Old style karate is just that, old. This is not a condemnation of traditional karate, so before you dismiss what I say take a moment a read on. The silo of classic training tools. Posts driven into the ground to make for movement and balance drills is an example. Or the classic stone lever, called Chishi.
These tools are two examples of found elements. You find what you have around you and make do with that element. You use the item to further your training. It is resourceful and that is attractive.
Romanticizing history in by its nature incomplete, it’s putting select views into silos. Romanticizing karate is a real as a Harlequin Romance novel.
The idea that traditional karate read that as old style karate, is bad. Not in principle but the silos in which aspects of that art exist are insufficient.
If you are looking for a specific, “Stop doing that, this is wrong,” no, I’m not going that direction. I’m asking for dilation of your view of karate training.
An example of how old-style karate needs a view expansion is by using the analogy of flight. The Wight Brother pulled of the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk North Carolina in 1903. Since we have added radial engines to aircraft, then inline engines to reduce drag. Pulse Jet, Ramjet, Turbine engines, and more.
Evolution is Success, Even in Old Style Karate
Ailerons have replaced twisting the wings to turn. If the fixed wing-powered flight was a failed platform it would not evolve, but it did evolve. You can point to the progress of aircraft design. The car, the microwave, vaccines, these all have successful progressions, evolution.
A computer you wear on your wrist observing your bioactivity is incredible. The adage, “What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done,” fits here. You can now measure parts of your workout that only a medical specialist once possessed.
Adaptability and Focus
Watch Sandra Sanchez, world kata champion training routine here.
You will see the adoption of tools and techniques used in ways the masters never dreamed.
And it’s good.
We understand much more about human performance, physiology, and even sleep. Sanchez is a champion and hasn’t thrown out old style karate, she has improved it with modern means.
The Example of Sleep Being Important
Enjoy this segment from the Joe Rogan Podcast. This is Matthew Walker a professor of neuroscience at the University of California. The 8-minute segment will change your view on sleep, or sharpen what you already know.
Again, no specific recommendation other than one. Be a seeker of new or improved methods. New or improved methods of learning, training, and thinking. Don’t forsake the old methods, but do evolve. Just like the aircraft, the wings are still wings, but the performance is worlds apart.
We have learned more about flight in 118 years since the Wright Brothers flight than birds have learned in their entire evolution. That is a sign of adaptability and intelligence. We should do our best to live healthy lives. We should avail ourselves of every opportunity to do so and neither dream romantically nor silo our art.
Here are few other blogs and podcasts you will find interesting
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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.