Spoon-feeding is for babies and invalids

Is this how you see yourself as a student?

We’ve all seen a parent feeding a baby – the food is mushed up, and gently fed to the child so that it’s easy to digest. Karate is exactly like that. When you’re a beginner, your sensei gently feeds you easy-to-digest morsels of basic training so that you can get into the training habit, and understand the basics of karate. Your sensei will also carefully correct each and every aspect of your karate, moving a foot here, a hand there, and so on.

However, after just a short while, you’re ready to move on and think for yourself a bit. The trouble is; some students don’t realise that – they expect everything to be done for them for their entire karate life. They never take responsibility for their own improvement. As far as they are concerned, karate is something that happens once a week in the dojo, and only when the sensei is watching them.

Karate is not like that. If you want to get good, you need to think about your own training. In an average class there are somewhere between 10 and 30 students, and one or two senseis. That means that it’s quite possible that you might make mistakes that your senseis don’t get to see for months – especially when it comes to the more subtle stuff. Heck, there are some mistakes that are invisible to the eye, and which only you can tell by feel – the way that your muscles are tensed, your connection to the floor, subtleties of stance weighting, and many more.

At gradings, we see those grown up babies – they are the ones that only apply principles exactly where they are told to apply them, and never stop to wonder if those same principles should be applied in other places too. They are literal-minded and limited. They do exactly what they are told and not one solitary iota more. The trouble is, these karate parrots may well pass their gradings, but they are so unimaginative and weak when it comes to kumite. They can’t think on the fly; they can’t apply many different principles; they can’t strategise well; they can’t formulise new plans to cope with unpracticed situations. Bruce Lee once said, “In combat, spontaneity rules; rote performance of technique perishes.”  In other words, if you only fight exactly as you have been shown, then you will be predictable, and easy to fight.

If you don’t think that non-contact training gives you all that you need; buy a punch bag or makiwara and practice at home to strengthen your wrists. Don’t feel that you are flexible enough? Spend five minutes a day stretching in front of the TV. Not sure about your kata performance? Watch the official DVDs, then video yourself and compare your performance against them.

So, if you want to grow as a martial artist, you’ll need to think for yourself and take responsibility for your own training. Don’t wait to be told how you should develop next, or to receive correction on your existing techniques. Be constantly analysing your own technique for technical accuracy and effectiveness. Think about how you need to develop in order to get the best out of your karate, then set targets and pursue them.