JKA Vic Article - JKA Training, A journey in building confidence

Articles

JKA Training - A journey in building confidence

By Peter W.R. Dale - BA LLB

Peter Dale is a qualified Barrister and Solicitor and Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He works as a Divisional Director with a major Australian Bank.

It’s often said that training in Karate builds confidence, but what does that really mean and how does it happen? Firstly, let’s consider the meaning of the word “confidence”, which comes from the Latin word fidere, meaning “to trust”. If a JKA student walks with some special trust or belief, what is it, and on what is it based? I’ll try to answer this by sharing with you a few of my experiences in training.

The effect that Karate training has on us and its benefits has interested me ever since I started training in Sensei Nishimura’s Fitzroy Dojo, twenty years ago. I had been on a mission for a few months previously to find the right form of martial arts to try, so I’d been visiting various Dojos and training halls around Melbourne and talking to instructors and students, asking them what made their style different - ranging from Aikido, through neighbourhood self-defence classes, to a number of Karate styles.

The moment I stepped into the Fitzroy Dojo on a cool Melbourne evening, I knew that JKA was what I had been looking for. The seriousness of the kihon, the perfection of the kata, the intensity and control of the kumite was unlike anything else I’d seen. The students were calm as Nishimura Sensei corrected their stance and posture. There was something unhurried and orderly about the Dojo – as if everybody knew and trusted the routine, as if each person there knew he/she was on a journey, and that each would arrive with certainty at a destination of his/her choosing. I couldn’t wait to join.

I’d better mention here that I was a very poor beginner, as anybody who saw me on my first training session would remember – timid, unfit and underweight. Sensei Nishimura and my Sempai really had their work cut out if anything could be made from such raw material. This would be a real test for JKA training methods!

I started training regularly - firstly twice a week, then three times, then as often as possible. As you might know, training can be tough, but slowly I was starting to make progress, and I soon noticed that changes were occurring in other areas of my life. Apart from the obvious physical benefits – higher levels of fitness and strength - I was noticing subtle changes as well. I was more organised; I felt more comfortable making and keeping commitments; I was more willing to tackle challenges.

I began to adjust to the JKA calendar – training and seminars in Melbourne with Nishimura Sensei; seminars with Takahashi Sensei when he visited Melbourne; and competitions in Melbourne and South Australia. With excellent guidance from Sensei and Sempai alike, and with some effort and perseverance on my part, I started to progress through the colour belts.

Then an opportunity came up to really boost my progress and my appreciation of JKA training. JKA Australia organised a tour of Japan, to accompany the team selected to compete in the 1985 Shoto World Cup at the Budokan in Tokyo. I would join the tour as a brown belt, and participate in training with Sensei Takahashi and students from Aoyama University.

After landing in Tokyo, we caught the bullet train to Hiroshima, which was the scene of a scandalous sake-drinking contest with Russell Smedley, orchestrated by various Sempai who will remain nameless (thank you Walter and Omer). Needless to say, I don’t remember much of the evening and felt close to death the next day, but managed to drag myself along for a very moving visit to the Peace Park to pay tribute to those who tragically lost their lives in 1945. The tour then pushed North to visit a series of spectacular destinations – Osaka, with its famous castle and lively shopping; the beautiful temples and shrines of Kyoto; majestic Mount Fuji; Hakone (hot springs area); then back to Tokyo to begin training.

Back in Tokyo in mid-summer heat and humidity, I found the daily class at Aoyama tough going. It was difficult enough keeping up with my fellow Aussies, let alone the super-keen Aoyama students, but it was also great eye-opener to see the intensity of the Japanese students’ training, and to see how far they progressed in just four years at University.

It was after a particularly tough (for me) training session at Aoyama University - a grinding routine which left me bruised and gasping as we faced row after row of relentless Aoyama students - that I had an experience which changed the way I felt about myself, and gave me a clue as to why Karate and confidence are so often linked. After training, we took the sub-way back to the hotel to wash up, then a group of us headed out for the evening to experience some Tokyo night-life. We ended up in Roppongi – an entertainment district of Tokyo – entering one of its many bars.

As I walked in, I sensed that this was not a welcoming place – unfriendly pairs of eyes followed us with every step as we found our table. Perhaps I should have left then and there, but something had snapped inside my head during training that day. I didn’t feel aggressive or antagonstic towards anybody in the bar. In fact, I felt quite the opposite – calm, relaxed, ready to enjoy a drink without bothering anybody else there, but at the same time (and this is what had changed) ready to deal with trouble if it occurred. I had found some level of trust or belief in my own ability to cope with whatever might happen in that bar that night, which never quite left me.

Thankfully, there was no trouble, and I am lucky to be able to say that I have never had to use any Karate technique outside the Dojo, but on a number of occasions since that night I believe that I have been able to avoid trouble, and to neutralize aggressive behaviour towards me, simply by remaining calm, assessing the situtation and my probable responses, and then waiting patiently for the other person’s move. This has so unnerved a number of would-be aggressors, who expected fear and panic that they simply withdrew. In this way, I have been able to use not technique, but the confidence I gained from JKA training to defend myself from possible attack.

By now the championship at the Budokan had begun, and we enjoyed a daily demonstration of the most superb JKA Karate in the world, as contestants from around the globe fought through the elimination rounds until only the best remained. Most memorable for me was the semi-final kumite contest that year, which ran for almost 30 minutes. The stadium was breathless, watching an awesome display of skill as each contestant, patient and almost motionless, waited for the other to faulter. An explosive lunge-punch decided the contest, and the winner went on to be named kumite champion of 1985.

I returned to Australia thankful to JKA Australia for giving me an opportunity to gather so many wonderful memories. But more importantly I was, and remain to this day, deeply grateful to my Sensei, Sempai, and fellow JKA students for the opportunity to find a part of myself in the Aoyama University Dojo that day and a Roppongi bar that night – a fresh belief in my own abilities and renewed faith in myself – a small measure of the confidence which can be developed through JKA training.