One of the benefits of doing CrossFit is that it opens doors. I've been watching the Shiden'issen Jujutsu group practicing at the Tucson dojo for over a year. They'd wait patiently on the sidelines while the shotokan group trained in the early evening time slot. When we karate people finished, the jujutsu folks would take the floor. It looked so interesting what they did. One evening they'd work with weapons, another night it would be grappling, and just when I thought I recognized a pattern, they'd change it up and do throws and escapes. I was drawn to this martial art but held back.Many senior karate instructors (though not all; Chris Smaby in Iowa always encouraged people to learn judo too) in the 1970s and 1980s demanded loyalty and discouraged straying from karate training. This message was communicated subtly. One life time to chase one rabbit. How silly this seems on reflection, how utterly political, self-serving, and limiting.
The outstanding new book by Bruce Clayton entitled Shotokan's Secret opened my mind. To study traditional karate MEANS to study other systems. Our Okinawan karate ancestors learned many martial arts. They had to. They were royal body guards in an occupied and completely disarmed kingdom. The skills set I've acquired over the years is good and strong in the striking department, but this is narrow. What if I miss? What if I'm thrown to the ground? I need to learn escapes, throws and counters, principles of leverage, locks, weapons, chokes, basic grappling. Kicks and punches combined with some elementary but practiced jujutsu techniques makes karate more effective, more capable, more rounded. |
| Me About to Get Choked |
