武道四戒

Kendo and Karate-do share many philosophical concepts because both Karate-do and Ken-do are grounded in Bushido. The same can be said for many other Japanese martial arts such as Judo and Aikido. Taken to their metaphorical application, most of the philosophies can also be applied to such Japanese arts as Shodo, Sado, and Ikebana.


In this post I would like to talk about a concept that is very important to our daily training, competitive success, and quality of life in general.


Recognizing this changes everything!


驚・懼・疑・惑 (Kyou, Ku, Gi, Waku) This is the 武道四戒 (Budo Shikai), This may be translated as the 'Four Commandments of Budo'. However, I prefer to think of them as 'Four Warnings of Budo' or the 'Four Cautions of Budo'. Deepening our knowledge of this concept and developing our awareness of these traits in our training and in our daily lives has the potential to bring the quality of both to higher levels.

The Profound Impact of Experience

In the Summer of '69 Brian Adams bought his first guitar. In the Summer of '96 I travelled to France for the first time. How are these two things similar? At first glance they don't seem to have anything at all in common. But, I believe that if we look closely enough at seemingly unrelated events, eventually we can find something that they have in common. The example given above is no different. Both events profoundly changed the lives of the individuals involved and impacted the lives of many others there after. I  don't mean to compare myself to a famous musician or imply that we have made the same global impact. However, the chain of events that have occurred since travelling to France in 1996 has shaped who I am today just has finding the guitar in 1969 did for Brian Adams. And, to be honest with you, I just wanted to find a way to use "in the Summer of '69" and "in the Summer of '96" in some meaningful way. The rest of this post will be more serious, and this will connect to my point, I promise.

Our Lives are Shaped by our Experiences
It is no secret that our experiences shape us. Our training in the martial arts makes us aware of this fact more quickly than someone who has never trained because training in the martial arts is really a process of self-cultivation that develops, among other things, our levels of self-awareness. With our heightened sense of self-awareness we are able to take away important lessons from our experiences and productively apply them to our lives. Through the process of 心技体 Shin Gi Tai; developing and strengthening the connection between our mind and body through the repetitive practice of specific techniques we develop, not only stronger bodies but also a stronger sense of self. The more I reflect on my past experiences the more I am able to get out of them, making their continued impact more profound to me.

(Shin Gi Tai, written by the Author, 2014)

To Not Inspire is to Fail our Students

I experienced something yesterday that disturbed me. A young man who is a former student at Buntoku, the school where I teach, came to do his practicum as a student teacher this past Month. He was energetic and hard working, a member of one of the very first classes I've ever taught at this school when I first started here. Of course, I want him to succeed and wish him all the best. Unfortunately, it became very clear yesterday during his demonstration lesson that his supervising teacher here failed him! I know this blog is designated as a vehicle to share ideas on the philosophies and concepts of the martial arts and karate-do specifically, but I believe that the education process is a very relevant topic of discussion that relates and impacts our lives on many levels and therefore, I would like to share with you some of my views of what educators should do to avoid failing their students. Perhaps some of the ideas shared in this post will resonate with you as well, in your personal or professional context keeping in mind that we are all somebody's teacher.
 

Let me start by telling you what I think the bottom line is. You can agree or disagree with me, but at least this way you know where I am coming from. Whether it is in the classroom or in the dojo, I believe that it is the instructor's duty to inspire the students to strive for more. We do this by assigning tasks that are appropriately challenging for the students' levels both individually and as a group or a team. If the task is too difficult they will become unmotivated and give up. In the same respect, if it is too easy they will become bored and quit. Assessing the appropriate levels is not always easy and definitely requires developing a relationship with our students. The deeper the relationship the better we can assess the level of the assigned task. This takes time and effort, but the results are so very rewarding.
 

James Allen, in his book, The Eight Pillars of Prosperity (1911) wrote that, "A teacher is a sower of seed, a spiritual agriculturist, while he who teaches himself is the wise farmer of his own mental plot. The growth of a thought is as the growth of a plant, the seed must be sown seasonally and time is required for its full development into the plant of knowledge and the flower of wisdom" (p. 5).

I believe that this statement outlines the healthy dynamic between teacher and student. The best students are those who take an active role in their learning and personal development and the best teachers are those who can provide the right conditions for the 'seeds' to grow; appropriate support and opportunities for the student to learn and realize their potential. This is what is done in the majority of the dojo that I have seen and visited. However, some teachers cannot seem to apply this in the classroom, especially the Japanese English classroom. Even after they are given the tools and the experience, they either choose not to or just don't care to change their teaching approach from 'read and repeat' to a more communicative based, student centred learning approach.

 

As English teachers in Japan we are not just teachers of English grammar and vocabulary. We are promoters of English based cultures and should therefore also promote general self-development strategies. As professional  educators we must inspire our students, not just teach the material in the text books, but urge them to think original thoughts based on the materials introduced and to take an active role in their own personal development. We must try to do this in each and every lesson.

In order to achieve this we must ask ourselves the following questions:

What will the students get from this lesson?

What skill sets am I trying to help them develop?

How will they grow as a result of being introduced to the information and material in this lesson?

 

Of course, it will always be the choice of the individual to take what they've learned and how to apply it in their lives. or not. We cannot and should not try to force them to make the choices that we want them to. I think this also relates to parenting, personal relationships, and coaching. We can only give advise based on personal experience and research how making a particular choice may affect the potential for future successes positively or negatively.

In my 15 years of experience with the Japanese education system, Japanese English teachers still spend far too much time and energy developing only one skill set in their students; that of memorization and not nearly enough time or energy developing free thinkers.

To be effective educators, no matter what the subject may be, we must be passionate about what we are teaching; both the material and the process. Martin Luther King Jr. did not inspire Humanity by saying, "now repeat after me, I have a dream." He inspired people with his passion and his conviction and everyone remembers his words even though they didn't repeat them in chorus three times on that day!

The message I wish to send in this post is actually a request. Teachers, please don't fail your students. Inspire them to reach their full potential, give them opportunities to show you what that is and they will take care of the rest.
 

 

'Ukemi' Can Break More than Just Our Fall!

It's not What we do in the dojo that counts, but How we do it.

 

Why do some people excel while others do not when training under the same guidance, in the same dojo and using the same menu of exercises and drills? this is a question that we must all consider as both students and teachers of Karate-do. Of course there is no excuse to flat out training wrong. I am not talking about this. I am talking about those who are training to better themselves and who's approach to training is based on a strong foundation, but end up progressing at different rates. As a teacher this is troublesome and if you are the student progressing more slowly it can be very discouraging.

 
As a student I always tried to do the best I could, as I am sure every student of Karate-do does. Some of the things I did to get better were, watching the movements of my Sensei and Senpai and copied them. I listened to their advice and thought about what this advice meant to me. Since coming to Japan I have had to deal with language barriers and personal physical limitations, but my approach to learning karate-do has not changed. I continue to play an active role in my learning. Over the years I have enjoyed many successes as a result of simply being present and engaged. But, over the years teaching children of many ages I have noticed a shift from students being actively engaged in the process of learning to being passive and disengaged. Therefore, my approach to teaching has changed.

There is a word that I would like to talk about in this post. It carries a lot of weight, you might have heard before, 受け身Ukemi. When you hear this word you probably think of the various kinds of break falls in Judo and Karate. And if you did you were not wrong. But, there is another way to use this word that I feel in its definition has huge impact on the way we learn and teach. In many of the well-known martial arts this is indeed a term used to describe "the art of falling safely." However, as a linguistics terminology this same kanji means "the passive, passive voice." Moreover this is commonly used in Japan to describe such things as being on the defensive, having a passive attitude, and passiveness in general. As a school teacher I have seen this passivity in the classroom and it is very disheartening to see young people with so much potential so uninterested in their self-betterment. I stongly feel that karate-do training can help inspire students to become more inspired about learning, but it is up to the Sensei to recognize this debilitating quality in their students and guide them away from forming the habits that will keep them passive.

Focusing on the Goals not the Results Changes Everything!

I apologize for the length of time between posts. This Summer vacation has been particularly busy. In this post I would like to share with you something I experienced during this time.

 

I continue to learn so much from my experiences here in Japan, but now I am learning from people I never imagined I would when I first moved here in 2001. My 6 year old daughter continues to inspire, and amaze me (Pictured to the Left). Later in this post I will tell you something that she said that helped me put things into perspective.

 

One of the things I have been busy with this Year and in particularly this Summer has been preparing for the Chito-Ryu National Championships which was held on August 23rd in Kikuchi, Japan.

I began this year as many people do, by setting a new goal to pursue. Karate-do is a big part of my life and my involvement with the Ryu-ha and Bukatsudo keeps me very busy, but these past few years I have not had a personal goal to strive for. Therefore, I decided at the beginning of this year to compete in this tournament. Not to win, or beat anyone, or even prove myself to anyone, just to compete. These are perhaps the top three reasons why people compete in the beginning of a tournament career, but as we get older and gain more experience, inevitably, our reasons for competing change. This decision to compete was a very personal one and I considered my intentions to be pure and well placed. I simply wanted to live each day leading up to the tournament with purpose and in so doing get in better shape. Since I train everyday with the high school team I decided to focus on conditioning by running 3 kilometres as regularly as I could and spend more time stretching. As usual sometimes life got in the way and I had meetings that cut into my training time or I had to go and pick up the kids from daycare, but I was able to run almost every day, 3 days a week at the least. I felt my body change and the stretching after the run helped to reduce injury while training with the high school team. One thing I didn't do this time was focus on speed training in the last Month leading up to the competition. I will correct next time.

Now to the comment my daughter made while driving home from the Dojo the day before the competition. She asked me "what will change if I win and what will change if I loose?" This made me think. And the answer that I came up with made me laugh because the answer was obviously "nothing." Which I said to her. She then asked me to lose so that I could come home early to play with her in the park. This short conversation helped me to put things into perspective and brought a level of clarity to my training that had not been there previously. I had always felt like I needed to prove something to everyone when I competed, but really the only person I needed to prove anything to was myself. This time, with a different perspective I was able to do much better and learn a lot more. Nothing really changes with the win or the loss in the tournament itself, but rather with how we process that experience and deal with it. This time I knew that nothing would really change in my life either way; my children would still love and respect me for the man I am, my students would still be able to learn from me because I teach from my heart and I would grow as a result of the experience in a positive way because that is how I choose to process it. This lifted the pressure and burden from having to win and freed me from all the stress that comes with it.

The day of the competition I did not focus on winning at all, rather I put all of my attention toward warming up properly and giving the best performance I could give. my self talk was positive and I had confidence in my preparation knowing that all those days when I felt sore and tired but still ran the 3 K would pay off. 

I competed in individual Kata and individual Kumite -75kg (Above is a photo of Kata competition). In Chito-Ryu competing in both Kata and Kumite puts the athlete in the running for the grand champion, 総合優勝 Sougo Yusho in Japanese. I had been so focused on this when I was competing in the past that it clouded my perspective and negatively influenced my performance. This time I had no expectations of winning at 37 years of age and after a 5 year absence from competition I somewhat expected to loose early and go home to play in the park with my daughter. The results however, were far better than I had expected. By taking my focus off winning or beating anyone I was able to internalize better and focus on what I needed to do to prepare and perform. Even though I was not completely content with my performance the results were a 1st place finish in Kata and a 3rd place finish in Kumite giving me the best overall record among the individual male competitors and the grand championship.

(14th All Japan Chito-Ryu Champioships Male and female Grand Champions)