BLOG – Page 6 – 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.

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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 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

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KRIS WILDER

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December 1, 2020December 25, 2020

Karate Bunkai And What You Find Out

Karate Bunkai and what you find out is pinched from Archeology. In the archeological world, there is a saying about discoveries. “It’s not what you find, it’s what you find out.” What the archeologists are saying is important to the karate world. Stay with me because there is much to learn from this analogy.

A Dinosaur Skull

Think of the discovery of a skull. A dinosaur skull, call it a Prognathodon Giganteus, the skull is an adult about 30 inches long. A nasty critter. But the one you found is about half that size. The questions arise. Is this a juvenile? or is this an adult that experienced malnutrition? Is the skull part of a heretofore unknown species?

The, skull, the content is in place. Next is the context that begins to answer some of the questions. The smaller skull was found in North America. North America is not usual African areas larger skulls have been found. The Archeologist has not just found a small skull and that is that. No, they begin to go after the information in the surrounding area like a forensic detective.

The Forensic Detective

The forensic detective can go far in analyzing a crime scene. They will check not only the caliber of a round found at a crime scene but also the angle the bullet entered the victim. Things like the distortion of the bullet are also important. The bullet may upon closer examination be a type of bullet last manufactured in 1953. Further that bullet may be a military issue only.

In both of these situations, the story is interesting and appears complex. Yet in the discovery the elements come together for clarity, they fit together not being complex, but clear.

Karate bunkai should get observed in the same manner. “It’s not what you find, it’s what you find out.”

Diagnosis From A Distance

A technique, a counter may work in a static position, but what if the attacker is coming in hot? Or about any combination you can contrive. Pick one and test that new finding. Move from what you found to what you found out. What if you found out that in ten different permutations of this attack the defense works in one, just one situation. What can you draw from this? If I told you it doesn’t work, I would be making a massive leap. I simply do not know all of the variables. You are present, you are seeing it, feeling it.

There Is More

Karate Bunkai and what you find out raises other questions, but let’s keep the focus on the finding of nine out of ten failures. That failure rate can’t be overlooked. It is like the archeologist saying, “This skull must have gotten washed to the midwestern plains of America from the African continent. “Well, now, solving that, what’s for lunch?”

Or an even more ridiculous would be the forensic detective saying, “Looks like suicide, both rounds are to the skull.”

These are solutions for convenience. Do not ever get trapped by this. I don’t have a matrix for you to download, and I don’t have a flow chart, but I do have a recommendation. Be critical and pretend to be an Analogy Criminal Forensicologist. Of course, that is an absurd name. The idea however is far from absurd.

Here is your new motto for the next few classes, “It’s not what you find, it’s what you find out.”

You may enjoy these links as well.

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KRIS WILDER

November 30, 2020December 25, 2020

I Lost My Karate Teacher

I lost my karate teacher. It happens. That is the short answer. Further, you are not going to get a tab “A’ fits slot “B” solution here. You’re going to get something bigger. The understanding that being at a loss is part of the journey. Loss is part of the martial arts journey.

Eventually, almost everybody loses their instructor. And it is a good thing. Let me build you a bridge using the music industry, “A strange correlation,” you say, but no it’s not.

Rick Rubin Has Thoughts

Rick Rubin, the former co-president of Columbia Records, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings. He has worked with the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. His accolades run deep.

Rubin while talking with Mike Campbell, guitarist for the Heartbreakers, offered this view. “I don’t think a producer should work with a band on more than two albums.” This is a long way of getting to the point, familiarity can build staleness. A paint by numbers process that is death to the creative process.

You Are At Loose Ends

How you lost your teacher can be important. The results however are the same, you are at loose ends.

Here is the mistake that is often made. You want to recreate your experience. If a senior student takes over the school because the instructor has passed away, or moved. Know the school is not going to be the same. You lost your old teacher. If you have to move it is natural to seek out a similar style or a teacher within your existing art.

You will not find the experience at the dojo with the senior student the same as it was in the past. It can’t be. If you are looking for a similar style you won’t find it.

Take Rick Rubin’s advice. This is a time to find a new experience. Do not reach back in time and seek the old experience, move onto the new. Do not discard your previous knowledge. Build on it.

Be creative with the moment. Go ahead and move forward. It is uncomfortable but that is what the memes all say right? Something like, “Growth is found in the uncomfortable.” Rick Rubin recommends it; you likely have had it forced upon you. Go ahead and get uncomfortable. You may be saying, “I Lost My Karate Teacher.”

Or it’s a new horizon of creativity and experience.

Here are some other posts you may find valuable.

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KRIS WILDER

November 29, 2020December 25, 2020

The Award You Do Not Want In Martial Arts

The award you do not want in the Martial Arts. The argument about your restrictions is a losing proposition. Sitting at the coffee shop with a buddy, he recognized a friend of his I didn’t know. He calls her over and in the course of the first thirty seconds of the meeting I learned of her malady, bad knees. She had always had them and it has limited her participation in physical activities. I was learning this in the first thirty seconds of our meeting.

He Story Was About Her Restrictions

She led with her malady. He story was about her restrictions. She wouldn’t have shared this with me if she didn’t think It made her special. I didn’t respond to the revelation of her bad knees; I jumped past the topic of her knees and went straight to her work. Over time I am learning to hold my tongue on occasion.

Special In Her Malady

What she said to me when we met and what I heard were different things. She wanted to be special in her malady I saw her as weak. A harsh response held inside my mind and not spoken. Yes, it could be harsh, but it is not if you shape it this way. “You led with your problem in an attempt to be special. What brings you to this point?” “Is this your only power?” Every person on Earth has issues, some are large, some permanent and some are passing. You are special, but not that special.

You get to keep the prize, whatever it is when you argue on behalf of your issues. It’s the award you do not want.

YouTube Lessons

Some of the most popular martial arts videos on YouTube are ones of people overcoming. The videos of a person is doing their version of their art despite limitations. I don’t need to list them, because you have seen them. “Kudos!” we say at the one-legged karate-ka kicking while on crutches, “You are an inspiration!” is the response to the 80-year-old first time black belt. “Well done!” to the child doing a kata competition while wearing an oxygen tank.

Not once has anybody said, “That’s awesome you decided not to take part because your knees hurt, here’s a gold medal.”

Balance These Things

I am not advocating for damaging behavior. Reckless acts that you will pay for in the future. And I am not suggesting one should lose their compassion. Balance these things.

You will get no gold medal, no accolades for leading with your problem. It is not the way we are built as humans. We have our moments, our failures, but they should be short-lived, not lived into.

Lead with your malady, and win the shallowest of prizes, pity. The award you do not want in the Martial Arts.

A few other posts you may want to pursue.

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KRIS WILDER

November 28, 2020December 25, 2020

Break The Karate Rules

Break the karate rules. Breaking what appears to be a rule is important. Here is how you, as a martial artist can break free of stifling rules that may not aide you in your martial arts journey.

Rory Miller’s Permission sheet

This is Rory Miller’s Permission sheet. The permission sheet has been in use for many years. but it is always good to dust it off and get it out there for people to get exposure to it.

The premise, and I love this, is to break out of your conditioned responses to authority.

This little document isn’t about being a contrarian. Pushing back to push back, that is childlike. This permission sheet is about becoming one’s self. You know that real self, through expansion, thought and deed. Especially in the martial arts area.

As a student of anything, and I do mean anything, hold this template up to your instructor. Do they meet the criteria?

And because this is about personal responsibility. When you hold this document up in the mirror, do you make the grade?

The Permission sheet follows below. Know these are not my words, but Rory’s I did not write them, but I sure like them.

Roy Miller using attacking elbow — Rory Miller greeting a friend

PERMISSION (To Break The Karate Rules)

This is something I give my students. Sometimes I ask, “Why didn’t you…?” reach for a weapon, use a preemptive strike, run, call for help…

And the students says, “I didn’t know I could.” For the longest time, I assumed that meant the student had never considered it or didn’t know how… it didn’t occur to me that they thought it might be forbidden.

These are things that should never need to be said but still must, because there is power in the words.

You have permission to defend yourself.

You have permission to be rude.

You have permission to survive, no matter what it takes.

You have permission to act when the scary man reaches for his belt. You do not need to wait until he draws the weapon or until he points it at you or until he hurts you. You have permission to act.

You have permission to beat me, even if I wear a blackbelt.

You have permission to become better than the best instructor you ever had.

You have permission to invent something better than I ever taught you, and permission to use it in my class and permission to use it to defeat me and permission to teach it to your students.

You have blanket permission to grow and live and survive and fight and run and scream and talk and play and laugh and learn and experiment.

You have permission to win, and you have permission to decide what winning is. Be amazing!

-Rory

You can find Rory here at his website

https://www.chirontraining.com/

Below are two links to podcast interviews with Rory. Each is about an hour long. Enjoy.

Podcast #1 Rory Miller & Violence Dynamics

Podcast #2 Rory Miller – Clarity

Here are a few other topics you may find of interest.

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KRIS WILDER