Teaching a Race Horse to Dance

by Dave Thomas

One of the most quoted analogies today is why the windshield is so much bigger than the rearview mirror. Because where you're going is more important than where you've been.

While the comparison is applicable to many disciplines, I find it particularly fitting for the American Karate System. Especially, when you consider that we have one foot entrenched in martial arts history and the other in being contemporary and relevant in the 21st Century. We walk a fine line educating our students about where we came from; while appealing to the contemporary expectations of our students as future Black Belts.

Traditional karate does not have the same wide spread appeal that it had 40 years ago when we started training. Today there are variations, mutations and abominations of martial arts that don't bear a flirting resemblance to the traditions we learned and valued.

The question is, "If we don't adapt and modify what we learned; can we survive as a style?"

For myself, I still teach the techniques and forms that I was taught. But I have had to amend some of the methods and focus from the way I learned them. For example, I can remember doing 100 or more repetitions of the same technique. I can remember spending the entire class dedicated to perfecting one kata. We know perfection comes from endless repetition. Sensei Yamashita says you must execute a technique 10,000 times before you might be doing it right. Not anymore. Today my class works on more variety, but fewer repetitions, in an effort to keep the class fresh and moving forward to keep the students engaged. In the age of video combat and instant gratification, student boredom with a class can be terminal.

Another change I have made is in explaining self-defense. I can remember, Mr. Lieb gleefully describing the best way to disassemble an assailant. Today, I tell my students that the self-defense skills they are learning are for keeping themselves safe. Focusing more on them and less on the assailant.

The outcome is the same, but the instruction is more personally oriented. The focus is personal safety and not a litany of methods for causing long term injury to a perspective "bad guy." It looks better in Court as well.

As veteran Black Belts, we honor and revere the traditions we were taught. Our years of training taught us their value and wisdom. We also want to give our students the best instruction and direction we have to offer. The struggle is teaching the techniques and forms we have practiced for so long in new and exciting ways to keep our students motivated and coming back to class. It's a lot like teaching a race horse to dance. Not an easy transition.

Dave Thomas
8th Dan

The other night I was explaining to my class that in a real life self-defense situation they have to fight with all their skill and power. I wanted them to understand that, if necessary, they controlled and eliminated physical threat as quickly as possible.
I told them, "You fight like THE THIRD MONKEY on the gangplank of Noah's Ark."

I think it helped them get the message.