MY KARATE STORY

 

                                          Sensei Rex I De Silva

As I commence my 52nd year in the martial arts I briefly mention some matters which are not too well known. There are two styles of Karate, one is the traditional karate the other its modern cognate Karate-Do aka sport karate.

 

Karate as a sport

 

In the early 20th century some of the masters were directed by the Okinawan Ministry of Education to make karate available to the general public. So they (the masters) contrived to make karate safer in order to present it to the public by removing dangerous procedures and introducing a safe form of "no contact" sparring, which was taught initially to school children in which punches, kicks etc., are “pulled” short of contact, and with attacks only permitted to restricted targets areas, thereby precluding any unnecessary injury or pain to the practitioners. This has become known as “Karate-Do” and is classified as a “Budo” (Sport) form as the primary aim is to score points, not to injure one’s opponent. Today Sport karate, is very popular, being widely taught in schools.

 

Karate as a combat art

 

Traditional Karate or “Karate jitsu” on the other hand allows full contact in that punches and kicks are delivered with full force and the opponents entire body is a target, the only exceptions usually being the eyes and groin areas. In full-contact styles knock outs (KOs) are allowed in sparring. Karate Jitsu, being a combat form is classified as “Bugei” (Combat) form.  It differs in many respects from the “Sport” forms as training includes hand-conditioning, breaking techniques (Tameshewari), weapons techniques (Kobudo), pressure point fighting (Kyusho Jitsu), arm locks (Kansetsuwaza), strangles and chokes (Shimewaza), and throws (Koshiwaza, Ashiwaza) which are not usually practiced in sport karate. Today only a few masters continued to teach their senior students the hard techniques of combat karate or Karate Jitsu.

 

Other

 

There are several other Karate forms which I do not address here as my knowledge of them is limited.

My story

 

I come from a background in amateur boxing and started practicing Karate-Do in the late 1960s. In the 1970s I was appointed a National Instructor, Referee and Judge. Many decades later the World Martial Arts Organisation (WMAO), Mumbai branch, promoted me to the rank of Kudan (9th Degree Black-belt) and the International Sokeship Society (ISS) of the WMAO conferred on me the title of Soke (Grandmaster). Additionally, I was appointed Branch Instructor for Sri Lanka by another Black-belt organization. However, I soon became disillusioned with the limitations of Sport Karate and so reverted to the more traditional, effective and “Hard” techniques of Combat Karate (Karate Jitsu) which I taught to selected senior students. Combat karate, like boxing wrestling etc., involves real fighting and in doing so I have, over the decades, suffered the injuries common to the combat arts viz. broken right hand, burst eardrum, bloody nose, mouth and smashed rib cage. I accepted these painful injuries without complaint, as the old adage states that “You cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs”. Nevertheless, a long time ago I was warned by a student, who is a medical doctor, that at my advanced age being punched or kicked hard in the face/head or body could result in serious injury including brain damage or worse. So by 1990 I ceased sparring; however I never stopped training. More than anything else I have been captivated by the “Iron Hand” (Makiwara etc,) techniques which, even as Senior citizen, I practice several times a week. I also practice kata more intensively as at an advanced (Okuden) level, kata teaches the “hidden” techniques of body shifting (Tai Sabaki), attacking vital spots or pressure points (Kyusho Jitsu) and grappling (Tuite) etc., which are usually not taught in Sport Karate.

Whatever skills I acquired are due to the teachings of those to those great Senseis who enhanced my journey in the Martial Arts: D. W. Welgama, Tissa Gunaratne, Gary Phillips, Gamini Rupesinghe, Kang Rhee and Anthony Fernandes. I also thank Michael Perera, my former student who went on to become an MME champion in Australia, and returned to teach his old Sensei some new techniques. My gratitude to them knows no bounds.

So there it is, my story in a nutshell. 

 

                                                                                                              ©Rex I. De Silva 2020