Hanging a Shingle

I haven’t posted recently on this page, not because I’ve forgotten about it, but because I’ve been directing my efforts towards opening a dojo of my own. The dojo went “live” last November and I had the great good fortune of getting a student almost immediately. As in my previous time teaching, somehow my first student is also the best student – in terms of dedication and seriousness in their approach to training. It is very strange that I struck gold in the same way twice, but I’m certainly not complaining.

In any case, it was a very personal decision for me to teach my martial art and I wanted to capture some of my thinking in going down this path. It’s not something I take lightly, as I’ve said in other posts - it doesn’t take much training to become dangerous and I feel the teacher bears responsibility here. While the training hopefully tempers the worst impulses in a student, there is a middle period there where the student is… uncontrolled, let’s say. Ultimately though I decided that teaching was something I had to do for my own development.

Teaching something pushes you to master it.

When you are teaching it forces you to approach the subject differently. Both by considering what you are trying to convey and the most effective way to convey it. Plus by making you consider the student’s perspective. I’ve often thought that you don’t really understand a thing until you teach it. All of this was in my head when I decided to open the dojo. I learned so much from my previous teaching experience and was looking forward to pushing myself more. In the past few months of running regular classes I already feel that I deepened my understanding and increased my teaching skill, so this effort is making my own karate better.

You know enough.

While it is true that I’ve improved since opening the dojo, I already knew enough to start teaching beforehand. It is an endless wrestling match to feel like your skill is high enough, like you deserve to be called Sensei, like you’re not an imposter. I thought about that a lot in the lead-up to opening.

I’ve tried to put those thoughts aside and get training. I am not the greatest martial artist that has ever walked the earth. I am certainly not the highest rank and I don’t have the purest pedigree. Hell, I haven’t even been to Okinawa yet!

But I have been training for 30 years. I have several dan rank and trained seriously with multiple teachers. I have a pretty wide perspective on the martial arts and pride myself on being conversational with much of the history of Okinawan karate. I’ve taught before. And I’ve kept training through all sorts of major life changes. I’m also a certified personal trainer, which gives me some good insight into general exercise science and how that intersects with traditional karate training. I think all of this gives me enough bona fides to hang a shingle. And, of course, you can also see me on the floor and judge for yourself.

I realized that I certainly knew enough to teach a beginner… a green belt… maybe even up to a black belt, although of course by that time I will have improved even more (hopefully). Sometimes you have to have confidence in yourself, so I just got out of my own head and went for it.

This stuff is valuable.

Another aspect is that I actually had something to teach that I believed in. Yes, I was a qualified teacher, but I also had a valuable “product” to sell.

I remember long conversations with past students about the value in traditional karate training. And lots of self-reflection on what I gain from my study. I felt there was a real market for this.

It seems like today there is just as much need for traditional training as ever. Probably more. Something to keep yourself healthy and active, to provide some basic physical protection skills, but especially to help tame your own bad tendencies. Things seem out of control, but you can still strive to control yourself. Surely I wasn’t the only person who needed to hear that?

So yes, I will defend traditional karate training as valuable and I feel like I am offering an incredibly special service here.

If you want flowers, plant a garden.

It took me some time to verbalize this one. I had looked at the martial arts schools in my area and although there were some quality ones, nothing really spoke to me and I was reluctant to walk away from Goju-ryu again. So I started to think about what I actually wanted. What was I looking for?

I wanted to work on my own karate. The kata and drills I grew up with, as well as some I learned along the way, in the proportions that I was interested in. I had spent years working solely kata in my old dojo (yes, yes, a very traditional model, I know) and knew that I did not want to follow that training paradigm. I wanted the kata and bunkai, various kumite types, the traditional conditioning drills, some kobudo. I wanted to pass on what I knew and had learned.

Most of all, selfishly, I wanted training partners!

I figured the best way to get them was to build them myself. I’d get the skill and develop the trust necessary to do some of the advanced training I was really looking for.

Plus I’d get to build the dojo environment that I wanted. Camaraderie, sincere effort, supportive, serious and challenging but still fun and friendly. A place for adults looking to improve themselves. To feel a sense of mastery. And to hold themselves accountable. To hold myself accountable, most of all.

I’m trying to build the dojo I wish I had.

It feels right to me. It gives me strength, and some purpose. I hope that I can grow a whole garden here.

But even without that I’m happy to get in some quality training with a partner!