Observations

I recently attended the 23^rd PKC International Karate Tournament, something that I have done for the past 23 years. As usual Mr. Keeney puts on a first rate event.

As I sat and watched some of the competitors perform their kata, I had a few come and ask me for advice, which I tried to give and  I had a few ask me why I wasn’t competing, I told them I still needed more practice, but they didn’t believe me, despite the fact that it is very true.

I always enjoy going to these events to visit old friends and catch up, I do not make competition a part of my training and in fact we do no type of training for tournaments unless a student specifically asks me to help them, because they want to do it.  I like to spend my time training in the traditional methods.

I had a great time and some great conversations with some old friends. One thing I have noticed is how much karate and Karate competition has changed over the years, since I first competed in 1978. It is almost like a different world sometimes. I think one of the downfalls is the commercialization of karate, and the lack of time people spend on basics.

As I was writing this I got an email, that got my attention and I read the article posted by the author, he said what I was feeling and trying to put into words, so I am going to share it here to illustrate my point;

“One of the things I try to constantly instill in my students is the realization that simply practicing a kata over and over again doesn’t necessarily make you better, if what you are doing is flawed to begin with. You are simply repeating bad technique and making it harder to improve past the level of mediocrity. None of us, including myself, is perfect, but the attitude one should take is to never be satisfied with what you are doing, even while acknowledging perhaps that you have moved closer to the ever-moving and actually unattainable goal of perfection.”  - Wayne Muromoto.

I agree with Mr. Muromoto and couldn’t have said it better. As a teacher, I know the pitfalls of trying to keep a dojo running and trying to keep students interested, in today’s world this is hard, and people want instant gratification and not many people are willing to put in the hard work. That is why I closed my commercial dojo and now have only a private dojo. I think it is the responsibility of the sensei, at the very least to instill good basics and moral ethics. If we do not get a hold on the decline of karate in America, who will? I have friends who are excellent karate-ka in their own rights, that choose not to teach, but if people like that who are men (or women) who have walked the traditional path and trained hard, do not pass on what they learned, where will we be?

Not only is the decline of traditional karate a concern to me, but also the moral decay of America. I think it is my responsibility to my students, to not only teach them, but also to instill proper etiquette, morals and behavior in them. Not build tournament champions, but build better people.

I think part of the problem is that students become discouraged with the pursuit of perfection. Perhaps a better solution is to seek progress, to seek to polish the techniques of karate over a period of time. Forget about trying to be perfect, have some patience and try to leave each training session with just a little bit of improvement. In time you will achieve what you once thought was perfection, but by then you will realize that there is still more polishing that can be done.