Training with Sensei who knows his real karate??

[chinto01]

Hello all:

Have heard this being kicked around so I thought I would bring it here. As we all know our Sensei's are getting older. Mine will be 83 this year. Some people who he trained early on with him say that they learned his "real" karate. Those who trained with him in his middle years of teaching say the same thing. Those of us who are fortunate to train with him now may even say the same thing. I however look at it in a different. I believe we all learned his "real" karate just at different times in his life. Of course as his training progressed and his knowledge increased so did the level of his teaching. I believe we were all fortunate just to get to train with him and we should all be thankful for the time we had and will have with him. Anybody else experience this?

In the spirit of bushido!

Rob

 

[Touch Of Death]

Hello all:

Have heard this being kicked around so I thought I would bring it here. As we all know our Sensei's are getting older. Mine will be 83 this year. Some people who he trained early on with him say that they learned his "real" karate. Those who trained with him in his middle years of teaching say the same thing. Those of us who are fortunate to train with him now may even say the same thing. I however look at it in a different. I believe we all learned his "real" karate just at different times in his life. Of course as his training progressed and his knowledge increased so did the level of his teaching. I believe we were all fortunate just to get to train with him and we should all be thankful for the time we had and will have with him. Anybody else experience this?

In the spirit of bushido!

Rob

If it weren't different from year to year, I would worry.
Sean

 

[terryl965]

All that comes with age is experience and the added value of livivng longer. remember we all will hopefully be his age one day.

 

[stone_dragone]

Most teachers change methods, teaching styles and subject concentration as they go.

Another perspective could be that no matter what the training, you always had it tougher than those who come after you.

 

[wade]

This is so true. The way I teach now is not the way I taught 40 years ago. Times change and hopefully the instructor changes with them. One of the worst things I hear and see is instructors doing things the way they were done in the "old" days. What was good enough for daddy, well you get the message. You either adapt and grow or you stagnate and die. Chinto01 put it very well in his post.

 

[bluekey88]

The classic example this phenomenon is Aikido. There are several styles now, and one of the delineating factors seems to be when the current teacher of each style was with Ueshiba Sensei. Generally, those who studied earlier tend to espouse a sligthtly harder style of Aikido while those who were around in the later years when tend to have more of a focus on Ki development. this reflects the shifting focus of Ueshiba Sensei's training and growth.

Peace,
Erik

 

[Sanchin-J]

While I think I understand what "real karate" means, assuming it means a wiser, more knowledgeable version of the same karate an instructor taught years before, I don't see how it would sincerely matter nor why it should.

Martial arts is more than just about learning a set of instructions and reaching a level of mastery in those instructions. Being a student of the Martial Arts means your a student of life itself, and as life continues to roll on, you continue to seek knowledge. There's really nothing more to say than that, what was real karate today, was still real karate back 10 years ago. The only really clear division between those two time periods in training would be if the students that learned 10 years ago just stopped training and were compared to the currently trained students, which is highly unlikely since any student of the martial arts would probably continue to learn and revise their techniques as their instructor or instructor(s) do.

 

[Christina05]

Another perspective could be that no matter what the training, you always had it tougher than those who come after you.

That is so true lol