“We learned karate that was to be used in real-life situations. If you don’t continue to train with that sense of there being a real opponent, you won’t be able to respond in that kind of situation.” – Takeshi Tamaki 10th dan Shogen-ryu
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Kata, the management of failure.
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What does this mean?…… In simple terms, we use kata, and therefore our skills in karate, when self-protection goes wrong. When we have made errors of judgement due to factors we have either ignored, were surprised by, were not aware, or just simply did not know.
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In pragmatic karate our mindset should always be one of awareness, avoidance, and escape, way before any physical interaction between another person or persons, intent on aggression or violence towards us.
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Without this awareness there can be no avoidance and any attacker is always given the huge advantage of surprise. However, it’s not sufficient simply to say; “be aware” as you need education on how to be aware and what to be aware of.
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“The secret principle of martial arts is not vanquishing the attacker, but resolving to avoid an encounter before its occurrence. To become an object of an attack is an indication that there was an opening in one’s guard, and the important thing is to be on guard at all times.” – Gichin Funakoshi
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Funakoshi’s statement does not mean we are standing with our hands in a typical guard position as in consensual fighting. ‘Guard’ in this sense means to have an awareness of our surroundings and environment.
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There is historical evidence that some of the old masters had a strong sense of restraint when it came to applying their knowledge against untrained villains or attackers. They precisely used what had to be used in a given situation, no more and no less. Today the ego of some practitioners has increased dramatically, while their skills in evaluating the situation, and in reacting accordingly (avoidance), seem to be unable to keep up with that pace.
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Avoidance and escape before fighting, should be high on our list of priorities and if we have no choice but to fight, then “fight to flee”.
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When conflict cannot be avoided, your mindset should not be of having to stand and fight to ‘win’. The emphasis should firmly be placed on developing the skills to “fight to flee”, to escape, then you take the dominant position. A martial artist has the ability to take the fight beyond the legal limit, and therefore must assume the responsibility to know not to.
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Kata presents us with many options. There are options to simply disengage, to flee, or to trap and hold/restrain, control and more. But when working on application drills it is easy to fall into a mindset of; “if he does that, you do this” approach to dealing with violence. This effectively puts the attacker in charge and gives them a huge advantage.
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In our dojo, our drills incorporate, not just a single attack, but multiple dissimilar attacks, when our response to the initial engagement has failed….. and failure will happen.
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So….. “what if it goes wrong?”……. The answer is in you hands….. Kata, the management of failure.