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Anf
Anf's picture
Starting from scratch

Hi all.

After a lot of soul searching, I've come to realise that my skepticism bordering on bitterness towards martial arts does not indicate a loss of faith in or passion for the arts, it is instead of symptom of too many years of air kicking and memorising the curriculum. We have been told that if we don't grade every cycle it's because we are lazy. I've had enough.

But I haven't had enough of martial arts in general. I realise there are many good clubs. I've since joined one on the side.

But here's the thing. I actually feel genuinely good about wearing my crisp white belt on my crisp white suite. I feel slightly disappointed that I have literally nothing to offer to my new club in terms of tips or techniques I've accumulated to date, but I also recognise it as a good thing, in that it means they have such a vast amount to teach me.

But I want to keep some element of stand up striking, either karate or similar. Most of my experience is in such, and as much as I'm happy to revisit basics in case I've missed something, and as much as I recognise that ego is something to be kept in check, I'm not sure I can start right back at 'this is called a basic front kick' and pretend to worship orange belts again.

So, and I appreciate this is a very open ended question, but where do I go from here?

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

The key would be to find a club who are respectful enough to know you are not a “true beginner”, and for you in turn to be respectful that you are new to the group. When this happens with us, we try to find the appropriate place to slot them in. There is no point them pretending to learn things they already know, but we don’t want them slotted in at the wrong place because that will eventually hamper progress. There is something liberating about putting on white belt, but it does not make you a white belt. It does not erase all your prior knowledge and experience. Just as putting on a black belt does not make one better. We are all as good as we are. If you find a club you enjoy training it, the rest will take care of itself.

All the best,

Iain

Anf
Anf's picture
Iain Abernethy wrote:

The key would be to find a club who are respectful enough to know you are not a “true beginner”, and for you in turn to be respectful that you are new to the group.

I am really fortunate to have found such a club. They respect the fact that I have some experience and ability, and I respect that I'm new to their ways. It's great because they are open minded to other styles and have openly said they'll adopt anything they find useful, even if it's not technically their style.

All is good there. But it's neither karate nor similar. It is based on aikido but the guys that run it have incorporated stuff they've learned from elsewhere, so it's kind of aikido but kind of a bit more brutal, but in a good way if that makes sense. Ie they focus on practical self defence. They practice the more basic kicks and punches found in karate as a means of buying time or setting things up, but all the emphasis is on joint locks and throws, or escaping from attacks. It's great, and I think I'll stick at it for a good while, but I think I'd also like to build on the karate I've accumulated. Ideally I'd like to merge the two. I think it can be done but I'm no way qualified to do it yet.

As an interesting aside, I keep seeing karate forms/kata application there. More so than I ever have done at actual karate. But the guys there don't even know they're doing it as far as I can tell. The strange chicken wing thing in pyung ahn sam Dan (the third pinnan form in Japanese terms) for example. I once got told a highly implausible story that it represented being taken prisoner, hands tied up with a wooden pole between elbows. Then at aikido one of the guys is demonstrating a technique to evade a knife attack, hook the attacking arm, roll sideways to injure said arm, then immediately change direction to seize and injure the wrist then throw. The guy did it first with the other instructor then did it slowly against thin air while explaining it to me. It was while doing it against thin air that I saw exactly, not something like but exactly, the chicken wing part of sam dan.

PASmith
PASmith's picture

One thing I think all clubs should or could have is a coloured belt that is not part of their regular curriculum of coloured belts (that's if they use coloured belts of course). I think Enshin karate does this with an orange belt. Bascially (afaik) if someone joins the club with some experience in another style they wear an orange belt. This shows to the other students that this person has some experience but has not yet graded in Enshin and so has no Enshin level. That way people know where they stand and what to expect (or not expect). Then when the person has trained for a while, learnt the syllabus, graded and/or been assesed they wear a conventional belt that represents their level within that style and all is well. 

Personally I've always gone into a new style as a white belt, nodded when told something I already knew or corrected by a lower grade and just let my movement and ability speak for itself. Most people with some experience can tell if you've done something before within 5 minutes of seeing you move anyway, no matter what belt you are wearing. And of course you may have depth of experience in one direction (grappling maybe) but still be a complete beginner and not know what a front kick is (for example).

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

PASmith wrote:
One thing I think all clubs should or could have is a coloured belt that is not part of their regular curriculum of coloured belts (that's if they use coloured belts of course). I think Enshin karate does this with an orange belt. Bascially (afaik) if someone joins the club with some experience in another style they wear an orange belt. This shows to the other students that this person has some experience but has not yet graded in Enshin and so has no Enshin level. That way people know where they stand and what to expect (or not expect). Then when the person has trained for a while, learnt the syllabus, graded and/or been assesed they wear a conventional belt that represents their level within that style and all is well.

That's a very clever way to manage it! Did not know that, but I can see the value in that approach.

All the best,

Iain

PASmith
PASmith's picture

Of course this sort of thing is easier to take care of in small clubs. If someone new turns up you can always say to everyone "Say hi to Bob everyone...now...Bob might be wearing a white belt in our system but he's also Northern area Thai boxing champion, just got out of the Paras and is 3-0 in MMA so don't be tempted to try and take the mick in sparring". :)

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

PASmith wrote:
If someone new turns up you can always say to everyone "Say hi to Bob everyone...now...Bob might be wearing a white belt in our system but he's also Northern area Thai boxing champion, just got out of the Paras and is 3-0 in MMA so don't be tempted to try and take the mick in sparring". :)

Or, if you are the mischievous type, you could let “Bob” spar with the black belts, watch the black belts get all confused, and then ask them why their game is off? :-)

At one point we had a kyu grade (later a dan grade), who was in his 60s, and had competed in wrestling, judo and sombo at international level. When we had visitors, we would ask them to pair up with the “elderly brown belt” for the grappling warm up … you could see the “S##t!, if this brown belts, what the hell are the black belts like!” look on their faces. When we came clean it always proved to be a good ice-breaker :-)

All the best,

Iain

deltabluesman
deltabluesman's picture

That's hilarious, would love to see that prank in action.  This is why I always take everyone in a school 100% seriously no matter what color their belt is.  I've seen way too many times where a "harmless" looking person turns out to be one of the most skillful martial artists in the room.  Sometimes you can guess by looking at their ears and how worn their gear is, but that's about it.