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| Mori-Sensei |
(NOTE: This article was originally published in a martial arts magazine a couple years back. I updated it and thought I would just toss this out for new visitors. Enjoy!)
I get this question a lot from other karate students. I don't find the question bothersome though in the least. It's nice, and kind of flattering too. But behind the question are other questions too, I think. How about, "I wonder if Japanese training is harder/as hard as my training?" Or, "I wonder how tough this guy is. Could I take him in a fight?" Or, "Does this guy Mark think he is hot stuff or what? Man, I hate guys like him!"
I'm going to get to your questions but I would give you some background information first. Let me start from the beginning, especially since it is such a good place to start. My name is Mark Groenewold. I am 34 years old and I live in Japan. I do karate too, with the JKA, and have been at it for about ten years or so, so far. My karate teacher is Takao Taniguchi, and he lives and teaches in Terai-machi, a town about thirty minutes south of Kanazawa city, the capital of Ishikawa prefecture. At present, I am still a ni-dan (after failing my san-dan examination this last spring) and Taniguchi-Sensei has been my teacher since 1992. It has been a great ride so far, and I'm hoping it will continue for as long as I have the strength and will to get out on the dojo floor.
Now to get to your questions.
This is the question I get about the kind of karate training we do. Let me see if I can give you a good visual. As a student, you try your best to be on the dojo floor by 6:30 pm, in your gi and ready to go. The kids class is about to start and even though you are an adult, there's lots for you to learn. So, try to be punctual.
The first fifteen to twenty minutes are spent on warming up. You need to stretch everything from head to toes, so do your best not to rupture anything as Sensei's number one, Mori-Sensei, takes you through a series of brain-bending contortions. Over time you will stop merely begging to quietly curl up in a little ball and die, and may just curse Mori-Sensei's name as the pool of perspiration swells up under you and he isn't even breaking a sweat.
After you think your legs are about to fall off you will do some slow repetitions standing upright while practicing some punching. Here, form is the most critical thing, so go slowly and think about what you are doing. Watch Mori-Sensei's arms and hands move. Watch the positioning of his shoulders. Notice how relaxed he is right up until the snapping out of the punch. Watch your own wrists, relax those shoulders, punch towards the center of your imaginary opponent. Do is slowly. Do is right.
Now we will get into zenkutsu stance and since the dojo is full of kids we will do all the fundamentals (on both sides) on the same spot. This will start slow and then pick up speed. Gedan barai,, age-uke, soto-uke, shutoge, uchi-uke, oizuki, gyakuzuki, the repetitions seem to go on forever. But only thirty minutes have clicked by.
Take a short break. Go and get a drink of water if you need to, but forget about visiting the toilet. A dozen or so little boys are already there ahead of you, so you will just have to hold on until the end of class.
Next we will work on some kata. Or we may do some more kihon if we haven't done enough work with kicks yet. You will just have to wait and see what Mori-Sensei has in mind. The class gets broken up into smaller groups and now that more instructors have shown arrived, you can get a little more personal attention. But you, as an adult student in the kids' class can hang back a bit, do more stretching, check your stances and kihon in the mirror, pound the makiwara, or shake out your stiff and aching joints. In another 10-15 minutes the class joins all together for a cool down. A quick line up, the reading of the dojo-kun, final bows, and we are done.
Oh, but don't get up to go just yet Speedy Gonzalez. The kids go home. The adults, and high school students stay. We're not done yet. The other instructors, along with Taniguchi-Sensei just got here. There's lots of things to do. So if you have to go and pee, please go, but you better hustle back.
We start again with fundamentals-slowly at first, then picking up speed. We try to go through all the blocks, kicks, and punches but sometimes we skip a few. Then we move up and down the floor, developing combinations, picking up speed. The junior instructors harass the students, correcting, pushing a little, but mostly encouraging the good things that are coming out of the students. Maybe they are standing on your back heel so you don't pick it up. Maybe they have their hands on your shoulders as you move so you don't rise in your stance. Maybe they are showing you how to better shift your weight by standing right in front of you pointing to things you are getting to tired to remember. The sweat should be pouring out of you by now. Just try to keep your back straight, eyes ahead of you, and think about what you are doing. Don't forget to move your hips just like you are being shown. Taniguchi-Sensei is now shouting at you to keep your heels down.
After the fundamentals, we do some basics in sparring. No partners yet, just more moving up and down the floor several times. Jabs, jabs with gyakuzuki, two gyakuzuki combinations, jab with mae-mawashigeri, gyakuzuki with ushiro-mawashigeri, it goes on and on. Mori-Sensei is fanatical about maai, but never barks at the students. He just says, as he is standing in front of you, waiting for your attack, "Too close, too close!"
Standing in front of his victim of choice with focus pads, Taniguchi-Sensei will just say, "Da-me, da-me? chikara ga nai!", "No good, no good? you've got no power." The students now just try to get through the next sequence, pushing a little harder, wishing with all their heart that Sensei will move to the next student, so they can pull back just a little.
Once we are finished with some of the "kihon of kumite", we break up into groups. Most of the girls and women are off to one side to work on kata, and the boys and men put on their hand protectors (ken-sapo) to get ready to spar.
After another 30-40 minutes or so we are ready to stop. The clock is creeping up on 9:00 pm so when Mori-Sensei and Taniguchi-Sensei figure that we've had enough it's time to pack it in. Go home and soak your sore body in the tub. Clean the dirt out of the cuts in your feet. Find a bag of frozen peas in the ice-box and put it on your elbows or knees. You did well. You stuck through it. Make sure you come on Thursday and Saturday too.
It could very well be. I think that it depends on what kind of training you do, with what intensity , and how your club treats people with injuries.
Personally, I have seen karate clubs in Canada that were every bit as tough and hard as what we do in Japan, sometimes tougher. But sometimes what is awesome in ferocity, effort, and spirit, may be short on technical finesse in proper punches, blocks, and kicks. Taniguchi-Sensei has often commented to me that although it is very impressive to see karate-ka go "all out", it amounts to very little if there is little in terms of proper technique. He always emphasizes perfect form first, then speed, then power. This order cannot be changed at all and seem to be the immutable trinity of his methodology.
This is the silent question I often get when visiting dojo in Canada. The question is not usually stated like this, but rather, is put forth like, "Say Mark, why don't we do a little sparring together?"
I have to confess that if you took the top 100 karate guys in Canada and I had to fight the bottom guy, he'd probably kick my ass. I mean, I don't think that I am a feather-weight or anything. I'm tall, 220 lbs, in pretty good shape, and can be wickedly mean, but it is just that there are a lot of good karate guys out there who are quicker, stronger, and have better senses of maai. I am sure that any of those guys can teach me a whole lot about karate.
I hope that answers your question a little.
No, I don't think I am hot stuff. But then again, I am also not someone who is full of "false modesty". Frankly, I think that I am just plain lucky. I really think that I am the luckiest Western karate-ka to ever do karate in Japan. Bar none. I didn't do anything to deserve it. It was fate, kismet, destiny, fortune, or anything else you want to call it.
My mother has always told me that I was the luckiest out of her five kids. The Dutch have an expression for it and my mother says to me, "You are the boy whose bum always lands in butter." I think that this loses something in the translation. But if you ever need your frying pans greased, just bring them over to my place and I will see what I can do.
But seriously, I have yet to meet any other karate-ka who has been able to sustain as long a relationship of friendship and goodwill with a Japanese karate instructor in Japan, and yet be completely isolated from the politics and in-fighting that is rampant in the karate world. Taniguchi-Sensei is not only my karate teacher, but he is also my friend. We get along like a house on fire and I can't count the number of times he has had me laughing to the point of tears. He has told me that I am like his "younger brother". You can't imagine how touching it is to hear that.
Taniguchi-Sensei, a 6th dan in the JKA, is a masterful instructor. Intelligent, gentle, and full of mirth, the only thing that surpasses his karate is his humanity and generosity. Mori-Sensei, a 4th dan in the JKA, was in his heyday ranked in the best 8 kumite competitors of the nation. Last year, in the annual Masters Tournament, he came in first. His calm demeanor, soft-spokeness, and good humor are matched by his ferocity and incredible speed on the floor. He is Taniguchi-Sensei's number one for all the best reasons.
So I guess that as for myself, I am anything but "hot stuff". But if you are looking for "lucky stuff", I'm your guy.
In short, when I think about "What's it like?" I have a lot of different responses. At times I am not sure where to begin. The experiences of being here in Japan and training with some wonderful karate teachers overwhelms me, surprises me, and continually gives me wonderful and delightful gifts. Sure, it can be hard training, but the rewards outweigh the hardships ten-fold.
So, if you are able to form such a bond with your own karate teacher, and to find joy in your own training I think that you will be in good company and learn some important things that will equip you in all areas of life. I hope that you are able to meet positive and thoughtful instructors where you train, that you will see karate with the same joy and gratefulness that I do, and that your bum may always land in butter.
Best regards,
Mark Groenewold
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