Hi friends! Well, I still haven't finished documenting my Japan trip and it's been, what, over a year? I have all my notes, but just can't find the right words to properly put it all down in a digestible, reader-friendly format. Oh well, maybe someday soon I'll just throw it up on my blog and let you guys decipher it.
For the last couple weeks, I've had a couple women take interest in the class! This is big because women don't usually come in. I think this happens for a few reasons:
1. We are not a "workout" class - most of the women at Intel seem to only be interested in working out. Since there is a free karate class, a yoga class and other such venues which would serve that goal better, they go elsewhere.
2. We are all guys - believe it or not, I have found that most women are not comfortable training in a group made up of guys. Considering the nature of the class (i.e. combat training), I can see how this is intimidating.
3. Most of the guys are black belt ranked - even with a newer green belt and an "unbelted" gent in class most nights, the rest are all at shodan. This could intimidate a new person (male or female) into thinking they would be dragging down the training. They don't understand that we operate on a sempai/kohai (senior/junior) structure, where the senior ranks take care of the lesser ranks. So, actually, they would be training personally with someone who can help them.
All these factors are things which I am trying to overcome. Even with those inhibitors, I still have had two women come in. One also took her free class to try out the training and is committed to coming back this week. The other sat in and watched a class and is scheduled to come in this week for her free "test drive" of the training. From her attitude and emails to me, I think she will also commit to the group.
This is a huge plus to the dynamic of the training.
My guys need this. They need women in the class. They need the unique perspective and attributes they bring to the class. They need to be hit and thrown by women and not be too intimidated to hit or throw women. Real life presents dangers in all forms. A real attacker could very likely be a woman. I think it is dangerous to assume attackers are always men, always criminals and always untrained fighters. Real attackers could be any type of person, at any moment, with any skill level, and motivated by any number of reasons (even ones which lack any basis in reality!).
It is my hope that these two women will not only bring this lesson to the class, but to also provide the motivation for other women to also step onto the mat with us.
This week, we're going to look at a technique called Muso Dori, which is basically an extended armbar, or elbow lock. It ends with taking someone down to the ground on their front. The technique involves using the control of the arm and putting them on their front as a means to prevent them from drawing a sword. Thus, it has been loosely interpreted as "Warrior Pair Take", which means that both swords are controlled (samurai normally wore two swords) through the taking of one arm and pinning them on their front.
However, this technique can also be used in many ways, such as to lock the elbow upward, outward, downward, and using the body (or any object) to provide the leverage on the elbow. Many techniques use this concept and are called by different names. The term "dori" means to "break" or render useless, which can also be the intent of this technique on a basic level. However, it is important to understand that "breaking" and "rendering useless" do not always mean the same thing.
This leads me to the concept of "Life Giving Sword". A sword master was approached by his senior student, who took out his sword and stuck it in a stream. A leaf floating down the stream was cut in two by the blade as it went by. The student told his master, "see, master, how skilled I am with the sword!".
The master took out his own sword and stuck it into the stream. Another leaf came floating down and, once it reached the blade, gently turned and floated around it without being cut. The master turned to his student and said, "you see, to be a true master is to use your sword to give life, not take life."
Of course, this is a bad retelling of this story. But, it illustrates the concept of how it is not mastery to take a technique to it's violent conclusion, but to achieve the same goal (peace) without having to, or being dependent on, injuring or even killing your attacker. All techniques have a "zero point", a point where they are at your mercy, their power being nullified, their balance taken, their structure broken, and they haven't yet been thrown, hit, stabbed, or otherwise physically decimated. At that moment, you have a choice - life or death. You can take them or leave them.
If you decide to take them, you also have a choice. You can keep them at that "zero point", where they can't do anything but fall. You don't beat them - they give up. You don't throw them, they just fall. You don't hit them, they just run into your weapons. You don't destroy them, they implode themselves.
You don't actually "do" anything. That's being "zero".
Anyway, off to finish making dinner...
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
On technical knowledge, curriculums, etc...
Long time Bujinkan student/teacher and Japan resident, Paul Masse, has a very good blog. A recent post by him has touched on my own thoughts in regards to technical knowledge vs taijutsu efficiency. In particular, I've been wrestling with the need for any kind of ranking curriculum.
First, the post: http://web.mac. com/phmasse/ martial_profile/ Blog/Entries/ 2008/9/18_ reflections_ on_Name_and_ form.html
What's important to notice from it is the part about how Soke couldn't remember the name of the technique (Musha Dori), but knew what he wanted to do. It was the senior students who knew the name, but struggled in moving with the efficiency and accuracy in which Soke moved. In similar thoughts, Soke has always said to forget the techniques, or throw away the technique. Yet, to forget, one must first know. To throw away, one must first obtain.
Paul wrote that he sees himself as having "the head of a chicken", where a chicken forgets in three steps. Boy, I can certainly relate! I've never been good at memorizing kata, yet I seem to pick up the movements and have evolved into the level of taijutsu I have - which apparently has been good enough to be granted Shidoshi status by Soke and the Shihan senior teachers who know me. Even so, I still find myself spending hours during the week studying the same material, books, videos and various internet sources, looking for the right technical information to match what my heart tells me to work on in the next Intel class. My heart needs little direction, yet my head needs direction, reminders, clarification to what my insides tell me is the right taijutsu skills to practice this week.
So, in looking at my current project of making a kyu to shodan curriculum guide, I am constantly troubled. In every class we hold, I find myself driven by things which are not based on any curriculum guide. As I ran classes focused around 9th kyu, 8th kyu, and 7th kyu material, I leave feeling like I had not really done anything to express my own budo drive. I felt like I just spent a couple hours on nothing more than shallow techniques, like playing with math equations without context and application to anything real. Yet, spending time on simple basics was appreciated by those in class and the improvements in technical skill certainly benefited.
However, with only one class per week on our schedule, spending our time on this sort of training will eventually stagnate the evolution of any "feeling" in our taijutsu. Also, with 9 kyu levels of material, it would surely take half a year to cover it all. What about the new people who missed the first kyu levels covered? Are they going to have to now wait until we come back around again?
This is why I truly detest using a curriculum guide for each kyu rank. Soke commented once that a basic technique like Omote Gyaku is going to be done differently depending on what level the person is. A shodan will do it very different from a 9th kyu. So, the same technique, no matter what it is, can be a test of the student's level of growth. So, I'm left with the concept that it isn't how much you know, but rather at what level you can execute what you do know. Again, I am reminded of the simplicity of the 5 kata of the Sanshin and the 8 kata of the Kihon Happo. Thirteen techniques, which are the base of our Bujinkan taijutsu, and the starting point for endless possibilities.
Yet, we have 9 ryuha with levels of kata, weapons, principles and movement strategies. Literally hundreds of techniques make up the totality of the densho kata.
That's where the 3 books of the Tenchijin Ryaku no Maki comes in, an attempt at bringing together key points in most of the Bujinkan ryuha in one digestible source. But, again, nothing is divided by level of skill or rank of the budoka. Rather, it is divided by principles, concepts and strategies. Another source of technical knowledge.
Something which is being repeated by Soke, Japanese Shihan, and other top shidoshi is the idea that we each are responsible for our own training. That means that this critical balance of technical knowledge and taijutsu skill is purely our own responsibility. As a shidoshi teacher, this releases me from being a teacher in the literal concept. Instead, I am only responsible for providing the right "feeling", to create an experience, and to be a source to help understand it. I am not responsible to spoon feed anything, or accept responsibility for how someone chooses to learn this art - even if their choices are not productive.
All I can do is "gambatte", to "keep going", in my own direction, my own path, and provide the experiences, the inspiration, for others to do the same in their own path. At the same time, I also need to grow, to follow those ahead of me who provide the same direction, inspiration and experiences.
So, what am I to do with ranking material? My current thoughts is to still have the information available for those who want it, but not to focus my teaching on it. Those who want to know something will find their answers, whether through me, another's class, or even independent research. Either way, it is them who make the conscious effort to know. As far as promotions, I am still convinced, as my friend and teacher Dale Seago also believes, that promotions are personal "mile markers" based on the overall training of the budoka - not controlled by the amount of knowledge, but the level of skill one performs their knowledge. As he puts it in his website's FAQ, it's more of a "field promotion", typical to how it is/was done in any other military unit during times of war.
And, in the challenges of daily life in regards to "budo to life" application, we are always at war - war with our own selves, with our daily challenges, with others we struggle to deal with, etc. The body may be at peace, but wars rage in our hearts and minds on a daily basis, sometimes great, sometimes small. The lessons of our budo training should never be limited to our bodies, just as our own budo knowledge should never be limited to our own heads. We must express our budo not just on the mat, but in every aspect of our lives. This is what it means to give life to our budo, to not just limit it to a collection of kata and other technical skill sets. My feeling is that one's true measurement of their budo is not in how well they can perform a kata, but how fully their budo has enhanced their lives. Peace from combat is not enough. Peace in life is farther reaching and at the true root of budo.
You can't learn that from any book, any kata, any video, any website. Only through correct experience can this be realized.
Anyway, these are my current thoughts. Enjoy Paul's post and I also recommend reading the other posts on his blog. He truly is someone who has captured the "feeling" of Soke's budo.
First, the post: http://web.mac. com/phmasse/ martial_profile/ Blog/Entries/ 2008/9/18_ reflections_ on_Name_and_ form.html
What's important to notice from it is the part about how Soke couldn't remember the name of the technique (Musha Dori), but knew what he wanted to do. It was the senior students who knew the name, but struggled in moving with the efficiency and accuracy in which Soke moved. In similar thoughts, Soke has always said to forget the techniques, or throw away the technique. Yet, to forget, one must first know. To throw away, one must first obtain.
Paul wrote that he sees himself as having "the head of a chicken", where a chicken forgets in three steps. Boy, I can certainly relate! I've never been good at memorizing kata, yet I seem to pick up the movements and have evolved into the level of taijutsu I have - which apparently has been good enough to be granted Shidoshi status by Soke and the Shihan senior teachers who know me. Even so, I still find myself spending hours during the week studying the same material, books, videos and various internet sources, looking for the right technical information to match what my heart tells me to work on in the next Intel class. My heart needs little direction, yet my head needs direction, reminders, clarification to what my insides tell me is the right taijutsu skills to practice this week.
So, in looking at my current project of making a kyu to shodan curriculum guide, I am constantly troubled. In every class we hold, I find myself driven by things which are not based on any curriculum guide. As I ran classes focused around 9th kyu, 8th kyu, and 7th kyu material, I leave feeling like I had not really done anything to express my own budo drive. I felt like I just spent a couple hours on nothing more than shallow techniques, like playing with math equations without context and application to anything real. Yet, spending time on simple basics was appreciated by those in class and the improvements in technical skill certainly benefited.
However, with only one class per week on our schedule, spending our time on this sort of training will eventually stagnate the evolution of any "feeling" in our taijutsu. Also, with 9 kyu levels of material, it would surely take half a year to cover it all. What about the new people who missed the first kyu levels covered? Are they going to have to now wait until we come back around again?
This is why I truly detest using a curriculum guide for each kyu rank. Soke commented once that a basic technique like Omote Gyaku is going to be done differently depending on what level the person is. A shodan will do it very different from a 9th kyu. So, the same technique, no matter what it is, can be a test of the student's level of growth. So, I'm left with the concept that it isn't how much you know, but rather at what level you can execute what you do know. Again, I am reminded of the simplicity of the 5 kata of the Sanshin and the 8 kata of the Kihon Happo. Thirteen techniques, which are the base of our Bujinkan taijutsu, and the starting point for endless possibilities.
Yet, we have 9 ryuha with levels of kata, weapons, principles and movement strategies. Literally hundreds of techniques make up the totality of the densho kata.
That's where the 3 books of the Tenchijin Ryaku no Maki comes in, an attempt at bringing together key points in most of the Bujinkan ryuha in one digestible source. But, again, nothing is divided by level of skill or rank of the budoka. Rather, it is divided by principles, concepts and strategies. Another source of technical knowledge.
Something which is being repeated by Soke, Japanese Shihan, and other top shidoshi is the idea that we each are responsible for our own training. That means that this critical balance of technical knowledge and taijutsu skill is purely our own responsibility. As a shidoshi teacher, this releases me from being a teacher in the literal concept. Instead, I am only responsible for providing the right "feeling", to create an experience, and to be a source to help understand it. I am not responsible to spoon feed anything, or accept responsibility for how someone chooses to learn this art - even if their choices are not productive.
All I can do is "gambatte", to "keep going", in my own direction, my own path, and provide the experiences, the inspiration, for others to do the same in their own path. At the same time, I also need to grow, to follow those ahead of me who provide the same direction, inspiration and experiences.
So, what am I to do with ranking material? My current thoughts is to still have the information available for those who want it, but not to focus my teaching on it. Those who want to know something will find their answers, whether through me, another's class, or even independent research. Either way, it is them who make the conscious effort to know. As far as promotions, I am still convinced, as my friend and teacher Dale Seago also believes, that promotions are personal "mile markers" based on the overall training of the budoka - not controlled by the amount of knowledge, but the level of skill one performs their knowledge. As he puts it in his website's FAQ, it's more of a "field promotion", typical to how it is/was done in any other military unit during times of war.
And, in the challenges of daily life in regards to "budo to life" application, we are always at war - war with our own selves, with our daily challenges, with others we struggle to deal with, etc. The body may be at peace, but wars rage in our hearts and minds on a daily basis, sometimes great, sometimes small. The lessons of our budo training should never be limited to our bodies, just as our own budo knowledge should never be limited to our own heads. We must express our budo not just on the mat, but in every aspect of our lives. This is what it means to give life to our budo, to not just limit it to a collection of kata and other technical skill sets. My feeling is that one's true measurement of their budo is not in how well they can perform a kata, but how fully their budo has enhanced their lives. Peace from combat is not enough. Peace in life is farther reaching and at the true root of budo.
You can't learn that from any book, any kata, any video, any website. Only through correct experience can this be realized.
Anyway, these are my current thoughts. Enjoy Paul's post and I also recommend reading the other posts on his blog. He truly is someone who has captured the "feeling" of Soke's budo.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
The path continues...
Yeah, I know. You've been checking back with no new posts by me being written. In frustration, you've contemplated deleting my blog from your favorites. Yet, you keep checking back.
Well, here it is - a new post!
I have been VERY busy and haven't had time to keep this updated. It has been over a year since having gone to Japan and I'm already feeling like I've missed so much. Yet, even with such a distance from that trip, I can still "feel" what I experienced. I was watching, of all things, a remake of a Godzilla flick the other day. They showed scenes set in a small town in Japan and suddenly all the things I experienced while living in that small Noda city came flooding back to me. I really felt as if it was only yesterday since I was there! Japan truly is a remarkable place and the people amazing.
My Intel classes have been going regularly since coming back. I've felt a real compulsion to focus on the fundamentals. Over the last few months, I ran an intense series of classes focusing heavily on conditioning, bag striking and drills. Now, I am focused on technical simplicity and precision in the fundamental areas of our Sanshin no Kata and Kihon Happo, which are the center pieces of Bujinkan training.
I've had some new people come and go. I had a long time regular suddenly stop coming, saying he had other things going on and was getting his training from a friend of mine outside of Intel. I'm ok with that, since I have always endorsed people taking charge of their training and to get out and learn from others.
Lately, I've had a drop in new people coming in. This has been primarily due to the drop in new employees Intel has been hiring. The other reason has to do with a karate class which shares the facility on alternate nights. The karate class is a free class, whereas I charge a small fee. However, since most people there seem to be looking for fitness and conditioning, a free class certainly appeals to them more than mine. Again, that's ok. I'd rather have a handful of serious budo students instead of a large group of people who are really only there to get in shape. Those people don't last, nor do they have the commitment to give the training the proper respect it deserves. They are not budo students. They are hobbyists.
I am excited to see so many of my fellow Bujinkan shidoshi making the trip to Japan this year. In fact, one of my friends is there right now! I am jealous, of course. But, I'm also excited for them. I only hope I can get with them when they return and pick their brains on what they were taught. Of course, I also hope some of that "feeling" they get from training with Soke and the Japanese Shihans will rub off on me.
It's like a drug addiction. Once you've experienced "the feeling", you find yourself craving more.
Anyway, this week we're going to work on Musha Dori from the Kihon Torite Kata. This is a same-side arm wrapping elbow/shoulder leverage which is designed to dislocate the shoulder. At minimum, it's a great technique to use to control the spine and balance of the attacker. From there, many possibilities exist.
I have a new person coming in to try out the training - a 25 yr old female! I would love to have her as part of the class. They guys there need to experience training with women more. I hope she is satisfied enough to decide to commit to the class. We'll see...
Stay tuned for more...
Well, here it is - a new post!
I have been VERY busy and haven't had time to keep this updated. It has been over a year since having gone to Japan and I'm already feeling like I've missed so much. Yet, even with such a distance from that trip, I can still "feel" what I experienced. I was watching, of all things, a remake of a Godzilla flick the other day. They showed scenes set in a small town in Japan and suddenly all the things I experienced while living in that small Noda city came flooding back to me. I really felt as if it was only yesterday since I was there! Japan truly is a remarkable place and the people amazing.
My Intel classes have been going regularly since coming back. I've felt a real compulsion to focus on the fundamentals. Over the last few months, I ran an intense series of classes focusing heavily on conditioning, bag striking and drills. Now, I am focused on technical simplicity and precision in the fundamental areas of our Sanshin no Kata and Kihon Happo, which are the center pieces of Bujinkan training.
I've had some new people come and go. I had a long time regular suddenly stop coming, saying he had other things going on and was getting his training from a friend of mine outside of Intel. I'm ok with that, since I have always endorsed people taking charge of their training and to get out and learn from others.
Lately, I've had a drop in new people coming in. This has been primarily due to the drop in new employees Intel has been hiring. The other reason has to do with a karate class which shares the facility on alternate nights. The karate class is a free class, whereas I charge a small fee. However, since most people there seem to be looking for fitness and conditioning, a free class certainly appeals to them more than mine. Again, that's ok. I'd rather have a handful of serious budo students instead of a large group of people who are really only there to get in shape. Those people don't last, nor do they have the commitment to give the training the proper respect it deserves. They are not budo students. They are hobbyists.
I am excited to see so many of my fellow Bujinkan shidoshi making the trip to Japan this year. In fact, one of my friends is there right now! I am jealous, of course. But, I'm also excited for them. I only hope I can get with them when they return and pick their brains on what they were taught. Of course, I also hope some of that "feeling" they get from training with Soke and the Japanese Shihans will rub off on me.
It's like a drug addiction. Once you've experienced "the feeling", you find yourself craving more.
Anyway, this week we're going to work on Musha Dori from the Kihon Torite Kata. This is a same-side arm wrapping elbow/shoulder leverage which is designed to dislocate the shoulder. At minimum, it's a great technique to use to control the spine and balance of the attacker. From there, many possibilities exist.
I have a new person coming in to try out the training - a 25 yr old female! I would love to have her as part of the class. They guys there need to experience training with women more. I hope she is satisfied enough to decide to commit to the class. We'll see...
Stay tuned for more...
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