I am very lucky to have a lot of very talented people around me. Their talent (and character) is the glue that binds us together. But nobody knows everything about everything.
Fine.
But what sometimes gets under my skin is that instructors and dans will continue to display ignorance or ambivalence about things that we (or others) expect our juniors to know. A good example of this is the language of our style.
OK, I admit it. Very few people have the time to learn Japanese, or Mandarin for that matter. And given that natives are half way around the world, we don't have much opportunity to practice it. But you'd think most people would try when they see others around them picking terms up and using them. OK, I'm not the best speller in the world in English, but I do try when I can.
Let me be specific.
The following words are ones which I believe any dan worth his/her waist cloth has NO EXCUSE mispronouncing or misspelling:
Seiken - Closed fist
Boshiken - Thumb fist
Hiraken - Flat fist
Uraken - Back fist
shoken - Little fist
I have seen so many ways that people "spell" boshiken... And they continue to spell it wrong when in a dialogue.
And then there are the names and pronunciation of our kata. NO EXCUSE for not spelling them correctly. I'm not talking about juniors who want to post on the page. They are entitled to make at least as many mistakes as the seniors have. I'm talking about the dans who should be setting the example.
Part of the problem is that our pioneers (George in particular) started de novo in the style. The Way of Karate was a very good start. Uechi ryu karate do was an even bigger leap forward. But why stop there? This is the Deming generation, isn't it? Anyone out there heard of CQI?
Not all of us have access to primary sources like Uechi Kanei's Okinawan Karate Do, or Takamiyagi, Higa, and Higa's An Introduction to the Okinawan Traditional Karate. If you did, you might be able to look up the picture of a boshiken on page 342 of Uechi. Then all you'd have to do is read the Kanji and/or the katakana. OK, well you got me there. But you could find the same on page 50 of Takamiyagi et al. At least they have the romanji on that page. But...true...most people don't have that book, or care to own a book that is 99.9% in Japanese.
But there are alternatives. Trust me on this one. Alan Dollar's book is one of the finest in terms of its accuracy of terminology. Heck, I haven't found a mistake in the the Japanese terms yet, and I've found two English misspellings already ;-) Allan has done a fine job of translating much of Uechi Kanei's book. It is a MUST for your bookshelf if you are a serious Uechi practitioner.
And then you'd find the boshiken zuki on page 346.
And then if you'd look at page 347, you'd find the following paragraph <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote
And suddenly, we are speaking a common language. And suddenly, there are fewer misunderstandings in our dialogue.Shotei zuki and boshiken zuki resemble each other. They are delivered with a thrusting forward motion of the arm, however the point of contact on the hand is different. Boshiken uses the hard knuckles of the thumb while shotei strikes with the soft heel of the palm against hard targets.
Yes, sometimes you have situations where the hand can go forward, execute as a shotei zuki, and squeeze as a boshiken. Or you can change your mind in mid thrust. And yes, sometimes we do the nukite zuki (spear hand) in kata, and close the fist to do soko zuki in application. Or do boshiken in kata and shotei in application.
But...at least now we're talking and understanding!
OK, OK, I'm off the soap box. Where's my beer?
- Bill