Time to Revisit the Theoretical Aspects



Hello, everyone.

How are things in your country? Is your dojo open? Are you training at home?




If you are a student living in a country under lockdown like ours, I am sure you have a lot that you can do. The number of things that you can practice at home is virtually unlimited with online classes and instructional videos abounding.



I am also sure that if you are studying an art like Karate you have enough forms to practice anyway.

Plus- many of those exercises that you normally have to do in the dojo can be done at home.





If you are a teacher, however, you may feel derailed now. You had this or that competition lined up for the next month, maybe a grading around the corner...




Now those plans have been derailed, right?

So- what is left to do?

Well...

How about teaching martial arts? :)

But- you may ask in disbelief- what have we been doing all this time?

Sure- you have been teaching martial arts. Most likely it was the syllabus handed down from your style's headquarters, or the scheduled kata and kumite training sessions for the upcoming competition, right?

But we know that is not all that martial arts are about, right?

Well... maybe sparring is all that some schools really have, but traditional martial arts have so much more...

I admit that I was a major annoyance to my teachers when I was at their dojos. While they were concerned of getting us fighting fit for the next tournament I had questions about technique, the style's history and self defense situations. And- I have not bothered with philosophy with 3 of my teachers because they did not look like people who had time for that kind of thing...

There were more important things to focus on. There was simply no time...

Well... now we have time...

If you are worried about not having enough material to last you during the lockdown, I can assure you- I have been writing this blog for 9 years now and I always find something to write about. Besides- even though much of the knowledge that we have in martial arts have been passed on to us by a previous generation- we must remember that we are benefiting from the contributions of those past masters who have shared with us their observations, insights and in some cases even what they have created.

As a teacher you now have your chance to build a similar legacy.

To have insights we have to train, however, don't we?


Keep on training. We will get through this. :)

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