Dancing With the Stars

Has anyone else stumbled upon video of Kata competitions recently?

When did everything change?

Am I the only one who thinks that bright colourful uniforms, tassels, and flashy spinning belongs more on Dancing With the Stars than in a Karate competition?

Speaking of competitors, since when did grunting, snarling, and screaming become standard? 

Oh, by the way, I can’t stand when the competitor storms into the ring, and screams out his name, his school, his instructor, his kata name, his shoe size (oh, wait they don’t say that….. yet).  Guess what kid?  I couldn’t care less who you are; I am just here to judge the effectiveness, balance, posture, and technique of the kata.  I don’t care what it is called, because my version of that particular form isn’t what you are going to perform anyway.  As for your school or instructor name?  It's really not that important to me and nor should it be.

Am I out of touch?  Let me know what you think!

A Rose by Any Other Name

Some of my earlier posts have caused a bit of a backlash against me. 

It seems that some of you readers (and we all know who you are) are upset that I am still using the old name for our type of karate: “Renbukai”.  This is despite the fact that I am still a proud member of both Shoko-Ryu Renbukai kan and Zen Nihon Remmei Renbukai.

I have identified the type of karate I teach as simply Renbukai because that is what it is.  The fact is, I am teaching the same basics, the same kata, and the same approach to sparring as was taught to me many years ago.  I am not naïve enough to say that what I do this week has not changed over my almost 40 years of training… I know it has changed.  That is the nature of the beast when the ‘style’ is not necessarily a style at style at all (see my earlier post).

However, I do take offense when some of my old friends think they and their current cadre are more legitimate than anyone else.  Really?  I see that there is a real push on converting dissatisfied dojo’s into Renbukai clubs by simply introducing the armor.  There are many examples, you just have to look closely:  a Shotokan group here, a Kyokushin group there, are all calling themselves Renbukai with arms wide open acceptance.  Everybody loves the new guy!  Are they really more legitimate holders of the Renbukai name than any other group?

To paraphrase that old saying “if it looks like Renbukai, fights like Renbukai, and trains like Renbukai, it is Renbukai”.

Ancient, Most Powerful, and (of course) Legendary (!!!)

Have you noticed that most of the Karate world is obsessed with the same few statements?  They are all so standard that the entire mantra could be place on a universal website!  Here are my top three, in no particular order!

1)      “We are the legitimate disciples of Sensei Whomever”.  This one is great, because not only are they the only legitimate followers, everyone else isn’t!  This statement always shows up in groups who split over ideological or political reasons, as each side bashes the other.  The worst part is that in many cases the two new groups all share the same history, the same experiences (sometimes even the same flights and meals!) and are really are not that far apart.

2)      “We can trace our lineage back to the source of Karate”.  We sure spend a lot of effort in making ourselves seem more important by listing all the names in the past looking for Karate nobility.  Kind of like your crazy Aunt who is doing a family tree.  She is trying to link up with Queen Victoria somehow, but your family came from Poland?

3)      “We are thousands of years old”.  Really?  Thousands of years?  I heard one group at a local demo tell the rapt audience that they could show a continuous history back 4000 years in Japan!  I didn’t have the patience to ask him how his little group could pre-date both a written language and the Sun-Goddess of Japan.

Don’t get me wrong.  I have no issues with advertising, and putting the best foot forward for your potential customers.  Just don’t try it with me.

The Inevitable Hiatus

In our dojo, we run three scheduled classes per week, plus the occasional workshops or seminars.  I certainly encourage everyone to attend every class, but I realize that is not possible.  With the kids in soccer, swimming, piano, and school sports it isn’t reasonable to expect 100% attendance.  Factor in vacations, illness, and the “I just can’t motivate myself to get in the car” days, and it is pretty rare for some to even make it at all!

There is a price to pay for not showing up though:

The warm-up is a bit harder for you.  The basics seem more difficult than usual.  Everybody else seems to grasp the concepts and combinations quicker.  Forget about kata.  You have a tough time remembering which foot goes where.  The instructor has a hard time getting the group into a ‘flow’, and the class isn’t as good as it could be.

The scenario above might be a bit extreme, but the person who only shows up once a week is going to progress at very different pace than the student who comes to the majority of classes!  Just writing that down seems to make such obvious sense; why does it elude so many?  In the past, I have seen many of the most advanced in our group come back after a hiatus.  Each time it takes them weeks of dedicated hard work to get back what they lost.  If that’s what happens to someone with 10 or 15 years of training behind them, what happens with a new person? 

When you show up now and again, you spend most of your focus on simply catching up.  You cannot expect to absorb new concepts, because the basic building blocks need to be reviewed and re-taught.  Even the most talented fall behind.  Then they get frustrated.  When they get frustrated they are less motivated to show up, and miss more time.  Vicious circle!

A bit of advice.  Make every effort to go.  Only miss classes when you have no options.  Karate is an art, and like any art it demands constant practice.  Nobody would expect to be a great guitarist if you only went to the music studio 3 times a month. 

Rant over!

Under Pressure

I keep getting pressured by the better half to get some advertising on the side of our vehicles for the Karate dojo.  

“Everybody else is doing it.  Why can’t you?"

“Maybe because I don’t want to be everybody else” is my standard reply, which usually puts me in the freeze zone.

I guess I don’t want to be ‘that guy’.  You know him. We all see him at tournaments, or at the Safeway parking lot.   He’s driving that 2006 Dodge Caravan with the “Little Dragon’s” advert plastered down the side.  Guess what?  That guy is super successful, and probably has a dojo packed with little screamers.  The parents love him, even though his pony tail does look a bit dated, and the red pants on his Gi are getting a bit tight.  His school is adorned with trophies from every competition between here and Broken Plow, Saskatchewan.

I am not that guy.  All my karate-ka friends, across multiple disciplines, are not that guy either.  Does that make us better than van-driving, partially balding, pony tail guy?  No.  We just aren’t wired to be self promoters.  We tend to let our actions, or better yet, word of mouth get our message out there.  Some of us have web sites, and a couple even print up flyers now and again, but nobody is making a fortune teaching Karate.  Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a packed Dojo with dozens of adoring fans looking at me for my Mr. Miyagi guidance.  Instead, I have my core fanatics, looking to see if today is the day they can hit me at will.

But I can park at Walmart without anybody noticing.

The Question

Not long ago, I was asked what makes our style of Karate different than any of the others.  For years, my standard response was to explain how Renbukai was not like Shotokan or Kyokushin or any of the rest.

I started to think that through.  I wouldn’t describe my house the same way.  “It isn’t a double-wide trailer” or “I don’t have vast front lawn that needs a riding tractor in the summer” doesn’t seem get the idea across!

So, what is it?

In my view, Renbukai is a loose collective of Karate schools that agree (mainly) on one thing: full contact fighting in protective armour.  There are a number of other groups that use very similar gear (Chito-Ryu and Koshiki come to mind), so the armour itself doesn’t make Renbukai unique.  It is the way this type of fighting permeates its’ way into everything we do.  

Rather than keep with a syllabus, or guide from a single point authority, Renbukai has adopted a very Darwinian approach to fighting. Renbukai dojos have kept what works, and discard the rest.  This is why everything is focused on a balance between power and speed.  Techniques are built to achieve the maximum damage with the fastest delivery time.  But the best part is that you get to actually see if it works.  I am certain that someone somewhere was teaching their students some flipping high wheel kick (probably with a half twist for style).  That kick looked fantastic, and was unstoppable in non-contact sparring, and won the student a 3 foot high trophy from the All Area Open Challenge.  

But when tried in the armor, when your opponent is looking to knock your block off, it’s not so good.  Too risky, and even if it does actually hit, it doesn’t deliver that ‘crack’ you’re looking for!  It just makes the other person mad.

So that kick was dropped.  So was anything that has “snap” in the name.  If it don’t work, don’t do it.  Renbukai should adopt the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) motto in our official letterhead.

Next time you’re training, ask yourself if the technique has the potential to be both fast and punishing.  Can you make the shield or the bag “pop”?  When you see the advanced students, do they use it?  

Best of all, when you use it against a quality opponent, does she laugh?