Saturday, February 18, 2012

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?

Hanshi George Anderson

Several years ago, Hanshi George Anderson, head of the national governing body for karate under the U.S. Olympic Committee, visited my dojo to teach a weekend workshop. He opened it with a question.
“What do you do when you don’t know what to do?”
Students started throwing out suggestions. He rejected them one after the other. “No. No,” he said after a while. “Come on, every real martial artist knows this!”
A few more thoughtful answers were suggested by students, and all rejected.
“If the Queen of England were to walk in here right now, what would you do?”
Some suggested polite greetings. “How are you, Queen?” a young student offered. “Welcome, your majesty,” offered another.
“No,” said Hanshi Anderson. “You don’t talk to the queen unless she speaks to you first. Come on, what would you do?”
Everyone was afraid to venture another guess.
“You do what every good martial artist knows to do,” scolded Hanshi. “You stand at attention and keep your mouth shut!”
Why, one asked?
Well, what can you do when you’re standing still and not talking? You can better focus on what’s happening around you. If the queen had walked in, standing at attention and not talking would allow you to better monitor how she and her party reacted to various comments or actions. And you would likely figure out the right course of action.
In his book The Art of War, Sun Tzu listed several things that would increase a martial artist’s chances for success. One of these was dictating the time and place for the battle to occur. To achieve this, it is often best if your target isn’t aware of your intentions.
Use anger to throw them into disarray, use humility to make them haughty.
Tire them by flight, cause division among them.
Attack when they are unprepared, make your move when they do not expect it.
Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness;
Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness;
Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War – Thomas Cleary Translation
Although Hanshi Anderson felt the ability to remain still, quiet, and observant were qualities all good martial artists possess, we see far too many today who have no control whatsoever over their emotions or actions. I think the problem is tied to the difference between a fighter and a martial artist. Let me know what you think the difference is and I’ll discuss my thoughts on the matter and its connection to the subject of this post sometime soon.
Take care and thanks again for your readership and support.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Improving math skills through karate drills

While a graduate student in Education at Stanford in the 70s, I developed a program that attempted to reduce some of the dropout rate at local high schools. Drop out was high at the time, in excess of 30%. That meant that one out of every three high school students would quit before graduating. I haven’t followed dropout rates in several years and don’t know what the percentage would be today – hopefully far less but probably not.
Many of those who dropped out were kids who had never done well at school. Their failure was often attributable to conditions that were no fault of their own. They were, for example, born with predispositions – such as ADHD or drug or alcohol addicted mothers, who passed their addictions or life-long collateral damage on to their unborn children.
I discovered late in life that I was likely ADHD and been so all my life. I succeeded because of an inner drive to better myself, encouragement from my parents, and eventually the discipline acquired from my years in karatedo. A couple of school teachers along the way had also believed in me – although there had been many who hadn’t. “Butts in chairs” I later termed those teachers who thought I could only be educated or work properly while sitting focused on whatever they were discussing at the chalkboard – as if a student couldn’t figure it out quickly on their own and become bored with her droning on and on about it. For me, things worked the exact opposite of the butt in chairs approach to education. I was most attentive and thoughtful when my body was busy, silencing a constant cry for action.
I realized part of the dropout problem could be due to students suffering from the same condition and teachers unwilling or not bright enough to realize the problem was in their approach, not the student. As I’ve said before, a teacher is one who teaches. If a student doesn’t learn, the teacher has failed in his/her task, not the student. Good teachers – in the martial arts too – find ways to reach their students. Bad teachers attempt to make each student adapt to their teaching methods.
So I developed what I called “Active Learning” drills, which used karate techniques to teach academic subjects, such as math, in a manner better suited for students like myself. (I used the same approach to teach a variety of academic subjects, not just math.) The value of these drills was in its ability to totally engage these students – physically and mentally – while teaching them subjects that had previously turned them off. An added benefit of using karate to achieve this is pre-gang bangers – who comprised a significant percentage of dropouts in the schools in which I was involved – were attracted to the martial arts, so it wasn’t a nerdy thing to do. (There were a variety of other dynamics that I covered, which made the program and subsequent life choices more appealing to this segment of the population. Perhaps I’ll discuss these at some future point.)
Let me give you an example of one of the math drills.
1) Have your students line up and take their right legs back. 2) Teach them how to throw a lead-hand jab, if they don’t know already. 3) Tell them “Every time I say ‘one’, you jab.” 4) Lead them through jab practice for single, double, even triple jabs – “One.” “One,one,” for doubles. “One, one, one,” for triples, etc.
Now, tell them they should reverse punch each time you say “Two”. Repeat the same sequence as you did for jabs. “Two, two,” means they should throw double reverse punches with the same hand, etc.
Then, tell them they should throw a rear leg front kicks each time you say “Three”. And do the same as above – “Three, three,” for doubles, etc.
Lastly, do the same for front leg roundhouse kicks. They should throw a front leg roundhouse kick whenever you say “Four”, and follow that with practice of singles on command, doubles, triples, whatever you want to do.
They should now know those four basic techniques, if they didn’t already. (If they already know them, then only repeat the counts, training them to execute the appropriate technique and the appropriate number of reps as instructed.)
Lead them through combinations based on the number system you’ve taught them. “One, two,” means they should throw a jab, followed by a reverse punch. “Four, two, four,” would be for a front leg roundhouse kicks, followed by a reverse punch, and another front leg roundhouse kick. “One, one, two,” would be a double jab and reverse punch. Do this for a while, so they’ve had a chance to practice the many combinations of techniques.
Now, you’re ready to begin using the groundwork you’ve set to teach them math. Tell them “A One technique – a jab – is worth one. A Two technique – reverse punch – is worth two. A Three technique – a front kick – is worth three. And a Four technique – a front leg roundhouse – is worth four.”
Point at a student and say something like the following: “Give me a combination of techniques that equals five.” The first person will often throw five jabs in a row. After he’s done, discuss the other options he had available – a jab and a front leg roundhouse kick. A jab and two reverse punches, etc.
Point to a second student and ask him to give you techniques that would equal six, seven, eight, etc. After he is done, again go over the other options to make sure everyone starts thinking about the factors that, when added together, equal that number. You can do the same with most areas of basic math.
Give these a try in your dojo. Students enjoy them and the parents of students struggling with math will see far greater value in their child being a part of your school, increasing retention.
Take care and thanks for your continued support.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Three Sciences by Simon Keegan

The following is another of Sensei Simon Keegan's articles, which I've enjoyed. I'd like to thank him for allowing me to share it with you.


Sensei Simon Keegan

If I had to sum up my teaching approach I'd say "three sciences". They are the science of violence, the science of technique and the science of learning.
This is the Bushinkai Method.
The Science of Violence means studying and practicing for the most likely self defence scenarios. It means dealing with real attacks in real time, not live action roll playing and jumping about pretending to be Ninjas.
The Science of Technique means understanding the underlying principles of each technique. I can't guarantee what situation you'll find yourself in, but I can guarantee your techniques will be more efficient if you relax and use the waist (for example).
The Science of Learning means drilling so that your techniques become instinctive. These include kata, push hands and renzoku drills. If I show you a technique and you practice it once you may "know" the technique on an intellectual level but you won't be able to instinctively perform it when the brown stuff hits the fan.
When adrenaline arrives and it's "fight or flight" you won't have time to decide between a jumping spinning back kick and a reverse crescent moon kick. You will react. And you will react according to what you have practiced. Make no mistake you will react. Make sure you react well.
Finally I would add another aspect of the training. Why do we warmup and stretch? Well apart from the obvious safety benefits of a warmup, honing cardio and developing core muscles is critical to your ability to fight.
You will note that many of our exercises, such as situps, crunches and even pressups exercise the stomach muscles.
When we practice our Kihon or Kata we don't just do so as a cardio exercise or for self discipline, we are also training the brain, training balance, muscle memory and the little part of the brain that can be trained to think rationally under pressure.
In training we should also push ourselves to go that little bit further. Think you can only do 10 pressups? Then do 15. Think you can only kick to knee height? Then kick to thigh height. Outside, keep your techniques targeted to key areas of the body, but in the Dojo be harsh on yourself.
As they say, one drop of sweat will save a litre of blood. Another version of that saying is "cry in the Dojo, laugh on the battlefield."