Article

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

Part 22 - Vitality and Stamina

When I joined the Karate Club, a one year white belt senior told me to attack him in any way I liked, which perplexed me. “Alright, let me attack him like a street fighter.” The moment I jumped at him, he counter-attacked me and I thumped on the floor with the hips first. It happened in a split second. By the time I realised, I was on the floor. I found out later that not only the difference in techniques, but also the difference in fighting spirit when facing the opponent would affect the outcome of fighting greatly.

“Damn.” I stood up, but this time my legs were swept away and I fell down again. This pattern was repeated and I did not have time to stand up on my feet.

Our training went on, even a layman who joined the Karate club was beaten up like this. At that time I withstood the hard training and punishments from sempai who used sticks, with determination to become strong at any cost and to surpass the sempai who beat me completely. Training is what decides the outcome in Karate as it is said that a man who make efforts will prevail over a genius. But, it is very hard to train oneself under the normal circumstances. Without a goal, one cannot survive. In my case, I set a goal for each stage. My first goal was to become strong and the next to get my black belt. The pleasing sense of achievement that I had when I completed each stage provided me with the energy to challenge the next step.

Speaking about goals, “Y” from Kita Kyushu was big. His goal was to have a youth sports centre built, which would be necessary for the spread of Karate. As money would not be easily made in Karate, he started the business of demolition. He said that he could demolish a thing like a locomotive and deliver the scrap metal to a steel mill company just over a night. He was able to do such a thing because he had a belief in his own vitality. I believe that his vitality and willpower were the outcome of his Karate training for many years.

“Y” was a trainee at the instructor course. After he finished with his traineeship, he worked as a wharf labourer at Port Kobe for two years, walking on a gangplank carrying 200 kg of cargo. “Y” was small with a shaved head. I wondered where he had such power. On the other hand, he was very gentle and shy. He blushed easily in front of females. But, on the train he asked a person senior to him to stand up and look after the old by urging them to sit down in a loud voice. Because of this tendency of his, people with him felt embarrassed and complained that they would not travel with him. I did not know if he became bold in a place where no one knew him. But I also heard the following story. When we come across a mother and a child on the train, we normally give a seat to the child. But he was different. He always gave a seat to the mother, saying to the child:

“Your mother is tired. She needs to sit down to rest. So you must stand up.” His method may be similar to the way of bringing up children in the western society. But I guess his approach came merely from his philosophy. When I saw him in Tokyo last year, I complained that I had had no chance to take even a day off in June. He brushed me aside saying: “Sempai, you have had no day off only in June. I have not had a day off from January.” I don’t know how his brain works, but it seems certain that he knows no limit to his physical strength. We did not know that he worked as a wharf labourer, even though he had completed the Kenshusei training (traineeships) and had become a fine Karate-ka. He can be described as a man of implementation without saying too much. I like the philosophy of action with no words.

Today’s trend is “action with declaration”. Stating the obvious and using direct expressions is popular these days. There is nothing special in declaring first what you are going to do and acting next. Is there such an expression “declaration and no action”? I cannot help having a dry and unexciting feeling like biting the sand. Action executed with no words in our daily behaviour enforces us to examine even our uneventful behaviour. Action accompanied by words is a calculation aimed at other people. We can talk eloquently to other people about our success story. They will listen to our story, saying “Wow”. But we cannot help having a feeling of emptiness that will hit us afterwards.

Action accompanied with no words is not for anyone but for ourselves. It is not important whether or not our action will become known to other people. What is important is that we enrich ourselves as a human by such an action. To keep what one has done as an event in the corner of one’s heart. “Y” is such a person, whom I greatly admire.

“Y” might be exceptional, but those who have trained in Karate generally become persons full of vitality. I believe that the body that has undergone hard training which is almost self-torturing will build up strength, which will become vitality in turn.

People like “Y” are working hard to do their best everywhere. I feel like shouting with pride “Everybody, stretch your wings widely in the skies”.

I had confidence in my physical strength in my boyhood. At the entrance examinations to the junior high school, I came first in the running competition carrying a heavy sack full of sand. In the examination of push-ups, when I had done about 85 times, the examiner was surprised with my stamina and said “That’s enough. Stop”. The trait of fast running over a short distance and strength in arms that I had made today’s me. The fact that my physical strength and quick reflection in movement had already been established helped my Karate.

Those who have trained in sports which require explosive power such as high jumps and hurdling like me who was good at dashes over a short distance will last long once they start learning Karate. The structure of techniques in Karate requires explosive power and therefore those sports suit Karate. Those who have trained in long distance running will have a great potential in Karate as they will have already built endurance. Such people should utilise fully the strength in endurance and willpower required for long distance running in their Karate training.

Many of the current top Karate-ka have experience in such sports. For example, “G” who started Karate after having trained in hurdling has a long life of competition for 19 consecutive years including his university times in JKA tournaments. He has reached the age of 40, but is still competing squarely against other JKA top competitors. It must be physically hard to compete at the age of 40.

But, in Karate, although each individual may be different, the more we advance in our techniques, the more we progress in understanding the distance between oneself and opponent as well as timing. We are able to predict the forthcoming movement of the opponent by feeling from his face that he is coming. Even though our physical strength is weakened, we become more economical in our movements and achieve sharpness and focus in our techniques without exerting unnecessary forces which we tend to use when we are young. As a matter of fact, our physical power will start declining once we pass the age of