December 2011 Tests

“You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.”

Steve Montgomery, 7th Dan, December 2011

This past December 16th, the Honbu Dojo conducted another grading for junior and adult ranks. I figure over my many years as an instructor, I have participated in hundreds of these events. Some are ordinary from my perspective. Understand I am not diminishing the importance of any grading, each one is an important milestone for all involved. But from where I sit, achieving a green belt is akin to passing an exam in college on the way to a doctorate. The real crowning achievement is graduation day, when family, instructors, and friends formally recognize your hard work with presentation of that coveted sheepskin.

This December grading was not ordinary by any measure. Two of the most respected and capable Honbu Dojo members, Matt Knorr and Marty Birmingham, were awarded the rank of Rokudan. Matt is a dojo owner, a exceptional practitioner of the martial arts and a fine instructor in his own right. Marty is our longest tenured student, also a fine instructor, and has a competition and training record that demands respect.

What made this day an event worthy of sharing is not the award of the ranks. Matt and Marty could care less about the recognition. Their humility trumps ego. What is worth discussing is how this day came to pass.

Per the By-Laws of Kissaki-Kai Karate, as well as most other credible martial arts organizations, rank of Rokudan does not require physical testing. Been there done that, five times before! At the discretion of the organizational seniors, the rank may be bestowed upon a number of factors. Most commonly these factors are contribution back to the organization in the form of instructing, writing, coaching, organizing and other activities.

So when rank advancement was discussed with both Matt and Marty, before I could even get the options on the table, each said they would not consider it without going through the test process. To paraphrase, “It is good for the dojo, and that’s the way we were raised. Period, no discussion.”

So for five or six months preceding the exam, these two helped pull others through the proverbially knothole with them. They did it with actions more than words. This is their chosen method to give back. They stayed on the floor to the last, night after night, and helped others prepare. Whether verbal encouragement, physical challenges, instruction, or other methods, they did it for the dojo first, themselves as an aside.

At the end of the exam, it was as it should be. All did well, and the two senior ranks led from the front, by example, with sweat, not ink. It demonstrates that leadership, motivation and service can be best exemplified by actions more than words, and is highly effective. Leading with a pen and paper leaves a void, for alone it lacks the human factor – the stress, the pain, the challenges – that bond us when we share them.

When I look at the USA dojo, and understand it’s heritage spanning my 30 plus years, the feature I am most proud of is that which I write about here to share with you; “You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.” You must train, train some more, and continually pull each other through the knot hole.

Thanks to Matt and Marty for again exemplifying what makes our dojo what it is and always will be.

 

Left: The latest juniors to achieve brown and black belts. Congratulations to you all!
Center: This year’s adult test was special: Sensei Matt and Sensei Marty were awarded their rokudan (6th dan!). For Sensei Marty this comes after a career of over 40 years of training! We also have a new sandan (3rd dan) in Dale Roberts, Evan Boyle made the jump from junior shodan to senior nidan, and we also congratulate three new shodan and the kyu grades on an excellent performance.
Right: Members of the Kobudo group also took their test in the same week. Their efforts and regular training paid off and they demonstrated great competence with the weapons.

Six members from the Washington DC Shotokan Karate Club travelled to Marlton, New Jersey on Friday 6th August 2010 to attend a Kissaki-Kai Karate-Do (abbreviated henceforth as ‘Kissaki’) mini-seminar.
The mini-seminars are offered by Sensei Vince Morris to our club provided five or more members participate. This involves three sessions each lasting one and a half hours and running from Friday evening (7:10pm) through to Saturday afternoon (2:00pm), all for only $30. Sensei Morris generously offers his dojo (which is laid out with soft mats and is equipped with showers) to those wishing to sleep over. Car-pooling reduces gas and toll expenses even further.
Financial considerations aside, Kissaki is all about Karate which is tailored to real selfdefence, as originally intended before this martial art was exported from Okinawa. Ask yourself, are the Katas you regularly train just ‘forms’ to improve your coordination, stamina, perhaps Kihon (basics), or do they have any real-life self-defence applications (Bunkai)? There’s a lot of Bunkai for Katas out there in the Karate world today. But, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’, and someone who has been in real fights can weed out the academic abstractions from the workable interpretations.
Our next miniseminar is scheduled for August 20/21st. In what follows, three participants from the recently attended mini-seminar share their observations.

Raphiel Hampton. Lesson #1: Bunkai for the Kata Empi
The Kissaki mini-seminar this past weekend was a fantastic eye-opener for me on many aspects (and drawbacks) of traditional Shotokan Karate. Bunkai is one area of Shotokan that is rarely explored to its full potential. For instance, the Bunkai for the opening move of Empi has always troubled me. There is some very strange Bunkai available on the Internet for this sequence, for example thirty seconds into the following clip (mute the annoying background music): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVMnz5W_sUI
We looked at three different applications just for the opening move! In one scenario an in-coming front kick was blocked, scooped up and followed up with a sweep to the attacker’s supporting leg to throw him/her to the floor. The subsequent applications involved throwing the attacker to the floor after being grabbed at the lapel. The throw was immensely facilitated by making use of the vulnerable lung-5 pressure point and by performing the appropriate body movement, as set out in the Kata.

Maziar Kakhi. Lesson #2: Kansetsu-waza Kata
This is a very short Kata created by Sensei Morris. Kansetsu-waza means joint-locking techniques. The moves in the Kata all appear in the first three Heian Katas. Hence, you don't have to be a black belt to master it! Contrary to what you might expect from years of traditional Shotokan Karate, Kansetsu-waza Kata’s real purpose is application, as should all Kata training! In this instance, two partners (Tori and Uke) practice joint-lock drills which are commonly used in Kissaki. Each move of the Kata is interpreted as a workable application, and as your partner tries to escape the current lock he/she is subjected to, the Kata’s Bunkai seamlessly flows into the next lock. The level of complexity can be augmented by adding Ko-waza (minor techniques) to the O-waza
(major techniques). In accordance with Kissaki’s principles, all strikes use the pressure points of the opponent’s body. Kansetsu-waza Kata is a true eye-opener because it provides a snapshot of the treasure trove which Karate’s system of Katas generally offers by way of real self-defence applications.

Jesse Chester. Lesson #3: Confined Space Combat
In traditional Shotokan, self-defence is a theoretical concept which is rarely touched upon, whereas in Kissaki, self-defence is a reality even at the level of Kihon. The rationale behind confined space combat is that frequently real attacks never occur in very open spaces, e.g. in a big dojo where the attacker often begins several feet away while announcing his attack! For example, if you are cornered between two walls, you should use the walls to your advantage rather than treat them as an impediment. We practiced several drills involving attacks with plastic bottles and wooden knives. More specific details can found in this month’s promotional video excerpt from the Kissaki learning website (www.kissakikai.com/mainpage.php). I strongly recommend Kissaki to anyone seeking to become skilled in the art of self-defence and who is not practicing Karate just for sport.

Three wins in one night!

At the New Breed Fighter's MMA event on Friday July 23rd 2010 all three Kissaki fighters won their matches:

Jared Morelli, Brian Cowden and Paul Felder.

See the New Breed Fighters website for the fight card and more details.

A brilliant night and congratulations to the fighters and their trainers, Matt Knorr and Dan Shriber!

(Check back for more pictures soon. )

Law Enforcement Training Int. (LETS) course Jun 2010

The LETS Course on June 2nd and 3rd was a fantastic two days spent with a great bunch of guys and a vastly experienced teacher.
The approach to the theoretical section made me really consider how far I’ve slipped back mentally from my early days of training when I made a conscious effort to be in, at least, ‘condition Yellow’ awareness level whenever I stepped out the front door.

I think, these days, there have been too many occasions when I’ve been in a ‘White’ state of mind when I shouldn’t have been. I’ll certainly focus more going forward. That’s a lesson that anyone should carry through regardless of their level of martial experience.
The legal information, evaluation criteria, and ideas for transferring the necessary information and skills to serving police.

I really didn’t know what to expect from physical element of the course, given that I assumed it would be quite different from anything that I had experienced before. Of course, I should have known better, realizing now that the Kissaki Kai principles and techniques apply equally in both civilian and law enforcement walks of life. They are equally effective in both!

Jon Sloan - handcuffing	Gerry Smullen - handcuffing	Anthony Ko - handcuffing	Jon Sloan - weapon retention
Wolfgang Renezeder - defence with back to wall

The LETS Int. Officer Training modules are field-tested and used in a number of academies and countries, and - aimed at Police officers and special groups - different situations are to be expected. Of course, the one big difference in the physical training was the arrest and handcuffing phase of a situation as it’s not something one would normally practice in civilian martial training. Plus, the fact that many officers work with a partner meant that there was a new and diverting skill to learn that again differs from civilian type training. It gave me an insight into the skills needed to work efficiently with a partner, in every phase from preparation through the interview or dialogue stage and then on to the arrest and control phase.

Some of the training, to sum up briefly, covered - Recognition and assessment of situation (Risk & Threat evaluation) - Approach procedures - Control Holds - Handcuff techniques - Awareness pyramid - Legal Restrictions - Weapon retention - Edged weapon defense - Partner work - etc. It was certainly an eye opener and involved a shift in thinking and intent from any other hands-on training I have had to date! It was also VERY physical and the bruises are testament to that! (See Photo). Thank you again for adding to my skills base, both physical and mental. I’ll certainly be back for the refresher course.

Jon Sloan - UK

LETS Int. Officer Protection & Control.

Anyone in Need of a New Start?

This kind comment was recently posted by Mary Yatsevitch:
“With heartfelt gratitude I wish to share the incredible progress I have made, due to the patient encouragement and kindness I have experienced through my participation in the Kissaki-Kai Cardio workout group on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. My daughter was the original participant, but one day I sat in while she exercised, and was right away invited to join in even if it meant that I would sit on a chair with an 8 lb. exercise ball as a start. After one hip joint replacement and two knee joint replacements and a current diagnosis of Parkinsons, I was fearful of getting down on the floor, had little reliable balance and not much stamina. A year later at 65, I can now get up and down from the floor, have achieved 100% balance and made war on the effects of Parkinsons, to the point where my Neurologist notices the difference. The atmosphere is low key and exercise is done to music with an upbeat attitude. I just want to share this experience with others, who might be shy about starting or might think it is all over for them. This has made a difference for me for the rest of my life.
LET ME SHARE THIS WITH ANYONE IN NEED OF A NEW START !!!”

Our Cardio hours are: Tue and Thu 9.30-10.30am with the first half hour cardio workout to music and the second half hour exercises and karate training. Non-members welcome!

A Night to Remember
May 6, 2005 - Shugyo Training at Kissaki-Kai

We knew there would be six visitors from Belgium staying at the Kissaki-Kai Karate-Do Honbu Dojo the week of May 1. We also knew many of us should be at the special night: many black and brown belt members of Kissaki-Kai had been mailed words to the effect that the shugyo training the night of May 6, 2005 should be considered mandatory, especially if we were planning to take tests for rank advancement during the following month’s summer camp at Ryder University. What we didn’t know was what shugyo training actually meant, nor did we know the stunning surprise that would conclude the unforgettable event for
twenty-five excited karate-ka.

Shugyo is a Japanese term that means, essentially, a very disciplined study of an art. It means that whatever discipline or study is being undertaken, the student or practitioner will undergo a complete immersion, without outside distractions, for a certain period of time. It is a period devoted to concentrated study to test or to find one’s true self, a test, in a sense, of spirit and endurance. While centuries ago the term applied to many arts in Japan, it has been applied to martial practice from the sixteenth century through the present.

For Kissaki-Kai upper ranks, training at the Honbu dojo in Marlton, New Jersey, USA, it meant three intense hours of training under the guidance of Sensei Vince Morris and Sensei Steve Montgomery.

After warming up and being given cautionary remarks by Sensei Vince about pacing ourselves and listening to our bodies through the training, we entered an intense night of dramatically rigorous karate. The night included basics, combinations, various drills with partners (emphasizing many leg techniques), bunkai and, of course, kata. For much of the night, nothing else existed as we concentrated with great spirit on the challenging yet inspiring work that left us exhausted, yes, but wonderfully involved in the moment.

Puzzling to most of us, in the second half of the training was the appearance of a table and chairs for the honbu dojo sensei. We were asked to demonstrate with a partner, bunkai from our favorite kata. It seemed like the setting for testing, but none of us thought much about that possibility as we focused on the demonstrations of bunkai.
After the demonstrations, both serious and unintentionally amusing, we lined up in three lines facing shomen and our teachers. Now 10:00 P.M., Sensei Steve and Vince spoke gratefully of our consistent efforts during the previous three hours and Sensei Vince informed us that there would be dan promotions. Mysteriously, certificates appeared on the table and we were all still and silent as names and new dan ranks were announced. While we were surprised, it certainly made sense to have dan promotion for the karate-ka and sensei from Belgium as our common sensei would not see them again for a while. However, many of us were stunned and deeply moved as dan promotions followed, one after the other. In fact, three shocked karate-ka were advanced from brown belt to shodan, each of them profoundly moved to receive the black belt, including this grateful reporter.
Those receiving dan advancements that night:

Following another surprise–a bit of refreshment–many words and embraces of congratulations were traded and a bond that extended from the Marlton dojo to the other side of the Atlantic was cemented and enjoyed. It was a night none who were there will ever forget. Watch out for the announcement of the next shugyo night. It should not be missed.

Dave Murphy, May 2006

The above article was also published in American Samurai Magazine in 2005

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