Chapter 64: Dojo Effects

In a more or less traditional sense the dojo has certain aspects that tend to unconsciously bleed over into certain area’s, like into self-defense. I came to this conclusion because in a dojo of a more or less traditional way we go barefoot, we wear a karate-gi and with that the proverbial obi or belt. 

In one scene, see snapshot below, a demonstration is given for a self-defense technique that appears to be based on using your adversary’s own obi as an instrument to say, pull them off balance to create a self-defense opportunity. Oh, but, do we in modern times wear our karate uniforms with obi on the streets? Not so I say because the karate-gi and obi are clothing set that we wear in honor of those worn by our predecessors, sensei and senpai. 

This is the core of my article, when we fall into an unconscious and unquestioned way of doing things then we end up passing along false, incorrect and inaccurate ways to doing the very thing we strive to do in self-defense karate-do. 

It is a bit like standing directly in front of your adversary so he can two had grab and choke you that is not an accurate representation of either a social or asocial type of violent physical attack. I personally have a smidgeon of experience in SD and never in that limited time have I seen that type of attack especially a guy-on-guy attack. It is unrealistic to teach that as it is unrealistic to teach an obi grab.

Now, the counter argument is that he was demonstrating a person grabbing another person’s belt but I don’t rely on that as effective or reasonable because in truth the belt is not even considered in self-defense either attack or defense for being that close and face-on opens the door to much greater dangers then merely grabbing one’s belt. It is possible but it is also possible to kick a knife form a knife-wielder’s hand when attacked but here again the probabilities of success is dismal at best and totally unrealistic in reality.

Even a socially driven school yard scuffle/fight is going to be more bare-bones simplistic hitting, kicking and spitting rather than training to overcome the natural to do something unnatural and remote in its effectiveness in a fight. 

All to often inexperienced sensei and senpai get, “An idea,” that is then translated into the bunkai and self-defense realm that is just fun, not realistically applicable in either social or asocial violent situations. 

Where is the reality of traditional dojo because most of what the professionals in violence see in the dojo is NOT reality ergo why many of them say that karate is not adequate for self-defense. 

If you desire to provide self-defense in the dojo there are changes necessary and distinctions to be made to make it realistic to reality of violence. In my last few years of reality-checked self-defense we took off the karate-gi, put our shoes back on and changed the environment in the dojo to try and reflect reality of outside the dojo to include actually taking the SD outside the dojo. 

Be creative, be inspired and let you imagination run wild, to a point, to create a more realistic way to teach karate self-defense. This will require a HUGE paradigm shift in the karate world.