Sometimes a student will come to show me a technique he's worked out. "Excellent!" I'll tell him. Then, about a half hour later, the same student will come back and say, "You taught me that, didn't you?" And, he's correct, I did teach it to him, usually about 3 years prior. But, when I taught it to him, it was my technique he was trying to learn. When he "discovered" it, it was his technique. This is what true learning is all about – discovering for oneself what someone else has already taught you.
Of course, the same is true for me. All of the techniques I've "discovered" really came from my teachers. For example, I have a practice of Naihanchi kata I call "Shiho Naihanchi.." Shiho Naihanchi is a Naihanchi linking form that has a square for its performance pattern (embusen). I developed Shiho Naihanchi to help myself work a bunkai concept that I learned from my teacher, sensei Dillman. For me, Shiho Naihanchi is derivative in it's very being. Sensei said that looking to the side meant that I was to orient myself sideways to my opponent. So, when I did my bunkai, I stepped and turned to the side. One day, I wondered how my kata would be if I did the same thing in the solo performance, what the kata would be like if I simply made what was implicit into something explicit.
Anyway, nothing special, just me following sensei's teaching. Students saw me practicing once, and wanted to learn it, so, I taught them. Suddenly, their understanding of the bunkai greatly improved because they were practicing the concept explicitly. Cool. But, suddenly they had an impression that somehow, I am some kind of martial arts genius. Hardly. I'm just doing what I was taught.Now, no teacher has ever thrown my punches or kicks. Only I can do that. No teacher ever did my training for me. But, all I have ever done is what I was taught to do. I get credit for doing it, but not for inventing or creating it.
This is why I am always stunned by martial artists who act like they didn't learn what they know. They act as if they somehow created it on their own, as if they are God's gift to the martial arts. It's like these ridiculous zillionaires who act as if they are self-made men, when in fact, they inherited from daddy.
Here is my truth, I am the product of my teachers, without them I wouldn't be much of a practitioner. If I had never met sensei Dillman, I would still be working on my blocking skills, and wondering how to approach with grace the realities of being an aging martial artist.
I guess this is a sermon of sorts – a sermon based on these words from Deuteronomy 8: Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God... otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God... Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth.
This insight applies to all of life. Nothing I have, nothing I have accomplished, nothing I have "discovered" is somehow on me. The knowledge and skills came from somewhere else, from someone else, from someOne else.
So be ever mindful, grateful and respectful of your teachers. Never pretend you have gotten anywhere on your own. And remember, no one can throw a kick for you.
Thanks for reading,
Now, go train.
CT
