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The Road to Karate – A Budoka’s Way To Live
By Hiroshi Shoji. Shihan of the Japan Karate Association.

Part 18 - Unsu (continued) “Foster the mind to make efforts” (from the Dojo Kun)

Efforts

When they make a quantum leap after getting out of the slump, they can become a real Karate-ka.

As Karate is an individual combative form, we often can’t avoid falling into a slump. We have to overcome this slump by ourselves. This fact has been intertwined in many of the Japanese traditional arts. We will preserve what we are taught, and then we break through what we are taught and establish our own thing. Each master has been developed through this process. From this viewpoint, it would be better even for those who have been making steady progress to experience a deep slump. When they make a quantum leap after getting out of the slump, they can become a real Karate-ka. But it depends if they can direct themselves in the right direction and develop their own Karate.

It is my view based on my experience as a Karate instructor that slumps in Karate will occur at three different stages. A beginner will normally reach the level of 8th kyu with daily training for an hour in a month. If the progress is made smoothly in this fashion, we can get away with a shallow slump. But, we will face the first slump when we are at the level of 6th kyu. Around this time, we will be getting bored with Karate a little bit and also facing technical difficulties. Partly, as individual capabilities are not quite discovered, it is normally difficult for themselves or other people to judge whether they are experiencing difficulties due to their laziness or it is in fact a technical slump that they are facing. Boredom leads to resignation and they stop Karate.

Once we manage through the third slump and become 4th and 5th dan, we will get into the best performance stage in our Karate.

The minimum prerequisite for trying for the first dan is the holding of third kyu. It will normally take two years for a person to obtain his/her first dan with diligent training. The second slump comes at around this time. Once we survive the two slumps, the nature of our interest in Karate will change from the interest in the external and showy aspects of Karate to those in its intrinsic and true Karate nature and our desire to continue Karate will become real. Therefore, the waves we experience after we become black belts are rough and high. It coincides with the timing for the third slump. Once we manage through the third slump and become 4th and 5th dan, we will get into the best performance stage in our Karate. Many top competitors are 4th dan or 5th dan. This proves that this is a peak period for performance. However, we should not forget that their glory is also the crystallised result of continuous repetition of their training in which they sweat a great deal.

I quite often say the following to those who sit for grading examinations or compete in tournaments:

“It is definitely important to pass a grading examination or win a competition. However, what is more important is that we as human beings should make efforts towards the achievement of our goals.

...the effort to elevate ourselves through training towards the goal is more important than the achievement of the goal itself.

Without any goal, who would be able to escape from falling into boredom from the repetition of training day after day in pursuit of the elevation of ourselves in techniques and spirit? Humans are not so strong. We should establish a goal step by step through which process we can endure the hardship we are currently experiencing. We can elevate ourselves by rediscovering and reconfirming ourselves in such hardship. In other words, the effort to elevate ourselves through training towards the goal is more important than the achievement of the goal itself. The results of our efforts will come out as a success in our grading examinations and competitions.”

Read our Tribute to Shoji Sensei from November 2003

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