GAMES WITH WORDS
Did you make that up or did you develop it?
Did your instructors before you develop it, or did they make it up?
Do you know the difference? Does saying that the "old masters" developed it and today's new masters are making it up, makes you feel special or, are you implying that today's new masters are not as competent?
Is their room for new masters? Hell yes and you would be an idiot to think not.
Perhaps you are saying that you are linked to past traditions and therefore better than? "I don't think so". If you believe that there are plenty of reality shows, and you need to call Scotty so he can beam you back to earth's reality.
Let us take for example guns and use it as a metaphor for technique. Did you think that in the Old West where guns were a matter of survival, Jesse James, with his skill and accuracy, would have chanced it against someone with a "glock 21-45 caliber"? Answer: "Hell no"! There will always be a need for change. We live in a world of constant change, filled with creative inquisitive minds, always striving to make things work better.
If you're one of those people that accepts things as they are and are loyal to training in the old ways, that's fantastic, but why allow yourself to stop there? Do not interfere with progress. Ask yourself, "can martial arts be improved upon"? Do you really need me to answer that? Believe it or not, there are some out there that believe that the martial arts cannot be improved upon, and should be taught as they have always been.
For a moment, consider: The masters, like Bruce Lee, with Jeet Kune Do, or Mas Oyama, with his Kyokushin, or, Gogen Yamaguchi, with his Japanese version of Goju-Ryu, who took the art to another level by adding the free fighting aspect. Peter Urban, who developed some of our greatest champions, Karateka’s on the East Coast and around the world with the USA version of Goju-Ryu. Another example: Takayuki Kubota, who studied Goju-Ryu and Shotokan as a child, and by the age of thirteen had the base for the system he developed, Gosoku-Ryu, an art well recognized worldwide and proven in and out of the tournament ring. He is a great example that age alone, does not necessitate experience, knowledge or wisdom.
The list of examples goes on in Okinawa and Japan. I have seen systems developed by strong martial artists, who had a purpose. I stress the word, "purpose" If we went back in time and thought the way we do today about change, then we would not have the different systems to choose from that were developed by old masters.
It is not inferred that anyone who has ever earned a black belt (and earned being the operative word), just go out and start a system. Some do, but that is life. If you want to see it in writing how it all started, look up and study all Lineage's', and see how so and so, learned from so and so, and developed a system. Then, his student, so and so, learned his system, but also moonlighted learning another system, and in time, developed yet, another system! Understand, that these men studied and trained hard, and did embody the systems they trained in. The process of evolution arrives through the need to grow and adapt. It is a part of life, and it goes on and on, and on.
What I am saying is, if you have studied different systems and I don't mean you learned a kata from a buddy, unless your buddy is a complete and thorough instructor, and you participated in the basic levels of different systems, understand them, and have embodied what the system has to offer, and have realistically defined their weaknesses, (Yes folks, there are weaknesses, and absolutely nothing works 100% of the time, as in most things; and if you believe that,( you can check if the Brooklyn Bridge is still for sale), if you have indeed studied the system in this fashion, then and only then, can you even ponder developing your own system. This coupled with the fact that you have had a good instructor with solid credentials,
Simply put, to learn anything without learning its meaning and the thoughts that went behind the developer's mind, is like learning words from a different language and not knowing what they mean, and that would of course lead to some interesting conversation, don't you think? Tradition is great and should be understood and respected. It is a base, library, model, prototype, or an archive to look at and study. But do not knock someone just because you enjoy saying he or she is not traditional. Hey, what are you saying? Like, did they just dream up a kick, or a punch, or kata, or did they maybe get it from a traditional prototype and run with it?
I personally believe that if you practice with respect and work your basics to the limit, then you are training traditionally, and at the very least, you are "HARDCORE". You never want to stand in front of someone and suggest that the kata they are practicing is not traditional because there are no Goju-Ryu families for instance that practice a kata in the same rhythm and with the same technique .The same goes with shotokan and other systems. I am talking about what exists in Okinawa, Japan, or here in the US. If that were the case, then why do so many organizations exist?
Again, I am speaking to all whom actually train, not to those with weak basics because they did not have the courage to train and master it. Perhaps out of some notion, they think they no longer need more practice, or never did practice period. Those are easy to spot on the dojo floor or at tournaments, looking like crap, or worse, giving demonstrations.
The point to all this is, do you criticize everyone for not being traditional, is that really a big deal to you? Or have you no idea what motivated everyone that you recognize to be traditional or non-traditional to do a kata differently other than identifying his or her perspective karate or Kobudo families? I personally give anyone respect that dares to put on a gi and train because it's not always easy to a make a commitment to better yourself, no matter what the cost.
To those of you that train, fight, or teach cage fighting, "more power to you"! You have embarked on an old tradition of "warrior against warrior". Hopefully along the way, you are teaching your students when not to fight, as well as when to engage.
Any comments or thoughts regarding this article would be highly appreciated and posted. I can be reach at shihanem@earthlink.net
Yours in training and sweat
Shuseki Shihan Eddie Morales.
Copyrights 2003