Grading time again!

This is one problem of studying two different martial arts in different clubs - you subject yourself to twice as many gradings! In karate, as I have advanced along the kyu grades the gradings have become further and further apart: 3 monthly up to purple belt (4th kyu), then 6 monthly up to 1st kyu and now it's a minimum of 9 months before I can grade for black belt. This assumes that you train at least twice a week. For people only training once a week you can pretty well double the figures. Even after the minimum 9 month period you can only grade for black belt if you are invited to do so by the organisation and that will depend on how well you do at a pre-grading session.

In kobudo, however, my gradings remain at 3 month intervals and my next one is on Sunday. This time I am grading with the bokken. Our syllabus for bokken is based on Iai-jutsu and has 3 levels, my husband and I are taking level 1.

The level 1 bokken syllabus is much more demanding than the level 1 syllabus of other weapons and cannot be learnt to a high enough standard in just 3 months. We have been training with the bokken for at least a year now alongside the three weapons we have already graded in. The last three months have been dedicated to just training with the bokken.

The syllabus focuses on drawing the bokken in different ways, the five basic cuts, the basic stances, four disarming techniques in seiza, wrist locks with the handle of the bokken, 5 muto dori techniques (disarming techniques) using jujitsu moves, an elaborate Reishiki (beginning) ceremony and demonstration of decorative cord (sageo) tying to the handle of the bokken.

Learning to use a bokken effectively definitely requires you to learn how to relax into a technique until the last second when you apply tension. Without this ability to relax you look like you're hacking someone to death rather than smoothly cutting them! It is a skill that transfers well to karate where the ability to alternate between soft and hard is also necessary to generate speed and power. This is no coincidence - many ideas and training practices used in karate come from several styles of sword. I previously wrote about this in Karate and the Sword .

Iai-jutsu not only has some overlap with karate it also has a lot of overlap with jujitsu, as you might expect. The sword is the weapon of the samurai and so is jujitsu. If a samurai was disarmed of his sword he would have to fight empty handed and so the art of jujitsu was developed. Samurai were particularly adept at Yoroi-kumi-uchi: Techniques for grappling in armour which required the combatants to use their hips and limbs in a particularly powerful fashion, allowing them to lock onto each other without actually grabbing the armour.

So my bokken training has taught me many things that are directly applicable to my karate training - I have learnt to move more fluidly and have learnt several jujitsu techniques that have improved my grappling skills in karate. I think that some selective cross-training like this is an excellent way of perfecting skills and body movements that transfer across different martial arts. Cross training can give you a new perspective on a similar technique learnt in your main art.

Another challenge of training with the bokken is learning how to move in a hakama! The first challenge is just getting the thing on and then learning how to get into and out of seiza without treading on it.....well, you can imagine the problems that presents!

Anyway, all is ready for the grading.

Here's a short video of  a Reishiki ceremony (beginning ceremony). The one we have to do is similar but about 3 times as long and requires quite a lot of standing up and kneeling down again!

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How do you teach 'Do' in the dojo?

Karate is often described as being a 'Do' art, a Way of life, not just a means of self-defence or sport. Most martial arts have a 'do' side and a 'jutsu' side. Practitioners of karate-jutsu are very much focused on applied karate: the development of karate as a realistic and effective fighting system. Practitioners of karate-do use karate as a means of improving the self through the development of positive character traits, the elimination of ego and the unity of mind, body and spirit. A karate-do practitioner may also look at how this self-development can be applied to other aspects of their lives.

 

This does not mean that karate-do practitioners are not interested in learning effective applied karate or that karate-jutsu practitioners do not develop any of the mental or spiritual aspects of a martial Way, but their focus may be different. In fact, you may argue that you can't become an effective 'fighter' without developing some of the deeper mental/spiritual states associated with the 'do' side of the art; or that you won't develop the desired mental states without hard training and developing the practical application of fighting techniques.

 

How do you teach someone the 'do' aspects of karate in a dojo? Can you teach this? It is easy to see how you can teach the practical side of karate - how to block and punch, how to kick, how to escape from grabs or defend from various attacks. But how do you teach the higher mental states such as zanshin, mushin or kime? Are these just the consequences of years of hard training or do they require acquisition through more conscious, active means?

 

Take kata for instance. Some people refer to kata as moving meditation. It has been said that all martial artists should learn to meditate in order to develop focus, mental clarity and mind-body unity. Well we don't meditate in our dojo so does kata practice count as meditation? People's attitude to kata practice varies enormously. For some people it is just about learning a pattern (a 'dance' mindset); for others it's about perfecting the pattern for competition (an 'aesthetic' mindset); for others it's about learning fighting techniques ('practical/applied' mindset) and only for a few does kata seem to be about mind-body unity (a 'do' mindset) and can therefore be considered meditational. In other words it doesn't matter how you teach kata, it's how you learn it that matters.

 

What about kihon practice? Does that teach the 'do' aspects of  karate? I have often thought that standing in lines doing constant repetitions of punching and kicking in front of a 'critical' instructor who makes constant corrections is not just physically exhausting but is a test of the spirit too. One competes with oneself not to slow down or give up - to put the same effort into the last punch as the first. Is forging the spirit in this way intentional on part of the teacher or is it a 'side-effect' of this teaching method?

 

My more limited experience of training in a jujitsu club is that this repetitive training to the point of exhaustion is not in their teaching repertoire. Teaching is much more pragmatic and technical in nature. Does that mean that jujitsukas don't have a mental/spiritual dimension to their training? I find that hard to believe, after all, the samurai (the original jujitsukas) had highly honed mental focus and clarity of mind when going into battle.

 

Perhaps the 'do' aspects of a martial art are taught through the dojo rules and observance of etiquette? The emphasis on bowing and showing respect, the honouring of your partner's technique and working cooperatively with each other for mutual benefit. Perhaps insisting on this type of behaviour helps to hone the positive character traits required in one who 'seeks the Way'.

 

I can't help thinking that perhaps the onus is more on the student than the teacher. Perhaps only those that seek the Way will actually find it.....

 

So, is it possible to teach student's about the 'do' aspects of karate or other martial arts within the dojo? Do you actively do this in your dojo? How do you teach it?

 

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Some awfully nice gals show us how it's done!

I know some of these videos have done the rounds before but I just love them!

Some awfully nice gals show us how it's done.......

Not sure about the outfit this girl's wearing, no wonder she falls so elegantly.......





Such spiffing villains.....

Hope you enjoyed!

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Martial Arts: One size does not fit all!

As a small person (5ft 3in) I am constantly made aware that the world is designed for bigger people. Trouser lengths are generally too long, supermarket shelves are often too high and in martial arts - weapons are often too big!

My bo is a standard 6ft long - that's nine inches longer than me. This makes a difference when manipulating it compared to a 6ft man manipulating a bo the same height as himself. When I spin the bo in front of me I have to hold my arms slightly higher than a taller person else the bo will keep hitting the ground!

Then there is my bokken. A standard bokken is 40 inches long, this is 8 inches too long for me and much too heavy. It is probably equivalent to a 6 foot person wielding a bokken of 50 inches and 1.5 times the weight of a standard bokken. I have overcome the problem by buying a child's bokken - it is 32 inches long and is half the weight of a standard bokken. It is a beautiful bokken to use in sword kata but useless when practising self-defence techniques because it is too fragile to be hit by another bokken! So I have to use the standard bokken for self-defence.

Tonfa are not such a huge problem because they do come in different lengths - mine are a mere 16 inches which is about right for the length of my forearms. However, the length of the side arm is not proportionally shorter compared to a longer tonfa. My hands are quite small and narrow so when I grip the tonfa there is still a lot of side arm protruding from my hand. This means that when I twirl the tonfas my hand gradually slides down  the sidearm and I lose control of it! Why don't the manufacturers make the side arms proportionately smaller on a shorter tonfa?

I am often told that size doesn't matter in martial arts. I would really like to challenge the 6ft 2in, 18 stone guys who say these things to find themselves a 7ft 6in, 25 stone opponent and then come back and tell me size doesn't matter! Size and weight = power, and technique cannot always overcome a large size/weight differential. Even Darrell Craig, in his book Japan's Ultimate Martial Art, recognised the problem when he said: "I find that many jujitsu techniques work only if you are stronger than your opponent".

Anyway, I will moan no more about this because on Sunday night during my jujitsu class, my instructor showed that he was an enlightened man! Even though he is a 6ft 2in, 18 stone guy he recognised that I could not and should not attempt to do a body drop using a standard technique. The risk of a knee injury if a big, heavy opponent was swung across my outstretched leg was too high. Instead he taught me to do it with my foot turned inward so that my knee would just bend if too much weight was on it (rather than dislocate or get an ACL tear). He also taught me a reclining leg throw in which the standard technique was varied so that I effectively wrapped my leg around the opponent's leg and then sat on  their thigh, using my body weight to help push them over!

My sensei recognized that one size does not fit all. He did not patronise me or make me feel inadequate for not being able to manage the standard technique. He just acknowledged that I am not a 'standard' size and thus a 'standard' technique may not work - so there was no point in teaching it to me. He treated me as an individual, assessed my needs and taught me appropriately. I am very grateful for that.

Have you had problems with training due to not being 'standard' in some way? How is it overcome?

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