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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 7. 19 April 1972

Karate — why do it

Karate — why do it

Every Karate-ka must stop every now and again and ask himself "What am I doing here?" Perhaps he is about to partake in a middle of the winter beach session. The water looks cold, the icy wind cuts through him, the frozen fingers and toes, press ups, hard physical exercise. Surely any normal, sane person would be indoors, over a heater reading a book.

It seems to me that such a question requires honest answers. By its very nature any person who continues Karate for any length of time, must have something within him which drives him on. Karate is hard bruising and if done properly, exhausting. It is self competing and very repetitive.

Ask a Karate-ka why he does Karate and the usual answers are to keep fit and for self defence. If he has been training for up to six months then these answers will suffice. If he has been training for eighteen months or more then I suggest that these answers are inadequate, and superficial. (The grey area of course being between 6 months and eighteen months of training). I must say at this stage that such a question put by an instructor to his class is stupid, unreasonable and a complete waste of everybody's time. Nobody wishes to pour out personal problems or to open up his soul to the sempei, let alone the rest of the class. Its none of his business anyway.

I will now consider some of the possible motivations that might addict a man with Karate, making it his way of life.

a.Self Defence - Nobody likes to be physically assaulted by strangers. Such an experience may prove humiliating or physically damaging. The experienced Karate-ka is more at ease in strange places among strange faces.
b.Physical Fitness - There can be no question of the great value of Karate in this regard. It is a tremendous body conditioner. Muscles are stretched, and hardened. Body and mind integrate ie. coordination improves. At the end of a session if you are not sweating profusely, then you have yet to grasp the true spirit.
c.Confidence and inferiority complexes - the ability to act like an individual be independent, self reliant. Karate I believe to be invaluable in this area. In this dog eat dog world, confidence is a great thing to aquire. Karate may make one feel that he has an advantage over his fellows One instructor confessed of his sleepless night several years ago, for fear of best man duties on the morrow. The same person I now consider to be a competent, amusing interesting speaker. An inferiority complex is a little different from a lack of confidence. Karate may help a person to over come this problem or to live with it and may even give rise to the opposite problem - the arrogant, better than God mannerisms. I think it likely that these characteristics have contributed to the fragmentation of national and international karate.
d.Ambition, hero worship and power Perhaps the serious student of karate is driven on by the ambition to be in a position of power - being able to order people and expecting them to obey without questions, for that is part of karate's neccessary discipline. The harder one works at it and the longer one stays then the chances of promotion are excellent, for there is always room at the top for one more. People enjoy the admiration of others and the good experienced Karate-ka is well placed in this respect. The majority of these classes are always low grades or starryeyed beginners wondering if they too will one day be able to give head high mwashi-geris or smash through a brick.
e.Mental stability - Does Karate save some from becoming patients in mental institutions? I have heard at least one black-belt remark that it is a form of psychiatric treatment. At the start of a session there is a brief period of meditation. It is here that one must break off from the rest of the world and prepare for total concentration on Karate techniques. - One must forget his broken down car, nagging wife, money problems, study problems, thus Karate is a form of escapism, possibly saving some from having a nervous breakdown, while certainly relieving all of a certain amount of mental stress. A terrific amount of hate and tension can flow out of the body in a session. Joe Cocker is known to have said- "If I didn't take up singing then I'm sure I would've killed by now. People can only take so much. There has to be a release or Boom!" Could it be that some Karate kas are sadistic, would be street brawlers, aware of their problem, of having to rid themselves of natural aggressiveness or at least having to prepare themselves for the possible consequences of these characteristics?

Much of what I have said could be applied to many sports and other areas of human activity. - Karate does not stand alone. My indirect intention has been to point out some of the great benefits of Karate, both mental and physical.

Wayne Ashton.