I've been thinking for a few years now about the decline in popularity that karate has gone through over the years. Like any martial art, the popularity will wax and wane; however, there are those that attempt to stop the waning of the popularity by changing their martial art into something that it was never intended to be. You all know what I'm talking about, that's the rise of Extreme Martial Arts (XMA) or these karate schools that supposedly teach MMA, but in fact attempt to teach a highly bastardized form of grappling while teaching garbage karate to boot. There are to this day a number of highly successful karate instructors that I am friends with, all within the AJKA-I. They all adhere to a very strict traditional way of teaching, but they bring their martial art into the modern world, and apply it liberally in a variety of situations. Many of them have a significant level of training in grappling arts and mix that into their teaching, which leads to having students capable of acting within a variety of combat ranges.
That being said, I turn to the example of successful
grappling arts that have flourished over the years, namely Judo and more
recently Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Judo has
been seeing something of a decline but the tactics and techniques are still
highly sought after and utilized throughout the self-defense and martial/combat
arts world; specifically the use of hip throws and foot work (ie. Ronda
Rousey). To focus more on Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu, however, the sport has seen a surge in popularity since the first
Ultimate Fighting Championship events where Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) led the
way to victory by way of Royce Gracie.
Now BJJ has found international popularity, to the extent that BJJ
champions are international celebrities.
So what has made this sport successful? First, it was certainly the effectiveness
that it showed in the ring, and brought awareness of multiple ranges of combat
to a wider audience. Secondly, there is
a sporting aspect to the art, and not strictly a quasi-Eastern
methodology. And third, the
practitioners and instructors brought the art into the real world by
introducing the concept of no-gi jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling. Wrestling has long been a combat sport of its
own, however, it was the advent of BJJ that brought about submission wrestling.
It is this sense of reality that made BJJ so popular amongst
the general population, so why can’t we do this with the karate world? Karate has always been taught in the gi, but
when will you ever enter a self-defense situation where you or your attacker
will be wearing a gi, or even a gi-like item of clothing? The closest you might find is a heavy wool
coat, but we can’t train for the slimmest eventualities.
That’s where the idea of no-gi karate came into my head,
there are many challenges to implementing this into a traditional dojo setting
without it becoming just another kickboxing class, but the point is that it is
necessary. By training the karate
technique in short and a t-shirt, or even pants and a shirt and shoes we can
really learn what works and what doesn’t and to what extent. Perhaps in sneakers the typical body shifting
and twisting might not be as effective on a concrete slab as it is when
barefoot on a mat. We have to remember
that traditional karate training takes place a sterile, controlled and
relatively safe environment. We don’t
have to worry about those other considerations of environment, but we can bring
new variables into the picture.
How would one structure a “no-gi” karate session? It’s important to know that one would have to
largely dispense with fundamental kihon and kata as training tools in these
sessions. This is the kind of session
that would emphasize kumite kihon, from jiyu-kamae or even from
shizen-tai. Start a typical class with a
good calisthenic based warm-up to get all the joints and muscles moving, and
move into jiyu-kamae technique, and then into a more natural stance for
combat. One can even more ably incorporate
bunkai training here, because now we’re discussing karate for pure self-defense
and this where bunkai is most useful.
Those are two-ish cents on this subject, please feel free to
share and comment!
I don't know.. Everyone has their own reasons for studying the martial arts that they study, and for me, I specifically wanted a more traditional school. I like the etiquette, discipline, and such that comes with a traditional approach, including the gi. I've certainly heard others belittle self-defence styles such as Karate where practitioners were expected to dress in "pajamas" (the gi). I agree that it's worth practicing in street clothes at times, as my Levis are much more restrictive than my gi, but 99% of the time, I'd prefer to practice in my gi, if for no other reason than my Levis suffered catastrophic failure while practicing in my living room not terribly long ago, lol.
ReplyDeleteI'm not experienced enough to discuss dispensing with "fundamental kihon," but I disagree strongly with dispensing with kata. I greatly appreciate kata, as they are drills that I can practice on my own, when I'm not in class -- for example, in the evening after work, or even on my lunch break at work. No, I won't whip out a kata to defeat a mugger in the parking lot at night, but I still find value in kata. If I want oi zuki or shoto uke (or any other technique) to be there when I need it, I need to practice it until it is an automatic reflex, and the only way to get there is by repetition. Kata provides that repetition. Furthermore, kata provides a chance to practice balance and to strengthen the body for the *exact* movements we need to practice Karate. And while I agree that, after achieving proficiency, we'll adopt a more natural stance for combat -- be that on the street or in the ring during kumite -- kata is still a good way to practice the fundamentals...which, as I recall, you posted about recently, just sayin' ;)
I think I might not have been as clear as I thought I was in the post, I didn't intend to suggest disposing of kata and fundamental kihon altogether. I love kata, and I practice it religiously, everyday, in the dojo and out of it. I think everybody needs to practice their kihon and kata all the time, in the gi and without a gi. What I was looking to suggest, however, was a separate class session devoted to the self-defense/combat utility of karate. My point being that practicing kata over and over a hundred times will not ingrain the patterns into your self-defense mind, and will ultimately become useless when you are in trouble. I took up karate for the study of a traditional martial art, not for any purposes of becoming a fighter. However, I do feel that being able to fight is a byproduct of any true martial training regardless of one's initial intent.
DeletePracticing kihon will not make your techniques instinctive, I guarantee that without the adrenaline dump that true danger presents one will very rarely be able to think of karate technique and will fall back on the basic punches learned as a kid (and that's best case assuming one doesn't curl up to avoid getting hurt). In any case, what I was suggesting was, if a typical school operates a 3 days per week schedule, make one of those days a live learning day, not static and sterile the way kata and kihon are trained. Put on some boxing gloves and learn how to hit with some power and take a hit. Perhaps do partner drills similar to judo uchikomi where you practice specific techniques for reps and then go after it for real. Anything to make the kata and kihon we practice incessantly come to life.
My concern is one's traditional karate training becoming dead and never really becoming alive and effective as it's meant to be.
Thanks for your comment, by the way, I appreciate the dialogue! =)
Gotcha -- that makes a lot more sense to me.
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