Essential Skills

A quote by renowned science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein—he wrote, among other classics, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers and Farnham’s Freehold—has been circulating on the Internet for many years:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

That got me thinking: What would the list of essential skills be for a black belt? A few things immediately come to mind.
 
In addition to performing the various kicks, punches, one-steps and forms that your art requires for the rank, as a black belt you should be able to break a board, run two miles, choke out a man within five seconds, execute the same choke on the meanest student in your dojo and not hold it after he taps, use a knife, explain the history of your style, break an attacker’s arm, take a fall at the hands of a judoka without breaking your arm, drive evasively, barricade a door, calm a panicked person, shoot a gun, render first aid, withdraw money from an ATM without being a target, obey a senior, compassionately correct a junior, explain the fundamentals of good nutrition, argue a point on an Internet forum, breathe properly, wield a staff, concentrate in the middle of chaos, carry an unconscious person, have the intestinal fortitude to gouge an eye in a life-or-death fight, teach a seminar on your art, be a good student at a seminar on an art that doesn’t interest you.

A few of Heinlein’s requirements apply as much to the essential skill set of a martial artist as they do to human beings in general: “comfort the dying,” “cooperate,” “act alone” and “fight efficiently,” for sure. What about “die gallantly”? I don’t know. What do you think?

Post your comments—along with your top five suggestions, if you feel like it—here for all of us to see. I’m looking forward to reading them.

—Robert W. Young

Writer for Black Belt Magazine

Advice for all students of traditional karate

 From Hidetaka Nishiyama

"First, understand that our karate is very valuable. For hundreds of years, many people have been seeking perfection of technique, and this continues today. However, please study not the wide but the deep. Even if it is only one technique, study it very deeply. The point is to generate a lot of power with less movement. Then le...arn to destroy the opponent with little or no movement. At the next level, there is no physical movement, only mental. Just like Ueshiba, you can destroy the opponent.

"In the final stage, there is no need to destroy the opponent. When the movement is about to start, stop it. Finally, it will look like there is no movement. This is our approach: winning without fighting. This is the budo ideal. In a normal fight, the strong side wins and the weak loses. But in budo, to lose means to die. You can’t lose. How? Don’t fight."

Ozark Mountains National Karate Championships

Yesterday I competed at the "Ozark Nationals." It was a quality event that I think everyone in the area should think about attending next year. This year, there were competitors from Wisconsin, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas and all over Missouri. The event is hosted by Master Richard Osborn Jr of Next Level Sport Karate in Springfield. I took a second place trophy in forms against a field of 5 competitors. I lost my first fight to a taekwondo master from Oklahoma. The day was long but the event was well organized and run. Tournaments are a fun way to test yourself against some unfamiliar fighters. This event is growing fast and it is well to watch and to attend. Mark it on your calendars for the last weekend of April next year.

Whatever Comes From My Hands Is Taekwondo

There has been a recent spate of movies about the life of Wing Chun Grandmaster Ip Man. The most recent one to be released on DVD is "The Legend Is Born ... Ip Man." One of my favorite scenes in the movie has the young Ip Man in a medicine shop and he meets the shop manager. The manager is Leung Bik, a Wing Chun grandmaster from Foshan and from another line of Grandmasters than the one Ip Man is training under. Master Bik spars with the young Ip Man and asks at the end if his Wing Chun is authentic. They spar and Master Bik uses several techniques not normally used in Wing Chun. Ip Man tells his that his (Bik's) Wing Chun is NOT authentic. Master Bik responds by saying "Whatever comes from my hands is Wing Chun."

Master Bik (played by Ip Man's real life son Ip Chun) has incorporated techniques from other martial arts into his Wing Chun. When he learns them they are no longer techniques from other martial arts, they are part of his Wing Chun.

I get it now. I trained in the military. I studied Judo on Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. In Utah and in Germany, while I was a colored belt, I get to train with Shotokan and kung fu stylists. Over the course of time, I got my black belt and other instructors would invite me to spar and work out together. I would show them things I knew and they showed me many things I had never seen before. I learned and added those things to my taekwondo.

I believe there is no one martial art that is superior to any other martial art. All the arts are interconnected in some way. If I learn an aikido throw it is no longer only an aikido throw, I have made it a taekwondo throw. Taekwondo is my base art. Whatever I learn, from wherever I learn it, becomes part of my taekwondo. Therefore, "Whatever comes from my hands (and feet) is taekwondo."

Honor

To honor someone is to give them the respect that is due to them because of who they are or because of their position. In fact, in the martial arts, the concepts of honor and respect are closely tied together. Giving honor and respect to those who are worthy of it is part of the discipline of the martial arts.

This honor can be shown in a variety of ways. The most well known in the martial arts is the bow. We bow to our instructors who have gone ahead of us. The guide us on the pathway of self discovery and discipline in the martial arts. The black belts who have endured and reached that expert level. The higher ranking students in the class because they are further on the pathway than we are. These are all worthy of respect.

The use of proper titles. Grandmaster (7th dan and above) or Master (4th dan and above) are two such. Mister when the one we are honoring is a man and Mrs. or Ms. when it is a woman. Sir or Ma'am are never out of place in the dojang.

But there are other ways too. Being on time for class, properly dressed out with the necessary equipment are other ways. Keeping ourselves clean and our fingernails and toenails trimmed so as to minimize injuries. Muting our pagers and cell phones to we don't interrupt class. Asking permission before leaving the training floor are other things we can do show respect to our instructors and our school. Bowing on and off the training floor. All these are things we can do to show honor to those who train us and see us grow in the art we love.

Neglecting these things is the pathway to disrespect, laziness, and indifference. It is a great sin to insult your instructor or Grandmaster. It is also disrespectful to ignore his commands and lessons and to train in a lazy manner or worse, to not care at all. The way you train is the way you fight and if you are slothful and lazy in training and reject the discipline of the art, then there is little hope you will be victorious over an opponent. If you train like you don't care then you will fight like you don't care.

Honor and respect are not just words we memorize in the student handbook, they are philosophies for living. They teach us better ways of interacting with the people around us. They are an integral part of who we are as martial artists. It starts in the dojang but carries over into all of life.

Being honored begins with giving honor. Are you growing into a honorable person? May it be so of all of us.

Our Student Oath

When I was a young belt just starting off I was training in the tae kwon do class on Hill Air Force Base (AFB) in Utah. My instructor was Mr. Harold Cherry. He was thin and small built but he hit you like a brick. At the end of every class he would have us all kneel to clear our minds of anger and violence before we left the class and we would raise our right fists into the air and recite our student oath. It went like this ...

I am a student of tae kwon do.

I will respect my instructors and seniors.

I will never misuse tae kwon do.

I will be a champion of freedom and justice.

I will help to build a more peaceful world.

That was back in 1979. I have never, not once, forgotten the words to this oath. It is the same oath Lionheart students will be reciting at the end of every one of our classes. Peace through preparation. Never violence without a cause.

A Higher Martial Art

When I was younger I used to workout with a kung fu stylist and he told me they had a saying at his kwoon (kung fu studio). They would say "The hands that kill must be the hands that heal." By that they meant that if you are an expert at your art you must also be able to heal or treat wounds. So, all the instructors at his school were required to be certified in first aid and CPR. I have never forgotten that.

The martial arts, whichever one you study, are about more than fighting. Any one can learn to fight. But without the discipline of the arts (as we call them) such people tend to become bullies.

Learning a martial art, especially when one reaches the expert level, has responsibilities. It is just as important to know how to treat a broken limb as it is to know how to inflict a broken limb on your opponent.

To teach a martial art an instructor has to love his (of her) art but also you must love your students. That means knowing how to take care of them if they are injured in practice. This is not only a good business practice but also good human practice.

"The hands that kill are the hands that heal."