individuals because of the training they received from their instructors. And many of those teachings do not follow the above rules either.

 

Programs that in actuality only teach kata with no kinship to those developed on Okinawa.

Programs that do not incorporate Sanchin or Naifanchi.

Programs that do not include makiwara.

 

Let’s take just one to discuss. That topic is makiwara.

 

I was never TOLD makiwara was necessary but my instructor;s school had one, and I remember striking it often before class.

 

Then when I moved and had to change programs to that of Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan, that school had 2 incredible makiwara. And for the most part no one used them. Before and after class I made serious use of them. I know because of that use I began to develop calluses on the palms of my hands from the striking. That continued for two years, until I separated from that program. But the benefits from my use of that makiwara striking practice continued to exist in my striking for decades.

 

When I was able to return to my Isshinryu training, my training took place in the basement of my instructors church. We did not have the availability of a makiwara, but the training took place never the less.

 

I was renting then and did not have the capability ot have a makiwara at home.

 

When I began teaching youth at the Boys Club in Scranton it again was not an option. That remained the case when I relocated my program to the Boys and Girls Club of Derry. I was not an option neither for the youth or the adults I trained.

 

Frankly I do believe proper work with a makiwara is a great training adjunct to a program.

 

But whether intense makiwara, light makiwara or no makiwara one's training can still produce greatly skilled martial artists.

 

 

For all the positive benefits from Makiwawa, there are just as many ways to make karate work even without makiwara. It just requires a separate focus to make it work.

 

Focusing on the correct answer, which may be the correct answer for you, does not mean other answers are less correct for others.

 https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2019/03/and-from-these-roots-modern-karate-was.html

Victor Smith said...

It was my debate coach in college, Dr, Ralph Towne who first made the observation about judges to us,He told us to think of them as fools, and if you won the debate it just meant that a fool thought more of your argument. The idea was not to fear the judge or think too much of his decision. What always mattered most was that you learned from the experience.

I felt it equally applied to debate tournaments and karate tournaments.

April 20, 2021 at 9:24 PM

One full contact event in Baltimore in 1975

  

Back in 1971 I was selected my instructors to participate in a demonstration at a full contact card in Baltimore. 

My role was very minor as all of them were black belts and I but a blue belt. I did participate and got the photo of my obi and forearm in Karate Illustrated for my effort. Reese Rigby and I were holding up Al Bailey who had cinder caps on his abdomen. Then Dennis Lockwood was swinging the sledgehammer that broke the cinder caps.

 

However I did get to watch things unfold.

 

In one of the preliminary fights I observed one gentleman try to block a kick with his arm and consequently had it broken in that fight. Of course he lost and the doctor in attendance left the arena to tend to him.

 

Then the main fight was called, Kasim Dubur versus Butch Bell of Bando. As Dubur entered the stadium he was showboating to the crows, He was that groups middleweight champion (A full contact league which was run by Aaron Banks). He was also talking to the press for publicity I expect.

 

Bell had entered the ring earlier and just stood there quietly.

 

When Dubur entered the ring he dropped into a series of full splits. Then he stood and gave a head high roundhouse kick to continue turning delivering more kicks again showboating for the press and the crowd.

 

Johnny Kuhl was the referee for the fight, He called the fighters into the ring and gave instructions then bowed them in.

 

The fight began and immediately Bell tore into Dubur with a series of punches tohis body, then stepped back. Dubur went down.

Kool stopped the fight and Dubur got back up to continue.

 

Once again Bell tore into Dubur with a series of strikes to the body. They were the hardest strikes I had seen. You could hear each one of them work his body.

 

Dead on his feet Dubur dropped to his knees and then collapsed to the floor.

 

Johnny Kuhl immediately dropped, then seeing he was not breathing began to deliver artificial resuscitation. The doctor in attendance was still in the back treating the patient with the broken arm.

 

Outside the ring Dubur’s girlfriend was screaming.

 

Then Kuhl's efforts paid off and Dubur began breathing again. He was led out of the ring. Later the doctor tried to get him to go to the hospital but he would not go.

 

 

Later standing outside the arena waiting for our ride, Butch Bell came out of the stadium clutching his prize money in his hand. He demolished his opponent and apparently received $100.00 for his efforts.

 

Where there had been a previous article in Karate Illustrated about him when he won his title in NYC, after that fight I never heard of him again.

La raison plus fort est toujours la meilleux

 

Back in 1965 I was a summer student of the Foreign Language League school held at the Universitie de Reims. I was there to gain more knowledge of the French Language, alas that probably did not happen.

 

Our class was held in a large hall where classes were conducted in mass.

 

The one thing I remember was he had to memorize a French poem, “Le Loup and l’agneau by Jean de La Fontaine. Sadly as the decades passed the poem was lost in my memory, however I still recall the opening lines.

 

La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure 

Nous l’allons montrer tout à l’heure.

 

One translation might be:

 

The reason of those best able

to have their way is always the best:

 

Looking at the prime meaning is something like this.

 

“In a debate or conflict, the winner is always the one who, by nature, is the strongest: whatever the merits of his opponent's arguments, he will get the better of him and will achieve his ends. This proverb implies a "natural" law with which justice has little to do.  Its use, most often full of irony, can reach cynicism. In modern societies, the meaning of "stronger" must now be understood as "more competent", "richer" or "more influential". We then move away from the notion of physical strength.”

 

My suggestion is does this thought drive you?

 

Is this really the way one should live their life?

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Le loup et l’agneau

Jean de La Fontaine

La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure :
Nous l’allons montrer tout à l’heure.

Un Agneau se désaltérait
Dans le courant d’une onde pure.
Un Loup survient à jeun qui cherchait aventure,
Et que la faim en ces lieux attirait.
Qui te rend si hardi de troubler mon breuvage ?
Dit cet animal plein de rage :
Tu seras châtié de ta témérité.
– Sire, répond l’Agneau, que votre Majesté
Ne se mette pas en colère ;
Mais plutôt qu’elle considère
Que je me vas désaltérant
Dans le courant,
Plus de vingt pas au-dessous d’Elle,
Et que par conséquent, en aucune façon,
Je ne puis troubler sa boisson.
– Tu la troubles, reprit cette bête cruelle,
Et je sais que de moi tu médis l’an passé.
– Comment l’aurais-je fait si je n’étais pas né ?
Reprit l’Agneau, je tette encor ma mère.
– Si ce n’est toi, c’est donc ton frère.
– Je n’en ai point.
– C’est donc quelqu’un des tiens :
Car vous ne m’épargnez guère,
Vous, vos bergers, et vos chiens.
On me l’a dit : il faut que je me venge.
Là-dessus, au fond des forêts
Le Loup l’emporte, et puis le mange,
Sans autre forme de procès.

Jean de La Fontaine

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Wolf and the Lamb

 

The reason of those best able

to have their way is always the best:

We now show how this is true.

A lamb was quenching its thirst

In the water of a pure stream.

A fasting wolf came by, looking for something;

He was attracted by hunger to this place.

- What makes you so bold as to meddle with my drinking?

Said this animal, very angry.

You will be punished for your boldness.

- Sir, answered the lamb, let Your Majesty

Not put himself into a rage;

But rather, let him consider

That I am taking a drink of water

In the stream

More than twenty steps below him;

And that, consequently, in no way,

Am I troubling his supply.

- You do trouble it, answered the cruel beast.

And I know you said bad things of me last year.

- How could I do that when I wasn't born,

Answered the lamb; I am still at my mother's breast.

- If it wasn't you, then it was your brother.

- I haven't a brother. - It was then someone close to you;

For you have no sympathy for me,

You, your shepherds and your dogs.

I have been told of this: I have to make things even.

Saying this, into the woods

The wolf carries the lamb, and then eats him

Without any other why or wherefore.

 

https://lyricstranslate.com

I only taught karate to young or old.

 

 

I was teaching at the local Boys and Girls Club with my programs.

 

Often at local events parents would ask me where they should take their 3,4,,5 or 6 year old child to obtain karate training.

 

I always told them the truth, they could not get karate training for one so young, and they would be better off getting beginning dance training from a qualified instructor, both the boys and girls.

 

In reality beginning dance is better youth movement instruction for every child, to later be built upon whatever they later choose to be.

 

But especially the parents of boys recoiled at the idea of their son in dance class.

 

Reality my son and my daughter both studied early dance, and when I was young I too had beginning dance.

 

They really didn't want informed advice, just what they wanted to hear.

Saifa Possible Prime Source

 

Master Teruo Chinen "Saifa Kata"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MSjKvvPWRc

In my early years I was shown various versions of Saifa. Then in 1986 I observed Chinen Sensei perform Saifa at a clinic Rich Bernard hosted in Derry, NH.  

Right after that I chose to solidify the Saifa I would teach. That version was not exactly as I  had been shown various versions.  As I look at the Chinen Sensei version I can see how he influenced my choices.

 

I cannot really source the version I used for us.  Then again I was not beholden to any Goju group.

What I choose was likely a combination of the versions I had learned. Then again I really was  not trying to imitate anyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSnrLqIsFxM

 

When you believe it is cold! T'ai Chi weather

 

I hear most of the country is down to -20f, that was the temp.  When I taught tai chi outside on my driveway back in Derry, NH,  in the fresh derry-aire....

 

A friend stated,  “That’s the kind of cold that kills!”

 

Not if you are dressed for it, in NH that is skiing weather...

 

But those were the days. That cold morning was when Doc joined my tai chi class. He got out of his car warning me he was a surgeon and had to protect his hands. I told him we have a special method in tai chi to do that. It is called wearing gloves.

 True story,  when the guys approached me about beginning the class, I told them in China they do it outside, in hotter and colder weather than were they lived. And that I wasn't going to do less than China,   For 15 years I only cancelled class for rain.Our class temperatures went from -20f to +110f and we always had class.

I always took my tai chi as seriously as I approached my karate.

Kyudokan secrets striking variations

  

My description of striking techniques being shown.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whMspxSM4Yc

 

Against a right punch

1.     Right cross hand open hand parry as the hip rolls back

2.     Then as the hips roll forward left punch to the solar plexus

 Against a right punch

1.     Right foot hi block  then left punch to solar plexus (interior line of defense)

Against a right punch

2.     Left foot forward right hi block, then left punch to ribs (exterior line of defense)

 Against a right punch

1.     Left foot forward right hi block, shuffle in with right descending elbow (exterior line of defense)

Against a right punch

2.     Left foot forward right hi block, right hand grabs their fist, rotate your hand clockwise and down  while your left hand  presses their inside elbow down an the same time (exterior line of defense)

Against right punch

1.      Left foot forward and simultaneous Left Low block and right backfist strike to the head. (interior line of defense)

Against right punch

1.                          1. Left foot forward, right cross body elbow strike into their arm (interior line of defense)

Against right punch

2.                        1. Left foot forward, right cross body elbow strike into their arm then right elbow (backward strike) into their body  or forward right elbow strike (interior line of defense)

Against right punch

1.                                1.  Left foot forward, left inward cross body parry/strike (exterior line of defense)

Against right punch

1.                               1, Left foot forward, left punch to their lower abdomen (interior line of defense)

2.     Or         2.  Left foot forward, left punch to their lower abdomen then right punch to their solar plexus (interior line of defense)

Right foot forward right punch

1.                      1. Left foot forward, left low block to their punch,  Then right palm heel strike to their jaw (interior line of defense)

Right foot forward right punch

2.                        1. Left foot forward, left low block to their punch,  Then right vertical punch to their throat (interior line of defense)

Right foot forward

3.                         1.   Left foot forward, left low block to their punch moving their arm to the outside, follow with a right low forearm strike to the neck behind their head. (interior line of defense)

Right foot forward

1.                         1.  Right foot forward with right outside block, then rotate the right fist open and grab their arm and pull (exterior line of defense ) this is a variation of the sutrisno open hand block rotate hand and grab and pull)

Right foot forward Right punch

2.                      1. Right foot forward with right outside block, then rotate the right fist open and grab their arm and pull , when attacker pulled forward the left flat hand strikes the are and the right spear hand opens and strikes to the face, eyes or throat (exterior line of defense )