So you read it in a Book

 Growing up I played contact sports, Rugby and Basketball....and before i go any further, if you think Basketball is a non contact sport, then you are very much mistaken. It's supposed to be, but the reality of it, well, that's something else. So I got bashed about a bit, and also did a bit of bashing. Growing up on the Streets of Birmingham, I saw my share of fights, and when I used to occasionally work the doors for one or two Nightclubs back in the day, saw the odd ruckus there too. 

Unlike competition fighting, street fighting has no rules. Its messy and unpredictable and there is no referee. 

People confuse Kumite and competition fighting with fighting in general. I'd also go as far as to say that I don't think many of the Karateka I have trained with over the years have actually been in any kind of real fight. 

The sort of fight where you're definitely going to get hurt....and just hope you come out of it ok, win OR lose.....

I find that more and more people are teaching more and more things that they have no practical or life experience of... . 

No qualifications 
But a great teacher....

In a recent training course ( not related to karate) a Lawyer and Psychologist were teaching about multiculturalism and diversity. It got me thinking as to what they actually knew from experience about what they were teaching. 

The Lawyer in their thirties and the Psychologist in their twenties had known nothing but books and school their whole life. Hardly qualified then to teach about what they were peddling. 

Teachers of Karate are the same....   one time I was in a class where the teacher began talking of Kumite.....once he referred to things or options you would have in a fight, I left the class. 

You see, you can't teach what you have no experience of. The person teaching admitting to me only a couple of weeks before that they had never been in a kumite competition or been in a street fight.

WTF......but here they were teaching fighting. 

Working with a standing  Makiwara, you will learn how to punch. Facing a swinging Sagi Makiwara you will learn how to block and evade. Both of the tools hurt, so you are conditioning the brain to pain and both never get tired so your stamina and will improve. 

Credentials are important in Karate, and I don't just mean academic ones......give me an unqualified (academically that is) teacher with real world experience of what they teach every time, over the one who read it in a book.   

What is it......

 I got to thinking the other day about the last training session I did where I was involved in a group. Some members didn't show up, despite a years notice in advance for what had been organised. Very piss poor  I thought then, and very piss poor I think now. 

But hey, what do I know? 

I didn't like the training much. Everything felt rushed and hurried and as a result I didn't really learn too much, no more than I could on my own at any rate, and I was already doing that. The whole thing was just a waste of time and money. 

I did learn about egos though, and double standards from my peers and also learned what Karate meant to me and what I wanted from it..... 

Over the years, more than 25 now, the karate circle within which I move has slowly but surely been diminishing in size.

Where some find it necessary to train with many others, I have felt the opposite. 

The Sagi Makiwara.... an eye opener 
To what you think you know.....

          

 In reading an ancient Aikido document the other day, I now realise this to actually be a Transcendence. An achievement that was never trying to be achieved. On purpose anyway. 

...."Karate, a solo pursuit often done in the company of others"....  

There is an old saying in the Martial Arts...."if you understand something, then all is as it should be....if you don't understand something, then all is as it should be".....

A bit like learning how to use your elbow for striking. On the face of it you know how, in reality its something else. Try striking a Sagi Makiwara with your elbow, how you think it should be struck and you will see what I mean. 

At its core, karate is not social, it isn't friendly and it certainly will not tolerate an ego. 

Karate is different things to different people.....I get that .....you just need to know what thing it is for you....