A reaction to bad manners

As students of karatedo, we are often reminded to display good manners and politeness at all times. It is no coincidence that the reminder to 'be humble and polite' is the first line of the dojo kun. This should show very clearly that this personality trait is to be considered number one above all else.
Something which puzzled me about Okinawa for quite some time was the following incident which occurred a number of times whilst I was there.
After training it was common to be invited out for food and drinks by the seniors of the dojo. The bar would often be one which was familiar to all, and the members of staff were all on first name terms with the seniors. We would be ushered in, sat down at the table, and then food and drinks would be piled high in front of us.
As plates began to empty, and glasses were drained, one of the seniors would decide it was time to order more, and with this, would loudly clap his hands twice. Upon hearing this, a waitress would come rushing out to take the order.
This situation would have been the cause of embarrassment to me if we were in England, as such behaviour would be considered rude to the point I would suspect a few extras might be placed in my food by an offended waitress! The surprise must have also registered on my face at the time as I was asked immediately following the event 'how do you get the waiters attention in England?' I replied 'we would wait to make eye contact, and then the waiter would approach'. With this, everyone began to laugh at the strange ways of the gaijin.
I found this all quite odd, especially in the land of propriety. However, in spite of my concerns I assumed this must be a cultural trait in Okinawa and that I would be wrong to judge this as bad manners.
Fast forward a few years later and I was sat in a sushi restaurant with Hokama sensei. He had finished his dish and mentioned about ordering some miso soup, peering his head up above the bar in order to catch the busy waiters attention. This seemed not to be working so well as the waiter clearly could not see him. At this I asked 'sensei, in Okinawa do you not clap your hands like this' and made a movement as though to clap my hands together. Immediately upon seeing this, Hokama sensei grabbed hold of my wrist and said that this was extremely bad manners and should never be done by a karate student. Suitably told off, I sunk back down in my chair, thankful that Hokama sensei had been quick enough to prevent me from embarrassing him, and also happy that my initial reaction to this incident had proven to be correct in terms of how a budoka should behave.
Like it or not, we are all judged by our actions and other people will form opinions about you based upon what they see. How you act will influence such opinion, so for students of karatedo, it is important to display good manners at all times.

Hard and Soft

'Hardness is the base of combat methods, softness is the base of changeability.

It is easy to break a too hard thing and a too soft thing will be thrown down
after all.

When hardness is required, resort to hardness; if softness is required, resort to
softness. Hardness and softness supplement each other, one must not prefer
one or the other.'

She Zu Quan - The pugilistic art of the She nationality

An understanding of Hard is relatively easy to aquire. We associate Hard with strength, power, speed etc. These things are easy to spot within Goju Ryu, and all one has to do to aquire such traits is to train hard, often and correctly.
The soft however proves more difficult for many. The ability to blend with an attack, to lead and break balance, to strike lightly in order to achieve a different many of transfering energy into a target. Such things are much more difficult to relate to and are not as easily seen. The manner of training for such things does not rely solely upon training hard and often, but also being shown correctly how such things are possible, and how one might go about learning such skills.
The aquisition of Hard traits in our youth comes easily, and it is tempting to rely upon natural strength and speed while we are younger. Eventually though, father time will catch us all and we will no longer be able to rely upon such qualities. we then need to use the Soft in order to overcome youthful strength.
The problem is, if you do not train hard during your youth to aquire an understanding of the Soft, by the time you are unable to use Hard it will be too late to learn Soft correctly. Therefore while we are young and able to push ourselves for longer, we should balance both the Hard and the Soft so that we are able to understand both.
Sandan Gi is a good example of this. While we are young and strong we are able to bat away our opponents attacks, smashing against his limbs, using force to overcome his strikes. What happens though when the opponent is stronger than you? Then unable to rely on strength the defence is ineffective. Likewise, in youth you may get away with smashing away at the opponents striking arm, but as you get older and your strength declines, you will be unable to use the technique against younger practitioners still in their prime.
In order to overcome strong strikes in Sandan Gi, a soft method of blocking is needed. Unfortunately, from the vast majority of videos I see featuring Sandan Gi, few emphasise the ability to blend with, and lead the attack, focusing more on hitting the striking arm then guiding early and drawing in.
If such things are lost than Goju Ryu wil become an art for the young and strong only. Strive to balance both the hard and the soft.

Oranges

This may seem like a rather odd title for a post relating to Goju Ryu, but I do have my reasons. This morning as I was eating an orange, the taste brought back a few memories relating to the various places and people I have trained with over the years. Bizarrely, Oranges have been a common theme throughout.

Its strange how certain sights, sounds, smells and even tastes can prompt your mind to drift elsewhere. The taste of an orange will always be synonymous with karatedo training for me.

My sensei lives in Southern Spain these days, with a climate quite unlike that of the UK. When I go to visit him I always make a point of eating some of the oranges that grow freely in the field to the front of his home. I can remember many years ago practising kakie with him, to the point that my arms became very weak and painful. This is a common problem, and my way to solve this was always to resort to brute force and a bit of aggression. Sensei however always knew this is what I did, so he'd adjust his movements accordingly to frustrate my efforts and show the futility in my aggressiveness. Seemingly without effort on his part, his arm would be immovable, and I would be at my wits end trying to figure out a way to hold my own against him. As I tired more, the thoughts changed from wanting to beat him, to 'when are we going to stop!?!' I was so tired that this was my only concern. As the command finaly came to yame I was so relieved. We then sat outside in the sun and ate some of the oranges as I tried to rub some life back into my arms. These quiet moments after training is when I learn most from my sensei, just listening to him talk about different things. This is very different from the situation inside the dojo, and unfortunately in this age of large group training, is an experience unfamiliar with many practitioners of karatedo. It's opportunities like this that allow us most easily to steal from our teachers, sharing everyday moments with them, but at the same time spying on how they conduct themselves and asking questions about the art.


Another nice memory I have of my training is visiting an orange farm in Northern Okinawa with Hokama sensei. We had spent the day touring the island and doing a few tourist activities, and this was to be our last stop. As we walked around the orange farm picking fresh oranges from the tree, I was asked by sensei to climb higher into the trees to get the larger ones from near the top. I remember being quite scared both of falling out of the trees, and more so, of the little shinkeki insects that we crawling about everywhere! Anyone who has been into the forest areas of Okinawa will be familiar with the cricket-like noise made by the shinkeki. Hokama sensei could be very serious at times, but he also had a playful nature to his character, which he displayed here by grabbing hold of a shinkeki and chasing me around with it as I tried to run away!

I realise now that it is important to have this GoJu nature to our personality. Many martial artists make the mistake of being too serious all of the time. Too Go. It is important also to enjoy our training, to laugh and to smile. This is the Ju side of our characters, and what Hokama sensei displayed by terrorising me with the shinkeki.

Everytime I eat oranges I am reminded of these times, and am reminded of the importance of savouring the various moments of our training and our time with our teachers. I consider myself very lucky to have had such experiences.

First, control your temper!

In Okinawa there is a saying 'when your anger rises, withdraw your hand. When your hand rises, withdraw your anger'. This saying serves as a reminder to us all to keep control of our emotions and to not act rashly.
During the course of a training session in the dojo there are countless rituals relating to matters of etiquette which we must be mindful of. Where you stand in the dojo in relation to your seniors. When to bow to your partner, and how low. Who dictates the ma'ai at the point of bowing to a partner. Whether you pass in front, or behind a fellow practitioner in relation to the shomen. All these things require an amount of conscious thought which is constantly present in our minds during a training session. Despite the hardships of training, tiredness, sore limbs, attacks from our partner putting us under pressure, we must remain mindful of this etiquette. This is what separates the practise of budo from more modern fighting arts such as MMA, boxing or modern reality based systems.
Where this all comes from is much to do with the arts foundations in Okinawa, with strong influence of Chinese and Japanese ideas. Of course, we in the west are not Chinese, Japanese or Okinawan, so we must find for ourselves a good reason to preserve these ideas. To do them simply for matters of courtesy is not enough, for we could display this courtesy equally by western methods such as shaking hands and saying please and thank you etc. The matter is, to uphold a completely alien custom within our training requires constant thought, and a level of control amidst the chaos happening around us in the form of hard training.
If we are able to continue to be mindful of such actions while conducting our training at a serious level, then we can retain control of our minds rather than relying on blind animal instinct when the going gets tough.
In relation to actual combat this is very important. To lose control in a confrontation is problematic for two big reasons. Firstly, if we act out of anger with regards to attack, we rush into offense regardless of whether there is an opening in the opponent or not. There is also the risk of acting blindly, continuing to press the offence when the threat is no longer present. Legally this presents a problem by not using reasonable force to defend ourselves, but more importantly as practitioners of budo, by losing control we may needlessly injure somebody. To disable somebody, or even kill somebody is not something which rests easily on a persons mind, not to mention the added stress of being arrested, facing prison, losing your job, affecting our families, etc. And all this is if you win, never mind the implications of losing!
Secondly if we become angry we become unaware of our own defence, leaving openings for the opponent and failing to notice potential threats due to tunnel vision upon our own intended target on the opponent. We become fixated upon defeating and hurting the other person, becoming oblivious to our surroundings, or any opportunities to escape and avoid the conflict.
It is important to act dispassionately during confrontations, trying as best as we can to push aside any strong emotions such as anger or fear, as both have a negative effect upon how we negotiate the threat. The mind should strive to be no different from the state of mind we have when performing kata. Focused concentration with an underlying calmness.
The following story will be familiar to many readers of this blog, but I will present it regardless as I think it relevant;
A peasant farmer in Okinawa borrowed a sum of money from a wealthy occupying samurai under the agreement that it would be repaid fully one year later. One year later the samurai returned to receive what was owed to him, but the peasant had come upon hard times and had been unable to raise the money. Upon hearing this the samurai became angry, and as the samurai prepared to cut down the peasant with his sword, the peasant said "I should tell you that during the past year I have begun to study Te, and one of the first lessons is that you should never strike whilst you are angry". Taken back by this, and upon hearing such profound words from the peasant, the samurai granted him a further year to gather the money.
Later that evening, the samurai returned home and as he peered through the partially open screen of his bedroom, he noticed the body of another samurai in bed with his wife. Overcome by anger he began to draw his sword, but suddenly remembered the peasants advice. With this in mind, he went back to the front door and loudly announced his return home. Upon hearing this his wife came running from the bedroom, closely followed by his own mother who had dressed up as a male samurai in order to scare away any robbers.
After one year had past, the peasant met with the samurai to pay back his debt, but the samurai refused saying "it is to you that the debt is owed".

Going around in circles

Sometimes when I reflect upon my progress (or lack of!) in my training it feels as though I am going around in circles. We all have a certain technique or kata that we just can't seem to get a feel for. Everything feels clumsy and awkward, and the movements seem to feel alien to us no matter how we try to internalise them. For me this kata has always been kururunfa, and for as long as I have known this kata, it has been my least favourite. Seiunchin however has always been my preferred kata, with everything feeling a lot more natural to me.
Of late however, this has completely changed and the opposite is true! My kururunfa is now starting to feel quite nice, and is enjoyable to perform. Seiunchin however is proving to be a real problem of late.
The obvious cause of this would be that with kururunfa being poor, I spent more time getting better at it, whereas seiunchin got neglected because I felt I was better at it. If only this were true! Truth be told, I tend to spend far more time doing the things I like as there is a certain lazy side to me!
What I feel has happened is that my understanding has progressed in a circular fashion. A sempai to me once explained that progress in training can be compared to a spiral staircase. Your progression is circular in that you always come back to the point you begun, however that point is now one floor higher, so is not the same.
Things that felt correct to you in the beginning in actual fact were not quite so, and as your body and mind become more and more accustomed to the movements, it will teach itself to look for errors. When I refer to errors I am speaking of the body finding its most natural and efficient path of movement.
Like chipping away at the rough edges of an unsharpened pencil, small modifications are made over the course of many years and our techniques become more and more refined. Although it may feel at times that we are back where we started having made little progress, this should be viewed positively as a sign that our body has reached a higher understanding of the technique and is now teaching itself to become better!
This is one of the reasons I am not a great fan of using a mirror to correct technique. Of course, in the beginning this is useful to check for correct positioning, but once we are happy that the body is in the right position, we must look for the feeling of the movements and listen to what the body is telling us. If it doesn't feel right, chances are it probably isn't!
So for me it is now back to the drawing board for seiunchin as I try to make a little progress with this kata.

Concentrate on the real opponent

A phrase my sensei often uses when we are engaged in training with a partner is 'do not compare, and do not compete'.
I always thought of this as being a more of a reminder to keep your ego in check, and to not get distracted by the other person. I now view this a little differently.

The most difficult thing about training with a partner, or indeed in any actual combat with a real opponent, is that we are often distracted by the thoughts in our minds. We become so occupied with thoughts such as 'he's stronger than me' 'I'm getting tired' 'my arms hurt' or even 'when are we going to do something different', that we are often oblivious to the actual opponent. By becoming so concentrated upon the person stood in front of us, we allow ourselves the luxury to blame something other than ourselves for the way we are feeling. By comparing and competing with our partner in this sense, we are able to make excuses, blaming our partner for being stronger or more skilled than us.

Something which I have been thinking about of late is how the practice of hojo undo can assist us on this problem. The balanced development of shin, gi, tai is of prime importance to the budoka, yet often it is the mind/spirit which is neglected in favour of a more physical activity. The great thing about hojo undo is that it uses physical activity in order to actively target the development of the mind/spirit.

The hojo undo tools have no mind of their own. They do not have any skill. They will not get tired, and quite frankly, they do not care one little bit about how you feel. They will just get on with their job for as long as you want to play with them. With this in mind, the karateka engaging in hojo undo practise can blame no one, or no thing for his/her shortcomings but themselves. Training with these tools to the point of exhaustion, we have no excuses and nowhere to hide from the thoughts which WILL appear in our minds. With each negative thought, we must counter strongly and decisively with a positive thought, urging ourselves to try harder, to keep going.
The real opponent is our own negativity, and in order to control this opponent, we cannot hide away by blaming outside influences.

Fuyu geiko

A tradition which I uphold at my dojo is to change our way of training according to the seasons, dividing the year into Go and Ju.
My dojo is without heating or air conditioning, and no matter the time of year, we always train with the door left open. As a consequence it becomes very cold during the winter, detering even the more enthusiastic of practitioners from attending to train.
Summer months are spent polishing technique and investigating the theories and strategies of kata. Of course, training is still hard and challenging, but the emphasis during the summer is upon perfecting the techniques.
As the clocks change, signalling the approach of winter and shorter daylight hours, the training has a different goal. Here the emphasis is upon forging the technique, the body, and most importantly, the spirit. Students are provided with a challenging task of making it through training with one goal in mind.....do not give up!
Gradually the training is intensified each month with the number of repetitions of exercises increased, and the intensity of the lessons gathers pace.
During this time practitioners are brought face to face with their true self as they discover their own limitations, and challenge themselves to face these limitations courageously in an attempt to break through them.
The very task of arriving at the dojo in the first place to submit yourself to such challenges is an effort in itself, but the rewards are there to be gained by any person willing to face shugyo.
A practitioner able to develop their spirit through such training will meet lifes problems in a positive way, always saying 'I can!'

The raw steel thinks of itself as badly treated as it is thrust into the fire and beaten repeatedly. The polished sword looks back and understands why.....