Creating a Style

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In essence all you need is a strong understanding of the fundamental principles that drive multiple fense methodologies using all the types of forces, i.e., spiraling, scissoring, carving, vibrating, and sheering, etc. This is a finite set of principled methodologies of force that are present and unchanged/unchangeable to every form of physical combative systems or styles.

I quote, “We humans exchange all sorts of information by the exchange of signals with each other, symbols we share in word form or in the nonverbal realm of eye contact, facial expression, tone of voice, posture, and gesture. It is an exchange of energy and information flow and it is this sharing that shapes how the flow is regulated.”

To create a style you merely have to put a unique personal spin on how you apply these principles methodologies of force to achieve your self-fense goals. You can add in unique terms and names and symbols that represent this uniqueness so that it appears and is perceived as something special, unique and different from what everyone else is doing. 

When I continuously study other Okinawan karate styles or systems I see differences yet when I look underneath I see exactly the same principles, senses and forces used to apply those different applications and techniques. 

If you want to win some competitive contest your gaol will always be, “To Win.” Yet, you may describe the strategies and tactics differently than your opponent yet in the end the underlying goal for both competitors would be, “To Win.” It is the same principle as I describe above, it is the creation of a book cover that is perceived and distinguished as “Different and Unique” but in essence the pages in the book all contain the same material or story. 

Humans want to be special, they want to be unique and they want that special uniqueness to help them stand out as to others so that they may achieve a higher status - all of this is about human species survival instincts and drives. In the end, there is absolutley nothing wrong with this but don’t fool yourself into thinking it actually makes you better, it doesn’t.

So, if you have a mastery of the fundamental principles of karate and martial arts self-fense, sport competition, combatives or just fighting along with the types and levels of forces and those pesky basic senses or sense systems to perceive, have ideas, perform idea/theory analysis to create through synthesis that cover page along with awareness, observation skills, accumulated creative action triggers and tapes so that you act appropriately to the facts of situations then go right ahead - create your own style!

Hat tip (Ritsu-rei) to <Shinseidokan Dojo Blog by Michael Clarke Sensei> as the inspiration for this post.

Bibliography (Click the link)

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)

My Way or the Highway!

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In a recent, and slowly fading blog site, article written at the Shinseidokan Dojo blog the blog author, Micheal Clarke Sensei, stated, “If you're not practicing <enter your style/system name here> the way we do it, then you're doing it all wrong!” Note: this quote is taken completely out of its intended intent in his article but I do this to express an opinion on JUST the QUOTE simply because I have heard this stated so many times it is no longer funny - especially in my core system of karate called Isshinryu. 

As Clarke Sensei mentions, breathtaking level of arrogance, seems to fit regardless of whether I present his original articles intent or my own for there is no conceivable way that humans can stay in exact accordance with the way someone teaches and practices a karate style or system. Especially when a Sensei, used loosely as a term or title here, starts to nick-pick the way a practitioner is doing something such as basics. 

Humans, according to the research I have studied on the brain and on how we use it and its memory processes, cannot truly record and regurgitate exactness, as in scientific forms of exactness, in either memory, spoken and performance of such things as karate. We can come pretty darn close but in truth that can always be contested. Our memories, regardless of what we think or believe, are not exact enough and for good reasons, it is how nature created our brains to work toward our survival. To become mired in exactness without some form or ongoing and instant creativeness when using such “Memories” we would still be on the plains of the Serengeti hunting and gathering in small tribes wearing close to nothing. 

It is very ability to create from teachings through analysis, an individual effort, and then synthesis, an individual benefit, in creating what works for us and  especially in applications that are the very reasons why I study, train and practice my karate. Even in a group, a dojo you can say, where the system or style is the same for all who enter the hall is always going to be influenced by each individual according to their cultural belief systems built over their lives that effect and influence how we learn and apply teachings such as karate. 

The only way one can actually “make it work” in reality is to learn the fundamental principles underlying all the manifestations of basics, techniques, drills, etc., in a creative spontaneous way because adherence to a particular, one way only, of how one person does it kills the creative side because that person or persons become so entranced and enfolded in anothers dogmatic pedestal  like group control dynamic they spend all their energy focused on the how of a singularly ineffective way of doing it “Right” over doing it effectively they get lost and suppress all creativity. 

As to other reasons why this seems to be of great importance is control, someone or something or some group create this type of practice and training under the guise and heading of remaining true to the master syndrome that they create a model that they need so that they can control the tribe, the group or the “Kai,” so to speak. Note: this is not always true because there are those who work to teach the basics, etc. in a way that keeps the style or system stable while promoting and mentoring the student toward a more creative expression of their interpretations of the system or style because that is a true way to study, learn and apply karate, etc. 

If I were looking for a dojo today regardless of the style or system I would look for one that fosters, promotes and encourages deviation from a rigid performance to a more chaotic creative free style form of application that depends on adherence to principles that are immovable yet pliable to the individual and their interpretations of karate, a living karate. Not a dead, plastic, controlled form of karate where any deviation is used to beat the practitioner down into submission in the name of staying true to a heritage that was not meant to be restricted, obscured or obfuscated, i.e., by its adherence to perceived clarity, complicated and honored adherence to one persons interpretation to the exclusion to all else, to the reality of karate practice.  

In closing, again taken out of its original context, I quote Clarke Sensei, “You can't gain height by pulling others down. You can't claim authenticity if you're worried what others think. You can't  apply karate if your head is full of techniques. You can't pretend to be a leader when you yourself are lost. You can't know the things you never struggled for long enough to learn. Short cuts lead to quick results, but none that last. Growing older is not the same as growing up!”

Hat tip (Ritsu-rei) to <Shinseidokan Dojo Blog by Michael Clarke Sensei> as the inspiration for this post.

The post in question I used can be read here: HERE

Bibliography (Click the link)

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)

The Deep Mind

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The deep mind that is older than language. Language is an overlay, so that it usually obscures or overlays all the ancient language in the human mind.

We trigger from sensory stimuli ancient deep mind activity that triggers language of the human mind to something simpler and understandable to our modern mind for understanding beyond nature's instinctual survival needs. Look at the overlay of language as a means of communications that enhances the survival of our species. Humans tend toward simplicity because it is this activity of the mind, as presented best by Colonel Boyd’s OODA loop, that uses terse triggers to get actions moving faster, faster than an adversary. If I had to use an analogy it is our human logical brain exchanging information with our lizard brain yet the lizard still receives data from that deep mind that spans back into the animal age of the cave dwelling neanderthals. 

Modern language is by far our greatest evolutionary process that allowed humans to adjust for progressively more modern ways of life. For instance, without the evolution of the brain toward a higher level of language our species would never have achieved the industrial to Internet revolutions that drive our lives today. 

As evolution began to layer, our ancient deep mind slowly ebbed and became part of the background noise, the air we breathe, gravity; it is just there and we have to learn to listen. 

The deep mind shapes us without our conscious understanding of how we are being shaped. This ignorance and growing disconnect is wreaking havoc on our modern way of life threatening to send our species spiraling back to our base beginnings. 

It is that deep mind, where a type of ancient language not of mere words resides, where our minds analyze and synthesize great arts and things that seem to come from mysterious sources.

It is our goal in karate and martial arts disciplines to reconnect our three brains, i.e., the human, the monkey and the lizard, to that deeper mind and that older language that is not a language as we understand and that is not the mind we perceive as our human mind. We want to go deeper than instincts, deeper than the lizard and we want to train and condition the three to communicate with our deep mind so as to speed up the loop even faster than the blink of an eye. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)