On sport karate and the exclusion from the 2024 Paris Olympics

 It is a shame that karate will not be included in the Paris Olympic games.  This is truly odd, as the IOC has decided to include breakdancing.  Whether you like sport karate or not, the exposure provided by the Olympic games motivates many new people to try karate training for themselves.  This is a good thing, as without new students the art would die. 

"Sport" karate in the Olympics, and competitions generally, consists of kata and kumite.  The katas are often modified versions of old forms, but they retain a strong influence from the old ways.  Kumite Competition, with its point scoring, approved techniques, prohibited targets, and prohibition of grappling or being in the "clinch," takes away much of the intent behind karate's purpose as an effective and dangerous method of self-defense meant to physically harm an untrained criminal assailant.  Mabuni Kenwa believed that competitions of this type tended to bring out the worst in human behavior.  This is evident when you see competitors engaging in theatrics before and after bouts.  Karate was intended to be used for self-defense, not self-aggrandizement.  Echoing Mabuni, Soshin Nagamine wrote:

"I don't mean to suggest that I have a totally negative opinion about karate-do's competitive element, it's just that I feel that it is too shallow.  Regardless of whether it is Okinawa, the Japanese mainland, or the world in general, jiu-kumite (free sparring) ignores the principles to which kata apply.  Simply put, jiu-kumite should reflect the kata, because kata is the origin of karate-do.  If there is no kata, it is not karate-do, just kicking and punching."

This reminds me of one of Hanshi's sayings, "If you run out of karate, there's always kicking and punching!"

Ashi Sabaki - Jesse Enkamp

 

Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate

This is a playlist of all the "sensei" videos produced by the YouTube channel Okinawan Spirit.  I have only viewed the first dozen or so, but the productions are all good and the insight is valuable.

Motobu on Matsumura: Learning to Think

"Having studied under Matsumura, I remember what a brilliant technician he was. I learned much watching Sensei teach his students how to think about what they were studying in order to develop and improve its application. Karate in the Ryukyus was customarily taught like this; however, those who were unable to learn to think remained stiff and inflexible"

San Chin, again...

 This video was removed from YouTube.  I reposted it under my account and I'm sharing it here:

Bubishi

 

Seven Falls, Eight Rises

Nana korobi yaoki 七転び八起き means perseverance in the face of adversity, and refusing to accept failure.  In other words, it is the grit and resolve to reach a goal, or to die trying.

The "...or to die trying" part is not intended to mean sacrificing oneself.  Instead it is a dedication to reaching for a goal as a mortal being.  None of us knows how much time on earth has been allotted to us, so to stay down and accept failure as inevitable and permanent is to deny that one is alive as a conscious being in the world.

In his book Moving Toward Stillness, Dave Lowry writes about Yasuhiro Yamashita, a well known Judoka who won more than 500 matches in his competition career:

Once, after he captured still another national title, I recall something he said that, to me, seemed to sum up Yamashita's philosophy on competition and said a lot about his successes.  "Just before a tournament," Yamashita told reporters, "I always take a bath, and in the weeks before a competition I try to keep my surroundings neat and well-ordered, so I won't be ashamed even if I die during a match."

The only excuse for not getting back up and trying again is death.