Apakah SBY Masih Dapat Dipercaya?

Please allow me to revert to Bahasa Indonesia posting since I believe it will benefit my fellow countrymen better. Presiden SBY, yang biasanya sangat jarang sekali mengambil keputusan dengan cepat walaupun masalahnya dapat dibilang mendesak karena harus mempertimbangkan segala hal, baru2 ini dengan sangat mengejutkan mengambil keputusan yang dapat dibilang keluar dengan cepat. Akan tetapi sayangnya keputusan tersebut membuat saya kecewa. Banyak blog2 lain yg juga mengungkapkan kekecewaannya karena dalih menyelamatkan perusahaan “swasta nasional” dapat dikatakan mencurigakan. Selama ini masyarakat cukup bisa bersabar dan percaya akan ketulusan hatinya walaupun banyak keputusan2 dan kebijakan2 dirinya selalu dipenuhi keraguan dan terkesan lambat. Akan tetapi keputusannya untuk menyelamatkan Bakrie dari kebangkrutan kedua benar2 sesuatu yg patut disesali. Coba baca dua artikel Jakarta Post dan Wimar Witoelar berikut ini. Saat ini saya merasa sepertinya pilihan dan optimisme saya dalam pemilu nanti semakin memudar, tidak ada partai yg cukup menarik hati, dan lebih parahnya, pilihan calon presiden yg ada pun menghilang satu lagi dengan kebijakan terakhir SBY ini. Alas, semoga ada alternatif lain yg bisa membuat saya kembali optimis bahwa Indonesia bisa menjadi lebih baik lagi.

Karate Rants – Part Two

When karate was brought over to mainland Japan from Okinawa, changes were bound to happened. It’s becoming more rigid, systematized, militarized, spiritual side was added and it is becoming less martial in order for it to be available for larger masses. Not all the changes are bad, although this is also subjective. Some people said the changes from karate-jutsu to karate-do is good because not only physical training, but spiritual training is also very important for the practitioner. But other people consider this to be bad, because it diminished its martial applications. Karate also becoming systematized and militarized. This is also a double-edge sword.

Systematized means proper syllabus for the masses, ranking system and karate uniform were introduced and organizations are formed to be able to organize the growing structure. The ugly sides of this are the politics and power struggle in the organization, resulting in splinter groups, bad bloods and animosities. Okinawan masters used to learn from various masters, but nowadays this practice is frowned by the majority. Loyalty to the organization is valued very highly. Loyalty is good, but blind loyalty is bad. Furthermore, our instructor(s) can’t be good at everything. Learning from other people and masters are a good way to develop our karate. Ranking system provides a way to measure growth of the practitioner, but money corrupts, how many dojo offer grades for money? Syllabus is good for a more systematic training, but individuality becoming almost extinct nowadays.

Before karate introduced to Japan, most practitioners only know mostly 5 kata. Nowadays, people aren’t satisfied with 10, 20 or 30. Not many people can understand too many kata, although there are exceptions, such as Mabuni Sensei of Shito-ryu. Old masters taught certain kata to certain people with characteristics that match the kata itself. First they learn basic kata such as sanchin and naihanchi. This can be as long as five years or as short as two or three years. Once their basic was consider good, gradually they’re being introduced to the more advanced kata. It can take at least a year before they learn another kata. There’s just too many things to learn in one kata, and they studied the martial values of the kata, not the nice poses and the sequences only. To even do a proper shuri ashi, the posture, the body mechanics and in-depth understanding of how body moves are needed. It’s not just a simple stepping that can be learned in one day. It takes years to perfect. That’s the difference nowadays. In some dojo, the students are required to know the sequence in one session. Then after the student remembers the sequence perfectly with a good looking basic techniques, flashy poses and nice sound effects, they’re considered to have mastered the kata and proceed to do another kata. No movement concepts were mastered. The way kata taught was different. They need to master the first few sequences first, with all the proper techniques, body mechanics, movements and the concepts and ideas behind the sequences, then they proceed to the next sequences one after another. One sequence can take months. This is also true if you’re practicing chinese martial arts, and fortunately for them, many of them are still doing this. Once someone properly “know” the kata, he should have enough arsenal to defend himself/herself. If he/she managed to master 3 or 4 kata, he will become a very able martial artist. Nowadays studying one kata for one year is considered too long. The fault is not only on the instructors, but also the students, they got bored and always hungry for new kata, although they haven’t even “know” it. It’s a sad state actually. I have even seen someone taught a kata in a more militarized way. If the one being taught unable to remember the sequence, he/she will be asked to repeat the kata again. This is not a kata that he/she has learnt for a few months, but it is a new kata for him/her. To remember one sequence in one day is good enough. To be able to do the sequence properly in one or two months is a feat. That’s why it’s perfectly normal to work on a kata for years.

Karate Rants – Part One

First post after so long Ok, let’s go down to the business right away. I’m going to more than one dojo to train karate and I would like to talk about one particular dojo that I always go at least once a week. First of all, the atmosphere is good there, people are friendly, a lot of friends are there, the facility is top notch with all the training equipments, basically all looks good except for a few flaws that I find very bothersome.

First of all, the practitioners age range are varied between 10-50 for the beginners. I’m not against sports kumite for people that enjoy doing it or for people going to tournaments.  But if the dojo teaches sports kumite regularly while 95% of the people practicing on a particular day aren’t going for tournament, and although they might enjoy the training and find it beneficial for their health, I find it very worrysome that instructors put a lot of emphasis on this regulary in the class. A lot of the practitioners are salarymen, students looking for activity and middle-aged parents. One of the reason why they choose karate must be the martial part of it, the self defense. Although self defense might not be the main reason why they do karate, but it’s must be one of the benefit they find useful. Every week they train once or twice, doing some drills on sports kumite during one part of the training. But unknowingly, they are training for a sports event that they won’t event participate in their whole life, not a self defense drill/techniques that they can use on the street outside the safe dojo!!!

The problem itself is not really the dojo’s fault, but the emphasis came from Japan itself, and the local instructors in all countries following it blindly without thinking. Japan is like a bible for them, they follow it without thinking and consider it to be a source of truth. Then this truth is being propagated to the practitioners everywhere. They believe what the instructors said that sports kumite is the ultimate self defense since they saw it’s beautiful form works in the dojo. Hopefully they don’t get to use it outside the dojo, or they will find themself lying on the ground and then start questioning why a black belt can be easily trumped by people with no training.

Sports kumite is designed to be a safe playground to a game of karate. For me, I don’t see any karate techniques in sports kumite. The footwork is not karate footwork, there’s no shuri ashi, yori ashi or tai sabaki from the katas we know. It might look the same, but the body mechanics are different. The gyaku tsuki and kisame tsuki with a low faux-zenkutsu dachi are hybrid techniques. No where in kata we do gyaku tsuki and kisame on zenkutsu dachi with the rear leg being lifted up. These technique is taken from boxing and the result is the hybrid technique. But again, none of the body mechanics in the kata are found here and none of the boxing body mechanics are also found here. Pulling punches are also one of the problem, some practitioners doesn’t even realized that unless they know why they pull the punches and only train rigorously on pulling the punches as fast as possible will make their fist harmless on the street. As for mawashi geri, it’s a good technique really, but again, which kata has mawashi geri? And for me, kicking above our belly button will put us in a very disadvantageous position. I do mawashi geri, but most of the time, it’s only knee/thigh level height.

Ok, maybe the techniques aren’t karate techniques, but some people might argue that it’s working on the street. Unless you’re an elite performer, I don’t think you will be able to survive on the street pulling punches, kicking high to the head, and bouncing around. I did sports kumite before, and I came to realized that its advantages can’t compensate its disadvantages if you’re looking to defend yourself unless you know that running is the best defense in the world. It’s very good if instructors can separate this kind of training from the regular classes, then more people can benefit from the training itself rather than just from the health point of view. Sports kumite has its merit and it’s good to develop the competitive spirit for young people, but I don’t find it useful for older people at all. I still have another rant about the way some dojo teach kata, but I will leave it for another writing(at least I will have another topic in mind ^^).