Nishiyama-sensei would often say...

Nishiyama-sensei would often say that the two essential and related purposes of training were for application and to calm the mind. Without a calm mind, clean, clear, exact application would not occur. Technical chaos would ensue. We must train with a relaxed body and an open, clear mind. Mind comes first, not the thinking mind, but the feeling mind. Therefore, we must train for both grace and power. Grace is an ephemeral, abstract, subjective concept. It is a physical as well spiritual quality. Power is neither ephemeral nor abstract. It is immediately palpable as being the aggregate of breath, balance, form, focus, intention and situational awareness. In kata and to a certain extent kihon, speed is not an element to consider per see, whereas timing, acceleration, distance, breath control, flow and biomechanics are. In combat, however, speed is very much an essential element in technical delivery. Position is as well, both as regards distance and center line placement. A third aspect of combat to be cultivated is strength. This is not the foot-pounds, bulk, brute strength sometimes associated with raw power, but the supple, adaptable, kinetic, quick, relaxed, functional, educated strength baking into the body after years of devoted, purposeful training and body conditioning specifically shaped to support that training.

As strength training must be purposeful, scientific and “staged” to both support and advance performance, so too must the technical training itself be purposeful, scientific and “staged.” While this may seem too obvious to remark upon, it is the instructor’s major work to cultivate this so that the seeds of logical progression she or he plants grow properly within the student so that student might in time “free” her/himself from the constant and careful supervision of the instructor and gain a high degree of self-regulated autonomy. When we speak of “shu ha ri,” this is the trajectory we describe. A scattered, non-logical, unsequential instructor creates a scattered and confused student. Therefore, the best instructors teach classes composed of unique individuals and work on many levels at once to both keep the whole group within the “learning frame” yet to also guide each individual student to finding the “frame” personally. Tina Rosenberg in an article entitled “The New New Math” published in the NY Times in March 2015 speaks directly to this “sequencing” in an essay on math instruction. “Math is cumulative: Basic skills are necessary for building advanced ones. A student who fails at fourth-grade math will be likely to fall further behind each year. If he is missing essential early skills and concepts, he may spend the rest of his years of school math learning nothing at all.” Replace “fourth grade” with “kyu,” and we see how early failure to make sense of and absorb content, either through individual misapprehension, non-logical or unsequenced instructional methods, or instructor failure to teach sufficiently to learning objectives or for “mastery” results up the line in student lapses and learning gaps and oscillations which can only be corrected by taking the “process” apart, reverse engineering it, and starting over. In other words, when an instructor grades a student, it is two people who are being examined. The karate instructor is working in two dovetailing domains: karate and instructional methodology or pedagogy.

The internal structural organization of math, chess or karate – for example – is highly linear and sequential. There is a very high degree of specificity in learning the skills required by domain mastery. Other domains, such as painting, modern dance and snowboarding work with internal organizations less rigid, more fluid, and permitting the extemporaneous. All domains, subjects or fields or inquiry fall somewhere along the spectrum from lesser to greater internal organization. Learning karate is more similar to learning chess, Latin or math than it is to learning internally less rigid, freer, more creative and intuitive subjects and skills such as painting, fiction writing or breakdancing.

Precision is still another vital element of all karate training, and is paramount in combat. One must know when and what to strike, what targets of opportunity present themselves in the flow of the movement, and then have the control to strike the vulnerable area precisely, speedily and strongly from an advantaged position with intention and ferocity. These things are critical in combat. As far as a full, rewarding life in karate is concerned, there is a time-honored set of common sense guidelines we might draw upon. Training is the single most important activity, of course. We come to the dojo, we take class, we receive instruction, we are under the careful direction of the teacher. However, we must practice what we learn in class on our own. It is vital to have a home practice, and to consider it necessary – or at least prudent and profitable – to hold to a ratio of 2:1. That is, for each hour one spends in the dojo training formally, two hours might fruitfully be spent practicing at home on one’s own. This practice grounds the training, brings it out of the mind and into the body, bakes in muscle memory, and is the personal exploration which leads to specific and unique discovery. The third thing is conditioning, and this has two interrelated aspects.

To “calm the mind,” one might cultivate stillness, quiet, openness, warmth and stability. To train for “application,” one must create a consistent and ongoing body practice specifically shaped to support karate training, with variety and cross-training opportunities to require the body to intelligently adjust and make positive adaptations. Proper nutrition, hydration and a healthy lifestyle are included in this category. Study is also essential. While training and physical practice always come first, reading, thinking, writing, better understanding our history, lineage, philosophy and psychology, examining our work intellectually and extending our knowledge is a wonderful and vital component of the karate life. We must rest the body and mind too, reduce and better manage stress, attempt to simplify life for ourselves, and occasionally “vacate” our habitual schedule and routines, even training. Taking short breaks from training can refresh and revivify one, and reconnect one with renewed vigor.

Last, sharing in the dojo when called upon to assist, being a considerate and attentive partner, giving back to the tradition by being a good elder sister or brother, and teaching when that is required by the instructor and the dojo. Be in no hurry for that, as it is a “happy burden,” yet a burden nonetheless. Learn, absorb, enter the body, share when called upon, be modest, remain humble, aspire to simplicity. Nishiyama-sensei would also say that, no matter how old or infirm one became, one could always “do something.” The karate life, the full life, is a life worth living, a deeply meaningful life but a hard one. It is there for you if you have tenacity and good fortune.

 By JT Sensei.