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.