The Weird Thing About Kata

It wasn't that many years ago that you could very easily find people in the martial arts world completely dismissing the practice of kata. A lot of people thought it was stupid.

I never thought kata was stupid, not even when I had no real clue what I was doing with it. You see, I took it for granted that the people who created and preserved the kata weren't idiots. I had enough common sense, just barely, to realize that there had to be a purpose to those things we called "chambers." Had to be. Only an idiot would take such a position without a darn good reason, so I figured there had to be a reason. I just didn't know what it was.

The other day, over at Okinawan Fighting Art: Isshin Ryu, Mr. James published, making reference in the process to something that Shotokan's Rob Redmond wrote, Elmar Schmeisser's rules for interpreting kata. There are, of course, other sets of rules for interpreting kata. There are the rules that Toguchi Seikichi said that Miyagi Chojun gave him (read this), which the authors of The Way of Kata expound in even more detail. Then there is the approach that Javier Martinez takes in Okinawan Karate, The Secret Art of Tuite. (This seems to be out of print. Amusingly, someone has priced the only used copy that Amazon lists at almost a thousand simoleons. It was an interesting book, but I guarantee you, it ain't worth that much. You could buy the whole set of Taika Seiyu Oyata's tapes for half that, and you could buy everything that Yang Jwing-Ming has written about chin na for less than a couple hundred, I'm sure.

On the other hand, I do own a copy that's in pretty good shape. I'll let it go for a comparative pittance--say, five hundred bucks. Anybody up for that?) Bruce Clayton seems to take another approach in Shotokan's Secret. The RyuTe Renmei, under Taika Seiyu Oyata's guidance and leadership, uses yet another approach. It will surprise no one that I am most impressed with RyuTe's approach. It consistently produces an effect known in the blogosphere as either headdesk or facepalm, that is, when you, if you come to RyuTe from a different system, as I did, and you see some of the RyuTe applications for all those movements you've wondered about for years, they are so intuitively obvious that you immediately want to slap yourself silly for not having seen it before.

But you know what's weird? It seems to me that all of the interpretive approaches I mentioned above (and I'm sure that I've left some out) yield at least some usable techniques. This is in spite of the fact that sometimes those methods seem dramatically different from one another. One method I've read insists that the movements of the kata be followed in order; that method produces at least some usable techniques. Another method considers the movements as though they are linked in modules. Here is what you do if the opponent grabs your wrist. Then, if he does this, you do that. And if that, then this. That method also produces at least some usable techniques. They all produce at least some usable techniques.

It seems to me that no matter what approach you take to interpreting the kata, if you do the creators and preservers of the kata this one favor, that of assuming that they weren't complete fools and really look hard for useful techniques, the kata will do you the favor of yielding up at least some of its secrets to you.

Just Some Interesting Google Results for Oklahoma Martial Arts

Some time back, on a lark, I googled Oklahoma Shorei-kan (Shorei-kan being the name of Seikichi Toguchi's organization, and me just happening to be wondering about it) just to see if anything came up. Much to my surprise, there were hits in addition to Haggerty's Karate in Oklahoma City, which I already knew about. Here they are, if you're interested in Okinawan Goju Ryu, as opposed to Japanese Goju Ryu, which, thanks to Lou Angel's long-ago dominance in this state, is by far the most well-known flavor.

The difference between Okinawan Goju Ryu and Japanese Goju Ryu? Practitioners of these arts will no doubt differ with me, but if I had to pin down the differences, I'd say that the most notable one is that Japanese Goju Ryu doesn't make anywhere near the use of hojo undo that Okinawan Goju Ryu does. Other than that, they seem like substantially the same art to me, at least on the surface. But that's just my opinion. I don't practice either one. At any rate, here they are:

Stillwater Goju Ryu in Stillwater, Oklahoma

Shorei-Kan Goju-Ryu Karate in Enid, Oklahoma

There are multiple links to various Japanese Goju Ryu sites in my sidebar, if you're interested.

Would you believe that you can find Shorin Ryu, too? There's a club, mostly Baptist, from what I gather, in Oklahoma City.

Much to my shock, there appears to be a genuine American Kenpo school or club here in Tulsa. There used to be more of a kenpo presence here in Tulsa. A long time ago, we had a "Tracy's Karate" (Jim and Al Tracy were some of Ed Parker's most noted students) franchise here, and I am sure that there are a few of the black belts from that old school still practicing in their garages or something. Also, Roger Greene, if I'm not mistaken, teaches somewhere near Tahlequah. But if you're interested in Ed Parker's American Kenpo, that's what The Tulsa Academy of American Kenpo Karate claims to teach. They also claim to teach it with something of a "zen" perspective--whatever that means. In my experience, with most folks, it doesn't mean much! But you may want to probe the subject in more detail before enrolling.

As I've said elsewhere, I have a lot of respect for American Kenpo, if taught decently. Whatever you might think of its origins, and they are in hot, hot dispute, American Kenpo as Ed Parker left it seems to have become a pretty decent self-defense oriented system. If RyuTe instruction were not available to me (Thank God it is!), I would certainly consider American Kenpo.

I must also say one other thing about American Kenpo: there are a lot of charlatans, including one here in Tulsa, claiming high ranks in kenpo, or to have created their own systems (sometimes multiple systems!), out there. Be very suspicious when looking into kenpo. That's all I'm sayin'.

Speaking of RyuTe, there are, in fact, two instructors under whom you can learn RyuTe in Oklahoma. One of them, mine, is not in the best of health, and he has already told me that unless someone already in the association moves into the area, or someone who manages to demonstrate to him that he is likely to remain in the system and take it seriously asks to be taught, he is not likely to take any more students. The other gentleman is, as far as I know, taking students. If you're interested, you can probably contact him through the organization's website.

There are more martial arts-related links in my sidebar. Some of those organizations are in Oklahoma. Please be aware, also, that there are more than a few people teaching "martial arts" in Oklahoma that are so absolutely full of bovine by-products that it boggles the mind.

Mike Clarke of Goju Ryu Saith:

I once fought on the streets, for about three years all together, and in that time I was arrested several times and found guilty of inflicting everything from G.B.H. (Grievous Bodily Harm) to Wounding on those I fought with. I was stabbed a number of times, and eventually ended up behind bars as a guest of Her Majesty the Queen. I'd like to know how the street-smart seminar instructors of today managed to avoid collecting a similar criminal record for violence, you know, when they were field testing the skills they are now teaching.

Putting my utter stupidity and my teenage years behind me I have, over the past 36 years of karate training...

There's a whole lot more to the post, of course, but this part intrigued me for a few reasons.

First, there are not that many people who will just bald-facedly admit to having a past like that. Usually people just make excuses, if they will admit to it at all.

I'm tellin' ya, I wish I had my teen and young adult years to live over again. I wasn't a convicted criminal, mind you, but I made so many idiotic mistakes and committed so many sins, mostly because I was convinced my brainpower gave me a better guide to what I should be doing than the people who were trying to counsel me, people who represented the distillation of generations of experience. I was wrong; they were right. And because I didn't listen, I have experienced only a fraction of the earning power I should have commanded, and that has made life much harder on my wife and children than it need have been.

Now, don't go cryin' for us. We don't starve. I'm just sayin' I could have made things a lot easier on us if only I'd listened, that's all.

Second, he did actually turn things around. I have no idea whether or not he is a Christian--usually I associate turn-arounds like that with Christianity--but really, there are not that many people who start out in life like that who turn things around. He did. Very impressive.

Third, think about what he's telling you. Here's a guy who was indisputably one of those "wily, crafty, desperate, willing-to-do-anything-to-you streetfighters," against the likes of which people are constantly telling you that traditional martial arts are useless--useless!--and what does he choose to train in?

Traditional Okinawan Goju Ryu, that's what.

Think he might have reason to believe that it'd work in the sorts of altercations which he's had in the past?

And, by the by, if you find yourself interested in Goju Ryu as a result of Mr. Clarke's writings, you can fairly easily find instruction in Japanese Goju Ryu in Oklahoma. If you're interested, there are some links in my sidebar.

Just How Much Do You Really Need to Know About Self-Defense? Or, Getting Bugged for No Good Reason

I got to thinking about just how much a person really needs to know about self-defense in a roundabout sort of way. See, I was out at Herman and Kate Kaiser Library (the staff there are wunderbar, and the facility is to die for), and I happened to see a whole bunch of little kids all dressed up in karate uniforms about the place. Naturally, I had to ask, so when the black-belted lady who was taking registrations or memberships or whatever was done with everyone in line, I asked if she had a minute to tell me something about the system's (I will not name the system; I am not trying to denigrate or embarrass anyone here) background and history.

She started to tell me what the system was, that it was an "Americanized" (her word) self-defense system that--so I gathered--was developed principally by her aunt, who was one of the first black belts in another state (which I won't name), herself, and unspecified others. I clarified, telling her that what I meant was, was the system influenced by Goju Ryu, by Shotokan, or Taekwon-do, or what? And she still didn't have much of an answer, telling me that the instructors basically brought whatever they liked best from whatever other systems they had studied. So I asked if they had a particular set of kata that they worked with, and she allowed as how some of the students worked on the heian, or pinan forms (she didn't say pinan), and that they also let the kids make up their own kata.

She might as well have just bluntly said that she didn't have a clue what kata was all about. I didn't let on that that's what I thought, though. Just thanked her for taking the time to answer my questions and left.

The whole thing kind of bugged me, but it put me to thinking: would it be so bad, really, if she, her aunt, and a handful of others had put together their own system out of bits and pieces of other systems? The reality is that one of the most popular martial arts in North America, Ed Parker's American Kenpo (along with the multitudinous variants of Parker's system) arose from just that sort of thing. Who knows?

Maybe that lady is the next Ed Parker.

And just how much do you need to know about self-defense, anyway? You will never learn enough to stop a bullet, especially one fired at you by someone who hates you enough to lay in wait for you and gun you down while you're not looking. And...

...look, many years ago, when I was still quite young, I had an acquaintance about a year or so younger. I think I am remembering this story correctly, but it's been a long time. At any rate, this fellow had apparently informed on some nefarious character, and he had been threatened. The ne'er-do-well had threatened to bust my acquaintance's head when he got out of jail, and my acquaintance was concerned, for he had never given a thought to fighting in his life.

He wasn't able to take up martial arts at the time, and I ended up giving him some very simple techniques. I showed him a low sidekick (I may also have shown him a low front kick, but I can't remember for sure) and told him to practice it on a tree he had in his back yard. I also showed him (and a very flawed rendition it no doubt was, as I only knew what I had read) the basic Wing Chun punch. Now, I had heard that Bruce Lee once said, "When in doubt, straight blast," by which he meant deliver one of those punches after another, as fast as you can, constantly moving forward. I knew from experience (limited as it was at that time) that most people don't cope well with that. They end up getting hit whilst trying futilely to block one punch after another, or backpedaling so fast that they trip over their own feet.

And then I left him.

I heard later that he had in fact been assaulted by the ne'er-do-well, and that he had had his glasses broken and gotten a black eye. His assailant, on the other hand, wound up with a broken nose and a broken rib, so I guess that my guy "won" by a score of two broken bones to one black eye, if you want to think of it that way.

Successful self-defense? Some would say so. And look how little knowledge it took...

I remember when I was in taekwon-do. When I left, I was about two or three months away from taking the test for first-degree black belt. The reality is that I didn't really know anything at that level that I didn't know at the yellow belt level, except for a greater number of hyung, which was pretty much worthless, as no one (as I found out later) had a clue how to make them work (that was a biiiiiiig factor in my switch to RyuTe, or Ryukyu Kempo, as it was then known: they knew how to make the forms work; I just knew how to make them look good). Same kicks, same punches, same everything. I was just better at it.

Sometimes I think the same is true of more martial arts systems than you might think. There are a certain number of basic techniques and concepts, and advancement consists of getting better and better at those.

It's fairly clear that a lot of systems run out of testable curriculum by the time you reach third- or fourth-degree black belt, and advancements beyond that level are for time-in-grade, service to the organization, and so forth.

All of the above meandering thought, I guess, amounts to this: I think RyuTe is the foremost life-protection system out there. I really do.

On the other hand, there are a limited number of places in this country (anywhere, really) where you can learn it. And if you can't learn RyuTe, I suppose that if you picked up a good sidekick and front kick from karate, a good reverse punch, a good knife hand, a good elbow strike; if you picked up the "straight blast" from Wing Chun; if you picked up, say, the six most fundamental throws of judo; if you picked up the half-dozen most basic locks from Aikido; if you picked up a basic knowledge of the weak points of the human body; if you got better and better at those over five or six years--

Well, I don't suppose you'd be doing too badly. And maybe that's what this lady and her aunt were in the middle of doing.

Whether it bugged me or not.

Here's a Pithy Li'l Quote on Real Karate

Michael Clarke, notorious Goju Ryu man, saith, emphasis mine:

Life isn't perfect, it's not even fair, but it is all we have, so make the most of it. Instead of making excuses, make plans; then have the personal courage to act on your plans. Traditional karate is not for takers it's for givers, it's not for followers it's for leaders, it's not for people who look for ways out of an uncomfortable situation but for those who look for ways through it. If your karate is based solely on fighting other people then you have missed the point. The real fight in karate has always been with your "self". If you have been going to the dojo for more than a year and still haven't woken up to that, perhaps you're already on the wrong path.

Accept ownership for your karate and your life now, and you can develop strategies that will make both a positive experience to be enjoyed, rather than a largely negative one that must be endured. Keep looking for excuses, and all you'll have to look forward to is more of the same. Is that really what you want?

Separated at Birth?

It's just a thought...

Watch this one...

And then this one...

You really do have to wonder...

Just exactly what did Miyagi put together to create Tensho?

Kicking Exercise #1

Prior to joining the RyuTe Renmei about a quarter-century ago, my instructor spent fifteen years doing Japanese Goju Ryu (lineage: Gogen Yamaguchi-->Peter Urban/Lou Angel-->Gary Boyd-->my instructor), and there are a few things that we've held onto from that system. One of them is an exercise developed by Mr. Boyd called "Kicking Exercise #1." I love this exercise. It is flexible. It is good for overall conditioning. It is good for balance, especially learning to keep your balance through multiple pivots and weight shifts. I'll describe it here as best I can (NO, I'm not going to show you!: Maybe someday when I've achieved such command of it that I can make it last a good four minutes or so.). Anyone who's at all familiar with any sort of karate, Okinawan, Japanese, or Korean, should be able to follow my terms quite easily.

Assume a natural stance, or ready position.

Move your right foot back into a forward stance (sounds contradictory, I know, if you're not familiar with it, but all it means is that your left foot is left in the leading position) and bring your arms down to your sides as though you were doing a low block on each side.

With your right leg, execute a side-thrust kick to your front, solar-plexus height. All of the kicks will be to solar-plexus height. Bring your hands up to a guard position as you do so.

When you bring that leg down, land in a natural stance facing the way opposite that which you started. That is, if your first natural stance faced north, you are now facing south.

With your left leg, execute a back-thrust kick in your original direction of travel. That is, if your side-kick went north, so does your back kick.

Land in a horse stance. Your chest is now facing eastward, so to speak.

With your right leg, execute a round kick to the "north," that is, toward the direction you were originally facing..

As you land, do so--this is difficult to describe--by placing your right foot down about two shoulder widths in front of your left foot and one shoulder width to the right of that foot. As your weight settles, pivot fully into a right-leg-forward forward stance. You don't want to CLOMP down into that stance, you want to PLACE your foot into position and then pivot fully into it.

Execute a front-thrust kick with your left leg. Land in a forward stance, left leg forward.

Look over your right shoulder, start to pivot your torso, and then move your right leg over and pivot into a right-leg-forward forward stance. Repeat the exercise on the opposite side.

You will have to adjust your position from time to time, as the exercise fairly obviously moves you over body-width by body-width as you repeat it.

What makes this exercise so difficult? Well, any idiot can do it fast. And if you repeat it many times at full speed, it can be a pretty decent little aerobic workout. But it really comes into its own when you do it with slow, continuous motion.

VERY slow, continuous motion. TORTUROUSLY slow, continuous motion. If you are not having difficulty maintaining your balance at some points throughout the exercise, you are not doing it slowly enough. The slower you can do this exercise, the better. And it works. As far as I can tell, doing the exercise this way improves all your kicks. Snap kicks in every direction, thrust kicks in every direction. If I had to limit myself to one, and only one way to practice kicking, I'm not at all sure that I wouldn't choose this exercise.

If you're interested in the Northeastern Oklahoma variety of Japanese Goju Ryu, here's where you need to start.