Martial arts instructors have the potential to make a huge difference in the lives of their students. They give students the opportunity to improve their coordination, endurance, strength, flexibility, etc, but they can also help instil confidence, discipline, and mental clarity, which can benefit all areas of their lives. Most instructors very much want to help their students improve their lives. They become instructors with the best of intentions. Then what happens? They pour all their efforts into running great classes, but find that students come and go very quickly and the majority don’t stay for the long haul. Even the very best instructors face these issues, no matter how much experience they have or how many accolades they’ve received. Naturally, instructors then try to figure out how to make their students more loyal. (more…)

Tags: teaching

I recently read Stu Cooke Sensei’s blog post, The Beauty of Paradox, which concluded by saying that “Getting past the first batch of pain is likely the major barrier for people that try the martial arts”, saying that they don’t understand the point of the unpleasantness and don’t get to a point where they appreciate what it’s all about.

This is true for many people, but there are those who take their training a bit further, accepting the part that physical discomfort plays only to face a second sticking point: frustration. (more…)

Tags: meditiation

Tags: personal retreat | yoga retreat

Everyone wants to be healthy and there are a wide variety of practices that one can undertake to contribute to good health. Many people, after feeling their health take a downward slide over a period of weeks, months, even years, say to themselves, “I’m going to make some big changes and get healthy again!” But all too often, they try to do too many things or tackle such huge goals that the lifestyle is too difficult to maintain.

Tags: healthy habits | mental health | physical health

I was recently discussing the topic of encouraging personal development in the dojo with a newly belted Shodan who was visiting us. Like many Shodans, he has come to realize the profound impact that martial arts training has had on his life, above and beyond the simple benefits of self-defense and fitness, including self-confidence, mental fortitude, perseverance, exposure to different philosophies and lifestyles, etc. This led to a discussion on how to encourage this kind of personal development in the dojo. (more…)

Tags: personal development

One of the ultimate goals of the martial arts is to improve one’s self, whether it’s to get in shape, learn self-defense, or to simply hone a skill. But the martial arts can go much further than the physical realm, with mental benefits that affect every aspect of life. Below are 5 ways martial arts can help with mental development, if you open your mind to it:

1. Increasing Confidence: Some people fear personal confrontation with other people, walking away from potential arguments or giving in to other people’s desires simply because they’re afraid to stand up for what they think or want. Martial arts training can help with this. There is something about learning to handle physical confrontation that helps people become more confident in situations of mental confrontation. I’m not sure why it is. Perhaps it’s in our genetics; we think on some unconscious level that even if things get out of hand and it escalates into a physical situation, we have skills to fall back on.

2. Emotional Control: We all have times when we face emotional extremes, whether it’s anger, fear, or sadness. In the martial arts, you learn to face emotional extremes with the goal of keeping perspective. You learn to use anger/adrenaline to help overcome fear, but to also not let your anger/adrenaline overcome you and tunnel-vision your awareness. Rage is so prominent in society these days, whether it’s road rage or the rage you see at a customer service desk during the holiday season. If everyone could learn to calm down and keep things in perspective, they might find creative, more productive ways to deal with a problem. As martial artists, we should apply what we learn in our training to set a good example for people around us.

3. Increasing Cooperativeness: Competitiveness is a by-product of capitalist society. Many people operate under the assumption that there is only so much success to go around and if one person achieves something you haven’t achieved, they are somehow at a disadvantage or are less of a person. People may not think these things consciously; they often just express this as feelings of envy or passive-aggressiveness. In the right kind of dojo, people are encouraged to make the most of their training for their own individual development, independent of the people around them. It’s not about competing with other people; it’s about competing with yourself, to be continually become better than you were, regardless of what other people are doing. At the same time, people can help support each other in achieving their personal goals, whatever they may be, by helping each other learn or providing emotional support and friendship.

4. Reducing Arrogance/Pride: Another by-product of capitalism is arrogance and pride. Many people like to think highly of themselves (even when not justified), looking down on others around them. It artificially makes them feel more confident. Pride is similar in that one might think highly of themselves, even if the person doesn’t necessarily look down on other people. It can, however, close your mind to opportunities to learn and improve. What’s to learn if you’re already “the shit,” so to speak. In the martial arts, people often think that they’ve got a technique down and then they have an epiphany when an instructor with far greater experience shows them either how their technique is vulnerable or how it can be vastly improved with a simple change. Having these types of experiences can be very humbling, which can open a person’s mind to new ideas, both in the dojo and in normal life.

5. Developing Patience: You cannot become a martial arts master overnight. Heck, it can even take a long time to learn basic skills. When people first start a martial art, they often are preoccupied with making tangible progress. But over time, if they stick with it, they start to realize that there are also plateaus in their learning, especially at the higher levels. You learn to trust that if you keep training, you eventually reach higher level insights, and “aha!” moments that are worth waiting for. This kind of patience, of course, translates into other aspects of life, whether it’s saving money for a big purchase or waiting to be reunited with a loved one.

I am a martial arts instructor, but the physical techniques I teach have nowhere near as much impact on people’s lives as the mental self-improvement that comes with dedicated study. Every day I feel grateful to provide people with the opportunity to develop in this way, and in my own small way, give back to the world.

Happy New Year, Everyone! Let’s make 2011 the best year yet! 🙂

Many people eschew the use of the coloured belt system (or ‘kyu’ ranks) as not being traditional to the Japanese roots, claiming that they are simply a carrot dangled to keep impatient westerners interested. Mikonosuke Kawaishi is generally regarded as the first to introduce various colored belts in Europe in 1935 when he started to teach Judo in Paris. He felt that western students would show greater progress if they had a visible system of many colored belts recognizing achievement and providing regular incentives who felt that it would help westerners learn and stay.

While that was the original reason for the introduction of the coloured belt system, and not an altogether complimentary one towards westerners at that, there are a number of other reasons why the system makes sense, even if it’s not used as a dangling carrot.

In our dojo, we use the various ranks to break up our students’ learning into logical blocks. This is to provide the best platform for learning for our students, to ensure that the proper foundation is being built so that people don’t focus always on learning new stuff when they don’t have the skills they need to move ahead. The kyu system is also designed to help keep people safe. If people don’t learn the proper skills before doing live training like sparring or grappling, the chances of injury are greatly increased.

Belt/kyu gradings give us teachers a system whereby we periodically take a focused look at our students’ progress to ensure they have learned what they need to know before moving on to more advanced curriculum. In our dojo, a new belt is not a trophy to be coveted or lorded over other students, nor would we ever put up with such behaviour. It is meant to indicate what level of curriculum the student knows, serving as a guide for us teachers. It also helps newer students understand who can help them best when they need it.

This may not necessarily be the way it is done in dojos throughout Japan, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t equally valid in a western context. It is not necessarily a reflection of “the impatience of westerners.” Different cultures learn in different ways. In the west, people are more accustomed to systematized learning systems and tend to do best when knowledge is broken up into stepping stones.

At our dojo, you’re only invited to grade for the next belt level when you’re ready, as evaluated by the instructors. If a student takes twice as long as the average to move to the next level, so be it. I’ve had students wear the same belt for over a year, even two years without progressing. And I’m not talking about senior belts, I’m talking about lower levels here. If they haven’t learned what they need to learn to move on to the next level, they simply stay where they are. Many dojos would consider this practice bad for business, but in the kind of dojo I’m running, it is much worse for business to let people move up a level or learn curriculum they’re not ready for as it produces poor martial artists and can lead to injury (their own or others’).

This is not to say that I have anything against the traditional Japanese way, I just think that each way has its place and is relevant in different contexts both inter-culturally and even within one culture. Neither way should be looked down upon unless it is being improperly used (i.e. people are not learning what they need to learn) or with cynical motivations (just to make more money without care for quality).

Tags: colored belt system

As part of his Shodan requirements, Chris was expected to submit an essay. The topic I gave him was to answer the following question: “What is the most important thing you’ve gained as a martial artist from cross-training in Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu?”. His essay response was very interesting, served with a healthy dose of humble pie. It was as follows:

How I Learned to Be a Student

By Chris Olson

Training in a martial art can be a very fulfilling and enriching experience. It can also be very insular and lead to a very narrow view of the martial arts.

When a new student to the martial arts begins their training, it’s important they receive regular and consistent training to ensure a solid learning of basic and fundamental techniques. Organizations with a well-developed and standard curriculum offer stability, and opportunity for students to grow, and over time take more responsibility for their own training.

They begin to fulfil a necessary role in the dojo, becoming role models, assistant instructors and eventually instructors. Much of what students learn, how they learn, and how they eventually teach is influenced by how and who taught them. You can often tell who taught an instructor based on their method of instruction; the analogies they use while demonstrating, their movement in executing a technique, etc.

While this can lead to a consistent level of instruction, (hopefully a good one), it can inhibit the growth of both the style and the instructors.

Cross training can offer more advanced students/instructors several benefits to further personal development.

It provides the chance for instructors to see a similar technique taught with a different focus, providing new angles for understanding the technique. It can also expose them to entirely new techniques and concepts that can enhance their training.

The biggest benefit I have received from training in another style of Jiu jitsu is not what’s been added to my technical repertoire however. It’s the maturation of my training mind-set, and development of a wider perspective.

I started training in Can-ryu Jiu jitsu because I was looking for a replacement for my original style, Shorinji Kan. I was looking for exactly what I had before, not something new to learn.
Becoming a white belt again, and starting fresh with an open mind was much harder to do than I thought. In retrospect I did a lousy job of it.

Yes, I put on the white belt, and I said all the right things, but underneath it I was an arrogant, cocky brown belt, not really looking to learn, but looking to practice what I thought I already knew. I was lucky that my quiet arrogance was misconstrued as respect and shyness. I didn’t think I was arrogant, and unwilling to learn, but I was, I just hadn’t realized it yet.

I faked learning long enough to actually start learning, at which point, I realized, that might be a better approach. It turns out that it was better, and I’ve been very fortunate since.

Through my connection with Pacific Wave Jiu Jitsu, I’ve been lucky enough to train with professional boxers, MMA students, a Pan American games gold medallist grappler, a world renown Aikido Sensei, and numerous Jiu jitsu instructors. My wide experiences have taught me more techniques than I can remember, but the one thing I do remember is the great attitude and friendly sharing nature of the martial arts community. It’s created a healthy drive to move outside of my comfort zone and to learn from wherever I can.

After nearly a decade of training, I feel more like a student than ever before. I think I’ve finally figured out how to learn, and I am now as comfortable getting insights from senior instructors as I am from my own students.

Tags: cross-training | shodan essay

After all the recent training with instructors of other styles of Jiu-jitsu, it was interesting for me to note the differences in philosophy when it comes to teaching the art. It seems to me that there are two main approaches to a martial arts style, with their own benefits and drawbacks. They are as follows.

1. The Specialists. In some martial arts styles, they take the approach of choosing a particular skill and putting the majority of their focus on it. BJJ focuses almost entirely on sport ground grappling. KoKoDo Jujtutsu focuses primarily on pain compliance using joint manipulation. Yoshinkan Aikido, on the other hand, has a slightly different take, focusing on body structure control using joint manipulation. The list goes on. Specialists usually focus on a skill that requires a lot of training in order to become proficient (i.e. a fine motor skill). The advantage of this approach is that students of a specialist style become really good at the particular skill that is focused on and when a high level of skill as attained, the students may learn to apply that skill within a wide variety of defensive contexts.

2. The Generalists. Other martial arts styles focus on a wider variety of skills, with the goal of teaching people to apply their skills in different defensive contexts. My style, Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu is one such example. We teach with the goal of transmitting practical self-defense skills therefore our style comprises of striking, takedowns/throws, ground defense, and weapon defense. To make up for the broadness of our base, our core curriculum is designed to use more gross motor skills (especially striking and certain types of takedowns/controls) to make them easier to learn and apply, whereas fine motor skills are taught more as advanced training. Shorinji Kan Jiu-jitsu is another example. They teach also teach the same types of skills as I listed above, but with a stronger focus on throws and joint manipulation as the core of their curriculum.

Neither type of style is right or wrong. Take the metaphorical knives I used for each category. Is one “better” than the other? It depends on the context. If you want to have a sharp knife that’s great for cutting food, the Ginsu is the superior knife, even if it may fall short in other contexts. But if you need a tool for a variety of purposes, Swiss Army Knife is a better choice for convenience, though it may fall short when compared to the associated tools specifically designed for one purpose.

I think we’re best served by having both types of martial arts styles. As a practitioner of generalist style, I appreciate having the opportunity to go to specialist dojos to further hone specific skills. I’ve trained in BJJ, boxing, joint manipulations specialists (Jiu-jitsu and Aikido), etc, all of which have contributed to my learning. That being said, I will always appreciate the base that Can-ryu has given me as a generalist school.

Now I’ll turn the question over to you. What type of style do you study and why?

Tags: martial arts styles