Does Performing Make You Nervous?

I’ve trained in four different karate associations over my training career.

I’ve had five different “main instructors”.

I’ve competed in tournaments with three different sets of rules.

I’ve attended the seminars put on by over 15 different instructors.

Everywhere I go, there’s one thing that doesn’t change: Most students are far too nervous to stand up in front of everyone else and put on a performance of some sort.

As a result, instructors who ask for volunteers to work with, end up working with the same volunteers over and over. Instructors who “volun-told” people to work with get to face a nervous crowd of people trying to avoid eye contact with them.

Why are we so afraid of being one of the ones who demonstrates for other students? Are we really that unsure of ourselves? Really? In Martial Arts?

Isn’t a confident attitude and way of looking at the world a big thing about martial arts training?

What did I miss here?

Seminar Things I’m Grateful For

I just came back from my first weekend seminar with Sensei Woon-a-tai, and wow, what a great experience!  Here’s my rough list of things I’m grateful for after this weekend:

• There were more than 60 students in each regular class, and some classes probably pushed 80.
• The instructor’s class had 35-40 black belts just on its own, and I know some black belts who didn’t attend but were meaning to, as well.
• With the solid contingent of black belts, the content of the seminar was challenging and educational, and even gave some of us the opportunity to help out junior belts and then train beside them when it’s all put together.
• I was called up and used for demonstration on a standing front punch!
• We did kata to music (which I think is awesome).
• I felt absolutely no fear or anxiety when considering standing up in front of 50 or so brown and black belts to perform, with one other person, the kata pacing we had learned to do with the music.
• The attitude of “I’ll go and they’ll have to kick me out” didn’t scare me at all, and when I got kicked out (of the Instructor’s class because I hadn’t signed up/paid and wasn’t high enough rank), I didn’t feel very anxious, and I actually had positive thoughts towards the lady Sensei who came to kick me out.
• I learned others in my club weren’t signed up/hadn’t paid either, but they hadn’t tried to enter yet
• My Sensei got me into the Instructor’s class once I showed my face to him, so I was un-kicked out.
• The Instructor’s class was interesting and educational and gave a deeper inside view of the philosophies of Sensei Frank Woon-a-tai.
• I had a chance to interact positively with lady Sensei after the whole seminar was over, and to be of service to the senior instructors by making a call to the maintenance person using my cell phone (why don’t senior karate people have cell phones??).  We’re all good.
• I got some really great pictures of a lot of our Charleswood karateka, which will give me an excuse to get to know them better, because I haven’t learned many names of colored belt folk.

In time I’ll get better at my gratitude lists   For now, those are my scattered thoughts.

Music In Shotokan Karate Training: Yay or Nay?

Hello, fellow karateka!

I just came home from a karate seminar taught by Sensei Frank Woon-a-tai from Toronto, Ontario.  He’s the head of the IKD Shotokan karate organization, which is the International training organization my new dojo became a part of this past summer, just before I joined.

This was my first time seeing Sensei Woon-a-tai in person, and therefore my first seminar with him, so I was looking forward to the event!  As a new (Shodan) student in my current dojo (Charleswood Karate), taking part in a new organization for the first time in 10 years, I knew this seminar would be important, because I’d get a really good chance to see what the values of priorities of the organization were, right from the head guy.

I must say, I enjoyed myself quite thoroughly!  The physical aspect of the workout wasn’t strenuous, but the material we went through and the ideas he put forward to let us know what his philosophies were, were interesting, thought-provoking and fun.

Kanku-Dai Done To Music

Sensei Woon-a-tai brought two (instrumental) pieces of music along with him for this seminar, and had us do two different exercises to these different pieces.

The first one he brought out was rumored to be a Hawaiian song by my fellow karateka after the class, but had a French name to it that I can’t remember off hand.  During it, we performed Kanku Dai with Sensei Woon-a-tai’s guidance as to doing the kata timing along with the song.  The timing was quite a bit different from competition timing, which meant a lot of confusion as the black and brown belts who knew the kata’s real timing struggled to go along with the beat of the song, instead.

The second music piece seemed a lot simpler, more having a consistent tempo to it than having a real “tune” that I remember.  The tempo was what Sensei Woon-a-tai focused us on, and like muppets we bobbed up and down to the timing, and every four beats, one of us would drive in and do a reverse punch with a kiai towards our opponent, trading off every four beats.

I enjoyed both, but had troubles not laughing at the repetitiveness of the second exercise because after a while of that, I DID begin to feel I was on the Muppet Show as a background sound effect to some song going on in the front.

Good thing I don’t get in trouble for laughing while I train.

Do You Use Music While Training?

In this blog I’d like to encourage a lot of reader feedback, so I’m going to ask questions and hope that fellow keener karate nerds like myself will gather around and share their personal experiences and thoughts.

I’d love to hear about your personal training experiences when it came to using music as part of your drills.  I’d love to hear from you if you’re vehemently AGAINST the use of music in a “serious” art like martial arts.  I’d love to hear what songs you’ve found fit the best with what drills or kata if you DO use music.