Karate has been described as the union of the Mental, Physical and Spiritual. I believe we are clear about the Mental and Physical elements of training. But the Spiritual side of Karate is less discussed.
Of course by Spiritual I am not referring to devotion to God, or any other similar aspects of life. Personally, that is something else, which each of us must address in our own way.
Along the way, I have come to define it differently and believe it is the most important aspect of Karate.
Back around 1990 when I was beginning my own exploration into kata application potential, I began to notice something. During a class an application possibility would occur to me, and I would demonstrate it to my students perhaps 10 times, and also in slow motion. An expression of movement in a kata which they all knew well.
Then I would have them try it, against a slow moving strike (for beginning learning purposes) where they would enter the space created by the attack and perform the application. They would turn it into another technique, not the application they were shown. As time progressed this happened with frequency.
About 5 years later I met Sherman Harrill, and discovered I was too finding a similar flaw in my attributes. I had long before, learned to keep accurate notes from clinics. What I found were perhaps ½ of the movement Sherman showed were inspired methods of training. The other ½ of them seemed as if, though logical, would not have a place in my training.
Years later from John Kerker I began to see how I was wrong in my understanding.
But although a different situation, at the core there was the same problem. The issue was one of the Spirit required for training.
In the case of students trying to learn various applications. Even a slow strike involves experiencing the pressure of the attack. What I have found is even trained students many times, experiencing that pressure even in a non-threatening manner. Will not trust what was shown, and will shift to do something else.
Now in crisis, that is a good idea, for you must believe in your movements. But to do so in training shows something else. The lack of believing in the movement, a lack of faith so they shift to something more comfortable. And what I as the instructor has to do is work to instill their faith in the movement involved.
They have the physical and they have the mental required for the movement. But under any pressure, they have not developed the Spirit, or Faith in their technique.
For myself while I was stunned at how much Sherman would share with us, I didn’t appreciate what he was doing. Those applications which I thought I would never use, were kingpins of his studies. He didn’t distinguish between them, just showed one possibility after another. I did not understand what he was doing. Just continually exploring every Isshinryu potential that came to mind, and making all of them work.
It was a question of Faith in his method, to let no aspect of kata be unexplored.
The more I came to appreciate that Faith in oneself and one’s ability to execute Isshinryu faithfully the more over time I came to see that Faith was the Spirit with our studies. It is not enough just to practice the kata, but to totally believe in what you are doing.
When we hosted seminars with Harrill Sensei and attended other seminars with him, there always was a realization that there was more involved to what he was showing. In part, even his encyclopedic seminars were not the same as studying with him, where he would ‘know’ you and guide your progress in the art. He once remarked about this to me. Saying there was much that couldn’t be shown, because he didn’t’ know ‘the people attending. This was not a slight, but just the reality that there was time only to accomplish so much, not to ‘know’ them. There wasn’t enough time. The way an instructor comes to ‘know’ their own students.
While I believe there were several layers that were involved. When presented with such a body of technique as he shared, I would characterize them by what I did understand, simply those I felt were brilliant, and the other half which seemed logical but involved uses I would never make.
What I have come to realize, especially after a decade spending a few hours a year, with John Kerker, is that Harrill Sensei didn’t distinguish that way. I am now sure that was part of the key to developing the skill he possessed. Working even on the smallest application as if it was to succeed. His faith in his technique succeeding increased his efforts.
This process, developing Faith in one’s technique, required the simplest of techniques. Practice, continual practice. Working each application potential to conclude a conflict, every time.
It seems simple, but takes a great deal of work to make this happen. Over, and over, and over. Never ceasing.
To me this becomes the Spirit of Karate. And the union of the Physical, the Mental and the Spirit are together what makes Karate.
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