Sincerity of Training

Makoto - Sincerity

One of the useful tools for teachers and students of Japanese Budo to consider in their practice is the idea or understanding of the term bushido.  Bushido can easily be understood by its most general of translations which means , "the way of the warrior".

While there are many texts that have been written on this subject, most of these are written by outsiders to the topic (including myself here).  Therefore there is a tremendous amount of information to wade though before coming upon the dry land of decent and honest understanding of the topic at hand.  

I would like to avoid the topic of Bushido as a whole, so we can consider one small aspect of it.  Today I would like for us to consider the idea of makoto, in Japanese, most often translated as sincerity in English.  Today as well, I would like for us to consider how this applies to physical training and not just, how ones conducts themselves in their day-to-day interactions with others.  

Sincere training in the Japanese budo begin, and end, with proper show of respect and this begins with a proper bow.  Too many times, I have been a visitor to other facilites where the bow is nothing more than a mere annoyance that teachers feel they must do in order to begin class in martial arts.  A proper bow shows the person you are about to learn and study with that you respect them, even before you know what their skill set is.  It quite simply doesn't matter if the person is more skilled than you or not, what does matter is that the practice you are about to engage in, starts with a respect towards one another.  Too often we have allowed our own culture to infect these budo, to the point of trivializing such practice.  For example, although it is a big part of our male dominated sports culture, "giving each other five", is of little importance after you have shown your training partner sincere respect by bowing to him/her.  While I fall into this trap myself ( I grew up playing sports into the collegiate level), it is a sad reminder that showing someone sincere respect is being lost in the budo.  

Once the training begins, you must give yourself fully to your partner with sincerity of training.  Sometimes this means you work hard to submit them, and other times it might be best to allow them to submit you.  This is done so that those that are new to the training can get some benefit of repetitions going their way.  There is a delicate balance between just lying there and being a dummy, and allowing others to submit you for the purpose of positive training.  Mostly it means that each of us who are senior students must help to keep everyone's egos in check.  When you see that someone is getting a bit overconfident it might be time to step up the training and not be so allowable to them finding the locks, pins, throws, or holds that you might be working on.  

As for the individual in training on your own, ask yourself, are you sincere with your warm-ups, are you sincere with your injuries?  This could be found at opposite ends of the spectrum, but they should really be of the same mindset  When doing squats as a warm-up, are you going all the way down, all the way up?  If not you are not being sincere in your training.  When you get injured, do you consistently use that as an excuse to not train fully?  If so is it a good reason?  It might be, however there are more things you can do.  If you currently have an sprained ankle, when doing something that will cause more problems to it, with permission take a break and use the time for some pushups, or abdominal work.  

In his book, The Spirit of Budo, Mr. Trevor Leggett related a story that has always resounded with me.  In the story (I have not read the book in a while so forgive me if I miss a few details), one of his judo teachers had a habit of keeping tacks on the bottom of his zori (sandals/shoes), so as to make a clicking sound while we walked.  Mr. Leggett asked him of this and why exactly he did it.  The teacher responded that it would be too easy for him to sneak up on an adversary.  Therefore, he kept the tacks on the bottom of his shoes, so he would not be inclined to do so.  This would allow for he and his adversary to engage in a sincere battle and not one win which the other was surprised.  

I wish to always have that much sincerity in the day-to-day training of our own little dojo here in Winchester, KY.  I think of that sincerity when correcting students in the dojo at times.  I will often sincerely tell you when you are doing well, and at times sincerely tell you when you are not doing well.  Anything less is a waste of the students' time, and financial resources.  I hope this mindset of sincerity in training carries over into my daily life.  The budo have helped me push myself beyond my self-imposed limits.  It is my sincere desire that they do that for all students of the martial arts.

What is ukemi?

Most martial arts practitioners, particularly those of the grappling arts of Japan such as Judo and Aikido, will tell you that there is a whole lot of falling down that occurs in any given practice.  Not only is this valuable  practice misunderstood by many, but the term itself is also quite misunderstood.  

This whole falling down business in Japanese is referred to as ukemi.  More often than not this is translated as breakfalling, or simply, breaking ones fall.   While this may serve as a decent and easy to disseminate translation, it fails to convey the entire and deeper meaning of this part of training.  Ukemi at its root, means to receive a technique.  This may help to understand why the term uke (oo-kay), is translated as "one who receives".  In the video shown above a friend of mine Chris, is seen taking ukemi from my Aikido instructor Meido Moore Sensei.  

Judoka in mid throw 

The role of uke, and of ukemi, is primarily there for safety.  Outside observers of these arts will often think they see a person purposely falling down during practice. Quite frankly this is true.  Particularly when it comes to demonstrations of technique by whoever may be leading a class.  It is within these sorts of demonstrations that the teacher is doing his/her best to show the students a technique as close to it being perfect as can be. Uke will receive and go with the technique to assist the instructor in doing this.  Students will then take their visual understanding of what they saw and attempt to duplicate it.  The reps done with an agreeable partner will help to develop good habits of movement and then the practitioner may graduate to a training partner who resists the technique.  This is typically done at the discretion of the instructor and there is a wide variety of how and when you should start utilizing a resistant training partner in such drills.  

I recently attended a Judo clinic that was hosted by our friends at Valhalla Grappling Academy in which Eb Keislich Sensei, 6th Dan was teaching those in attendance.  Keislich Sensei demonstrated incredible judo skill.  I was nearly equally impressed with his uke for assisting in the demonstration of technique. When a teacher develops a good a student to take ukemi properly they are only helping to continue the quality of the budo in which they are training and or teaching.   Through the years, I have heard many high ranking teachers in Japanese budo (including Keislich Sensei this weekend) discuss the need for everyone to take falls as a means of developing an understanding of the throwing aspect of technique.  While this is initially misunderstood by most beginners (who doesn't want to come in and just start throwing people down), I have found this to be incredibly true.  

Moore Sensei demonstrating, Uke is Craig Caudill

This past summer my  Aikido instructor made his annual visit to our dojo, I had the good fortune to take most of the ukemi for him during the weekend seminar.  It had been quite a while since I had taken so many falls.  While this proved to be very entertaining I suppose for our Bluegrass Budokai members who enjoyed seeing me thrown across and into the mat many, many times.  It was an incredible learning experience for me.  There were things, nuances I suppose, about technique that I had seen before, but had the opportunity feel for the first time.  Taking so much ukemi, only served to make my practice better. 

In summary, ukemi  means to receive the technique.  This means through your instructor, your training partners, and if you are practicing solo, simply receive the mat.  Otherwise, you will simply just be falling down alot....