What Happened to Mess Up Karate!

Messed Up Karate?

Back in the 1950s Karate hit the United States. Advertisements showed men killing bulls, and promised that a slight woman could beat up a grown man. Why, even a child. using this fantastic art form called Karate, could accomplish amazing feats.

Hardest punch

A Tight Fist is a Heavy Fist!

So what happened? What happened is that there was such demand for the art that there weren’t enough teachers. And we must now ask ourselves what, exactly, does a person need to teach Karate? check out the video, then I’ll tell you more.

Back then, guys with 3 years experience were getting their black belts, and then turning around and teaching. But it took a dozen years to master the art back then, and an instructor needs more data than a master. Being a master means that you have the data, but being a teacher means that you not only have the data, but you can get somebody else to get it.

Fast forward a few decades. You’ve got fellows teaching the martial arts, and they have twenty years experience, and they’ve mastered the art, but nobody ever taught them how to teach. Experience will make a master, not too much trouble, but simple experience will not make an instructor.

So the instructor needs actual data. He doesn’t just need more extreme classes on how to beat people up, he needs to find out the reasons why things work, and be able to impart those reason to other people. The real problem, you see, is one of education.

So you want to take karate, and you walk into a dojo and observe a teacher. Is the teacher explaining why things work? Or is he merely asking people to mimic him?

Yes, Monkey see monkey do is the first step, but it only lasts a few minutes. The real information of why something works must be inserted, or what is being taught will become an exercise of memorization. And when the mugger comes at you, do you want to remember how to defend yourself, or do you want to have the instantaneous intuition that is available if you don’t just memorize, but know and understand the how and the why of why the moves are what they are?

So there is it. A martial art that could do all it claimed, but was savaged by quick black belts who wanted to make money, and who didn’t take the time to ask why they were doing what they were doing. I trust this information will help you when you seek an instructor, and when you are undergoing instruction.

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