JKA Vic Article - Karate, a sport or a lifetime commitment?

Articles

Karate – a sport or a lifetime commitment? Reflections and lessons.

By Dr. Garry Luxmoore
Chief Executive Officer - Business Decisions International Pty Ltd
Assistant Professor of Management - Bond University Gold Coast, Queensland Australia

It’s been nearly 7 years since I ceased regular Karate training. Why did I quit you might ask and rightfully so. Well, there are a myriad of reasons ranging from injury, to JKA’s internal politics, to the pressures of my business where client obligations dictate that I be on domestic or international flights almost weekly.

Prior to that I committed over sixteen years of my life to Karate and particularly to JKA, albeit that my induction into budo came through a JKA offshoot namely the Chidokan group in New Zealand. Ironically that is where one of my close JKA friends also started, Sensei Lloyd Baggott from JKA Melbourne.

So to my question. Is Karate a sport or is it a life time commitment? Whilst it is surely both, you can be forgiven for accusing me of hypocrisy (for I have not continued to practice) when I advocate that Karate is in fact a life-long commitment. To compete in tournaments, to keep fit and to make progress through the grades is unquestionably the sporting part. Yet there is far more to Karate than that. It is a state of mind and a set of principles that once imbedded in one’s value-set, drive behaviour and impacts upon decisions and actions forever. I would like to share with you how these values are still with me and I’m sure will always be there. Do I physically practice Karate? The answer is - irregularly. Do I try to live the values of JKA? The answer is undoubtedly.

There are some powerful principles underpinning the Dojo Kun and the spirit within which Karate and in particular JKA is practiced. In no particular order let me explore these.

The very first thing that springs to mind is loyalty. In Japanese this is known as giri. Strictly speaking, giri can be translated as obligation. Its more literal application is wider than that. Obligation is to one’s parents and to one’s seniors. Once that obligation is there it is a life-long obligation. I am forever indebted to those who are my seniors and who have passed their knowledge and expertise down to me. Nishimura Sensei will always be Sensei to me and always I am obliged or indebted to him. He is someone whom I respect, trust and look up to. Similarly with Sensei Walter Stark, who is not only my Sensei but also a close personal friend. Would I train elsewhere? No, I would not. Am I forever committed to JKA and Sensei Nishimura? Yes I am.

So how is this edict of giri transported into the business world? What relevance does it have when dealing in the cut-throat world of modern commerce where the dollar seems to be the one and only thing driving people? The sad thing for many is that the concept of giri has no place, infact it is hardly known, even in it's western context of obligation. For me it is crucial and central to the values of my organisation.

At my company Business Decisions International, I have instilled a set of core values that drive the behaviour of our people. These are all grounded in sound business aspirations such as getting repeat business and creating ambassadors for us. But this becomes much more meaningful when our behaviours reflect notions such as honesty and loyalty. Gaining new business is far more expensive than retaining existing customers. Our attentions therefore should be directed toward the clients we already know. The more loyal and committed we are to our existing customers the more they will come back to us and the more they will be inclined to refer others to us. Is giri a valuable part of business success in today's world? Yes, you bet it is.

The second principle is humility. I will always remember one time in Japan when I took the students from my Dojo to a summer gasshuku or intensive training there about 10 years ago. The two gruelling daily training sessions had been completed, the blisters on our feet were bursting and our limbs were so beyond soreness that they were numb. The traditional evening session (third training) was in full swing and amid the Suntory, sake and food, Sensei spoke to me words that have rung in my ears ever since. He told me that the higher he progressed in the grades - the less he knew. On the surface this seemed quite a mundane comment, yet the more I explored the thought, the more I came to know about humility and humbleness.

This was exemplified about a year ago one night at a Blues Festival in Broadbeach on Australia's Gold Coast where I live. I was in a bar listening to a very good guitarist and outside in the plaza two young guys, obviously having consumed a few foams, had stripped off their shirts and were displaying their kata prowess in front of whomever would watch. Once they had finished, they towelled off their sweaty torsos and continued to parade their Karate bravado verbally. I thought to myself is this humility? Would a JKA Karate-ka do this? Is this what Karate is all about?

And so to business. How can humility possibly assist anyone in the vicious world of business when it seems only the bravado of the bold makes an impression amongst the morass of the mediocre? In the seminars and training programs I run for various clients, we explore the concept of customer satisfaction and service quality. There is a myriad of anecdotes I could relate here about poor and exceptional customer service, but that is not the focus of this article. The point is that we work through a series of models to arrive at the concept of good companies managing service expectations by slightly under promising and then over delivering, thereby delighting the customer. And this is my point - it is better to be humble and modest about your service levels and then exceed these expectations rather than trumpet your bravado and expertise only to fail or at best run the risk of failing to meet expectations. After all the two young guys’ booze inspired Bassai-dai kata was pretty damned ordinary!

And so to the third principle I’d like to explore with you. That is, learning – life long learning. I can recall many years ago when I left school I joined a bank as a junior. They were keen to develop me and talked about things like putting me through exams and achieving banking qualifications. Wooaah! I said to myself. Steady on. I’ve just left school and had enough of this learning stuff. I’m sick of learning and since I had my University entrance exams safely tucked away there was no way that I had to learn anything more. I knew everything. Hadn’t I just graduated from high school?

Needless to say I didn’t last long at the bank. Karate entered my life and from then the veil of ignorance was lifted. The unconscious incompetence became the conscious incompetence, representing a big shift in my thinking. Ever since then I have constantly been learning.

Sensei’s comment which I alluded to earlier about the higher one gets in the grades the less one knows, comes to the fore again. How can it be that once Kanku-dai is mastered there is more to learn? Here the Karate-ka transcends the physical and asks questions about the spiritual side of the kata. Sure the moves are mastered, although as in any physical activity the levels of application are always changing. The way football is played is dynamic; it is in a state of constant change. It needs to reinvent itself so that the same team does not always dominate. There is always a better way to play the game and so it must be with Karate. Sure there are traditional, seemingly static moves that become the benchmark of Waza but the interpretation of these and the methods we use to retain them is constantly updating.

In conclusion, Karate is no longer my physical activity of choice. I seldom don the Dogi and practice. Yet there is a set of values within me that I dedicate to those whom I have had the good fortune to be associated with. These people deserve and get my loyalty and respect. I know there are a set of values that they and this sport/art have instilled in me. For that I will always be grateful.

Those readers for whom values play an important part in their lives, or those who have yet to make the move into JKA, I urge you to spend time not only on the physical aspects of training but also on trying to understand some of the philosophical aspects of Karate. When you recite the Dojo Kun at the end of your lessons, how about asking yourself “How can I transpose these values into behaviour in my everyday life?” I assure you that those of you who do will find a reward far above the satisfaction you will get from the physical aspects of kata and kumite.