October 2019 – The Preparation Issue

Welcome to October's Shinbun, the Preparation Issue

In anticipation of our upcoming demonstration, we consider this month’s theme: Preparation. Specifically, preparing to demonstrate for rank, which is very timely. So this month we’re going to reflect on Preparation.

As always, please send pictures, pieces, ideas for pieces, stories, and upcoming events. I'll get them posted and sent out with the next newsletter.

Yours in Budo,
-Sensei Scot Lynch
Yondan, Tsugiashi-Do

Sunday, November 10th at 12:00 Noon.

Kent Island Martial Arts Center (thanks to the grace and hospitality of Sensei Tom Fox)
222 Shopping Center Rd, Stevensville, MD 21666

The Candidates:
Nancy Guerriero, Brian Guerriero – Nidan
Kevin McKinney, Joel Berger – Sandan
The candidates have been practicing hard and consistently. They are ready!        

Click for a full view.

_{I am still enjoying having Soke’s full library of previous Shinbuns. Twenty years ago this month, Sensei wrote about various codes of conduct, dojo spirits, and dojo creeds. There was a baby announcement (Ray Litterio’s daughter, Gabriella, wherever she is now, is 20 years old. And there was news of a recent seminar in Albany where Soke was “ably assisted” by some of his own students:}

I'm happy to say that I was one of those able students.

However there is an additional announcement of an upcoming seminar series. And in with the Shinbun that month, was a full-page flier, which you can download here. The first of the series actually took place in late October, and you can see a throw-back to that day in “The Way it Was” section below. The first handout given in the series was the official full-page notes on Shodan Hombu Waza, which you can download here.  We will be following along each month on what was happening in those Sunday sessions twenty years ago, not just as part of the Shinbun Rewind, but also as a useful review.

Thank you Sensei!

Another of the benefits of having the full library of [paper] Shinbuns is that I can use Soke’s great illustrations to tell my own current stories.

This past Sunday at Bayville Tsugiashi-Do Dojo, I had to remark to Sensei Perez (who has been skyping into all the practice sessions from Florida) that we had to turn down the heat on some of Sensei Nancy Guerriero’s techniques, as they have been getting awfully strong. The illustration from the July 2000 Shinbun illustrates Nancy’s stature in both ability and size.

What does it mean to prepare, or to be prepared? We’ve learned our wazas, committed them to memory. We’ve practiced with a partner, and in front of a mirror. We snap into stances when no one is looking. We’ve played desert. We’ve gone lefty and righty. We’ve read through Soke’s original manuals and materials. We showed the cooler wazas to our friends when Sensei wasn’t looking. And we’ve asked seven thousand questions, most of them multiple times. Are we prepared?

I believe there is a reason Soke calls this process a “demonstration” and not a “test.” Especially at the higher levels. And this is because a “test” is about outcomes (did the attacker tap out, fall down, go flying?) and a “demonstration” is about more than outcomes. An “outcome” is not always “wakarimasu.” Just because the bad guy fell down, you might not “own” the move. My Sensei’s have always made it clear to me that you don’t own a move until you can show someone else how to do it, and they can do it on someone else. But that’s hard to accomplish in an afternoon. So how do we decide if someone has moved to the next level?

The key is a marriage of understanding and respect. You may be able to perform them consistently, easily, righty and lefty, multiple attackers, single attack or in the Combat Kata. But do you respect them? In their entirety? Do you respect them individually, their depth, their history, their gravity? In the same way that spending any time with Sensei Tom Fox inspires me to work out harder when I get home, when I spend time with Sensei Gabriel Perez I get a top-up of depth, history, gravity, and a profound respect for technique. With Sensei Perez, successfully performing the move gets you little more than half way there. You have to respect that move, where it came from, and how it was given to you. And you better show some zanshin and spirit!

So when preparing for a demonstration, I ask myself…

• Can I perform this move successfully without hurting my uke?
• Can I explain this move, why it works, the risks and the limitations?
• Do I understand the complexities of this move?
• Do I appreciate how much I don't understand about this move?
• And finally, Do I truly respect this move?

Demonstrating for rank is not the end of a difficult and hard trip, it is the beginning of a beautiful journey that the Sensei’s at the table are welcoming you to.

A thousand years ago (Circa 1981), when I was a hopeful 19-year old white belt, the subject of the upcoming yellow belt “test” came up after class at the TAAZ bar, downstairs from the Yoshitsune Dojo in Closter, New Jersey. A date had finally been decided. While I was excited at the prospect of (finally) wearing a colored belt, I was lately fighting some doubts. A month prior, I felt pumped and ready. I could throw kata 4 and even the black belts were falling. My tomonage was awesome, and people were flying through the air. My blocks were strong and I had memorized all my standing katas. Everything was clicking. But now, over pitchers of beer and pretzels, as the test was being discussed, I had a queezy feeling that maybe I wasn’t as ready as I thought. Nagging thoughts that I was over my head, that something would go terribly wrong. I confessed.

“Sensei, I was really getting very good at Kata 1. I could do it easily on anyone, and it always worked. But now, I’m starting to think about all the parts of it, and everything that has to happen. And now, I’m starting to think that I don’t really know it that well after all. I used to think it was a simple move, but it seems very complicated to me now.” The typical teenager asking for help without asking for help.

I thought that Doc (I didn’t know him well enough to call him “Doc” to his face) would motion me up from my chair, as he often did with most people in the TAAZ bar, and we would stand in the middle of the tables (with all the Harley guys at the bar staring) and he would slowly walk me through the basics and everything would be ok. But instead, he sat there, turned to Mickey, and the two of them shared a big smile. He turned back to me and said “Congratulations, you just made yellow belt.”

I still had to go through my moves when the day came, I still had to demonstrate my standing katas, I still had to show my kneeling wazas. I had to do five judo throws. Dessert was not easy. But I did receive my bright yellow belt, confirming that I was an world-class expert martial artist, ready to take on anyone. What I understand now, is that I passed the real test a month before hand in a dark biker bar: I had demonstrated a “respect” for Kata 1. Its power, itc complexity, its beauty, its utility as a teaching tool and as a building block for kata 2, kata 3, and so many other katas. Not only have I never lost that respect, but thirty eight years later, I still marvel at Kata 1.

And that’s the onions of demonstration preparation.

October 1999, Woodcliff Lake, NJ,

Two Young and aspiring brown belts Steve Permuy and Scot Lynch performing Hiki Nage at a special seminar for Hombu Waza.

Note: I had performed Hiki Nage for my Yellow Belt demonstration, my Green Belt, Blue Belt, and 2 Brown Belt demonstrations, and it wasn’t until this picture was taken that I was taught the technique of turning the hand over.