Three of our assistant instructors tested for Shodan in Kobudo

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Congratulations to our new Kobudo Black Belts here at Hidden Sword

On November 18^th 2017 three of the Hidden Sword assistant instructors took their shodan (1^st degree black belt) exam in Kobudo.  In January of 2015 they started the AKATO class with 35 students who were all brown belts to multi degreed black belts.   Over the course of almost three years they took their green belt exam, their brown belt exam and finally now their black belt exam.  All of the while the class kept shrinking.   In the end there were eight women and seven men taking the exam.

Jackie Bradbury was a shoe in for the class, Kimberly was 11 years old (truthfully, I thought she was 12) so I had to ask special permission for her to attend since the requirement was the student was a brown belt and 13 years old.   Both Jackie and Kimberly had been training in the Kobudo class at Hidden Sword for over a year so GM Proctor and GM Yates allowed Kimberly to join.   After the first year Tomas who had since rejoined our HSMA program was allowed to also start the AKATO Kobudo program.   Tomas had been working with our Kobudo students during the year so while he had some slight catching up he practiced hard in between the AKATO classes and kept up in the class.

Tomas, Jackie, and Kimberly all worked very hard getting ready for the black belt exam often times spending several hours a week on the material.  For this exam they had to know and demonstrate several drills, one steps, and several kata.   The kata or forms were more numerous than in the past classes; for the Bo (staff) there were 3 kata, for sai there were 2 kata, for tonfa (rice grinder) there were 2 kata, and for the nunchaku (flail) there were 2 kata.

Over all Tomas, Jackie, and Kimberly all had a good exam since they were well prepared.  Jackie for the most part took on the leadership role encouraging and really working with both Kimberly and Tomas.   Tomas would spend the hour before our arnis class working on his material or stay after and work.   In the end Kimberly who was the youngest and smallest student starting the class was mentioned by GM Proctor as having the best test over all.

I’m proud to have these students/assistant instructors here at Hidden Sword, while we aren’t the home of former “World Champions” like some schools in our area advertise, our assistant instructors have been a good example for our students in other ways; like having strong work ethic, and continuing to train and explore other martial arts. 

Congrats to Kaitlyn for taking 1st place in Weapons Kata at the 2017 AKATO tournament

Congrats to Kaitlyn for taking first place in weapons at the AKATO Invitational tournament

I am thrilled when our students do good at tournaments.  At the outset I must state that we are not a tournament focused school; this year we only went to three, and I’m proud of the all of the students who participate in them.   We participated in three because it gives our students chances to test themselves in a venue outside of our school, yet I’m not going to subject my students to the circus. 

I forget who I heard this name “The Circus” (when referring to “Open” tournaments) from but the last time couple of times we (as a school) went to an open tournament the name fit.   We saw people throwing swords into the air only to catch them as they screamed KIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!   People were twirling their swords between their fingers as others were hooping and a hollering as they back flipped and landed in the splits.  Seriously, I even saw one guy actually squat down in front of the head referee (like he was going to the bathroom) where he then reached behind himself to toss his kama upwards in between his legs only to catch it again with the same hand in front of this crotch.   Seeing this kind of behavior, I thought I’m going to lose more students than have students who want to compete in these tournaments so now we only go to three tournaments where are students are competing apples to apples.

The first tournament is the Monica Lopez Cancer Benefit tournament, which all of the proceeds go to a family whom cancer has touched and impacted.  The second is the Hearts for Honduras tournament where all of the proceeds go to help fund a mission trip to Honduras.   The last is the biggest, which is the AKATO Invitational Tournament.  In all three we compete against other like-minded schools so our students are competing apples to apples instead of against performance artists.   Now let me be clear here I'm not saying these performance artists aren't skilled or talented. I just don't find anything martial "of or relating to war, war like" in someone squatting like they are going to the bathroom and tossing a toy up between their legs, or someone throwing their demo sword in the air catching it and posing to scream their head off and call attention to themselves.   We can't compete with that cause I won't teach my students to do that. 

At the 2017 AKATO Invitational tournament several of our students entered in the Kobudo (weapons) division.   Because it was a small division they lumped our kids into the adult division.  So Kaitlyn (10 yrs old and a red belt), Kennan (8 yrs old and a 3^rd brown), Gabriel (10 yrs old and a red belt), and Kimberly (14 yrs old and a black belt) ended up all competing against four adults three of which were black belts and one red belt.

Kaitlyn and Kimberly

Kaitlyn took first place performing a combination kata of two Modern Arnis stick forms (form 1 and 3).   One of the senior instructors (the head judge.) came up to me afterwards and said Kaitlyn moved “so smoothly from her center”.   That was much nicer than hearing that she really threw her bolo high in the air, or that he was impressed with how loud she yelled (KKKIIIIIAAAAAA!!!!), etc. etc.  Kaitlyn even beat out her sister Kimberly who performed a traditional Bo kata.   Kaitlyn’s form wasn’t the hardest by any stretch of the imagination, it wasn’t the longest, she certainly didn’t demonstrate the most power (she’s 10 competing against adults).  Kaitlyn simply demonstrated her form with a training bolo the way the bolo should be used and she was judged on that as opposed to some act of showmanship.

Good job Kaitlyn you represented Hidden Sword well.   While Kaitlyn did beat out adults in this division she did go on to medal, or place, in both sparring and empty hand kata competing against other juniors that were her rank and age.

Sparring School Culture part 4

School Culture 4

All pictures taken and printed by Mark Lynn for a college photography course project on the Proctor dojo, these are scans of the photos.

Sensei Proctor kicking Joseph

In previous posts in this series on School Culture I was comparing a sparring type school culture in posts 1 and 2 in a commercial school setting, this post is a continuation of my personal experience of training at my instructors home dojo that was a sparring type school as well which was started in post 3 of this series.

As I mentioned in my previous post one of the great things that developed in sensei Proctor’s home dojo was a deep bond between those that trained there.  This attitude was fostered and built into the training by sensei Proctor; for instance we have New Years Day workouts each year to celebrate the New Year and then celebrate lunch afterwards with family and friends.  Even if you didn’t workout people and students would still show up for lunch afterwards to

visit with old friends.  This is one of the great things about the sparring type of a school if it is fostered right is that feeling of family, comradely, that feeling we are special because we all go through this together.  

But there were some negatives as well.

Tony side kicking Meg

Looking back on it from an instructor’s point of view now, I’ve realized that I wasn’t really prepared to teach karate in this type of environment.  Sensei Proctor taught me how to fight which in and of itself was a valuable lesson, but as a young blue belt (early 20’s) being taught in this type of an environment I didn’t have the years of training in a formal class that sensei Proctor and the others had.  By not having the years of training under my belt I didn’t have the experience of practicing nor developing my kata, basic techniques, sparring drills, etc. etc. leaving me with  nothing or very little from which to draw from in order to develop others.  By not going through the type of training my sensei had, or put in the time he had to develop his kicking skills, I couldn’t or wouldn’t really develop the body mechanics or methods to pass on and teach that material later on in years. 

I’m not saying that I wasn’t trained in my basics (i.e. blocking, punching and kicking skills) because I was in the commercial schools and the private lessons when I was at college.  In fact I took over the karate program at the college I was attending because I knew more about the basics, kata and such than the black belt instructor who had gotten his black belt in Korea (when he was younger) and at the time I was a brand new 4^th brown. The next year I ended up teaching the karate program three nights a week at two hours a night for my last year in college.

Sensei Proctor is/was a mentor to me who was and is still instrumental in my growth as a martial artist; he not only taught me karate and how to fight, he also encouraged me to look into the Filipino Martial Arts, Thai Boxing, JKD and other martial arts.  The down side was I had no real way to incorporate what I was learning, because I didn’t have that type of training foundation in the first place.  Also I had no idea how to lay out, design, or structure classes much less a curriculum when I really started teaching on my own in 1994 several years later.  I simply used the kata in our system as a basis to structure things around and went from there but as a curriculum it wasn’t really well thought out.  

While the sparring type school can build that feeling comradely, it can build good fighters, it can be used as an attitude building mechanism.  The big draw back I see in a school that is focused mainly on sparring and teaches kata or basics only as a method of rank progression is that it could be stunting the student’s growth in the martial arts, and in turn for many students of theirs in the future.

School Culture Post 3

 The Home dojo  (Note all photos were taken and printed by Mark Lynn for a photography class at Collin County Community College these are scans of the original photos.)

Sparring in the Proctor Dojo around 1989/90

In the first two posts of this series I talked about the sparring type culture in a martial arts school using a black belt test that some students of mine and I had just attended as an example of that type of culture.

This time I want to discuss another type of school culture and which is again of the sparring culture but from my own training background, which is the family or private dojo.  It was in the summer of 1983 when I was invited over to train at my instructor’s house.  He had quit teaching at a commercial school (Texas Karate Institute in Plano) and had opened up his garage in his house as his personal dojo.

Meg watching and waiting for her turn at the door

There was a small group of men and occasionally women who would work out and spar at the dojo, many of the individuals would come 2-3 times per week for the work outs, sometimes there would be 1-2 people that would show up sometimes more.  What formed was a close knit group of people who trained with each other for several years.  It is a testament to this group that several are still training there even today almost 30 years later.

Generally sensei Proctor and I would work on kata when I came home from college, in private workouts.  However the vast majority of time for the group work outs focused on sparring.  As a group we never wore full uniforms, nor belts, nor lined up by rank, we didn’t do any real punching and kicking combinations drills like in a normal school, we simply sparred.  But not in the normal sense, sparring at the Proctor dojo was vastly different than in the commercial dojo; we fought hard, we got taken down to the floor, we got kicked into the walls, we wrestled, we did the ground and pound before it was named the ground and pound, we kicked to the legs, we elbowed and kneed each other, all with leaving our belts and egos at the door.

Vince Roundhouse kicking John

Some of us (like myself) ended up training there for a time and leaving only to come back again and train some more only to leave again etc. etc.  For me I ended up leaving for college, then relocating for work etc. etc. but we all still remained connected to the dojo.  So I trained there when I could as well as at other schools when I relocated along with the weekend classes at SMU or the kobudo workouts we had down town.  While I had outside influences from all of the other training I did; I learned to fight here in this dojo.

What sparring at sensei Proctor’s dojo brought about was a deep bond between those of us who trained there over the years.  Many of us developed deep friendships and respect for one another and a closeness that was and is almost like family.  This resulted in having the trust in others that when they kicked at your knee (one of my favorite entries) they were just playing the game and not trying to break it.  Once I took a side kick to my ribs breaking them, and having developed the deep trust we had for each other helped me to understand it was my fault for not blocking because the other guy was just kicking at the opening I left; he wasn’t trying to purposely cause me harm.  Getting black eyes from well placed kicks or punches, getting a nose broke, getting knocked out or put through the sheet rock that lined the walls was just part of our training experience.   The price we paid was blood sweat and tears as well as commitment to the training and to each other, a price that we all gladly and painfully paid.

Vince catching Meg with a left hook

While I believe there were many many benefits to training this way, in the 4^th part of this series I’ll explain what I believe to be some of the downsides to this type of training.

School Culture

The sparring school part 2

Libby (red belt) sparring with Kimberly (brown belt)

There are many different aspects about a martial art school's culture; is it inclusive, is it secretive, is it focused around building the community, student or character development etc. etc. and all outside of the scope of this series.  This series has a more narrow focus in relating the culture of the school as it relates to training.  This is a continuation of school culture as it relates to the sparring focused school so please read that post first for context.

As I watched Libby perform her kata, her form was very good, however later in the instructor’s conference, I pointed out some concerns to Mrs Hawkins which she replied was their (the instructors) fault.  Specifically some of Libby's blocks weren’t in the right places, twisting of her hips for power generation was non existent, at times her hands weren’t clenched tight when punching, there was no turning of the head prior to turning (to see where she was going), her stances were off slightly etc. etc.   

At one point during the exam, I asked Libby after watching her run through Chug-Mu where a particular technique was, she replied “to the neck” but she was striking about rib level.  I then had her run back through the kata again with more power and told her to focus her techniques and to her credit she did, although her focus for other techniques were still off. 

When asked later by sensei Hawkins what was the reason that she practiced kata, Libby recited verbatim why you practice kata for belt tests listing out four reasons without hesitation.  But when sensei Hawkins told her “that’s good for why you do it for tests, but what is the purpose of kata or why should you practice it?” Libby didn’t have an answer.

 
In short I believe there was no real thought behind the techniques of the kata other than needing to memorize the movements for her next rank promotion.  Compared to the amount of time devoted to the sparring part of the exam and her skill in sparring, it seemed clear where the focus of the instruction lie.

This isn’t alone to sensei Hawkins’s school by any means.  I’ve talked with many other school owners and instructors and it is common to hear something like the following “We only practiced kata for tests, we mainly spar.”  “My instructor didn’t like katas, so he took out some”.  I’ve seen this not only here in Texas, but also in Oklahoma where I lived and trained for a time.  While in Oklahoma I met a whole group of instructors  who didn’t know any kata or forms above Wha Rang which is our 2^nd brown kata.  A general view on internet forums is that it is more important to spar than to learn kata so I believe that many many schools focus more on sparring and sparring related themes such as prearranged punching and kicking combinations etc. etc. for advancement than kata,  and proper basics (blocks, hand techniques and kicks).

So is this bad?  It depends upon how you look at it .  On the face of it focusing on sparring and fighting can produce really good people who spar, if that is the focus of the school.  Likewise having only a few kata to learn means that the student can really perfect those kata and have really great looking forms.  Having only a few self defense techniques to practice also allows more time to spend on punching and kicking combinations, more time for sparring etc. etc.  So schools with a sparring culture I believe will produce some students who are good at sparring and who can look good at kata as well.  I though see some down sides to the sparring culture school.

Let me be clear here I’m not saying that the sparring culture school is bad, or that Mrs. Hawkin’s school is bad, or Libby didn’t or earn her rank; far from it.  The sparring school culture generally produces a type of student and it is what it is, nothing more and nothing less.  In future posts as I write about  the other types of schools my reservations about the sparring culture type schools, as well as the other cultures, will be brought out in greater detail than trying to discuss them here in this post.   

Next week I’ll discuss my experience coming up in a sparring culture at my sensei’s private dojo.

School Culture Series

The Sparring School

In this series I’m going to talk about different school cultures and use examples of different schools and how that can effect training, what is learned and so on

.  

Libby side kicking Julia as Master Starnes observes

This past weekend our school was invited to participate on another school’s black belt exam for one of their students; specifically Kevin and I were part of the exam board and two of our 3^rd brown students were extra people for the young lady to spar with.  I encourage our students to take part in cross training opportunities like this because I believe it is good for them to see other schools and be watched by other instructors.  It’s also good for them to see other students earn their black belt and it can help them stay focused on their goal of earning their future rank.  It can also be a good learning or teaching opportunity for me to discuss subject matters like these with them afterwards.

Originally we had four students going but Kate was hurt in an accident at home the week prior, and Emily ended up having a test for band at school so we only had Kimberly and Julia go. This particular exam was a good one for our students to have seen, and I wished more of our young ladies could have gone because the school culture is very different from ours.

Messerschmitt AKC located in Jacksborro is a small school (by DFW standards) in a small town.  From what I saw of Libby (their newest black belt), and from Laronda Hawkins (their chief instructor for the American Karate) they really have a big heart.  Their school is built around a sparring culture for the martial arts and that was the main focus of the exam. 

 

 

Libby sparring Julia, with some of the fighter's in waiting looking on

Libby on her exam had to spar a set amount of rounds for 2 minutes with one minute rest in-between.  I believe she had close to 12 rounds with a couple of them with instructors, the vast majority being brown and purple belts, and only a couple of beginner belts.  She had one match of two vs. one.  It speaks to her heart or attitude that she, as a small 13 yr old, toughed it out and made it through this part of the exam.  She fought students of all ages, sizes, different ranks, both male and female and she did a really good job.

The first part of the exam Libby had to demonstrate 5  (Chungi, Do San, Won Hyo, Hwa Rang, and Chug Mu) katas and then go through 6 one steps (traditional attacks with a punch) that I believe she made up on her own. After her one steps each of the students that she was later to spar with came up and did some sort of attack on her a couple involving a knife, a couple involving a gun, a couple with a stick, and then rest with some sort of a grab.  Libby had previously performed her board break and something else at a earlier demonstration.

In part two of this series I’ll talk about why I came to the conclusion about the culture of this school and how this affects the training at the school etc. etc.