The Relativist Hell Hole

Since I stopped writing in this blog, I've been writing a book, which is temporarily on hold since the birth of my daughter. Hint: practicing let alone writing about karate is really hard when you have a one month old.

One of the biggest challenges about writing a book about karate is the giant pit of relativism, which is right at the center of it's practice. This is mostly because karate is both Art and Tool, and many if not all don't have a very clear distinction between the two. Art is relative and subject to taste. Tools for the most part are not. Screw drivers suck as hammers. The modern calligraphy type practice of kata performance is Art and therefore relative. Because of this it's very easy to get sucked to one side or the other or give concession to the artistic aspects and diluting the practical.

I'm caught between deconstructing modern paradigms and just giving people good robust tools, so they can practice karate on their own. The latter is easier and probably much more beneficial. I believe most dojo goers are so wrapped up in the status building of the dojo that they will automatically dismiss anything I write out of hand.

All of karate is ultimately relative just because it is an idea like all martial arts. There is personal style, personal preference, personal tactics and strategy and all of it can spring from kata, because kata is really just mechanics. One can practice in their underwear at three in the morning without any thought of practical application and have lots of fun doing it. Nothing wrong with that. This type of thinking however is a bottomless pit of roads taken and not taken. It is basically an absence of thought. If everything is relative than nothing is concrete, so we might as well say screw karate and go drinking.

This is the pit.

Karate as a practical and robust defensive system cannot be subjective. It has a real goal, breaking people. People break more easily some ways than others and it's not that complicated. Physics applies to everyone. It's easy to forget though, because so much of karate is built on myths. The myths have become karate instead of just interesting sidebars.

Hopefully once my daughter gets a little older work can commence and it won't involve me tearing out the rest of my hair. I know what to write, I'm just finding the right words.

Think

Of the karateka that I know of who are worth anything, they all have one thing in common, they can think. It's a rare attribute, and it's something telling about the nature of karate practice in general that this is the exception rather than the rule.

I don't think karate has anything to do with it. I think these are just exceptional people, but what does it say about traditional karate when we have to go to a seminar to learn karate when we are usually already paying a sensei to teach us karate?

There are a lot of things that I've been wanting to write about on the blog. It won't fit in the blog format though. It's too much information and it needs to be polished into something that is a little more accessible than it is right now. It has to do with thinking. There is a complete cognitive side to karate, which can make it intuitive, instinctual and automatic without memorizing technique. A way to make applying karate kata as easy as having a conversation with a friend. Right now I'm just searching for the right words. This is what I'm working on right now. I don't know when it's going to get done, and it might never, but I think its something that needs to be shared. Mostly because I think karate should be open to everyone. Kata offers a wonderful platform for self learning, and individual practice that is just not available in other arts. It provides a way for a person to take karate as far as they want to.

Until then this is now the end of the blog.

Study is Not Use

I like to study karate in the context of sudden violence, or predatory ambush. On the receiving end of these things. This doesn't mean we need to apply it in this fashion.

Statistically the attack from an ambush predator as it applies to me is very low. Six foot, two hundred pounds and aware of myself. I'm usually the person smaller people watch, and not likely to be harassed too much. I'm much more likely to engage in a monkey dance, but since I'm out of my twenties I don't care enough about other people's opinions to engage in one. Violence for me is pretty low on the probability scale until I get much older. Karate doesn't do me much use in this department. The books I've read on the subject usually point out that prevention is the best medicine and the type of fighting skill that is taught in most dojo just doesn't apply. Mostly because you're usually trying to run away.

So what do I use karate for? I use it to relax, work my brain, to stay healthy and moving. The health benefits from karate will have a larger impact on your life than the fighting stuff. Diabetes and heart disease are more likely to kill you than a sudden street attack. We don't technically use karate for anything. We study karate and studying isn't exactly using. This is okay though. Sometimes we take karate a little to seriously. I take karate seriously as well, but its just a hobby, like 99% of all karate practitioners.

Do You Really Know Your Kata?

Here's the question.

How much do you really know about your kata?

Many people simply practice the pattern of performance, but is this really "knowing" the kata. If I write my ABCs out a hundred times a day do I know the alphabet?

Do you know how to transition without wasted movement between different non adjacent parts of the kata?

Do you know how to use a single movement continuously?

Can you practice the kata with one hand?

Do you know the point at which the structural integrity of a movement breaks down?

Do you know how to use a movement wrong?

Can you use kata movement spontaneously and creatively during partner practice?

Have you absorbed kata to the point that you don't even think kata, you only think move?

Ambiguity

I like Michael Clarke's style that is his flare for karate. I like his uncompromising spirit. I like the fact that he advertises on his blog that karate is a self learned art. What I don't like is his ambiguity.

I don't believe that anyone can actually pay for karate. I don't pay for karate. I haven't paid for karate since 2006. Do I have a "black belt" sure I have one that holds my pistol up. Oh wait, it's made of leather, not cotton. No I don't have a black belt. This whole blog is about not paying for karate. I don't think you should pay for it.

The problem with "learn this on your own," or "the equipment will teach you the lesson" is that people are not you. The self learner can read books, do research, contemplate karate, but the person who needs permission will not. The person who doesn't want to go against the grain, go against convention by not spending money, by not seeking out the expert, by not putting on white pajamas will look at ambiguity and say that it is too hard. They are untrained. They don't know what they are looking for or at or what they want, and all too often the difference between the legitimate dojo and the illegitimate dojo is that after black belt one teaches them something and the other teaches them nothing. By this time it's too late. $10,000 or more invested and a whole lot of time and people will not be willing to say they made a mistake by going to the wrong dojo.

People are all to willing to pay for what you can't pay for, success, love, happiness. You can't pay for these things, but modern advertising thrives on these ideas. If you say you need a dojo, people will find the first dojo that meets their expectations, usually based on television and movies. If you say they don't need the dojo, but don't offer alternatives than they will be driven to the bad dojo anyway. If you say that you can't buy something but don't show people how not to buy something than people will try and find a way.

What's the difference?

Reading Time

Reading a book on Propaganda. It's not a how-to manual, but I'm guessing it could be used that way. I'd also need a newspaper, a radio station, canvassers, a television show and posters to be effective, so I doubt I'll be able to implement any of it effectively, so you can relax. It's just recreational reading.

I can't help but see parallels between the modern traditional paradigm of training and some of the methods the book talks about. Bushido was a concept invented with the facade of budo to try and sway the Japanese people towards a more militaristic nature. The fantasy of the Samurai Spirit applied to everything. This is my limited understanding of it at least.

It has been theorized that karate was shaped to prepare people for the Japanese draft. In fact almost all Japanese martial arts under went some sort of transformation and were controlled by a governing body that said what was and what wasn't a Japanese martial art. It's not much of a leap to think that the very nature of practice was changed to promote the propaganda of bushido. It all seems very militaristic in nature. I would know I was/ am a Marine. People standing in rank and file, bowing to a commander, following orders without question, a strict rank structure and hierarchy and a subservience to "tradition." Sounds almost like boot camp to me. In fact besides the bowing almost exactly like boot camp. Hmmmm...maybe something fishy.

This of course could be my complete imagination, but it would explain a few things. The church like qualities of the dojo. People question, but they still follow. How many times have you heard that rank doesn't matter, but your sensei still shows up to the dojo in his cool uniform with the special belt. It's some things to think about.

A Correction

In a past post, I improperly used the word kigu. I was thinking of the kongoken. Two different things, kind of. Kongoken is a part of kigu, but kigu is not specifically kongoken. Kind of a square and rectangle thing. I'm letting the error stand on the post, as a monument of my linguistic folly.

Side Note: I'm rereading Michael Clarke's The Art of Hojo Undo for a second time. I respect his karate practice though it would be pretty obvious to anyone reading my blog that I don't agree with him on a few things. This might just be linguistic as well. I'm currently re-evaluating some of the exercises in the book and coming at them from a different angle. Mostly that the exercises are to teach you to do work with your body, not to work your body. A subtle difference, but a large difference. Modern aesthetic weightlifting is aimed at stressing a muscle as much as possible usually through very inefficient movement. The movements in kata however are about using your body to do work in a very efficient manner. I find the hojo undo exercises to be much easier if I just treat them as if I were applying my kata. Basically just by using my mass and mechanics to move the weights instead of trying to lift them like a dumbbell.