UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Be skeptical when anyone suggests changes in your karate training.

- DAVE LOWRY

I'm not talking about changes that are a natural part of the progression of your training. When you began your karate practice, you had to spend long, tedious hours on the basics - like moving in a stance in a way that's efficient and smooth. After you have been in the dojo for some years, you don't need such training.

Yes, it is natural that your practice will change. You'll spend additional time on more sophisticated aspects of the art. That's a "change," in a sense, but that's not the sort of change we're discussing here. I'm not suggesting that you must blindly follow some method just because it's traditional First, what is supposedly traditional, especially in karate, often is not that at all.

For example, traditional Okinawan karate did not include the brutal self-abuse of smashing one's hands into hard objects to build big calluses. The change, instituted by many wise teachers, to using the makiwara and other padded equipment in a more moderate and careful way was not an innovation. Rather, it was a long-overdue return to the original way karate was taught.

By change, I mean ideas introduced in the dojo or to your practice that may, on the surface, seem like reasonable progress but that, if you look closely, can be detrimental to following a martial way. A good example: the men, or helmet worn in modern kendo.