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.
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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.