This Question and Answer section was done through email, so the responses to the questions are
not necessarily what readers of magazines expect, compete with sound-effects like laughter, or
the designation of pauses in responses. Dr. Schmeisser has been kind enough to respond to some
questions about his work, his passion for karate, and his writing. These are the questions that
UPJ has put out to the author and these are the responses that we have received. Enjoy it
for what it is—getting to know the author better.
Let’s get started:
What were you like as a kid?
As an only child and an immigrant, I was a loner, bookish and non-athletic, heavily into
science fiction - the quintessential geek.
What interested you in karate initially? What got you started?
There was a demo I saw in high school, that looked interesting, and that sparked the
interest. It just looked "neat." Since it wasn't a team sport, but an piece of individualistic
esoterica, it fitted my mind perfectly.
You trained under Nishiyama for some time, tell us about that.
After high school, I went to UCSD, and they had a PE program in karate (1968). Nishiyama came down
on Thursday afternoons to teach during the school year; Tuesday and Saturday classes were done
by the resident black belts. Nishiyama had actually taken on the UCSD club on a bet, as I recall.
He was at the time working the AAKF national collegiate system, and was essentially telling all
the other instructors in the west coast region that they weren't training their teams correctly.
So they told him, in essence, that if he thought he could do it better than they, he should take
the worst team and make it the best. He took the bet - UCSD was the worst team, and in 3 years we
became the national collegiate champions. So he was committed to our training, as you might guess.
When I was a brown belt (junior year), the team members were training 20 hours a week, and
Thursday's were intense. The Beginner's class started at 3:00 pm, and we were expected to be there
as demo dummies and "helpers." Regular class went from 4 to 5 and team training from 5 to 6. Then
we took him to dinner. At 7:30 the University Extension class started, and went through 2 hours
(general and advanced). Then we took him back to the airport and sat with him until he boarded the
commuter flight back to LA. Finally fell into bed sometime around 11:00 pm. I did do school work
during those years also, by the way.
Why did you decide to pursue karate elsewhere beyond what you found with Nishiyama?
It was actually a combination of circumstances - I graduated from UCSD in 1972, and went to the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst. There was no shotokan club there at the time, so I located
a club in Springfield, that really taught judo, with karate on the sidelines. I took over the karate
classes there, but the dojo owner actually trained Shukokai with the late Shigeru Kimura, who lived
in New Jersey at the time. The combination of judo and shukokai "opened" my shotokan training, and
when I left UM with a master's in 1974, I spend a short week at Kimura's dojo, getting intensively
"corrected." That week revolutionized my karate, and broke it out of style name boundaries. When I
returned to California, I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and trained for a short while with
Haramoto. Haramoto had inherited the Stanford University club from a pair of Japanese seniors
(another Kimura and a man by the name of Hitai) whom I had trained with during the summers while
I was an undergraduate. Suffice it to say that Haramoto worked to get rid of everyone who
predated his arrival in the club; I also left. That brough me in contact with other traditional
karate styles and people: Isao Wada of Renshinkan, then Chuck Okimura of Shotokan of Hawaii, and
finally Leroy Rodrigues from Shorinjiryu. I have never looked back.
You have also studied aikido. How did you start into that?
When I was a brown belt at UCSD, I trained a little judo on the side, and saw an aikido class
that had the wrestling room on the alternate nights. It intrigued me, but the instructor told
me that I should complete my shodan in karate before looking at others. I took that advice.
It wasn't until after my nidan, and in Florida that I took up aikido again. At first it was
simply on the off nights from the karate dojo. Then the big USA split happened (AAKF vs ISKF),
and a lot of pressure was placed on people to chose sides. I didn't, and simply withdrew from
the karate scene in 1978/79 and went into aikido full time. When I graduated from UF with a
PhD in December 1980, I left that behind as well, and went back to karate during my various
duty stations. I had another year of intensive aikido practice when I first came to Kentucky in
1987, and then another 4 plus years in San Antonio until I left there in 1997.
How do you either separate or join karate and aikido in your study and practice?
I use the aikido "kihon" (fundamental techniques) as well as the basic judo throws to illuminate
the applications implied in the kata movements. So I incorporate the basic aikido and judo techniques
into specific classes to teach my students this physical "vocabulary." We don't spend a lot of
time on it, i.e. I don't intend my classes to make anyone skilled at aikido or judo (it is after
all a karate class), but I want them to have a familiarity with them, and be able to apply them
to some extent.
What is your response to people who say that karate is lousy exercise?
Exercise per se is not the purpose for which one should get into karate.
What was it that first got you interested in exploring “bunkai?”
Part of that comes from the way my mind works - recall that I am an academic, and a scientist
at that: I need to know the how and why of things, and how they interrelate. It was a fortuitous
intersection of a solo practice of the opening movements from heian yondan and a memory of
doing the same movements as a juji-nage in aikido that made the connection for me. That
intersection showed me that the kata contained techniques that were more than punch/kick, but
also incorporated aikido and judo. After that, it was like being a kid in a candy store - I just
had to work through the kata and find these things.
Why did you explore the Tekki kata before doing work with Channan?
I knew tekki long before I learned channan, and had done the bunkai work on tekki already.
So it was just happenstance that channan came along later.
Tell our new readers what Channan is all about, in your own words?
What can I say? Read the book.
There seems to be two different approaches to how “bunkai” ought to evolve: the punch-grab-strike
vs. the hit-hit-hit school. What is your approach?
Attack (the attacking limb), attach (generally by grabbing the opponent), disable
(probably with strikes), finish (generally with a lock or a throw); so closer to your first
example than your second.
Your book Advanced Karate Do is pretty thick reading. Any chance of a re-write to make it easier
for newbies to karate?
Nope - there are lots of books for newbies; advanced books are for advanced people.
You have the designation of master teacher under your belt. Who teaches you? Who pushes you to
the “next level”? Is there a “next level”?
After some 3+ decades, one teaches oneself, and validates what one learns via one's peers. Further,
one stays connected to students of all levels, including beginners, and encourages "awkward"
questions. Only through these kinds of questions can one be pushed forward. And there is always
something that can be done better.
Your interests in karate seem to extend beyond a Shotokan-only approach. Where do you draw your
information from? And how does this multi-style approach to karate affect your own training
and teaching?
I draw information from where-ever I can find it. I teach on a shotokan based curriculum,
and my testing curriculum is JKA based, but the main result of my multi-style experience is
that I am less fussy about rigid adherence to some shotokan standard shape, and more interested
in shotokan power and movement. I see karate techniques as verbs, and not nouns. If you're
fixated on nouns, then you are stuck onto correcting terminal positions in finer and finer
detail. But if the verb is your analogy, then you work on movement, stability and impact.
What are two or three key things that you teach beginners to karate?
Be able to find your feet and knees and know where they are without looking for them.
Don't look down.
What are two or three key things that you teach to intermediate students?
Clarity and simplicity. No cheat steps or movements.
Same question, but for serious students beyond black belt status?
Techniques are trajectories, not positions. Control the relationship between the parts of
your body in both time and space. Look for the entry angles onto your opponent, and be aware
of your own.
What do you do when you don’t do karate?
Kyudo, iaido, chanoyu, read, and most of all, enjoy my family.
Thanks a lot for your time, Dr. Schmeisser. We hope that your latest book has great success!
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