I was thinking last evening about the various ways to studying martial arts, not so much from a personal point of view, you can study them for whatever reason you’ve got. Some will keep you there, some will eventually stop being a reason to practice.
No, I was thinking of how you teach your students.
As usual, I’m thinking mostly in terms of the Kendo Federation where there are at least three ways to look at this.
Tournaments: The one that instantly comes to my mind when hearing “kendo” is competition, tournaments. More or less justified, after all, that is the main focus for the kids. To get in there and bash each other with sticks? What’s not to like? Iaido and Jodo both have competition as well, but the range of possibility isn’t as wide as for Kendo, no world championships, and a somewhat different type of competition. Think boxing vs gymnastics. Open vs Closed sports.
If you’re there for the competition, you will transition to being a coach (sensei) after you’re done your competitive years. Sure there are senior’s divisions, and they may keep you in the arts, but mostly you become the guy who teaches.
Grading: Which brings us to grading, you need that rank to be a teacher, or so most believe. I suppose in a well established organization that may be true, just because there will be higher ranked people within reach of your potential students, but the relationship between rank and the ability to teach is not as tightly linked as some would have you believe.
As a reason to stay in the arts in itself, grading, rank sniping, is a self-limiting goal. For me personally, I’m done with grading, I am 7dan in iaido, and in jodo. I did Aikido and got a teaching level, shodan at that time, but am no longer active. Niten Ichiryu has no grading system. If I were in it to get that next rank, I’ve run out of reasons to be around.
There are some things that a focus on grading may bring out. A certain “political” tendency, a calculating search for what you think the panel is going to want. In other words, like competition, there’s a mindset of finding out how to play right up to the rules to get that flag.
Competition and Grading can come down to “how to win” through a search for your opponent’s weakness. Find out what the panel wants and give them that. Since there are six on a senior panel, that can make for a bit of a muddy performance with bits and pieces of style tacked on here and there.
The Art: The third focus I’m arguing today is a focus on the art itself, becoming the best kendoka, iaidoka, jodoka that you can be. This ends up being a struggle to change yourself, rather than to get that flag. As you will know from my tone, this is why I’ve studied all the arts I have over the last 43 years. I don’t feel like I’m “done” at all, it’s about me and my understanding of the principles of budo, rather than external validation by trophy or rank certificate.
There’s no end to the art, no end to your ability to improve, even when you reach the age where you can’t keep up with the kids, when you are struggling to hold on to what you once had, physically. There is still a world of exploration of your own mind.
There’s no rank for this practice, no trophy, there’s only a daily slog to the dojo and back again. 43 years of various arts and I’ve met some teachers that were well worth listening to. Teachers who don’t concentrate on physical tricks to win a match or a rank, but who are examples of, well, how to live. To admit something to you, there are very few of those that I’ve found in a lifetime of practice, and every one was a delight.
This is a discrete list of three modes of practise, and therefore a lie, of course there are those who float between the three ways of practising. I won’t claim that I wasn’t a jock before I found the martial arts, but my competitive years were behind me by the time I started Aikido. I won’t claim that I didn’t take grading exams when they came up, but I never had the urge to hunt for hints on how to pass. My attitude was what I was taught by my teachers, “Show them your art, it’s their job to say if it’s above or below the line.”
I did what I was taught by my sensei, and it worked out pretty well, if you figure that passing grades is a goal. My first sensei (Aikido) told me that “rank is a measure of how long you’ve been hanging around.” I liked that then, still like it.
The trick is to hang around.
Seito Bugei Juku 