First Steps

Having to start somewhere, I thought I would start here.

A karate stance

Questioning Why You're Doing What You're Doing

At one of my previous dojo, I was having a problem learning a kata: I could never remember what foot to step with first.

It was actually a little more complicated than that, there was also a hand gesture with the yōi (用意, ready position) different than any other I had already learned, and I couldn't remember whether to step first and then move the hands or the other way around.

So I did what any good student does, I asked my sensei (先生, instructor, lit. "one who was born before"*). And I had the feeling no one had ever asked that before. Apparently, no one had ever had that particular problem before. Leave it to me to be difficult.

But what happened next was interesting. Sensei had to think about it. I had the feeling that move, like so many others, was so automatic that it had long ago passed from conscious movement to automatic. For a yōi hand salute, not really a big deal. But the very next move was not part of the yoi.

Many propose one should practice until your movements become automatic, since the time to react in an actual self-defense situation is so short, a deep dive topic for another time. But even if the movement should be automatic, the meaning behind it must be understood. What exactly are you trying to do with it?

In this case, the next move was a gedan uke (下段受け, lower level "block"), so the step I mentioned above could mean you were either stepping toward your opponent or away from them. Neither one of these would be "wrong", but the application of each would be very different.

As I was preparing for this entry, I was curious how others approached this particular example. In this often frustrating but otherwise glorious day of the internet, some things are easy to research, and I found roughly six or seven videos of this kata performed by sensei condidered by most to be masters. And what did I find? Half stepped one way first and half stepped the other. I found this terribly amusing.

Changing or misinterpreting the purpose behind a given technique is risky, in that you might move away from something that would actually work in self-defense to something that only looks like it would. When masters do so, they do so with years of experience with what works and what doesn't, and even then I'm sure most students would agree not all "masters" are really of the same caliber. This is something that each student will have to reflect on: do you trust your style's strategy and the instructor who's teaching it to you. I'll talk about that at a later time.

Some will argue that there was an original direction, way back in antiquity. For many years, I actually actively sought such things. But I have since come to understand that, regardless of why it was changed, sensei way more qualified than I am decided their version was perfectly good. This, also, is a good deep dive topic for a future entry. You could drive yourself crazy trying to get back to the roots of what is now considered "traditional" in karate, and even experts will rarely agree. For me, I am content to practice my kata as they are taught in the branch of the style I now follow, and include a few other things I've picked up here and there over the years.

*Note: The Uchinaaguchi (Okinawan) term for "sensei" is "shinshii" (しんしー)