What's My Rank?

I recently had an experience with a new member who had trained in Chinese martial arts. There have been similar incidents in the past, but this one is fresh in my mind. The gentleman, a Kung Fu black belt, was now intent on learning Shotokan. ‘Intent’ is putting it too mildly. He phoned the dojo at least a dozen times before he joined, each time vowing to be the most dedicated student imaginable, to train hard and learn Shotokan, to stay loyal to me, the dojo, and the style, to be with us for the next ten to fifteen years. It reminds me of the 1954 Bugs Bunny cartoon, ‘Bugs and Thugs’, with Rocky the mobster: “Rocky: SHUT UP!” “Bugs Bunny: Shut up? Why soitainly! You don't tink I'm da type dat would keep on blabbin'? Some people never know when to stop. When I'm told to shut up, I shut u-up...” “Rocky: [sticks gun in Bugs' face] Shut UP shuttin' up!” Whenever a new member is this ‘gung-ho’, a red flag goes up in my mind. I felt this new member would not stay long with the dojo. Hey, prove me wrong. I have no problem being wrong if the new member sticks with it, but I’m almost always right. One of our brown belts is a music teacher and says he experiences the same thing: when a new student is too gung-ho, they burn out and disappear quickly. This new dojo member was assured he’d be given all the privileges of senior rank; he would spar (only color belts spar in our dojo), and he’d be taught advanced kata as soon as he’s ready for it. I (or one of my senior senseis) would give him a simple practice pattern to assist him in developing body movement we use in Shotokan. Within three minutes we’d see he abandoned the practice exercise and instead would work a step-over, spinning kick/backfist combination. Good technique, but it’s not helping him learn the way we move in Shotokan. I’d correct him, show him the practice pattern again, explain the importance of staying with it to develop Shotokan movement, and leave him on his own to practice while I worked with other students. Repeatedly, within three minutes, he would abandon the exercise and practice his same step-over, spinning kick/backfist combination. Meanwhile, he didn’t develop the basic movements of Shotokan. This member missed many more classes than he attended. Through no fault of his own; he had family emergencies and work schedule problems. He’d always return to class swearing his allegiance all over again. I never called him out on his dedication; he was doing the right thing and taking care of responsibilities, but it didn’t change the fact that he missed many more classes than he attended. By test time, this member had only learned Taikyoku Shodan, Nidan, and Sandan, but still couldn’t move in a Shotokan manner. He seemed disappointed that he’d be eligible for ‘only’ yellow belt, being a black belt in Chinese martial arts. On his test, he knew almost no Japanese terminology, despite being given fact sheets weeks earlier. He had difficulty performing the basics within his kata, never having developed the Shotokan way of movement. Rather than pass judgment on his performance, he was told by two instructors that his test was incomplete and he could demonstrate his knowledge of Japanese terminology and movement at his next class. He never returned.

Imagine having a heart ailment and going to the doctor, but it turns out the doctor’s degree is in dentistry. Is he a doctor? Yes. Do you give him all the respect a professional deserves? Yes. Do you want him treating your heart? Hell no! Similarly, a black belt in another style should be shown due respect and courtesy in another dojo, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a white belt in this new discipline. Can he fight? Yes. Does he have effective moves? Yes. Can he demonstrate higher than white belt katas? No.

I am a card-carrying member of the Ryukyu Bujutsu Kenkyu Doyukai (RBKD) since 1990, having taken Yamanni Ryu seminars with Oshiro-shihan since he first came to NY in 1984. I know several katas, but never fully developed the ‘bounce’ unique to the style. At seminars they allow me to wear my Shotokan black belt, show me all due respect, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m a white belt in Yamanni Ryu. This doesn’t bother me: different style, different requirements; in fact it makes sense that I’m ‘only’ a Yamanni Ryu white belt after 28 years.

Trivial Tidbits

A contingent of Koreans trained under Gichin Funakoshi in the 1950s, returning to Korea to establish their own brand of martial arts. My first instructor, Korean War vet Rudy Illowsky, taught Moo Duk Kwan-Tang Soo Do. Karate was little-known, but Korean martial arts were almost unheard-of, so his school used mostly Japanese terminology and was named 'Karate School of Self-Defense, Inc.' We practiced Taga 1, 2 & 3, Pinan 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5, Chukki, and Passai - sound familiar?

We had a celebrity in our dojo. Jerry Samuels (a.k.a. Napoleon XIV) wrote and recorded the 1966 novelty hit, "They're Coming to Take Me Away - Ha Haa". By our lower-middle class standards he was considered rich. While we wore the $8 Lion Brand gi from Honda, he could afford the extra $3 and wore a fancy red gi. He being bearded and heavyset, wearing a red gi with green belt, Jerry always reminded me of Santa Claus. New Kiai: 'Ho'?

Max Gottwirt – February 5, 1919-December 28, 1983

Today marks the 28th anniversary of the passing of my first influence in the martial arts – my father, Max Gottwirt.

Being very young when I heard this story, and being old now with a shaky memory, here is what I remember: My father joined the Army during WW II. Having bad eyesight, he was kept stateside, where, besides being a clerk, he assisted in training the troops in hand-to-hand combat in the Maryland-Virginia-D.C. area.

As a young child, I had no indications whether my family was poor, lower-middle class, or middle class, I just knew we weren’t very well off. From 5th grade thru high school we lived in a cooperative housing development called Rochdale Village in South Jamaica, Queens. We could only afford carpeting in the living room, the kind of room that was off-limits to family, for ‘company-only’ use. When I would misbehave my father would say, “Come, Steve, I want to talk to you in the living room.” Once on the carpeting, he would say something like, “You didn’t listen to your mother, huh?” and the next thing I knew I was laying on the floor staring up at the ceiling. He’d then tell me to stand up so he could ‘talk’ to me some more. Each time I’d end up with a lovely view of the living room ceiling. As I lay on the carpet I’d think, “I gotta learn this stuff.” This was a literal meaning of the phrase: ‘being called out on the carpet’.

Before you go off screaming ‘child abuse’, keep in mind that my father was foot-sweeping me very lightly onto plush, padded carpeting, not slamming me down to the ground. Also keep in mind that this was the 1960s, when ‘child abuse’ was called ‘parenting’. You may doubt his ways, but there’s no doubt that he got my attention. I don’t think my generation turned out t-t-too b-ba-bbba-badd for being raised this way.

Less than a year after my first personal introduction to the living room carpet, I discovered a Tae Kwon Do program being offered in the Rochdale Village Community Center. I signed up in 1967; thus began my (to date) 44 year career in the martial arts.

On this, the 28th anniversary of his death, I honor the father, salute the veteran and bow to my first martial arts influence. Osu!

Okuru

Many American martial artists live and die by titles. They insist on calling themselves ‘Master’, ‘Grandmaster’, etc. One martial artist who used to associate with me would always introduce himself as ‘Sabumnim so and so’ (name omitted to protect the innocent – or is it the guilty?). The Japanese take a very different view of titles. Others may call you a specific title, but you never refer to yourself by title. If ya gotta tell folks how important ya are, mebbe ya ain’t as important as ya think.
A while ago, when ordering a new obi for myself, I had correspondence with Hamid, a very knowledgeable gentleman from www.kuroobiya.com in Japan. Here are excerpts from him on the subject:

“I would like to discuss something with you and please don't take this as a sign of disrespect to mention but at kuroobiya we don't just want to make any old product for customers, just to make money, but we want to make sure that they can wear their products with confidence that they are as accurate as possible and do not embarrass the wearer or the reader. That is why I feel I must inform you of the following:

I know the place where you got the belt embroidered before probably didn't tell you, but to be honest, it is considered incredibly arrogant or not humble by Japanese to have Hanshi on your own belt. In Japan, as a sign of humility, one never refers to oneself by title. Titles are conferred upon you by others, so teachers (sensei), doctors (sensei), masters etc. never refer to themselves as such and would never write the title next to their own name. If someone else writes it on an invitation lets say, they will even go as far as to cross it out as a sign of humility and their humbleness.

However as I said masters do not have their titles on their belts UNLESS the belt was given as a gift. In this case it is OK to wear the belt, and this is indicated on the belt with an additional kanji before the name on the belt to "signify" it was a gift. I really recommend getting this on the belt if any Japanese people are ever likely to read your belt. (In fact I recommend this to all foreign hanshi I serve. So far everyone has agreed).

Please let me know if you would like this and I will adjust the embroidery for you and resend before you order. You are of course free to ignore my advice (though my very-Japanese wife will not be happy about it when ordering the belt for you!!! Just kidding!)

Hamid Abassalty”

Karate Depot

Found a new supplier, Karate Depot. They carry a pair of tonfa by KD Elite, which looks surprisingly similar to Shureido's square tonfa. The price is under $25, where the Shureidos go for over $125. They requested that I post about them and add a link to them from my website. This is an updated posting. I won't exaggerate by saying this was the worst buying experience I've ever had, but it's the worst I've had in years. Now that my order finally arrived (weeks late), here is my horrible experience with this company:

Karate Depot's website allowed me to become a wholesale customer, but I had a couple of questions first, so I phoned them. After being on hold for more than 12 minutes, a customer service rep said they're no longer accepting wholesale accounts. I told her their website has a link to become a wholesale account and she said she knew nothing about that. Went back to the website, applied for wholesale status and was approved, just had to send them some corporate paperwork. An email from 'Alex', their wholesale accounts rep, OK'd my account. Still having some questions, I called Alex directly several times - never got thru - always left a voicemail - never got a callback. When I emailed him I'd get a response, but never really answered the questions I asked.

Both the retail and wholesale webpages showed a banner offering $2.95 shipping and handling no matter what size the order. I ordered three pair of tonfa and a bo bag. At checkout, it charged me over $5 in tax and $4.70 s/h. This company is in Lenexa KS and, as a wholesale account, should not charge tax. I deleted the order and called Karate Depot. Of course Alex wasn't in again, so I asked to speak with a 'regular' customer service rep. This time I was on hold for 11 minutes. The 'regular' customer service rep offered me no answers, said she couldn't help me, and that Alex alone deals with wholesale accounts. Left another voicemail for Alex which went unanswered. Sent him an email; he emailed back that the $2.95 s/h was for retail accounts only, that wholesale accounts pay the actual regular shipping rate. I'm staring right at the $2.95 banner on their wholesale webpage! He never addressed the tax issue. Now, how badly do I want to try these tonfa? I re-placed the order on June 16th, paid the tax and $4.70 s/h, and was informed that delivery would be June 23rd. Meanwhile, as thanks for my order, they offered me a free T-shirt if I posted them on my website. Very nice gesture. A week later the shipment hadn't arrived as promised, but I did receive my free T-shirt complete with a bill for $14.95 + $1.55 tax + $2.95 s/h. My free shirt costs $19.45! I immediately got on the phone, left a voicemail for Alex (Surprise! He wasn't in), then asked for a regular customer service rep. After only 9 minutes on hold a rep, 'Baby', checked with her supervisor and said the T-shirt comes from the corporate office, just ignore the invoice, it'll be OK. Not comfortable with 'just ignore it', I then phoned 'Chana', the rep who emailed me the free T-shirt offer. That's when I noticed her area code was 845, Westchester County, which is why they charged me, a New Yorker, sales tax. It just would've been nice if someone told me thay had a NY office when I posed the tax question. Chana confirmed that I should disregard the invoice.

Still no shipment, so I went onto their website to track my order. A message said they were having problems tracking orders at this time; please call customer service. It happens on occasion, so I waited for the next day to track my order rather than deal with customer service (who gives no help) or phone Alex (who's never in). After four days of their website saying they couldn't track my order I phoned Karate Depot and actually got thru in less than 4 minutes! They said the whole shipment was being held because the bo bag is backordered; they're not sure when it will be in. So that means you don't know when you'll ship any part of my order? I told them to cancel the bo bag and just send the tonfa, which they said they'd do right away. This was on a Monday. On Wednesday, June 30th, the web tracker finally worked and showed that my order had just been shipped. It also showed that the bo bag is still on backorder. I contacted customer service again to confirm that the backorder is canceled. I don't want them accessing my credit card to send merchandise no longer wanted. The rep assured me that she again deleted the backorder. My three pair of tonfa finally arrived July 6th, but to make Karate Depot look less inefficient, the order was now dated June 30th, a full two weeks after I actually placed the order! By the way, the website tracker now shows the tonfa as 'delivered', but still has the bo bag backordered!

To be fair, everyone I spoke to at Karate Depot was courteous and friendly; it's just that their systems are messed up. The tonfa are terrific. They're made of red oak just like the Shureidos and almost identical dimensions. I brought them in to the dojo and had others try them as well. All agreed that they're far superior to the standard, cheap tonfa (around $20), about as good as the Kensho tonfa (around $75), and pretty darn close to the Shureidos (around $125). Just wish another company carried these KD Elites at this price.

If you still want to try Karate Depot, be forewarned that you must sit on their backs to be sure things go smoothly. Here is their link: www.karatedepot.com/.

Bullies

Many years ago, a young student came into the dojo with an obviously troubled look on his face. When I asked him what’s wrong, he said another kid at school called him a bad name. Thinking I could incorporate it into a lesson, I asked if he’d like to tell me about it. He said that the other child called him a ‘doody-head’. Being an adult, it’s easy to smile about such a childish comment, but it’s devastating to a nine year-old. I said, “That was a pretty stupid thing for him to say, wasn’t it?” The student hung his head down and muttered, “yeah.” I then said, “He must be pretty stupid to call you that”, to which he raised his head a bit and said, “Yeah”, a little stronger. I then asked, “Do you really care what a stupid person thinks about you?” My student stood erect, looked me in the eye, and strongly answered, “NO!”

A bully’s usual intention is to hurt your feelings. He often has low self-esteem, and makes others feel worse to feel better about himself. Simply ignoring the comment, not letting it bother you, takes the bully’s ‘power’ away. Arguing with the bully or denying his claim can escalate the situation. Once in my college days I was out with friends. I glanced around the bar and as my gaze passed some ‘tough guy’ he snarled “What’re you lookin’ at?” to which I replied, “Not much.” He got up to confront me, saw I wasn’t backing down, cursed under his breath and walked away. Very risky on my part. I teach my students not to fight; it’s just dumb words from an ignorant person who should be pitied, not feared. I also teach my students that, should he try to physically harm you, it’s okay to take appropriate measures to defend yourself. Like the old ‘sticks and stones’ saying, his words mean nothing to me; but if he tries to touch me, that’s when we have a problem. A favorite technique against physical attack is a strong block. I remind my students that a good block is designed to strike the attacking limb, not just brush it aside. If the attacker’s arm or leg gets bruised in the process, it shouldn’t have come at me in the first place. The fault is not mine for defending myself; it’s his for attacking me.

A famous story in my martial arts circle of friends took place at a small, local tournament. I refereed a ring, calling penalties as per tournament rules if a competitor committed a foul. One particular instructor harassed me whenever I called penalties on his students, which was often. I could have further penalized or disqualified his students for his unsportsmanlike conduct, instead I tried to explain, to show him the rule book, but he just had it in for me. At one point he began to yell because I didn’t call a point for his student, even though the other judges and I saw that the technique wasn’t in. He insisted it was in, so I did something unprecedented and said I’d poll the judges for a ruling and even allowed the loudmouth a vote. I said, “Judges, call!” He jumped up and down waving his hand, neither of the two judges or I called for a point, so I ruled, “One says ‘yes’, three say ‘no’. No point!” He stormed off screaming a tirade of curses at me. At that moment I realized that a good personal measure is the caliber of people who have problems with me. If a fool and I don’t get along, that’s just fine. If someone whom I admire or whose opinion I value disagrees with me, then I may need to reevaluate what I’m doing.

An action-star appeared on some TV talk show a while back and spoke of being bullied in high school because he was the smallest one in his class. Over the summer he had a growth spurt of several inches, and felt he’d no longer be picked on. Not having gained bulk in proportion to his new height, the bullies then picked on him for being a ‘freakish string bean’. He just couldn’t win! The simple fact is that anyone can pick on anyone else for some physical feature or character trait. Someone is too tall, too short, too smart, wears glasses, has big feet, etc. Even those who have absolutely nothing unusual about them can be picked on for being ‘too perfect’, a ‘plastic model’, or a ‘pretty little doll’.

Some people may be extremely tall and artistic; or awkward and charitable; or have large ears and athletic. Everybody is unique. If you recognize and celebrate your differences from others, it’s hard for bullies to damage your self-esteem by pointing out those differences. Just keep in mind that, by trying to point out your ‘flaws’, they’re really showing theirs’.

Les Paul: Musician, Inventor, Martial Artist?

Les Paul, legendary musician and inventor, passed away this past August 13th at the age of 94. He was a personal hero of mine.

Paul became a professional musician in his early teens in Waukesha WI, playing Country & Western. He would listen to jazz coming from the big cities on a home-made crystal radio. In 1934 he arrived in Chicago, jamming with the top jazz musicians all night while performing ‘hillbilly music’ on the radio during the day (it paid better). He had become a recording artist for Decca records in 1936. After a short hitch in the Army during World War II, Paul went on to put out more than 40 hit records between 1945 and 1961. He and his wife Mary Ford had dozens of hits and their own television show. I, personally, am not a major fan of this style of music, but am awed by the artistry and skills he had.

In 1948, Paul and Ford had an auto accident that had the doctors ready to amputate Paul’s right arm. He told them to do whatever they could to save it. When they said the best they could do was fuse his arm he told them “point my hand to my belly”. He went on for the next 61 years as one of the top guitarists in the nation despite his fused arm.

Les Paul had always been fascinated by electronics and sound ever since making his own crystal radio as a boy. He invented and developed the solid-body electric guitar. After recording sessions with Bing Crosby, he presented Paul with a then-state of the art reel to reel tape recorder. Paul designed a way of adding a second recording head and, for the first time, dubbing multiple recordings on a single tape. He then went on to invent a multi-track recorder, the principle of which is still used in every recording studio today. A top line of Gibson guitars designed and refined in the 1950s and ‘60s bear the name ‘Les Paul’. Paul has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his invention and development of the solid-body electric guitar. He was also inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame for his electronic breakthroughs.

In 1993, in order to keep himself mentally alert, active, and to keep limber despite crippling arthritis, Paul began performing on Monday nights at Fat Tuesdays in NYC. In 1999 he switched over to the Iridium Jazz Club where he performed most every Monday night for 10 years. I had the fortune of seeing him at the Iridium on several occasions. Interesting thing about his shows was that you would be disappointed if you expected a brilliant guitar performance, but would be delighted by his sharp, irreverent wit (which is right up my alley), wonderful stories, interaction with the audience and short bursts of good playing. As he got older, his playing deteriorated, but he was still the best 90-year-old arthritic guitarist I had ever heard. In the book, Living the Martial Way, by Forrest E. Morgan, Maj. USAF, he discusses the difference between ‘tactics’ and ‘strategy’, with ‘tactics’ being the various techniques in your arsenal, and ‘strategy’ being the plan in which you employ these techniques. A ‘Les Paul’ performance was a perfect example of these principles, as he would employ the proper strategy to best display his limited tactics.

Striving for excellence, training to hone ones skills to the highest degree, thinking outside the box, doing whatever it takes to achieve ones goal, employing the proper strategy to take best advantage of ones tactics - I propose that Les Paul displayed the finest martial arts skills. I will miss him, and always remember what he stood for.