Things your Sensei never told you.
Tapping into the spirit of advising the next generation; a few pointers to keep students on the straight and narrow and avoid some of the pitfalls that my generation suffered.
This one is directed at students rather than teachers.
In no particular order, just as they occur to me, here are a series of observations that might or might not be of use to people who have decided to approach the study of Wado karate or any martial arts seriously.
Of cups and things.
You know the well-worn saying about how important it is to ‘empty your cup’? Well, it’s true, but there’s more to it than that. The subtler side of it is really about paying attention, this is a real ‘eyes and ears’ thing. The scenario is that you are in class and Sensei is explaining/showing something, this is where you could drop the ball.
As a non-martial art example:
How many times have you been in conversation with someone and stopped listening? Someone will begin on a subject that you think you already know something about, you start listening to their words and then you just zone out… What happens usually is that you pick up on one of the many points they are trying to make and in your head you are trying to rehearse either a counter to their argument, or something that occurs to you that you want to tack into the conversation (probably to show how clever and well-informed you are). At this point anything they say is just ‘blah, blah, blah’. We all do it and the net result is we miss things – lots of things. This same stuff happens in the Dojo.
Add to that, something you hear (or see) in the Dojo and you just dismiss it as trivia. It’s not quite the ‘pearls before swine’ moment, but sometimes you realise much much later down the road that the information you badly needed to progress was actually given to you on a plate years earlier, and you missed it.
I read recently two interviews with well-respected senior practitioners who said the same thing. One was a direct student of the founder of Aikido Ueshiba Morihei and he said that he wished he listened more to what the great teacher had said. He admitted that when the Sensei paused the training to explain something to them, he was only grateful for the rest it gave him and the other trainees from all the bone-crunching throws.
Another contemporary teacher expressed the same views with the advice, ‘If you want to be really good at what you do the secret is really simple, all you gotta do is PAY ATTENTION’.
What looks simple is really not.
Never be too quick to dismiss things, no matter how much your Sensei’s comments appear annoyingly obtuse, stick with it. Example, “Everything is in Junzuki”… it really is!
Remember, if we are talking about Wado, you are dealing with a complex system, not a complicated system.
There is a difference; ‘complicated’ has limits, ‘complicated’ just goes on and on. See my blog post on this subject. https://wadoryu.org.uk/2020/01/29/is-your-martial-art-complicated-or-complex/
It’s only natural that we feel more comfortable in systems that appear to be finite, but personally, I take comfort from the fact that the system that I have been training in for so many years clearly has an infinite capacity to keep expanding, and I am not talking about its curriculum, I mean the potential to explore how things happen within your own body and with the dynamic interchange that occurs when Wado is given the scope for free movement with others.
Don’t assume that your body has ‘got it’.
It probably hasn’t, and besides, how do you know it’s not lying to you? We are all inclined to suffer from a kind of movement or body dysmorphia at some time.
Example; Sensei says, ‘You are leaning forwards’, You, (in your head), ‘I am NOT leaning forwards!’. See it in a photo or on a video camera and lo and behold you ARE leaning forwards!
One of the hardest things is to have a conversation with your own body. What adds to this dysmorphia is when speed becomes your primary objective; just because you are doing it fast doesn’t mean you are doing it right.
Sensei might say, ‘Relax, take the tension out of your shoulders’, in your head you’re thinking that if you relax any more you might end up just a puddle on the floor, but he is probably right. I had a student recently who was in the same state of denial, until I pointed out that satellites in space could probably see the tension he was holding in his shoulders (that and the Great Wall of China of course).
Maybe you are misunderstanding which parts of your body are knotting up. For example; observe yourself when you are driving, when you are in heavy traffic in an unknown area and other motorists are hustling for position; what happens to your neck and shoulders? No wonder people end up with headaches and hypertension! Maybe the same thing is happening in your karate training? As Sugasawa Sensei once said, “No professional sports coach ever said to his protégé, you need to be more tense”.
Learn how to have a proper conversation with your body, and don’t listen to the lies it tells you.
Advice for those switching from one system to another.
Whether you are coming into Wado from another discipline or even another branch of Wado; how to get it right.
The ‘emptying your cup’ mentioned above is an important one. But I don’t want to ignore or dismiss what kinds of baggage people bring to the Dojo, some of that stuff can be really useful, as long as you understand the need to slide it into perspective. If you look at things through those lenses alone, you might have a tough time; there’ll be a disjoint and things might appear contradictory. But the trick is to float above the detail and look at the pedagogy – how is the information being transmitted and what is the expectation?
If you arrive at another branch of Wado which is somewhat different from the one you came from, if it’s from a secure lineage, enjoy the similarities but put your focus on the differences. I often find that students in this situation are seldom ‘wrong’ in their interpretation, (and ‘different’ doesn’t help the situation), maybe it’s just that they are missing some vital information – once they get over that hurdle, then learning the ‘extras’ becomes really really interesting and invigorates the training.
Another reassurance (and this is hardly ever mentioned by your Sensei). Just about every senior Sensei in Wado has also had to change and relearn large chunks of what they do. Don’t be under the illusion that they sprang into their training with all of the information on tap, fully formed and carved in stone. It never happened that way. Like all progressive systems things evolved and knowledge became more granular and more sophisticated, a lot less of the blunt instrument that your Sensei had to work with in his or her early days. 1
Cross Training.
This is a sticky one. It depends on the definition and how people might think it applies to martial arts training, particularly martial arts training that has a clear hallmark (Ryu) identity.
You could make an argument that most of the founders of Japanese martial Ryu were cross training, but that would be far too simplistic – to throw a curve ball in here; what’s the difference between cross training and synthesising? They are not the same at all. Using Wado as an example, Otsuka Sensei was a synthesiser not a cross trainer, here is the OED description of ‘synthesise’; “The mixing of different ideas, influences, or things to make a whole that is different, or new”.
Toby Threadgill Kaicho of the Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin Ryu (ancestor of Wado Ryu) addressed this question of cross training on a forum and related it to his system. In a nutshell he explained that systems like his which contained multiple armed and unarmed sections within their syllabus had one key operating system, as in, what you did with a sword you also did empty handed or with a dagger; no shift in your body dynamics, no flipping around from one system to another (like you’d been cross training), it was all the same. He concluded that any Samurai of old who had to recalibrate his operating systems while switching from spear to sword to dagger to open-handed was pretty soon a dead Samurai. Simple as that.
The most helpful key word is ‘Principles’. Make it your duty to pin down the key Principles of your system, write them down, examine them frequently, look at where they apply in what you are learning. Observe when the Principles are working well and when they are broken. In Wado, Otsuka Sensei was pretty insistent on laying down the key Principles, they are common knowledge, but knowing them is not enough, you must try and be the embodiment of them in actual on-the-ground practice.
Cross training for fitness.
Cross training for fitness is a different creature, much easier to manage than contradictory operating systems. If your base is weak, then gym work as cross training to strengthen your legs will look at that. If your problem is in your core, then Pilates or Yoga can be amazing for getting in touch with those muscles and identifying exactly where the problems are.
Supplementary training.
Yes, I believe that ‘Supplementary training’ is a thing. Separate from ‘Cross training’, there are martial art disciplines that can support your traditional training, here I am referring to Wado. For example, anything that teaches you to fall, like Aikido or Judo, those breakfalls can be extremely useful to your overall toolbox.
Also, traditional Japanese Budo disciplines can supply you with context and perspective, cultural, technical and even historical. I have known Wado seniors who have gained much from parallel studies in Iaido or Jodo. As long as you are aware of what your primary discipline is and keep things in perspective this can be very healthy.
I would say that a good example where contradictory systems can cause real problem is that of physical tension. Observe some system and they deliberately hold on to their muscular tension, or place the tension in different points along the path of striking. If this slips into your Wado it can really muck things up, and nobody does it intentionally, it just worms its way into your way of moving at a subconscious level – oddly, the weapons-based people seem to be more susceptible to this. It tends to be down our capacity for mimicry.
As a conclusion, to anyone who feels that traditional martial arts training is for them (not just a flash in the pan thing) always be aware that you are the latest embodiment of a tradition and in your own way a flag carrier for that tradition. Remember, ‘Ryu’ doesn’t mean ‘school’, it means ‘stream’ and for that stream of established knowledge to reach you, your Sensei and the Sensei before them didn’t acquire their ability on a one-off on-line symposium; they dedicated years of toil and study to arrive at this point now. There is a responsibility attached to that.
This maybe a theme I will return to because there is so much mileage in it. And, if we want to keep our traditions alive it is our responsibility to offer whatever advice we think is useful for the next generation.
And for the final word I am tempted to quote Mr Miyagi, “Either you karate do ‘yes’ or karate do ‘no’. You karate do ‘guess so’, get squished, just like grape”.
This is a bit of a generalisation really. I am primarily thinking of the organisation I belong to, where I know it is 100% the case. Some branches of Wado have opted for a policy of ‘no change under any circumstances’ that is their choice.
Would be great to have you guest post on my substack if you’re interested!