Full circle

It's been some time since I last practiced my Kissakikai Karate. Not for lack of interest but I felt I needed to concentrate my energies on developing better (standup) sparring, somewhat returning to my boxing roots, as well as learning the necessary skills for an OK-ish ground game. I have spent the past 4 years on my boxing (via CMD) and a ground game (via BJJ) so I'm heading in the right direction. As the old masters say, you can't catch two rabbits at the same time, and as such, my sacrifice for the Kissaki karate had to be put on the back burner.

How have things changed over the past 4 years? I haven't practiced ANY of my karate kata, nor ANY of my Kissaki techniques until I had a request from an individual who was very keen to learn the classical Shotokan Karate but later decided on Kissakikai Karate. Ok, I remember all the techniques and principles and was pleasantly surprised to see that the couple of students from the Kissaki days left share the same eagerness.

Sadly, in my haste for my personal quest for better boxing and ground fighting, the Kissaki group kind of fizzled out. I did not promote or encourage participating in local competition due to the unhealthy level of politics (and this view is still valid) and perhaps it was due to the comparatively rigid structure of traditional and modern karate that eventually tuned out people. Others loved the uniforms, belts and etiquette but it also attracted an unhealthy share of wierdos with fantasy requests (teach me to fight like *insert movie hero name here*) and other people with self-esteem issues or paranoia.

In the end, the truth prevails and I couldn't honestly say that there is any one way to mastery. The reason for my opinion is that for every one person I could physically overcome, someone else did the same to me. I was beginning to get caught up in the same web of egoism and self-deceit that I despised.

I ended up looking for a more simpler and direct method and in fact the "boss" Vince Morris got me started in looking more into ground fighting. I was inspired by some of the techniques he taught me when he was in Malaysia and a few of his articles on the subject published in Combat magazine.

He also incorporated elements from Tony Blauer's SPEAR defense which I consider ground-breaking as I never trained with any "traditional" karate sensei with such an open mind and willingness to learn from external sources, test and incorporate techniques before (ok, so I was a blinkered old boy ~ what can I say in my defense? yep: young and stupid, although I understand there are some out there who still believe I have yet to progress).

So now I get to teach Kissakikai karate again, and I'm excited and hesitant at the same time. It could be because I am aware of more technical elements in the fight game, aware of different philosophies and what constitutes healthy vs. unhealthy reasons for wanting to learn the combative arts.

Am I the same karate teacher back in 1997? Definitely not! 10 years ago, I had just resigned as chief instructor from a karate association that I formed (Kanazawa-Ryu) which was unceremoniously seconded by the local authorities.

In retrospect, I am happy that I went through those events because without them, I would most likely still be heavily involved trying to champion my cause for independent and intelligent karate training and be clueless about the unsavoriness of the many characters you will encounter. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer as they say.

What have I discovered along the way? Many of the well established local karate associations have very dirty laundry that none want exposed. This is not the time and place to discuss such matters but suffice to say that I know and it doesn't affect you nowadays, nor should it. If you currently enjoy your martial art practice, then more power to you! Don't let me or anyone else tell you what you should or shouldn't do. Does your martial art make you a better person? Perfect your character? Make you more humble? Are your instructors positive role models? Do they practice what they preach? I suppose as long as you enjoy your training, that is the most important function, the rest is supplementary and can even be considered an accidental by-product of smart marketing to get the students to buy into their cultish organizations.

Well, that's enough tree-shaking for now. Have a great 2007 punching air.