Drills, whether practical or not, are often shown through demonstration. If you want to explain a movement or an idea, you need a partner, and at some level that partner has to cooperate for the demonstration to take place. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself. The problem starts when that cooperation isn’t recognized for…
Tag: Zanshin
Step-Kumite Isn’t the Problem – Misunderstanding It Is
Karate doesn’t fail people – unclear goals do. My page is predominantly about practical, pragmatic karate. It says so right at the top. So naturally, everything I write comes from that context. And from that perspective, something all of us have had to practice and learn at one time in our karate journey – step-kumite…
When Rank Loses Its Meaning
In the world of martial arts, grades are often viewed as a reflection of a practitioner’s journey – a blend of technical ability, deeper understanding, and personal character. Yet, from time to time, we come across individuals whose grade far outweighs their actual ability, knowledge, or behavior. And when that happens, it’s hard not to…
Basics: More Than Just Technique
One of the biggest challenges for any instructor is keeping students focused on the basics. Why is this important? Because without a good solid foundation, everything built on top of it eventually starts to give way. It might not be obvious at first. In fact, it often looks quite the opposite. People get faster, sharper,…
Kicking in Karate: A Question of Context
In the modern dojo, it’s common to see almost every combination include a kick somewhere within it. That isn’t accidental. It reflects the influence of competitive environments, where kicking plays a significant role. At a high level, competitors are exceptional athletes. They have the timing, flexibility, balance, and conditioning to apply kicks in ways that…
Standards Don’t Judge You – They Reveal You
Every dojo has its own rhythm, its own expectations, its own way of doing things. Mine is simple: if you train here, you show up. Not perfectly, not endlessly, not more than your life allows – just consistently. Recently someone suggested that expecting this might be a “privileged stance that lacks empathy”, or that speaking…
Tensho: Why So Many Versions?
I was practicing the kata Tensho recently – actually one of my favorite kata – and it got me thinking about its many variations. Not because it looks impressive, or because there’s a lot going on. In fact, it’s the opposite. There’s very little there on the surface. The movements are small, controlled, and repetitive….
Kata Isn’t the Problem – Misunderstanding It Is
Here we go again. Every time I write about the benefits of kata – really trying to help people understand what it is and how it works – someone shows up in the comments to tell me to go and do ‘real training’. This time it was someone proudly talking about his ‘street-real’ jiu-jitsu and…
One Day With a Great Teacher?
Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher. It sounds right. It feels right, and most people accept it without question. But taken as it stands, it isn’t quite true. There’s no doubt that teachers can change the direction of someone’s training. Most of us can think of…
Applications – You Have to Find Them
Before I get into this article, here’s a question. As a child, who taught you to walk? Many of us want to understand the movements in kata, and there is an assumption that someone will show us what they mean. The reality is that being shown is not necessarily a requirement, and in many cases,…
What Survives at 95?
I watched a 95-year-old Okinawan Uechi-ryu master recently performing Sanseiryu, Shintoku Takara, and it stayed with me longer than I expected. Not because of anything dramatic, but because of how little seemed to be happening on the surface. There was no urgency, no obvious effort, and none of the exaggerated movement that people often associate with…
When Power Becomes Performance
Do you watch a kata and, at first glance, it looks impressive – snappy, powerful – but something about the function just feels wrong? The techniques look powerful, but only because the body is being overused to make them look that way. Big shoulder rotation. Excessive upper body movement. A visible “back and forth” to…