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View Full Version : Some lessons i've learned from bogu kumite



bartfast
3rd August 2014, 05:10
I hope the following is of interest. Within this article, I attempt to quantify and discuss a few of the lessons hard learned in full contact kumite training, in Okinawan Karate. Of course, these are merely the lessons that I have learned. But I present them here in the hopes that they may influence or help even one Karateka along the path...

http://waxingonoff.blogspot.com/2014/08/some-lessons-ive-learned-from-bogu.html

StephenBaker
5th August 2014, 02:03
Mr. Fiorello,

I quite enjoyed your writing. I have seen several examples over the years of the lack of contact creating a very false sense of security. I once watched a volunteer security group for an event and asked where they trained. They told me then asked if I wanted to "check it out". Nobody could hit or kick well enough to be effective. I am not that good, they were clearly not trained well. I explained intent and showed some examples of somebody who means you harm. One would have thought I was evil personified from the reactions, but thankfully a few realized that they were not prepared to handle a real situation and hopefully harm prevented.

Concomitant with the false sense of security, I also find a sense of moral indignation when one causes any cracks in that illusion.

I hope many read your piece and face that question in safe privacy.

Regards

bartfast
6th August 2014, 16:10
I also find a sense of moral indignation when one causes any cracks in that illusion.
Regards

I appreciate your comments. And I especially concur with you about the moral indignation that you mentioned. When one begins learning Karate, they want to learn "the real thing". Whatever they end up learning is therefore the real thing to them. For some people, after some training, they may find that they aren't really learning what they thought they were learning, or what they set out to learn. This is where people will differ. Some people will then look for what is missing and work hard to find it. Some people will become defensive and see any lack in their art as an unnecessary abundance in someone else's art. Closed mindedness is dangerous anywhere, and nowhere more so than in the Martial Arts. We all have things to learn from everyone else, and we should embrace "better" ideas instead of becoming fearful that they will undermine our precious "styles". This is the true teaching of Bruce Lee: absorb what is useful.