Back in the fifties 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 wonderful science called Karate, could accomplish amazing feats.
So why didn’t it all happen? The reason is that so many people wanted the art that there weren’t enough teachers to teach it. And what, you might ask, does a person need to teach Karate?
Back then, guys with three 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 guys 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 school and observe a teacher. Is the teacher explaining why things work? Or is he merely asking people to mimic him?
Yes, the first stage is Monkey see monkey do, but it only lasts a short while. The real real reasons for how and why something works must be inserted, or what is being taught will become nothing more than memorization. And when the fist comes out of the darkness, 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 that’s the story. Karate could do all it claimed, but it was reduced by quick black belts who wanted to make money, and who didn’t really know why they were doing what they were doing. I trust this information will help you when you seek an instructor, and when you are actually learning the art.
