Why Do I Teach Karate (空手) with Memoir

The question of “Why Do I teach Karate?” has been in my head for quite some time. The question was not only asked by myself but some people asked me that same question. I teach many skills and subjects, and Karate is one of them.

I started my Karate training in 1978 and started co-teaching Karate along with my sensei (先生) since 1984 when I reached my brown belt (KYŪ 3) until 1997. Throughout those years and beyond, I have been teaching and sharing Karate-dō (空手道) to Karate practitioners of various levels of the belt, from colored belt (Mudansha – 無段者) KYŪ (級) to black belt (Yudansha – 有段者) DAN 3 (参段/三段).

I might put my ego as the base reason for teaching Karate to others. I feel that is too shameful for me not to share what I have learned for so many years, all the knowledge, experience, and skill. It is not because of boasting that I know Karate so well, definitely not. For that, I had my chances boasting the level of my Karate skills through tournaments, local and national level. I have proven by winning the gold medals and staying as a national rank and champion for several consecutive years. No, it is not boasting as the reason for my passion for teaching Karate.

Teaching Karate besides the other skills I teach is passing my knowledge, skill, and experience to others who want to learn and be good at something. I sincerely hope anyone who learns from me can be better and much better than myself. I teach without reservation as the old tradition of teachers who hold certain skills or knowledge because they do not want their students to become better than them. In ancient history, there was a belief that if a teacher has ten skills, he will teach only nine and preserve the prime skill for himself in case the student betrays him. When that happens, he has one secret skill that he does not teach or share to overcome the student’s attack. And throughout the history of ancient martial art, the sentiment prevailed until the skill level in martial art depleted unless the student develops his own secret skill. That is the story I heard, might it be just a story. Who knows?

It argues that some parts of the tendency still happen today, holding back certain aspects of skills due to some concerns. Overdue respect, self-preservation, lack of faith in student’s character, or even very trivial issues such as envy, personal dislike, or libel from more senior students toward their junior students causes that incident. Although there are reasonable reasons like the student is not ready for a certain skill to learn or the student is on probation causes the teacher does not want to teach certain skills.

I do not want to die carrying all my skills to the grave, I want to leave a legacy for anyone who wants to learn and be excel from what that person learns. I lay out the foundation and let the students build themselves how high they can go. My true trophies are not the gold medals and trophies I won in the past, but all students who learn from me and benefited from what they learn.

Some students are ungrateful and disrespectful toward their teacher after they successfully learned from the teaching, but that is not enough reason for me to stop teaching. Others learned and remembered the teaching and built their character for the better, being respectful to others, and compassionate toward others. There is a saying that says, “There is no bad student, only bad teacher.”, I beg to differ, “There are bad students and bad teachers, only the good ones succeed a good character.”

I have methods that are different than the teaching I received in the past, yet I still remember the old teaching and respect that. Because through that old teaching I can improve and modify the teaching I am practicing today. Other skills and knowledge I have acquired from formal and informal academic education, scientific, philosophical, linguistic, professional, are all incorporated into my teaching. I parallel the understanding of language with karate practice, as well as the laws of physics with Karate techniques. Karate benefits daily life and daily life benefits Karate vice versa.

Although in many parts of the world Karate can be a chance for a career. I never meant teaching Karate as a full-time profession and it probably never be. I have other more prominent skills to work for a full-time job which are more financially rewarding. As I said previously, the reason for teaching Karate is more to the ego reason. After I have achieved a certain level of skill and understanding in Karate I would like to share what I know and not pretend to know what I do not know. I have been applying standards in training that I can achieve for all students. I show them they can do it too and should go for it. Acquiring discipline and a strong will to never quit. It is quite challenging to train students as I trained in the past, especially in the western country, especially in the U.S. where robust physical training is restrictive and could result in a lawsuit.

A student starts losing motivation when looking at a long and tiring workout on stances or non-acrobatic skills. Action and superhero movies pose a strong influence on how young people in America perceive martial arts. A “martial art” school/studio puts a big sign “KARATE” in front of the studio while the instructors and students wear Hapkido uniforms. Applying marketing in martial arts to attract students that drives the innovation of martial arts in America, some schools invented a new style of martial art such as KaJuKempo (combination of Karate, Judo, and Kempo), MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), XMA (Extreme Martial Arts) and other names that we might never hear before. Amidst the noise of unauthentic martial arts and confusion over claims on certain skills as martial arts, which is some are not fit the definition or the nature of martial art. Some are simply an acrobatic stunt or practical combat skill or a sport that has punching techniques, and it is not quite right to call it a martial art.

While some number of skillful people and some others who are pretending to be skillful need to put a name for the school, whatever they want to call it they have all rights to do so. This is a free country, eh? At least, for that portion of fact, people are still free calling their school as whatever they want to call it albeit true martial artists argue. I give the other side of standing by teaching what I know for decades and practicing it for as long as I remember, Karate. Not modern Karate, not American Karate, not sport Karate, not a combination of other martial arts Karate, just Karate. The style of Karate that I have learned from my sensei, Maskun Prasetya – Kyoshi studied from the source of Karate-dō Gōjū-ryū in Japan as the first generation Karate-dō Gōjūkai students in the country and achieved the highest rank of black belt, recognized by the IKGA organization.

Teaching Karate within the affiliation rules and regulations where certain politics and favoritism also come into consideration made me teach outside of the affiliation and refrain from using the affiliation name, logo and specific style name in my dōjō. Yes, politics also happens in Karate organizations, which include disputes, disagreements, gossip, discriminations et cetera. Sad? Yes. But what we can do where there is no organization or group everywhere cannot get away from such conditions. I believed only in certain affiliations or Karate styles do those conditions occur, in reality in all Karate (and martial arts in general) societies. One well-respected young Karate instructor in Japan (Yusuke Nagano) also confirms subjectivities are something that happens even in a culture in one video.

Some prominent figures in Karate told me that to teach independently in the U.S. one must obtain 4th DAN (Yondan – 四段) black belt and the director for the American bloc acknowledges it. It is truly a black belt that is nothing more important than the content of skill one possesses. Putting a black belt on the waist without the appropriate skill coming along with that black belt level is an embarrassment to the karate world, although thousands of people are still doing that.

In the past, there was a high demand for me to teach karate in the country, besides my sensei of course. Dōjōs around the country were looking for my instructions, offers came often time to train many dōjōs in the country, treated with such regards, national teams sought my technical advice before heading for the international and world tournaments. I stood in front of hundreds of black belts in the national forums, exhibited and coached them. Now, being disbarred to teach independently due to the lacking of credentials.

There are some misleading ideas been put in my mind for so long that holding a certain degree of black belt is not truly important but acquiring true black belt skills is more important. Some part of the statement is true but not wholesome. They are both important especially in the commercialized world of Karate today. I have already possessed the skill level of the DAN level a long way back in 1984, which explains why Karate dōjōs appointed and entrusted me to teach even the ones higher rank of the belt than mine. Kyū 3 teaches practitioners who hold 1st DAN (初段), 2nd DAN (弐段/二段), and even 3rd DAN (参段/三段). Something is wrong here, either I was not caring enough for my official rank of the belt or they are not having the quality of the black belt they are holding. I prefer the first one, I was not caring enough about my rank of the belt which caused me dearly in the larger Karate society. People in the country may know and recognize my mastery and seniority but what about the people outside of the country?

Holding insufficient 2nd DAN (弐段/二段) black belt for decades while keeping improving the techniques and skills would not entitle me to teach independently within the affiliation. I must engage someone at the higher rank, the sufficient black belt rank to co-teach. Due to some limitations, I could not do that, and after a very long battle and sabotages over my petition I acquired the 4th DAN by the hard work of one former student the vouch of my direct sensei. Some former students/juniors (Kohai – 後輩) who feel that I was some kind of threat to their 4th DAN or 5th DAN position sabotaged my certification. Yes, the people like that exist, the people who think that if I achieve something automatically negates their achievements.

There is no such rule without exceptions and exceptions made based on favoritism, cronyism, collusion, and nepotism. But if I do not belong to any of those factors, I am out of luck. I have seen and experienced that. What is on paper as regulations or rules even in Karate regarding the DAN testing is always a subject of consideration. I have seen Kyū 5 jump to 1st DAN (Shodan – 初段) in a year of training. I witnessed a chief sensei permitting a 4th DAN to go for 5th DAN testing just after a year of holding the 4th DAN. There are rules in the Karate world to regulate 4th DAN that can go for 5th DAN only after passing 5 years.

Now, I have accomplished the first requirement of teaching my dōjō. Comes the second, it was in vain. I hear no news nor receive a response after several attempts to contact the American bloc. I rather not make assumptions of the foul play takes place, life goes on. There is no justification to take the skill I have acquired for more than four decades, nor the right for me to teach my knowledge or skill to others In America where some random street fighters without any formal training or affiliation, or a clear lineage of training can open dōjōs and ignorantly claim the name of karate for their signage, I am certainly able to teach on my own minus an official recognition.

The point is if I graduated from Yale, acquired my academic degree legitimately I can mention Yale as my alma mater even though the board of directors of that institution dislikes me for some reason. And I can teach the knowledge I acquired to others without asking permission unless I embed the trademark of Yale into my school or act on behalf of the institution. In a nutshell, I can do what I believe is right.

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