I
want to be fair. Now I am just retired from instruction, I would offer the
following advice to my students who have taken over my Isshinryu program.
Karate
is to be in the Olympics. What does that do for the program we have built?
1.
They do not strike the right way.
2.
Their stances are not the stances we use.
3.
The continually pause after almost each technique, I think for dramatic effect.
4.
They use the wrong kata.
5.
The applications they show are not simple enough for reality.
6.
The judges do not meet our quality standards as they give high scores for the
above things.
Apparently
their choice of standards is incomplete.
There
is not enough time for karate and something else.
In the meantime I recommend we continue to practice karate.
Being my blog I take full authority for my opinion.
Perhaps we should look at Olympic Karate (and like International Competition) in a new light.
ReplyDeleteLook to Gymnastics or even Judo, for an idea.
The local gymnastics academy does not build Olympic athletes. Parents who believe there young women and men have that potential either move or send them to schools with proven programs to develop youth. Then again the eliete are sent away to coaches who have already developed Olympic programs. The local academies have little chance of doing more than living with programs to train those who really don’t have a chance of going anywhere. Of course there are occasional exceptions. And those running the local school are spending money attending seminars with those who do.
Judo seems much the same.
Then the Olympic competitors have been developed to be superb athletes. They didn’t develop them from watching YouTube. Their teachers know what has to be done, Step by step.
To even begin to do that takes a full commitment from the instructor. There would be no time for anything else.
Long ago when full contact karate was getting a start, some of my instructors started developing some students who then particapted in a local regional competition league. They did have success but eventually dropped the program. When I asked Sensei why, he said because to keep doing that, there was no time for karate. And karate was what he really wanted to do.
It is not a question of right or wrong, just the choices to be made if you are really going to succeed. Then again there must be money to be made for those content to learn from programs built on YouTube (and, yes I am implying sarcasm).