Less is more

I sometimes feel very fortunate that as a practitioner of Goju Ryu I don’t have so much to practise when compared to practitioners from other ryuha with extremely large kata syllabus.  In fact, the little amount that I have to manage in Goju is often quite daunting and I feel at times that I’m unable to provide an equal attention to all the different areas of practise and each individual kata.

You see, karatedo is a very important part of my life, but it is not everything in my life.  I also have a family, a job, and also other areas of interest such as playing guitar.  To devote any more time than I currently do to my karate would greatly affect other areas of my life and my relationships with those people who I care about.

Regular practise is something I see as vitally important, and I believe little and often is the key.  I am lucky in that my job involves me getting in the dojo for 2 hours a day to train.  Most people do not have this privelage, and I realise how fortunate I am in this way.  Despite this 2 hours a day, and the few days a week I also train at my own dojo, I still do not have enough time to become proficient at everything, or even devote an equal amount of time to all areas of my practise.  I have to be quite selective to what areas apply most to my particular circumstances in life.  I can easily see how Higaonna Morio sensei fills his day up with 6 hours daily training, and even wonder if this would be enough?

I think how lucky practitioners used to be to only have Sanchin and one other kata to devote their time to.  What a great understanding they must have had of that one kata.

With this in mind I find it quite bizarre that practitioners still feel the need to add more to their art.  The mentality is that if it can’t be seen in the art immediately, I’ll add it!  Goju doesn’t have Naihanchi, I’ll add it.  Goju doesn’t have groundfighting, I’ll add it.  Goju doesn’t have filipino stick fighting, I’ll add it.  I’ll take up another art, because this will help me understand my goju better.

The one thing you can’t add is hours onto the 24 hour day!  Where are people finding the time to devote to all these seperate arts?

The other day while hitting the machiwara I allowed my mind to drift for a while.  I wondered ‘how many times over the years must I have hit this thing, yet still I’m not very good at it’.  I seem to recall a story about Funakoshi Gichin sensei on his death bed saying ’shame I’m about to die, I was just staring to understand the basic punch’.  At first I thought he was being his usual humble self, but I now think he was most likely being very genuine in his observation of himself. 

Basic chudan tsuki.  One technique.  A lifetime of training, yet still he wasn’t happy with it!!!  I wonder if Funakoshi sensei would have been in such a hurry to add more on top of his workload?