December 2020 – Page 3

December 7, 2020December 25, 2020

Up Your Karate Teaching Game

Up your karate teaching game. The biggest change in karate is the instruction method. Recently while visiting friends the conversation came to a Human Resources (HR) meeting. The thrust of the HR meeting was the changing expectations of the work environment. Millennials expect different treatment than workers have had in the past.

This is a multimillion-dollar industry we are talking about. They are changing their policies and behaviors to fit the zeitgeist. The zeitgeist of a generation of workers.

Having pointed this out I want to jump right over the emotionally charged, “Why’s?” and “What’s?” of the business’s new policy.

It is a policy the business has adopted and it is a policy martial arts instructor should adopt.

Before you start to form a sternly worded letter about tradition and discipline hear me out. It will make sense and your instruction will be better. As for those of you who are on this path, this will help substantiate your teaching technique.

It is important to teach your syllabus. It is important traditions are in place when they have purpose and benefit. Don’t run away from these tenets. But know this, the mind of your students is different than yours. You are outnumbered and you better adapt.

Grinding It Out v. Sunshine

Work ethic has been seen as, “Grinding it out.” Often followed by a comment along the lines of, “You may not like it, that’s why it is called work.” An extreme example on the other end. A friend who was a manager at Amazom.com terminated an employee for leaving work with a note on their desk, “It’s sunny today.” Not having completed probation, he was terminated. On the way out the door he was promising a lawsuit.

Neither of these positions is complete. Accountability is necessary. Grit, focus, and discipline, yes, please. And so is flexibility.

Teaching to assessment becomes stagnant, stale and goals are met. Goals are met, yet sometimes the success lacks soul.

People will learn to an assessment. When teaching is to the test, people learn for the test. People have also learned, “Just pass the test.” Why would they not behave this way? I surely have. This result is satisfactory on paper, not on the floor.

Add More Experience, More Playful Exploration

Here is a suggested ratio for Explore Time.

This is specific. Explore Time happens at the end of class. This addresses the danger of teaching to the test. Explore Time blends the classic, “Nose to the grindstone.” And “I’ll get to it when I want, I’ll get it done,” orientations.

Attacking the structure of the class is not what Explore Time is about. Explore Time is within the class. This integration is an adaptation to reach your students. It is not a forsaking of tradition. And the most important thing is you are still teaching the requirements, while students get to break out of, “Learning for the test.” It will up your karate teaching game.

Learn something from the past and pay attention to the present. It’s the way the mind has always worked, now add a dash of discipline and splash of Explore Time. As a result your students understand instead of regurgitating information.

Need some extra goodies?

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KRIS WILDER

Kris Wilder is a martial artist based in Seattle Washington. He has authored many martial art books, including the classic, The Way of Kata. Making no apologies for his obsession of Football he can be found telling any who will listen about the nuances of the Canadian Football League.

December 6, 2020December 25, 2020

The Straight Line Mind of Karate

The Straight Line Mind of Karate. Karate is not a straight line. We live in a linear world. Our school system is linear. We enter school and go through the grades.

The grades are segments designed to let us say, “You will begin here and at the end on this date.” And there are expectations of competency, from the instructors, parents, and students.

As adults the world is driven by the clock, it tells us when to wake, work, and rest. Martial arts schools engage in the same behaviors, ranks, belts, time in grade, and class times.

The world projects this linear time use onto us. We accept it and project it back. In the process, we are gaining affirmation for the adoption and use of the linear experience.

Using college as an example. At the end of four years of college, you are supposed to be competent in your chosen field of study. The university then gives you a stamp of approval. That could take the shape of a Bachelor of Arts as an example.

The equation is; go to this place, come to class, get satisfactory grades, and finish. Karate looks like that, but it is not.

The classic method of apprenticeship is more reflective of the karate experience. The apprenticeship method reads; Study with me, we’ll see how you do, be good, this is an average timeline but we are not bound by it. Open-ended by today’s standards. Certainly not the straight line mind of karate.

We think the world looks like this

But it looks like this

And as a proof point, let’s use the belt rankings in karate. As rank increases responsibility increases. Responsibility to self, and others, for training tone, safety, and expectations.

This is not a linear experience. If you are a brown belt helping a white belt get their stance correct, you are reviewing. You are looking back on information already experienced. And you are learning.

Two Recommendations

We try and make it linear because we can better deal with it. The recommendation is the world isn’t linear. You should have the ability to move from linear to non-linear. Know the world wants one thing and people want another.

The second recommendation is to look at karate in light of the apprentice system. Less linear and a whole lot more experiential. This is a far more enjoyable way to spend your training time together. It is more organic than the ridged, 1,2,3 timebound method of the straight-line effort.

Don’t toss away one method over the other, know where you stand in the experience and act accordingly.

A few more related topics.

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

December 5, 2020December 25, 2020

Martial Arts Movies Are Valuable

Martial Arts movies are valuable even though they are often dismissed. People often turn their nose up when Martial Arts movies are discussed.

The Shaw Brothers Showed The Way

These moves stretch the ideas of physics and human performance. Running through the treetops in, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Samurai that can slice a head off its shoulder and still stay in place for a moment only to slough to the ground. Or the perfect cylinder of human flesh punched out of the bad guy’s abdomen in the movie, “Kung-Pow.” Ok, not the best example.

Taking The Idea Too Far

These are movies. Most of the time we relax and enjoy them for what they are. Entertainment. But some people blur reality with fiction. I remember standing in line at a movie theater in Tacoma Washington. I was there to see the new Steven Segal movie. The guy in front of me was dressed as Segal, wearing Chinese kung-fu shoes and a ponytail. Dressed in black his emulation of Segal was spot on.

Here is how martial arts movies are valuable as a larger thing exists. If you can see a martial arts technique in a movie it is persuasive, you think you may be able to do that. Not fighting a half dozen henchmen in an underground labyrinth on a private island. But you got inspired to try the double spin kick.

If your mind can see the movie move, it becomes tangible in your mind. If something is a concept seeing it as achievable is unlikely.

Martial arts movies are formulaic and often predictable, but so.

In the early eighties, Sunday morning was Kung-Fu Theater, 11 am my time. I could see it. I was inspired not even being aware of all the things on the screen. And the visual, the persuasive, the example.

Take a favorite martial arts movie and go to a scene you like. Analyze the moves. Yes, we know it is fake. Making a movie means filling with jump cuts, many angles, and multiple takes. Again, So.

Find that move and go see if you can make it work? See if you can make it real. If you can make it work, great. If you can’t make it real, well we learn something in the process.

This isn’t a deep pondering of the biomechanics and intent of the movie martial arts techniques. The goal of the movie is to entertain you enough you will spend some money to see it. But we get to use the visual as a piece of persuasion that can nest in our brain.

An Action Christmas?

This is far greater than a concept. And it is fun. Yeah, have some martial arts movie-inspired fun and learn something in the process. You can use this time to discover martial arts movies are valuable. I still contend, Road House, is a martial art movie, not an action movie. And while I’m at it, Die Hard, is not a Christmas movie.

Here are some other posts you may find valuable.

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KRIS WILDER

December 4, 2020December 25, 2020

Karate Power Through Great Technique

Karate power through great technique. This is not about twisting a leg in the correct way for an excellent kick. It’s a global approach to your way of life.

Reaction time degrades in the human experience. As we age the ability of our reflexes to operate at a high level becomes less. Not a lot, or obvious to the average Joe and Jill, but it happens.

Here is an example of that moment seen on every television screen that has ever glowed at a sporting event. A sports announcer says in the most respectful terms possible about an athlete, “They have lost a step.” It’s a way of acknowledging the march of time.

Loss of Reaction Time

The loss of reaction time has a cohort, the reduction of timing. With a pause to ponder it becomes obvious one proceeds the other.

You can, through training and effort keep a high level of reaction and timing. Especially compared to those in your demographics who chose to not engage in life actively.

Power lasts longer. Power married with technique can be lethal in a chosen arena. An example is Tom Brady Quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team. His diet and training routine are legendary and sometimes controversial.

Brady is also 43 years old. You can discount his achievement by pointing to the position he plays. Brady is not going to make contact with other players on every play.

Brady has been fortunate to play for excellent teams. You could find several other reasons he is still successful at his age. But let’s reshape this discussion this way. There are 7.8 Billion people on the planet, Brady is one of 32 people to play starting Quarterback in the National Football League. Brady got to this place by holistically approaching his sport.

Tom Brady, an Example

Tom Brady’s reaction time is not what it once was. His timing is not what it used to be. His technique makes him a powerful figure every time he takes the field.

Tom Brady is an example to every martial artist to observe. His diet is legendary to the point there is a book, The TB12 Method: How to Do What You Love, Better and for Longer. His methods are extreme, but his role on the field demands it if he is to continue.

I’m not advocating his methods; I am advocating his intent. The intent is in the title, Do What You Love, Better, and for Longer.

You love the martial arts experience; you should seek a means of staying on the floor longer. Here is a container to place this idea within. Martial Arts are about living a healthy life.

But what life is it is if you are denied your healthy life? Use the martial arts to push back, stay active, enjoy your life, seek a method of self-betterment that blends with your art. Couple these two things, your art, and your lifestyle. These two elements locking together form you.

Don’t Separate Them

It is inescapable. Reaction time degrades. Timing becomes less dependable. Power through technique is impressive and can be retained much longer.

As any martial artist will tell you about their art, “It’s not just kicking and punching.” I would add. “Martial Arts is about living a healthy life as long as possible.” Karate power through great technique, by mindfully approaching your life in a comprehensive ordered goal-oriented method. Now go find your path to that better life.

You don’t know where to start? How about this, you have the Library of Alexandria on your phone. Search what you believe to be lacking in your present approach and begin to explore.

A few more post you may find of interest.

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KRIS WILDER

December 3, 2020February 9, 2021

Three Things Karate People Should Seek

Three things karate people should seek are going to vary no matter who you ask. The reason you will get many varied answers is each person is different. Yet we are built on the same substructure.

The physical specimen could be advocating for more physical abilities. These people may say, “You need to be faster, stronger, bigger.” The small person may insist on more speed, “You have to be quick!” The suggestions may be opposite. The strong calling for more flexibility and the small calling for more strength.

The spectrum of what is important in karate is broad and deep. An instructor I once had would draw a circle in the air. With this circle in front of him he would say, “Karate is this big.” Then drawing a smaller circle inside the bigger circle, he would say, “I only know this much.” I didn’t believe him. I believe him now.

Working on a problem, a plan, an idea from small to big is a formula for disaster. This small to big orientation doesn’t honor the trajectory, the target, the goal.

So here are three large ideas, three principals you may want to consider, and why.

Three Things Karate People Should Seek

Posture

Your teachers and parents and especially my grandmother were all big on posture. We all know posture is important. It keeps pressure off your abdomen. It makes a difference in your positive mental attitude, the way you feel. Good posture opens your lungs. And a few more things you can likely think of.

All the things listed and the ones you thought of are all part of good karate, right? So, Posture is fundamental, working the physical body large to small. Providing a platform for success is the goal of better posture.

Energy

Energy is primary. If you are teaching karate you need to hear what my Program Director told me at my first radio station. “Nobody listening to you cares about what kind of a day you had. Act like every day is awesome.”

It is a lie. We all have less than stellar moments. But when you hit the floor to teach, or to learn, it’s the best day ever. And here is the kicker, if you act like things are good, your mind and body respond too. Not perfect, kind of a band-aid but true none-the-less. You can change your world, often with just a thought.

Mobility

Mobility is a result of flexibility and muscle tone. You should have both, mobility and some flexibility. Hyper-flexibility is not necessary for good karate, but if you choose it, that is fine.

The loss of mobility is the beginning of an illness. It hurts to move, so I don’t. I don’t move, so I eat. Eat, gain weight; I gain weight it is harder to move. Return to the beginning and repeat. This is a cycle to leads to, as an example Diabetes.

So, everybody has their needs and suggestions about what they need to do within the martial arts. I offer these three things as simple overarching ideas that can ripple downward and outward in you making your karate better and helping those around you, using three things karate people should seek.

Posture, Energy and Mobility.

You may enjoy these links as well.

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

December 1, 2020January 7, 2021

Circumstances and Fate in an Active Light

Circumstances and Fate in An Active Light. “If only this would be like that,” “If the situation would just break this way.” “What we need to have is the stars align yeah that will make everything right.” Well, there’s the crux of the situation.

There’s the crux of the circumstances and fate. Standing around and asking for things to change, be this way or maybe if we just change this way. That’s like asking the stars to align. The chances of the star shifting in the sky to meet your needs is just unlikely. In fact, it’s not going to happen.

Coaching Into The Circumstances

There was an old football coach by the name of Chuck Knox. Knox was a pro football coach who grew up in Pennsylvania. Describing Knox as a straight forward person is correct. One time as he laid out the plans for the next game, the press started asking about the injuries on the team. How the injuries were going to impact the upcoming game and he said this. “You have to play the cards you’re dealt.”

That is an understanding of reality. This is what is happening and realizing the situation that is presenting. The circumstances and the fate over many injuries on your sports team in this case.

You do have to adjust you have to address and you have to move towards the goal. Even if crushing of your business . Crushed by circumstances beyond your grasp, adjust the best you can and move forward.

Seeing The Real World

The key is to see yourself in the situation for what it is and then take action. It is useless standing around wringing your hands. Fretting about the circumstances and fate.

Well, guess what? Circumstances and fate are non-negotiable. These are elements of life and they must be dealt with for what they are. They are unwelcome as they define the terms of your situation. Yes, they are unwelcome and they are defining. Now just like coach Knox said, “You have to play the cards you are dealt.” Yeah, circumstances and fate in an active light.

Some other links that may be of interest to you

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

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