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1 Apr |
The true meaning of martial arts trainingby Adrian Hoe at 18:31 Training
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Whilst many people engage in martial arts training, many of them neglect or not knowing the true meaning of training. It is very difficult to teach younger children about the philosophy of training but the older people tends to refuse or ignore the importance of training philosophy.
As a karate instructor for more than a decade of coaching and teaching experience, I have observed many different human behaviors in children, adolescent and even adults. I have very hard working students and also very ignorant and “lazy” students. Lazy not in terms of physically lazy but in mentally and attitude wise. Lazy in terms of seeking short cuts to achieve black belts as their peers do. I had students who trained with me and at the same time trained in other martial arts. With me, they had only achieved 1 grade higher then white belt for one year of training but they had achieved junior black belts in the other. They started their trainings in karate and other martial arts almost the same time. Black belts they are but yet can they kick or punch like black belts.
Two factors influenced the younger students.
- Parents attitude in transferring their responsibilities to 3rd party in their children’s physical and mental education.
- Ignorant parents and their egoism to see their children achieving some standards, in this case, black belt as their peers or neighbors’ children do.
I have parents who are very concerning about their children’s progress. But none of them consistent enough to stay concerned throughout entire year. They become concerned when grading test is approaching. This attitude reflects onto their children subconsciously.
While older children and older adults are easier to train (but not much easier then the younger children), I have formulated some training-playing methodology to help my younger students to train. I called it cognitive training. I will let them play a simple game of jumping, for instance, to help them develop muscles on their legs and hips. They usually enjoy the games very much.
As to older students, especially adults, explanation of bio-mechanism is crucial but always not taken seriously by most adult students. Only a few will absorb my explanation and apply into their training.
I wrote a similar but not identical article here. It is about learning to use the muscles.
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I am agree with sensei. Nowday, many martial art already loss their originality as more of them sway to sporty practise. For me this trend is very upset. But kids now especially in schooling are not able to carry out such hard physical trainning. As a result, sporty style is more suitable to them. If the Dojo still using old style or traditional karate practise methods. I think it is difficult to survive for them who coaching as their profesional. For me my target to practice Karate is more to enhance physical body condition and most important to protect myself.
Yes, I agree.
I believed karate as well as other martial arts were training for physical and mind. But when I explore deeper into karate as well as its predecessor(s), I find that I was wrong.
It is not only physical and mind that simple. It involves many other things about our body, mind and soul. It is about learning to know your inner self and learn how to use them. I am not talking about characters and behavior. I am talking about something between our physical and inner self. I have not found a term describing this. It is kind of a macro universe contained in our body.
All these are too deep for ordinary people to understand, including myself. Not many people will give a damn to the actual meaning of training, they are only interested to achieve black belt and then climb the dan ladder if they wish.
Hi Christopher,
I was trying to respond to your private message sent to me via the contact form at my website. Unfortunately, my response was bounced. It seems like Yahoo does not recognize your email address.
Could you provide me your valid email address again via my contact form?