For those struggling to keep your schools open

I’ve received several pm’s and emails about my statement that my dojo had lost money for the first 24 years of its operation. I want to clear things up. I realized around that same time that that couldn’t continue. I had always focused on being fair to my students, often leaning over far backwards to achieve this. (One student even said I was the only person he knew who he had to chase down to pay. I was embarrassed to take money for teaching.) But I had failed to be fair to my family and to myself. The pressure of trying to keep the doors open was taking a toll on my health and my marriage. So I decided changes had to be made and I took a more professional approach. And by “professional”, I don’t mean “commercial”.

What is the difference? Well, a doctor is a professional man. Most love medicine and love their patients but must do things right from a western business standpoint in order to continue to offer their services. If they could make more money doing something else, most would still choose to be doctors as it’s not about money. Many today run commercial schools. By that I mean they are largely financial operations. If many of them could make more money doing something else, they would close their schools in an instant and follow it – and some have.

A professional martial arts instructor makes money so he can teach the martial arts. A commercial martial arts instructor teaches the martial arts so he can make money. Big difference in my mind.

After restructuring my dojo on a more professional model (which was no easy feat), it has paid its way ever since as well as allowed me to meet my personal expenses, enabling me to focus solely on the martial arts.

At some point in the near future, I will discuss how I was able to achieve this in hopes of better enabling those of you who love teaching the martial arts but are struggling to keep your schools open.

Sage advice from aging martial artists

Professor Sig Kufferath was a wonderful man who never appeared to age. He was a great judo/jujitsu grandmaster, a direct student of the legendary Professor Henry Okazaki, who produced other greats, including Wally Jay and Willy Cahill. He was one of our early USNKA Living Martial Arts Treasure Award recipients. His daughter, Leslee Kufferath, hosted a very nice memorial event a couple of weeks ago for what would have been her father’s 100^th birthday. Professor Kufferath was so well-loved and respected that the event was a huge success. Masters and students came from around the globe to teach and be taught.

Professor Kufferath was such a knowledgeable and gentle soul, I always treasured the time I was able to spend with him. On one occasion, he told me a story that put age into proper perspective. While in his middle 80s, he returned to his native Hawaii to visit his handful of surviving childhood buddies. He and one of them went to the beach, where they saw many beautiful, young women in very skimpy bathing suits. He told his buddy, “What I wouldn’t give to be 70 again”.

In the following clip, Hanshi Mochida Moriji, 10^th dan in kendo, talks about the effects of age on a martial artist and how he dealt with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XHSZ-sLG3I

Should you follow a martial life?

I haven't forgotten my series on Bunkai, Kyusho, and the Death Touch. I'm working on the next installment. But it requires some neurological explanations and I wasn't happy with how I had explained it. It was too confusing. While I rewrite it, here's my thoughts on the value of following a martial life.

Many, many years ago, I came to a crossroads in my life. For the first 24 years of its operation, my dojo lost money. I had to pay the rent out of my own pocket, which eventually forced me to consider the intelligence of continuing. I was, afterall, paying to have people study with me. Not much of a complement. In fact, it was a very a discouraging situation and extremely difficult to justify, especially to my wife.

I ran over a long list of pros and cons. In the end, the pros thankfully won out. I thought it would be good to put myself into a situation where I had to continue to train and learn new materials throughout my life in order to stay ahead of my students and keep myself in top shape. It would also commit me to living my life carefully so as to always be a proper role model for my students. I also hoped to be able to continue to serve a useful purpose and enjoy greater self-sufficiency in my old age, in a country where old is bad and new is good, where our seniors are considered a useless burden.

I am now 68 and things have worked out exactly as I had hoped. I would highly recommend everyone follow a similar path.

Yet another great Naihanchi/Tekki video

I know I said the last one was the last, but I came across another interesting clip on Naihanchi/Tekki kata. This one is by Hanshi Minoru Higa's cousin, Hanshi Oscar Higa. In it, he corrects the kata of one of his black belts. I don't speak Spanish but, although a translation would be helpful, none is necessary. We can hear with our eyes, as most of us have done through the years with instructors whose English was not great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MJpFiU3eEI&feature=related

Hanshi Minoru Higa

Hanshi Minoru Higa is considered one of the greatest masters now teaching on Okinawa. According to Hanshi Dan Smith, he practices 2,000 punches every day and has for many years. Even at an advanced age, he can hit from any angle and do significant damage. Here's a clip on him teaching a seminar in South America and includes a section in which he teaches Naihanchi Kata. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjfZGJQ27MA&playnext=1&list=PLC05F1C7827912056

Chotoku Kyan's Bo

Hanshi Dan Smith just returned from Okinawa, where he's working with his instructor, Hanshi Zempo Shimabukuro, on a new book. While there, he witnessed the presentation of legendary karate grandmaster Chotoku Kyan's personal bo to Zempo Sensei by the Kyan Family. Hanshi Smith wrote a nice piece on the presentation on his Seibukan Blog. It has a great video clip on the bo and Hanshi Shimabukuro describing how it was constructed, facts about size and shape of old bows, and demonstrates its use. http://www.seibukan.us/Blog/EntryId/18/April-Visit-to-Okinawa-Kyans-Bo.aspx

Bunkai, Kyusho, and the Death Touch – Part IX

There’s an interesting theory that kyusho points were kept secret throughout history by high level martial artists because knowledge of vital points gave them an edge in their senior years against challenges from much younger (and generally much faster and stronger) students.

The story has it that kyusho (or at least the most dangerous points) would only be taught to an instructor’s most trusted and most senior student, his uchi deshi, generally near the end of the instructor’s life. I don’t know if this is true or not but we do have some evidence that would indicate it could be.

We know, for example, that students weren’t taught anything beyond the omote (or surface or public) techniques until they had proven themselves trustworthy. Then, they were taught the lower level okudan (secret teachings). This has been well documented. We also know that only very select students were ever taught an instructor’s most secret information or techniques or allowed to read or copy a high ranking instructor’s extremely secret and treasured copies of works like the Bubishi.

Also, I have unfortunately had a couple of black belt students over my 55 years in the martial arts whose egos, after becoming black belts, began to soar astronomically, reaching far higher than their IQs, their loyalty, or their integrity (forcing me to boot them). So I can understand the appeal of something like this as I get older. People are people and I doubt if mentally/spiritually weak people have only appeared on the scene during our time. As such, I’d image many others had similar experiences through the centuries. But what do you think?