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Looking for Real Karate
Earlier, when I was a brown belt, my brother, who
was nine years my junior, took up training under me.
Paul was a natural. He earned a senior black belt in
Chito-Ryu karate and now has a senior ranking in
Ryukyu Kobujutsu.
In the early to mid-1980s, karate was much in demand.
So I was approached by the community recreation director
in Chesley to teach a class for adults and children.
I decided to lead this class in my town and turned
over the Y class in Owen Sound to another instructor.
Unfortunately, things did not work out with the new
instructor and the original YMCA class closed
down.
 
As a policeman, Peter has always looked for a
real, self-defence-based karate,
as opposed to a sport. He found
that the approach of Sakamoto-Sensei suits him best.
In Chesley, my first children's class had at least
50 students and only one instructor – me. It
seemed as if people in this rural area were looking
for something different than the usual sports fare
of hockey, baseball and soccer. So my classes started
large, with many adults as well. The numbers trailed
off as people realized how much work and discipline
karate entailed.
As I grew in my own training, I realized that I needed
to make my karate more real. It had to be approached
as something that could, in an instant, resolve a life-or-death
situation. I could see how popular tournament competition
was – the sport aspect of karate. However, I found
that this approach to doing karate often gave students
a false sense of confidence. Scoring points in a tournament
is not the same as dealing with a real self-defence situation.
So in my training and teaching I focused on basics, kata,
bunkai, breakfalls and weaponry (kobudo). I trained for
the one moment that would decide whether I would live
or die. |
