As usual, this article is focused on Karate self-defense.
Each of us, as Karate-kas (practitioners) seeking to constantly improve our self-defense skills, go through multiple milestones during our progress. I do believe that there is an “optimal” path to self-defense proficiency, but also recognize that each individual’s experience is unique, and that not everybody will follow the same path to self-defense mastery.
Reaching karate self-defense mastery, is like climbing up a huge tree to reach the top. Sometimes you can go on the wrong branch, and get stuck, unable to keep moving towards the top. This means that sometimes you have to make a U turn, and throw out the window things that you firmly believed for a long time.
With Regards to Karate-kas who decide to get into extreme advanced sport Kumite, and spend most of their practice time on it for years and years, please be warned that this will take you further away from self-defense mastery and everything that Karate has to offer. Besides all the great benefits of Karate sport Kumite, there are multiple counterproductive aspects of it hidden in plain sight, that will prevent you from becoming more proficient in self-defense:
*Getting used to being confronted by only a single opponent.
*Getting used to being confronted by only opponents with typical Karate behaviour.
*Getting used to using typical sport attacks without using dangerous techniques (Forbidden techniques in sport Kumite)
Many karate-kas get stuck on dead-end branches for years, unable to keep moving up, and sometimes even believe they are close to the very top of the self-defense tree.
A few other things that can prevent you from reaching self-defense proficiency:
*Ego (Inability to admit being wrong in order to learn and move forward).
*Believing in Instant gratification (wrong assumption that if something needs too much work, it cannot be right).
*Having the wrong objectives (Belts / ranks, instead of knowledge/skills)
*Convincing yourself that something works, or that something is done correctly, rather than putting it to the test and ripping it apart to validate it).
*Failing to embrace Karate as a multidirectional self-defense martial art.
Take a moment to look at the attached self-defense tree, and figure out where you are, as well as what you need to focus on moving forward.
There are not that many path to Karate self-defense proficiency, and it’s ok to sometimes have to go back in order to rebound higher later on. As long as you keep working towards going up the tree, you will eventually get very close to the top!
Toronto, Alpha - KarateBoost blog
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