I was just walking in the woods with my wife. We love to get out in nature and train, so to speak, on the mountain paths. We've both been training about 8 years in Shotokan karate, but came on a situation and were untrained for the circumstances.
As we came around the corner, we came nearly face-to-face with a cinnamon bear (technically a black bear). We were within 10 feet and could see that he was huge, probably 300 pounds, beautiful, the morning sun was at a low angle and backlit his bushy fur, and his hunched shoulders made him look unopposedly powerful. And he seemed totally unafraid.
His lack of fear contrasted my reaction. I can't say I was afraid, but I could feel the adrenaline kicking up. I knew not to turn my back on any opponent - and I did consider him an opponent, but also knew not to engage to provoke a reaction. I kept talking to him, using a light command voice to create a boundary. He just stared back. I called to my wife to get closer to me and we made ourselves larger as a pair.
The bear just stared, and then apparently unimpressed, turned his back and wandered of in search of food. He looked back a few times, so we must have made some impression on him, but was largely unconcerned and sauntered rather than jogged away.
In my first draft of this story, I used the phrase "unprepared for the encounter", but as I typed, I realized that wasn't true. I changed the phrase to untrained meaning that we never explicitly trained for a bear encounter. I realized, however, that karate has prepared us, even for the unexpected, even if imperfectly.
Our training taught us how to react to situations. We had to control our adrenaline, to analyze a situation quickly, and to generate options. We also knew that while we felt some fear, we had to communicate total commitment to a possible showdown. I don't believe the bear was belligerent, but don't know if a fearful response on our part might have triggered an agressive response, either.
Should I run? Definitely not. Scream louder, maybe. Wave my arms? Maybe. Grab a stick? I should have. What I did do, depended on his reaction to us. I knew that many charges are bluffs, and was ready.
In the end, we both walked away, both unwilling (or at least uninterested) in tangling with the other. I'll claim it as a win. We reacted well, and won by not fighting.
Friday, May 25, 2007
The Karate Hobby
I was speaking to a group of senseis and we were talking about all the amazing things we'd seen from the masters. Sensei Tim described a story down in Phoenix of one of Funakoshi's students who is now a master in his own right.
The master was sparring a black belt student, dove between his legs and wound up behind him. Normally, this would be an insane move, but it was done so fluidly, that no one watching was quite sure how it happened.
Astounded, the student said, "that was awesome - how did you do that?" The answer was, "for you, karate is just a hobby."
We talked some more about that, figuring that this master was dedicated each day to karate, perhaps for the entire day. We then asked ourselves, are we willing to pay the price it would take to get that good at something? Is that what separates the masters from the rest of us hobbyists?
We all agreed to be amazed, and also that we were indeed, just hobbyists.
The master was sparring a black belt student, dove between his legs and wound up behind him. Normally, this would be an insane move, but it was done so fluidly, that no one watching was quite sure how it happened.
Astounded, the student said, "that was awesome - how did you do that?" The answer was, "for you, karate is just a hobby."
We talked some more about that, figuring that this master was dedicated each day to karate, perhaps for the entire day. We then asked ourselves, are we willing to pay the price it would take to get that good at something? Is that what separates the masters from the rest of us hobbyists?
We all agreed to be amazed, and also that we were indeed, just hobbyists.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Karate, youtube.com, and MABOK
Youtube.com has been a boon to the internet world, but if you've spent any time on it, you know there's a problem: anybody can post anything.
How do you sort the good from the bad? User ratings may help, but it'd be even more helpful to have discussion pages, surrounding text, explanations, and the like.
In learning or training anything, and for the purposes of this blog, karate in particular, it's very important to train properly from the begining since it's harder to shed bad habits than to learn them.
At karateforge.com, where I do most of my web editing, we're building a website that expands on the good of youtube (widely available user-generated videos), and adds to it. Through wiki pages, forums we select the best videos, and add to them the context and discussion needed to understand the proper execution of karate techniques as well as injury prevention and discussion of application. This website is called MABOK, the martial arts book of knowledge, and we invite knowledgeable contributors.
Another weakness of videos in general is the problem of individual authorship or single point of view. This problem is that a single individual often does not have the same experience as a group of authors. A video is also difficult to contribute to without surrounding tools like forums, so collective authorship is not possible on youtube.com.
A social collaboration site, like Karateforge, addresses the single point of view problem by integrating multiple viewpoints with a higher probability of correctness in the result.
Improtant note: in any training, videos and even collective how-to, may be insufficient to guarantee safety. Quality innformation coupled with proper instruction is the best approach to learning without wasting time or risking injury.
How do you sort the good from the bad? User ratings may help, but it'd be even more helpful to have discussion pages, surrounding text, explanations, and the like.
In learning or training anything, and for the purposes of this blog, karate in particular, it's very important to train properly from the begining since it's harder to shed bad habits than to learn them.
At karateforge.com, where I do most of my web editing, we're building a website that expands on the good of youtube (widely available user-generated videos), and adds to it. Through wiki pages, forums we select the best videos, and add to them the context and discussion needed to understand the proper execution of karate techniques as well as injury prevention and discussion of application. This website is called MABOK, the martial arts book of knowledge, and we invite knowledgeable contributors.
Another weakness of videos in general is the problem of individual authorship or single point of view. This problem is that a single individual often does not have the same experience as a group of authors. A video is also difficult to contribute to without surrounding tools like forums, so collective authorship is not possible on youtube.com.
A social collaboration site, like Karateforge, addresses the single point of view problem by integrating multiple viewpoints with a higher probability of correctness in the result.
Improtant note: in any training, videos and even collective how-to, may be insufficient to guarantee safety. Quality innformation coupled with proper instruction is the best approach to learning without wasting time or risking injury.
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