HIS Karate-Do

KATA It reveals your heart, there are no hidden secrets, only endeavor!I wrote this haiku as I was thinking about training one night. Many karateka these days, think of kata as an outdated and useless part of karate. However, I see it as an invaluable component of karate training. Besides it being a great form of exercise when there is no equipment or people to train with (like in Iraq), kata can provide revelations and lessons concerning technique and body movement. With constant and mindful effort there really are no secrets in martial arts!

Often, when we train, we think that our practice is a solitary exercise, that happens to be done in the presence of our fellow karateka. We are so immersed in our own striving to be better, that we don’t have time to think about those around us, other than listening to the instructor’s admonishments, count, and the “kamaete” or “yame” commands. Yet, at the more advanced levels, we begin to ask our students to begin cultivating skills that involve others. These skills require the development of precise timing, automatic response, anticipation, and proper/effective maai (distance). The kumite drills that both Senseis Wayne and Richard began sharing with the advanced group over the past week are part of this vast curriculum. Exercises of this nature involve partnering up with a fellow student and taking turns in being the initiator and responder. These are not easy drills, as immediately, many of one’s weaknesses are exposed, especially in terms of reaction speed and effective distance. If I could describe the essence of what we are trying to develop here in a single word, it would be… Discernment… the ability to understand your partner’s intent, and respond appropriately, before he or she can act. [...]

I taught karate-do in regular dojos from 1974 till 2001. In 2001, I finally answered a tugging I had in my heart for a couple of years, to teach karate-do as a ministry. Here it is, 2006… how time flies when you’re having fun, and the ministry is five years old. I look back, and try to figure out what’s the same and what’s not, between running a dojo and leading a karate ministry. Not surprisingly, in both cases, much of the environment, many of the students, much of what is taught, really is pretty much the same. Of course, in our ministry, we don’t emphasize sports competition, tournaments, nor advanced sparring techniques as much as we might in a secular dojo… but the essence of what is shared, at least for me, is very much the same. Beyond the de-emphasis on sports and kumite, however, the biggest difference I can discern between my dojo experience and my ministry experience is…in me. During the years that my friend and I started and ran our own dojo, we both felt the same thing…that it was his dojo and that it was my dojo. This was very natural, since we started it, [...]