Pre-dan for Nidan

http://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:SMirC-thumbsdown.svg

On Saturday I had my pre-dan course. This is an assessment of your ability to meet the standard for the dan grading a few weeks later. Like I mentioned in a previous blog, I was expecting to grade for nidan at the end of June.

However, the verdict of the grading panel at the end of the course was that I was ‘borderline’ and they have left it up to me to decide whether I want to give it a try or postpone until the next dan grading session in November. My husband (and martial arts partner) has been given the all clear to grade for nidan in June.

Prior to the pre-dan course I would have imagined this scenario of whether to press on regardless so that we can grade together or grade on separate occasions would have been quite a dilemma for me. As it happened the decision seemed very clear cut. Before I had even left the changing rooms I had decided that I would postpone my grading until November and concentrate on helping my husband to pass his in June.

We have graded together on every occasion since white belt, which, if you include our kobudo gradings amounts to 17 gradings; but it was inevitable that at some point our grading schedules would part company. I have done well to keep up with him this long but this time I just can’t keep up, I’m not ready for nidan grading yet and he is. My husband has four years more experience in martial arts than me, he did jujitsu before karate and holds a black belt in that art as well, and this experience massively influences his ability to do karate.

I don’t want to hold him back and I don’t want to risk failure for myself so it makes sense for us to grade separately this time. I would hate to be one of those passed it by the skin of her teeth or pulled it off on the day people. It’s just not budo. I want to feel comfortable in my skin with nidan so I need to be patient and wait.

There are advantages for both of us in grading separately. It is doubly exhausting to both grade yourself and be a grading partner for someone else at the same time. You have to remember their techniques (which may be different to your own) so that you can remember what kind of attacks they want from you at different times during the grading. It will be easier on both of us if we only have to concentrate on one role at a time!

I can now focus on helping my husband to finish his preparations for his grading and make sure I am fully familiar with his techniques so that I can be a good partner for him. I know he will return the favour for me in my preparations for November.

So I soldier on! I will have to do another pre-dan assessment in October which I won’t particularly look forward to (they don’t tend to be very positive experiences for me) but hopefully I will get the all clear next time!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Should nidan grading feel less stressful than shodan grading?

Why does training for nidan feel so different to training for shodan? I am currently training in preparation for taking my nidan grading in June. Strangely it feels a much more low-key event than my shodan grading nearly two years ago…yes, it really was nearly two years ago, how time flies!

I keep trying to put my finger on why it feels so different. By different I mean that I don’t feel the need to put together a week by week training programme for 6 months like I did for my shodan grading (remember my Countdown to Shodan blog?); neither do I feel so stressed or compelled to train every spare minute.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m training hard and taking it very seriously – I want to pass after all, but it doesn’t seem like quite the big deal that shodan grading did. In fact, I think I made some mistakes with my shodan preparations that I don’t want to repeat this time around.

I think I had placed shodan on a very high pedestal and made it into a much bigger deal than it really was, this is what made it such a stressful time in the months leading up to the grading. I also think that I over-trained a little resulting in a thigh injury and a bit of mental exhaustion.

So, for nidan preparations I have a different approach, different because I am different compared to two years ago…

I am more relaxed than for shodan grading – nidan is not on some high pedestal, it will not be earth shatteringly terrible to fail, I’ll just try again. In fact, if I don’t feel ready to take it in June I will postpone until the next round in December. Please note that relaxed doesn’t mean laid-back it just means that I’m not so frazzled by the task!

I understand my abilities/weaknesses better and have a clearer understanding of what the grading panel will expect of me. This means that I can target my training better to improve my weaknesses.

I understand a lot more than two years ago and seem to learn new things a bit more quickly – I have a greater understanding of the underlying principles that govern all techniques and so I’m more able to apply them to new situations. I think this is the result of all the teaching practice I’ve had since my shodan grading, teaching really tightens up your own understanding of what you are doing.

I trust in my regular training more to get me through. Obviously I’m doing some training at home as well as in class since we are expected at this level to work out our own ippon kumite, goshin waza and bunkai applications – sensei will help and guide as necessary but he won’t spoon feed us at this level.

For shodan grading I worked on a general fitness programme as well as practicing the karate itself. This time I am only training in karate. Why? Because I have come to believe that extreme fitness is not required for the grading. The level of fitness that I already possess gets me through some pretty demanding karate sessions without too much trouble. I think that maintaining the fitness I already have is important but trying to up it for the grading may be counter-productive and risk injury.

Nidan grading is not an extreme sport; it is merely a demanding demonstration of martial arts skills – the stuff I do week in, week out. If my current fitness level sustains me through these lessons then it should sustain me through the grading. Extreme fitness is not sustainable in the long term so it seems slightly ridiculous to need extreme fitness to pass a grading when you don’t need it for regular classes. I don’t see why a grading should require something that normal classes don’t. This is the way I’m thinking at the moment…

So far preparations are going okay, I’m not there yet but I’m feeling fairly confident that I will be by June. I attended a black belt course this weekend and have the pre-dan course in May, then it will be decided whether I am ready for this grading or not. If I get the green light to go for it then sensei will be turning up the pressure in class to get me mentally and physically ready.

If you are a nidan did you find the thought of nidan grading less stressful than shodan grading? Do you think I’m in for a shock in June?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Gashaku 2012 - a fantastic weekend

One of our training sessions at Walesby Forest.

Last weekend I attended my first gashaku (training camp). This was held in Walesby Forest Outdoor Activity Centre in Nottinghamshire. About 70 people from our karate organisation descended on Walesby on Friday evening to settle into their accommodation and have their first meal together. 

Paul, stirring things up!

Some of us stayed in the lodges so that we could sleep in proper beds – I need a soft mattress under me after several hours of training! Other more hardy folk (or foolhardy depending on your point of view) chose to camp. Well, they called it camping; it seemed more like ‘Glamping’ to me with their luxury tents and camping beds -not at all what I remember camping to be like when I was younger!

Me and Sensei (trust me to blink at the wrong time!)

Hazel (my instructor’s partner) may not be a karate-ka herself but she definitely has a black belt in organisation, culinary skills and generally making all things happen at the right time and in the right place… and always with a smile and never getting flustered.  She was definitely the lynch pin that helped to hold the whole weekend together and make it such a success.

Gathering at the Robin Hood statue for first training session.

We were blessed with amazing weather – one of the few really nice weekends all summer. This allowed us to train outside on the grass rather than in the marquee. Training began on Saturday morning with a run. A run! I never go running so that came as a bit of a shock. We had to do two laps of a gravel circuit – uphill going out and downhill coming back. The total distance was probably about a mile, so not too far but in a gi and hot sunshine……

Sensei Cool!

Anyway, I was determined that I would complete the run without stopping so as unaccustomed I am to public running I set off at a steady pace, kept my arms relaxed and close to my body and just kept going. It became clear to me after the first lap that running is as much a mental process as a physical one; you just have to tell yourself to keep going. So I was pretty pleased to complete the run – not with the front runners admittedly, but not with the stragglers either.

Sensei demonstrating a 'body hardening' kick to the thigh!
(That's my son he's kicking...grrr!)

After a quick water break we were then straight into our karate session. We divided into 2 groups – over 16s and under 16s. Our group worked on some application drills, breaking them down to work on the details. We practised some soft blocking techniques and worked on some locks. As the grass was quite dry and soft most of us kicked off our trainers to train bare foot. It was great to feel the ground under your feet in this way. Half way through the 2 hour session we had another water break and then switched instructors. We went through a few basics to warm up again and then carried on with some application stuff.

We were pretty hungry after that and Hazel had lunch all ready for us in one of the lodges. After lunch it was time to enjoy one of the afternoon activities that had been arranged by the activity centre itself. So people divided up to either go rafting on the lake (after making their own rafts first!), body boarding which seemed to consist of throwing yourself downhill on a sheet of wet, muddy plastic on a piece of polystyrene into a mucky lake; archery (which looked quite civilised in comparison) or doing an assault course.  My sons both opted for the rafting and my husband did archery.

What, we have to build it first?

Finally on the water. Should that barrel be attached?

Body boarding (I kept calling this water boarding by mistake!)

Apparently the lake was very cold (and mucky).

Archery - Definitely more civilised

The rather tame assault course!

I had booked onto another activity, water zorb balling or is it water ball zorbing? Anyway those giant plastic balls that you get inside and walk over the water in but unfortunately the activity was withdrawn because the balls had holes in or something! So instead, I became the official photographer and walked around to each activity to take photos of everyone else having fun.

There wasn’t a lot of time (about an hour and a half) before the next karate session was due so just time for a cup of tea, a snack and a lie down! I admit it – I had a half hour kip before putting my gi back on…

Fighting like men!

My son beating up children!

Miss Determined face - isn't she great?

The second training session was all about sparring. It was just an hour this time but pretty full on. We spent most of the session free sparring with a variety of different partners. We were mixing with people from different clubs and it was interesting to see the slightly different styles and attitudes to sparring.  We also did a drill where we had to pull a tag out of your partner’s belt before they pulled the one from yours – this was designed to speed up your reactions to get in and out quickly whilst blocking your partners attempts to do the same to you.  The only problem with sparring bare foot on the grass was that you also had to dodge the stones and hedgehog droppings!

Did I mention we had some fun as well?

Looks like they were winning...

We finished about 5.30pm and had a couple of hours before the barbeque commenced - time to shower, change and feel human again. This was also the time you realised how much things hurt and how many new bruises you had acquired!

The barbeque was a very chilled out occasion – why is it that men always take charge of the cooking when it’s a barbeque? We had four giant BBQ’s going to feed the 73 people that were there, so quite a major undertaking. It cooled down a lot as the sun went down so we gathered around 2 large campfires to keep warm (no we didn’t sing camp songs, we’re not boy scouts!) Actually we just talked and socialised, getting to know each other better. And the wine flowed and the beer flowed. What, drinking at a karate camp you say? Don’t worry it was medicinal – we were in pain!

Getting warm around the fire

Drinking our 'medicine'

Look mine's in a cup, not a bottle - I'm so much more civilised don't you think?

Sunday morning required a fairly early start (for a Sunday that is). Training was at 9.00am so we had to be up and breakfasted before then. We were all pretty sore and stiff by now so were hoping we wouldn’t start with another run – a nice gentle stretching session seemed more appealing somehow. Anyway, we set off on the run again - why are karate instructors so sadistic?

I set off on my run with my thighs still aching from the previous day. It was definitely more of a mental challenge this time. In fact I had decided that I might only do the one lap. However, I was following one of our red belt ladies who’s a year older than me and I asked her if she was going to do both laps. She said she was and I suddenly felt ashamed that I was planning to take it easy so I continued to follow her and did the second lap.  I’m so glad I did – I had a much greater sense of achievement for having done so.

The final karate session was a two hour lesson on kata. We were divided into two groups again – black and brown belts in one and everyone else in the other. Our group was taught a completely new kata (new to us that is): Chatan yara kushanku. This kata is actually on our 4^th dan syllabus but it is an important competition kata so those in our organisation that are in the kata squad (not me!) learn it at earlier grades just for performance purposes. At 4^th dan all bunkai are also required. Anyway, back to the gashaku… This kata is very long so we got about half way through learning the basic pattern. There are several familiar segments in it which we know from the pinan katas and kosokun shiho so this made learning it a little easier but on the whole it is a complicated kata to remember.

Our early attempts at Chatanyara no kushanku

Tyler already knows it - shows doesn't it?

We finished at 11am and had about an hour to change, pack, help clean the lodges and marquee and generally make it look like we’d never been there! We then gathered outside for some final announcements, a few prizes were given out and thank yous said. Hazel had produced a final packed lunch for us before we left which was very appreciated… then it was just farewells with hugs and kisses all round, until next time….

Everyone who went agreed that it was a fantastic weekend …..Roll on gashaku 2013!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Marfest 2012 report...

Aikijutsu

I have been so busy lately that I just haven’t had time to blog. Well, that’s not exactly true; I’ve been doing lots of blogging actually but for the Marfest 2012 blog. But Marfest is over again for another year – now I have the entire post festival write up to do!

I went up to the Marfest last Sunday in Sunderland with my husband; I wouldn’t miss it for the world I love going to the festival. ..

Despite a dip in public attendance this year the festival was still a fantastic event.  Martial Artists from all over the North East descended on the CitySpace centre with their families and friends to watch or participate in the demonstrations and taster sessions on the ‘come and try it’ mats.

Judo

Marfest is as much about the camaraderie between martial artists as it is about the displays of martial art. Over the 12 years the festival has been running a community of martial artists from all disciplines has gradually gelled together to not only demonstrate their art to each other and the general public but to also exchange knowledge and information, support and encourage each other, and to form strong and lasting networks and friendships.  

The strength of this support network was demonstrated very clearly in the afternoon when there was a gap in the order of events. To fill the gap, Peter Seth (Marfest organiser and 4^th dan Aikido), Geoff  Aisbitt  (4^th dan Aikido, 3^rd dan Aikijutsu) and student’s of Christine Poole’s Jujitsu club (British Jujitsu Academy NE) did an impromptu display of Aikido and knife defences. This was impressive because these people do not normally train together (though Geoff does sometimes do some aikido training with Peter), practice different though related arts and had not rehearsed this display at all! This required a lot of trust and cooperation which was possible because the Marfest has brought these people together on several occasions now and so they know each other.

Jujitsu weapons

The other demonstrations though were definitely planned, well rehearsed and displayed professionally. 

There were some last minute programme changes.  Sensei Paul Simpson (Kempo Jujitsu) was unable to make it. However, John Barrass (founder and senior instructor of ESDCS – Evasive Self Defence Combat System) stepped in to cover the vacant ‘come and try it mat’ for the afternoon, teaching his style of close-in reality based street defence. John is a very experienced martial artist who has attained black belts in four arts, including 4^th dan in jujitsu.

Shotokan karate

Peter Gruffity (Capoeira instructor at Group Senzala North East) has supported Marfest over many years but was unable to put on a demonstration this year. However he did attend the festival and did a couple of taster sessions on our ‘come and try it mats’. For those of you unfamiliar with capoeira, it is a Brazilian art form developed by African Slaves in Brazil over 400 years ago. “It combines the potency of violence and fight, the fluidity and expressiveness of dance, the soul-calling power of music, the wit and playfulness of clever games, and the showmanship of acrobatics into one beautiful art form.” (source: http://www.groupsenzala.co.uk)

Ninjutsu weapons

Joe Harte (Taiji, Northern School of Taiji in Co. Durham) was also present and led a short taiji session over lunchtime. He was also available throughout most of the day to talk to people about the principles and practice of his art form – an opportunity taken up by several people.

Of course many of our regular participants were in attendance giving their time freely and generously for this charity fund-raising event – Geoff Aisbitt (Aiki arts), Christine Poole (jujitsu), Phil Doherty (DFM), Mike Campos (taekwondo) and Paul Tennet (Kung Fu).  Newcomers this year included John Bruce (karate), John Simpson (Judo), Mick Farrow (Cane-do) and Bill Patterson (Ninjutsu)

I have lots of video clips of the event but unfortunately it is taking a long time to upload them to YouTube. However, they will be available on the Marfest blog once I've sorted them out!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Knife awareness seminar - bridging the gap between traditional and reality training...

Image from Photobucket

Last Sunday my husband and I attended a KEWAP seminar (Knife and Edged Weapons Awareness Programme).

I was interested in attending this course because I thought it offered something different to our usual karate training - a course focused on the practicalities of personal self-defence out on the street, specifically defending against attacks with knives and other edged weapons.

I was a little surprised that only a handful of us turned up for the course but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because those of us that were there obviously had a lot of personal attention from the instructor. Also, as a small informal group, we were able to have a lot of useful discussion together about various aspects of personal protection.

The course was different in many ways to the usual kind of courses we do. To start with we wore ordinary outside clothes and kept our shoes on. Secondly, the practical training was interspersed with mini lectures and power point slides. I thought this format worked well as it gave the instructor a chance to educate us on a variety of issues such as self defence and the law – what you can and can’t do to defend yourself; awareness issues; how to assess developing situations; how to use the environment to create and manage distance and a discussion on different strategies one can use.

The instructor also showed us some slides of weapons that have been used in real fights. Did you know that there are gas-powered knives that force the blade in further and knives that are also guns that fire bullets at you as the blade goes in? I was quite staggered that such grisly weapons existed!

In between these short talks we did some practical knife defence training. We learnt about half a dozen different ways of disarming a knifeman depending on how he was attacking with the knife, including situations when you have your back to the wall. What struck me about these techniques was that though I hadn’t specifically done them before the principles of movement and technique that I have learnt in karate and kobudo were being directly applied in these self-defence moves.

I thought that we all picked up these techniques quickly because we already knew how to move, evade, block and apply locks. So, applying what we already knew to this new situation of knife defences was not too difficult, it was just a case of relaxing some of the more stylistic aspects of karate in order to be able to respond more intuitively and naturally.

A case in point was when we moved onto the topic of pre-emptive striking. The instructor told us that in order to strike quickly and without telegraphing the move first we shouldn’t pull back the punch first. This made sense but since we have trained to punch from the hip it was hard not to instinctively pull the punching arm back first before striking. However, after a few minutes practice of punching a focus mitt it was starting to feel more natural. The instructor emphasised the importance of using the hip thrust to add power to the punch so this was very much still a karate principle being employed.

Apparently my punches against the focus mitt in this way were quite hard but I know this is only because of the gyaku zuki training I have had. The standard karate training has helped me to build up strength, speed and power in my punching and this was not lost when the punching technique was varied to omit the pullback.

I sometimes feel that there is a gap between the defensive moves we learn as part of karate training and the self-defence moves in reality based training but I also feel that this gap shouldn’t exist – it can be bridged with thoughtful and intelligent training. I feel uncomfortable when I hear people say, “this is the art of karate but in real self-defence we do it this way”, as if they are completely different things. To me they are just flip sides of the same coin – not different coins.

On this KEWAP course I think the instructor helped to bridge this gap. We learnt a lot of new self-defence techniques – techniques that have been tried and tested in real situations but we were applying many of the principles we already knew from our classical karate training. The instructor even showed us how some bunkai from Pinan Shodan and Seipai can be used in knife defence scenarios.

Overall, I thought this was a great course, taught in a very effective way. It was informative, practical and enjoyable.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Pre-dan grading course - a dose of reality!

Movement from Bassai Dai

On Saturday I attended a pre-dan grading course. This was an opportunity to go through the syllabus with the dan grading officers and iron out any remaining problem areas before the real grading on June 12th.

There were around 30 people present on the course, mainly 1st kyu grades but also a couple of 1st dans ready to grade to 2nd dan. I hadn’t expected so many people because I know at the last dan grading there were only five candidates and at the one before about nine. I had a nasty feeling that a huge cull might happen following the session!

Applying a leg lock

After the warm up we were given some guidance about how the grading day would be structured and what the required etiquette would be. The marking scheme was also explained in quite a lot of detail and we were each issued with a sheet of paper containing the syllabus and a marking grid. We were told that we would be given a score for each section of the syllabus as they came around and observed us. We were also given feedback and guidance about our performance. The idea of this was that we should end up with a realistic picture of our strengths and weaknesses and have a plan of the things we needed to work on.

We started off with all the kihon sections followed by kata and bunkai and received scores and feedback. The starting point for awarding a mark is the basic pass mark of 6/10. A six represents the performance of a good average student. If you show exceptional ability in a particular section you may get a 6.5 or even a seven (8, 9 or 10 are for the truly gifted!). However, if you make mistakes or don’t perform the technique to the required standard then marks are docked, which puts you below the pass mark for that section. You then need to make up marks in other sections to keep yourself at or above the overall pass mark.

This gives you the feeling that you are standing on the edge of a cliff – gaining marks pulls you back from the edge but losing them can topple you over. After the first 6 sections I was clinging to the edge of the cliff by my finger tips having scored five 5.5s and one 6! I was starting to feel my stress levels rise as my heart sank into my stomach. Was I ready for this? Was I going to be ‘culled’?



How to throw your husband!

 We then moved onto the sections that require partners – ippon kumite, goshin waza and a floor drill. These are generally my stronger sections so I was hoping to make up marks here. Unfortunately most people did not have their grading partners with them so paired up with each other. My grading partner (my husband) was there so we could still work together. However, due to the large number of people to observe and the fact most people were working with unfamiliar partners, the grading officers gave some feedback but no marks for these sections.

Now this shouldn’t have mattered to me because I know these are my stronger sections but as I was already in a downward spiral emotionally I finished the day feeling that everything was negative and nothing was positive. In fact I was feeling pretty despondent and worried about my ability to pass.

I found it really hard to shake off this negativity all weekend and initially I wanted to blame the scoring system for my failures. It seemed so easy to lose marks for relatively minor transgressions but very difficult to gain marks. My dream of getting a black belt was starting to seem a lot less attainable.

However, since then I have had time to do some serious introspection! The fault is not with the system it is with me – I need to work with the system, not rail against it. I need to worry less about my scores and concentrate more on just doing my karate to the best of my ability on the day.

How to throw your wife!

The technical feedback I was given was relatively minor – my right kamae position isn’t quite correct; I need to extend and lower my arm more. I need to grip the floor more with my feet; my shiko dachi stance is a bit too wide; I need to show a bit more aggression and I need to make sure I don’t twist my hand to early when punching. Not a lot to get het up about really is it?

I realise now that the main thrust of my preparations now need to be mental. I need to get my head in the right place and control my emotions more so that I go into the grading with the right spirit and don’t let early negative experiences affect my performance of later sections.

I learnt a few unexpected things about myself on Saturday – some uncomfortable truths about my character. I have too much ego – I had wanted and expected higher marks (just sixes or six point five) so I was disappointed not to achieve that, but hey, I’m no spring chicken so why should I expect that? I don’t look like a teenager so why should I expect to move like one! I suppose that is another thing I’ve had to come to terms with – getting older. I’m usually in denial about middle-age but I have to face facts, my body can’t perform like that of a young athlete - I need to lower my sights a little. Let’s face it, not many women take up a demanding martial art in their mid-forties and stick with it all the way to black belt (and beyond), perhaps I’m not doing so bad after all. There you go, some positive self talk for a change!

Okay, so I’m getting over myself a bit now. I am regaining my perspective and feeling more positive again. I have had personal feedback from my instructor as well as the senior dan grading officer and both are happy that I am ready for this grading. I have been told to relax more and be more natural in my movements but no one seems to have any real worries about me – just me (we really are our own worst enemy sometimes!)

And that cull I mentioned? 30 down to 18!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

karate - is it about fighting or self-defence?

I recently wrote a post on my Countdown to Shodan blog about solo training and in my opening sentence I suggested that martial arts were essentially about learning self-defence. I was surprised, therefore, when I received a comment from Charles James (a person whose opinions and advice I respect) in which he said: “A martial art is not about learning self-defence. Martial arts are about fighting. Fighting is not self-defence.”

I can’t help thinking that Charles and I are actually of the same opinion of what martial arts are about but have slightly differing definitions or interpretations of the words ‘fighting’ and ‘self-defence’ and therefore appear to be at cross purposes when in fact we aren’t.

In the interests of clarity I have researched a bit deeper into the meanings of these words and how they apply to martial arts, particularly karate.

The words fight and fighting have been defined as (respectively), 1.“To attempt to harm or gain power over an adversary by blows or with weapons”, and 2. “…a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition.”

Self-defence is defined as: 1. ”the act of defending one's person when physically attacked, as by countering blows or overcoming an assailant.”

Another definition is: 2. “Physical self defence is the use of physical force to counter an immediate threat of violence. Such force can be either armed or unarmed. In either case, the chances of success depend on a large number of parameters, related to the severity of the threat on one hand, but also on the mental and physical preparedness of the defender.”

In some ways these definitions of fighting and self-defence seem very distinct from each other but in other ways they overlap. Fighting may be about ‘gaining power or dominance’ over another person but so might be self-defence. The best way to defend ones-self may be to dominate and control the other person.

However they differ greatly in the intentions or motivations of the people involved. The aim of the fighter is to win and will continue attacking their victim to that aim. The aim of a person being attacked is to survive and get away. This difference is crucial to understanding what martial arts are teaching you.

On the recent Iain Abernethy course that I attended he touched on this very subject. He said (paraphrasing) that a fight required two (or more) people having the mindset of wanting to hurt the other person and ‘win’ the fight. In other words a fight is consensual. Rivals fight e.g rival football supporters or rival street gangs. He then said that in self-defence only the attacker was consenting to the ‘fight’ and the defender was ‘fighting’ against their will. In this situation the altercation is non-consensual.

This now gives a clearer distinction between fighting and self-defence. In karate are we training people to hurt others and win an altercation? Not in my club. Surely the emphasis should be on training people to survive an attack, using only sufficient force necessary to stop the attacker and get away.

However, we do fight in martial arts as well – it’s called sport and it has many rules to make it safe. Fighting is an appropriate term to use in this context because a sparring/wrestling/boxing/MMA fight is consensual and the aim of each competitor is to win.

I think the introduction of sport into karate has blurred the distinction between learning techniques for fighting and learning them for self-defence. A punch is a punch and a kick is a kick whether you use it to attack someone or to defend yourself. However, the difference in intent is huge!

I think that instructors have a responsibility to clearly distinguish to their students, particularly children and teenagers, what it is they are learning to do at that particular time. They need to know that in martial arts terms, fighting is a rule bound sport that takes place in a controlled environment and is not something they should participate in outside the dojo in street/playground environments i.e. they never consent to or lead an altercation.

Students also need to know when they are participating in ‘classical’ karate which is about self defence. As part of self-defence training they should also be taught the importance of avoidance, awareness and conflict resolution. These are not necessary for ‘fighting’ but are essential for self-defence. Students need to be aware that sports karate and classical karate have different objectives even if they appear to use similar techniques.

Two or more people fighting in a public place, causing alarm to other members of the public is called an affray and is a public order offence in most countries. To be an affray the fighting has to be mutual. If one person unlawfully attacks another who tries to defend himself it does not amount to affray. Here the first person is guilty of assault. The defender is guilty of nothing.

So, is karate about fighting or self-defence? Well, by the definitions I have given it is both. Sports karate is fighting because it is consensual and the aim is to win. Classical karate is about self-defence and the aim is to do the minimum necessary to disable the opponent and escape. The opponents have different objectives – for the defender it’s about survival, not winning.

So what do you think – is martial arts about fighting or self-defence?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.