Buyer Beware

Danger Will Robinson, Danger.

Today’s rant brought to you by Ego and Résumé.

OK, what am I ranting about now?  Well, it is about all of the people trying to move and ride on Taika’s coattails now that he has passed.  It is truly amazing to me, to see so many people throwing his name around now that he is gone.  Where were they when he was alive?  There seems to be no end to people claiming they were his live in disciple (absolute bogus claim) and his number one this or number one that.  “I am his longest living student.”  “I am his oldest student.”  “I was his first.”  “I was his favorite.”  Might as well add "I was his tallest student" or "I was his shortest."  It holds about as much relevance.  I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

Quite frankly it makes me sick.  Mathematical skills at fudging one’s résumé go back thousands of years, probably back to the first cave man trying to get a job for making wheels.  I love how someone who maybe went to one seminar in 1989 and then didn't train again with him for 4-5 years claims a 1989 start date.  Other people claim that they trained with Taika for X amount of years and yet fail to put on their résumé that they ceased all direct training with the man in the year 2000.  Yet they still claim the 12 subsequent years as if they actually stepped foot in Taika’s dojo during that time.  One such person, would come in Taika’s dojo about once every 3-4 months for a few years until he was banished from the Association and every time he showed the rest of us would be frustrated because we knew that night, Taika wouldn't show us anything ‘special’.  So even if you count the 3-4 visits he had over those few years, he didn't learn anything because Taika didn't trust him.

So when someone’s résumé says they started training with Taika in year 19xx and that they trained till he passed in 2012, be wary.  Did this person just attend 1-3 seminars a year and rarely (if ever) get any face to face time?  Did they start their training at a couple of seminars, then not see the man for 9 years, then train for X years only to disappear due to personal matters?  Did they only show up at a seminar when they wanted to test?  Did they meet him overseas and then quit his association in the 80’s?

All I’m saying is, ask some questions.  Do the math.  Don’t just take someone’s résumé as fact.  A résumé is there for a reason, to get them hired (or at least admired).  A quality company hiring someone does fact checking, and a government entity will do a background check.  Don’t believe everything you see, there are many people out there who have a résumé built on recycled fecal matter.  Instead of looking at those things, look at the person’s ability, their personality.  Even two people that attended the exact same number of seminars over the years, with exact clock hours in training will have different skill levels because we all learn and develop differently.  

Rank doesn't matter.

Arbitrary clocks and calendars don't matter.

Skill and Personality Matter

At least those last two mattered to Taika.

Most of the people with the real Taika clock hours are not out trying to be famous and flinging their résumé around. 

Buyer Beware

The Lost Art of Visualization

In the POST-Taika world we live in, there have been a lot more people coming out of the woodwork and posting videos.  One of the reasons that RyuTe® is not very well known is that Taika had a ban on video uploads on the net whereas all the exiles didn’t have to follow those rules, thus many more people have heard of Ryukyu Kempo than of RyuTe®.  That is kind of sad when you think that Taika used the name Ryukyu Kempo for 15 years after immigrating to the United States (1977 to 1992) and used the name RyuTe® Ren Mei for 20 years before his death.  But as usual, I got sidetracked from the post topic…

In the recent release of all the masters scurrying to fill the void, I am noticing a lot of things when people are posting videos of exercises and techniques I've been exposed to for years……the lack of Visualization.

Visualization: The ability to see not only where your opponent is in relation to the exercise you are performing, but their anatomy, their kinesthetic movements and your changing relations and positions during the exercise.

We all probably have our favorite exercises, and for me that would be the original 1995 Spider Web, as well as the multitude of various add-ons and complete remix that occurred later up to about 2000.  Seeing this exercise and others resurface, particularly on the net over the past two years has brought to light a problem I see with a lot of artist, and for me Spider Web was the exercise that brought this to light in my own study back in 1995. 

Back at Taika’s dojo in 1995 and later at the 1996 Summer Camp at Tall Oaks, I would watch the sessions as everyone learned this exercise and as Taika explained the practical application of it.  We would do each little section and then perform the techniques on a live body.  Regrettably, when we got home most of us didn't have a willing body to abuse, so you did the exercise but not the practical hands on part.  I spent a vast amount of time on this exercise and it is where I first learned to really try and visualize my opponent.  This got my hands, feet, and general body motions refined over time.  It was a great learning experience and still probably the exercise I enjoy and understand the best.

Now what started this rant, was me seeing versions of this starting to surface on the net.  I've seen versions in real life as well, and I’m not saying by any means that I’m perfect, but I think some people need to slow down and look at themselves when they perform an exercise.  Really take the time to analyze yourself.  I’m seeing some wild wacky things now that Taika is gone.  I recently watched a video where the opponent’s arms, of the particular practitioner, would have to be about two feet thick.  I don’t care if this practitioner is visualizing Arnold Schwarzenegger during his peak performance years, his arms are not that thick.  Perhaps this individual was visualizing a space alien and preparing for an invasion.  There was also some amazingly useless hand flourishes and other portions that if done on a real opponent would just simply not work.  Everyone that learned this exercise at any of the seminars back in the 90’s also got the bunkai or practical part with it in various paired exercises.  This is one of the great things about picking Spider Web for learning visualization as opposed to one of the 14 kata in the system.  You actually are 100% sure of all the bunkai because Taika gave it all to us, right up front.  

In training, you should use visualization to understand what you are doing.  Even from the simple steps of visualizing a mirrored opponent in a horse stance and learning to land your ‘middle punch’ exactly where the brachial plexus tie-in is every single time.  You are learning to aim.  Then you can step it up and add your movement to the visualization and then the movement of your imaginary friend.  This is something you should do painfully slow at first.  Slight movements and snail speed.  Imagine what your opponent is doing, and think if that is how you would logically act if you were the opponent.  Include in your visualization them bending over, them falling back or shifting, et cetera.  One great thing that many martial arts styles don’t believe in, is kata.  Kata and exercises (which in reality are just unnamed kata) build up muscle memory and make things instinctual.  If you are going to make things instinctual, it would probably be in your best interest to do the moves correctly.

VISUALIZE!!

I continue to work on this exercise.  I do it fast, I do it slow, and sometimes in between.  But I do it with visualization, always thinking about the positions of my opponent.  I teach it to my students by saying things to lead them to visualization like, the opponent throws his right punch towards your face, you parry and hook his wrist, et cetera.  And most importantly, I check for drift by watching my instructor, Taika Seiyu Oyata, performing the steps and paired techniques on one of my most cherished videos.

Drift

This will probably be my shortest blog ever but I wanted to talk about DRIFT.

Drift: The natural change of a repeated pattern over time.

Drift is something that occurs naturally for a practitioner.  Indeed Taika did it and to a point encouraged it.  He would say, make this yours, make the kata for your body, not mine, and other such similar comments.  If you drifted the wrong way or poorly, you might get a bonk on the head.  No matter how die-hard someone is about traditionalism, I don’t think anyone can rightfully say that there is a single person in this world that does any kata exactly as the originator did the kata.  Each new generation drifts and adapts and I believe this is a good thing (to a point) and believe that this is one of the key things about this style that Taika instilled.  One size doesn’t fit all.

But here is the cautionary tale; Check your drift regularly!

With modern technology, we have cameras and particularly video cameras everywhere.  Any class night there are at least 5 video cameras in the dojo (other than the 4 permanent ones for the online students) that are simply just phones.  It is quite easy to record a video of yourself and periodically check them to make sure you are still doing things correctly or rather, along the same line of intent.  I luckily have a lot of videos recorded of Taika, some by myself and some of other sources.  One of my favorites is Spider Web and I regularly use it to ensure I’m not drifting too far from the original.  I have countless weapons and technique videos I shot while training with Taika that I regularly source to make sure I’m still doing what he wanted me to.  I believe, as he did, that it is ok to take some minor creative adaptions for mainly physical reasons (birth defect, hip dysplasia) but it is also important to check to make sure you are not just remembering it wrong.  When you have about 35 kata and countless exercises in your head, it is quite easy to jumble them at times.  Someone I used to train with knew many more kata than I do, and they quite frequently would get them wrong unless they ‘checked for drift’ with old videos. 

So in short, for a short blog, use technology and record….then check yourself regularly.