How I see rank in my dojo

 

 

As I understand it kyu colored belts (rank) evolved over time. Back on Okinawa from what I understand I Isshinryu it went from White-Black to White-Green-Brown-Black and onward. When I began it went White- Yellow- Blue-Green- Brown (3 levels)-Black. Over time black belt rank evolved too. Black then Red and White and Red. At times tape was used for dan rank.

 

Personally  I changed the rank structure to accommodate teaching youth. Keeping the same standards for receiving ShoDan at any age.

 

My adults were never concerned about rank, at times I had to insist qualified students were to test for it.

 

Eventually for adult dojo rank dans I moved to only 3 dan ranks (more for my convenience).

 

Shodan for seasoning about 1 year.

Ni Dan for lifetime focus on what their needs for karate became.

San Dan for those who went beyond their own needs moving into a greater exploration of their art. They still had their Ni Dan commitment, but went for more than that.

 

After all in the dojo everyone knows where everyone is after all. The rest is not needed.

 

Instructor was something else. First 15 continuous years training, to really know the system, Then if they were interested a 5 year mentorship showing how to guide students through many levels.

Only then would the instructor be granted permission to instruct.

They were still active students too.

 

Instructors wore the red-white-black obi. Always black side out. To others it always appeared to be a black belt, but when the instructor donned it with the colors inside, it became another reminder of the burden they chose to take on.

 

We really did not attend other groups much and none of the rest was necessary. The instructors did receive traditional Isshinryu dan ranking if ever they felt the need to move outside the group.

 And as I was trained no one is tested for rank, the one exception is the ShoDan examination if more a initiation, one must suceed before the rank is granted. There is no futhrer Dan or instructor testing. It is the instructor's responsibility to understand when someone is ready for new challenges.

Looking back at the entire issue of rank from the distance of time it seems the least important thing of all in the martial arts. At least that is what I have experienced.

 

Having taught for a long time I admit it helps beginners (of all ages) focus on moving forward, hence all the different schema employed for that purpose.

 

And I hold traditional Isshinryu rank which I hold that my instructors hold me in regard, but outside of that I have never let that define me. If anything as dan rank rose I felt the increased burden that all it meant was that more and more was expected of me.

 

The way I was trained rank was not a reward for accomplishment. It was not something won through testing. It just was given to you when you were ready for more challenges. The instructor made that evaluation from direct daily evaluation. They saw each effort, good or bad, as it occurred and based their decision on when you were ready to face a more difficult load.

 

There was a challenging dan initiation, which you had to pass before you could move on. But that was the only ‘test’. After that the same criteria as the past was the only standard, direct observation by your instructor. Based as much as what you did, and how you worked to meet the new challenges. And those challenges are infinite in nature, never ending, each journey a different path to follow different for each person.

 

I worked very hard to make every student realize new rank did not mean accomplishment, only that they were now ready for it to get harder and harder.

 

You also learn very quickly that everyone does not hold to your reality.

 

There are infinite standards in infinite systems. Tape or no tape, solid belts or stripes on belts. 5 degrees of kyu or 10 degrees of kyo or 20 degrees of kyu. It reality it matters so little that there are differences. Each road winds a different way. How you make your way work for you is much more important.

 

When a movie clearly shows a technique that can work.

It is almost funny when you see movie fiction use real technique.

 

Of course perhaps not so suprising when the Chinese arts are involved in a kung fu movie. Consider the following movie.

 

From the kung fu movie Invincible Armor  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxjrxIGnvVk&t=3s

 

I was watching this when I was astounded to see so clearly what I had learned so long ago.

 

The version I first was shown way a private Shotokan tradition, and the strike was done differently, after the spear hand was inserted, they spiraled the striking fist into the target intended. It was explained the initial spear hand strike was to shock the attacker’s body and then the followup strike could accomplish more.

 

Privately I worked up an Isshinryu striking version, then a 2nd Isshinryu variation.  For I found it an interesting strike potential.

 

I later learned a Silat variation of multiple striking which began with a different version of this striking.

 

No doubt there are others, I just do not know enough to know where they are.

 

But the spear hand strike collapsing into a 2^nd fist strike is definitely something to use. The 2^nd shock strike can cause the pressure to rise in the body being struck. 

 

This uses the first strike as a force enhancer for the following strike to penetrate stronger.

Why the change in the Isshinryu drop to the floor in Kusanku kata?

 I wonder often what went through the mind of Shimabuku Tatsuo when he made changes to the kata as he was taught by Kyan Sensei.

 In particular the drop to the floor done twice in the Shorin Kusanku Kata. From the first time I saw it I never could really work out why it was done that way.

 

 

I used this video as the source for the movement analysis. 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps it was used this way from another Bing photo I found. Just an assumption on my part.

While I was shown this movement by Carl Long from his Shimabuku Ezio derived Shorin Ryu, it never made sense to me.

 

Where the Isshinryu version I was taught by Charles Murray was done like this.

 I used this video of Young Lee as source  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BzGK-wRtr8

 

 

 

Which is an entirely different movement when the drop to the floor takes place. The Isshinryu version drops to block/strike into a kicking leg and then rises to strike that opponent.

Of course as an Isshinryu stylist that makes more sense to me. But I do wonder what was going through Tatsuo’s mind when he originally learned this, that led to his change?

On winning a trophy another lesson to learn

 

It was in 1979 and for the most part I really didn’t know what I was doing.

 

I was a new black belt, had no local instructor to guide me. I took it upon myself to become an instructor at the Scranton Boy’s Club, and I was on my way to competing at local Pennslyvania karate tournaments to gain experience.

 

While I was living in Scranton Pennsylvania I was not from there, a few years earlier I had moved there for work in a Regional Pa. Bank. So no one really knew me, or had any interest in my karate.

 

Of course that didn’t bother me as Karate was what I did for myself.

 

At one of those tournaments in Harrisburg Pennslyvania, which happened to be sponsored by a different Isshinryu organization than I was in, I had some modest success. I won 3^rd place in kobudo kata. Of course no one there really knew me either.

 

I was pleased that I had that level of success.

 

Afterwards when I returned home I began to think about what that trophy meant?

 

All I knew was that after tournaments Mr. Lewis would place an article at the local Salisbury Maryland paper, and at times they would publish the results. As I thought on that it occurred to me that perhaps I should also do the same. Perhaps it would help enrollment at the Boys Club.

 

So I went to a photographer and had a few photos taken and I submitted an article about my modest success to the local paper.

 

Then several weekends later an above the fold article appeared in the  Local News section of the paper.

 

The result was a nice article but I never heard a word from anyone at the Bank about it, or from anyone at all for that matter.

 

The Club had no difficulty identifying students for my program. The article had nothing to do with that.

 

In fact it didn’t hurt or help me in my karate.

 

And while karate was very important to me, and extremely personal, I found out that the rest of the world really doen’t care. People have their own interests after all, ones dear to them. Karate is in reality important to other karate-ka, but to the rest of the world not so much.

 

After that I never published any articles about what I did, when I did it. There were times that articles were published about my program by the Boys and the Boys and Girls Club, but that was more so show the depth of their programs.

 

footnote:

 

In the long run you really learn that what those trophies are for, to gather dust. Those I acquired and saved were eventually discarded when I moved, and really are not missed.

The day is gone after all. Being awarded a trophy is a memory. Life moves on.

On becoming disabled I still find I cast a giant shadow.

 

When I became disabled around 7 years ago and the shape of what my martial studies could be, changed forever, I had to fight to find a way to continue my studies, for I could not stop.  The limitations which I was now bound within was not a reason to discontinue anything. It just assumed new shapes for me to work with.

 

In a sense it was no different than when I was a new black belt and almost immediately without a local instructor to guide me. So I began teaching the young through the Boys Club, more rigorously competed in Open Tournaments, started visiting local instructors to train with adults in any art, and began to look at so many different things.

 

It was not an even playing field.

 

I discovered I had a lot to learn to become a better instructor.

 

I pushed myself because I was on the tournament floor often against national champions, and drove myself to do better and better.

 

Visiting acquaintances I met at tournament and when invited to visit their schools, I found everything. The good… the other. So I focused on the good and attempted to learn whatever they showed. The more I saw about incredible systems from those instructors was of course fun to learn. Very worthy studies,. but the thing is the more I saw the more I wanted to make my Isshinryu stronger and stronger.

 

And in my personal studies the more I looked at the more I found ways it was already present in Isshinryu.

 

As a rule I spent over 5 years on any study before I came to use some of them for subsidiary studies for my students.  First to support their Isshinryu studies, Then to give them a personal touch of what others do, to let them not be concerned at other ways people studied. But the more advanced reason was to allow them to use actual techniques from other systems to work against and defeat with Isshinryu. Not just movements but against skilled  execution of those same movements, for they first had developed skill.

 

I had nobody placing any limits at what I could look at, so I kept looking everywhere without limit.

 

Now disabled I have not stopped looking everywhere. I share some of my studies to find others who are willing to share more so I can continue to learn.

 

What I have discovered is that I know so little there is so much to keep discovering. Through my posts, my blog and my personal messages to my students, I hope to share with everyone.

 

The more we learn, the further we have to travel.

 

To infinity and beyond !

Surujin an old Okinawan Weapon few have seen

On Okinawa the Surujin is a weapon system few have seen. I have copied a few pages from the book by Inoue Sensei.

On the Surujin he mentions:

 

 

Karate in Transition - just my opinion

 

 

Japan in one fell swoop in the later 1800s took control of Okinawa, and put the need for the arts which can be collectively called Toudi out of work.. Those arts were working ones for the roles the Okinawan Bushi used in their lives, toudi being one such tool. They were out of work, further government stipends and the purpose for their Toudi no longer existed.

 

Perhaps as a way to give their young family members a sense of who they came from, the Toudi instruction continued just for them.

 

But Itosu foresaw another use for the training, as something which could strengthen the young men through training offered through the schools.

 

In order to get Karate into the school for physical education/character building/self discipline, he had to rework it to be less "antisocial" altering kata and it's original mentality for training he created something different from the original art but based on it making it more obscure to those later generations unfamiliar with its earlier practice and mindset.

 

 

For discussion I might suggest too much emphasis was being placed on the development of karate for the schools as the crux point of karate change.

 

Yes, there were aspects of the original arts that were changed to allow it to be introduced into the schools. But that alone did not change how karate was to spread. And for simplicity lets ignore the export of karate into Japan proper.

 

The original use for karate training was for a working art part of a Okinawan Bushi's job. It wasn’t designed for allowing one to instruct others karate. Then that became irrelevant as Japan was not going to employ them further in their roles.

 

So Itosu, et al, brought a new art, karate, forward into the schools, for the specific purpose of strengthening the young for life. And over time many other instructors in many arts also taught programs in the schools.

 

Those arts (for convenience let’s refer to them as karate) also began to transform and also be shared with the public. Instructors from many styles started sharing with each other, and as time passed for their own reasons some adopted the pinan kata (developed for the schools). Not to replace their karate but to supplement it, perhaps to be a way to indoctrinated new students into their art, and after they were taught to move past them.

 

There was also a movement on Okinawa that new kata could be crafted for a public adult version of karate for health, akin to the Chinese using T’ai Chi (a most viscious art in its own right). The Okinawan seniors even had 10 kata developed for this purpose (they can be found in the Nakasone Karate Do Taiken). But WWII intervened and all karate became less meaningful as 1/3 of Okinawans lost their lives, and most of the Okinawan karate seniors.

 

Then after the war interest in karate arose again, as they were in a depression, it was something they could share. The seniors were no longer there to provide guidance, and many things happened. Schools started adopting each other’s kata in part. No doubt partially to have something in common.

 

Some schools did not adopt the Pinan, some did, Some did not adopt the Naifanchi, some did.

 

Change has always been a part of what Karate was about, however it was the instructor who made the change in the past. Change continued to be the constant. Individual instructors choose to use changes or not. Okinawan karate cannot be thought of as one thing, It is many times many things.

 

Meanwhile on Japan karate took on new flavors, some linked to the past, some not so much. A very different karate.

 

But in 1972 America gave Okinawa back to Japan, and more and more Japanese practices invaded Okinawan karate too. Roughly at the same period karate began a 2^nd disporia into the world, and of course many things continued to change.

 

Placing so much of the coming change on the karate taught in the schools hardly describes what occurred.

 

 And of course a few words can not adequately describe what took place.