{"id":287,"date":"2018-06-02T16:26:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T16:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/blog\/?p=287"},"modified":"2019-04-24T17:02:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T21:02:08","slug":"transitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/?p=287","title":{"rendered":"Transitions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The kanji depicted above reads “Shu ha ri.” \u00a0The term references the journey of the karateka as he or she moves from beginner to black belt to advanced student and how the relationship with one’s Sensei may change along the way. \u00a0This blog post is not about that. \u00a0There are many fine articles on the web (http:\/\/aikiorlando.com\/article\/meaning-shuhari<\/a> is a concise explanation and from where I borrowed the kanji). \u00a0We recently had two exceptionally skilled youth black belts leave our dojo – they, and their family, are just wonderful people as well and will be profoundly missed.\u00a0 This blog post isn’t about them either.\u00a0(Okay, I started this post last year, but it still applies).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This blog post is about the equally skilled and wonderful Sempai Kailee (she’s the beautiful young lady in the middle). \u00a0Sempai Kailee currently serves our dojo as the only youth Shodan. (I don’t really think of her as a youth anymore, but it’s important to the story). \u00a0As the head youth Shodan, Sempai Kailee’s responsibilities include co-instructing youth classes with our Sensei.\u00a0 What she probably doesn’t know is that she is one of two big reasons I go to the youth class on Monday and Wednesday nights.<\/p>\n

You see, her bad influence is corrupting my otherwise stellar class protocol (i.e., behavior).\u00a0 Okay, well not really, but whatever.\u00a0 You see, unless another higher rank is present, I am supposed to take the “first position” as students line up to train. \u00a0Even though Sempai Kailee surpasses me in skill and curriculum knowledge, an adult Shodan lines up to the right of a youth Shodan regardless of time in grade or skill.\u00a0The ranking student assumes the first position and has responsibility for leading the traditional opening and closing ceremonies of the class, enforcing protocol and dojo rules, and generally helping in any way the Sensei or lead instructor of the night needs.\u00a0\u00a0 The uninformed or even new student might think, “oh, you mean they get to be bossy.” \u00a0Uh … no …. but after long wait and much anticipation brings us to the topic of today’s blog … sort of.<\/p>\n

I have had the pleasure to watch Sempai Kailee move from youth into adolescence with the grace of a woman and not the antics of a child. \u00a0At a time when her peers resolved conflicts with opposing statements of “nah uh,” and the undefendable counterattack of “yes sah,” Sempai Kailee’s training involved crucial lessons in group dynamics and how to give and receive feedback in a constructive manner. \u00a0 And now, as an adolescent, it is her dojo role that deprives her the opportunity for developmentally appropriate attempts at control and “bossiness” that teens exhibit as they navigate lessons of independence and its associated responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Sempai Kailee assumes the first position role as a leader and not “bossy Betty” because of her karate training. \u00a0 Karate-do helps one develop an inherent or internally-based sense of self-worth that exists independently of how those in the external world respond to or treat you. \u00a0As you grow as a karate student, personal achievement becomes just that – “personal.”\u00a0 The standards by which you come to judge and accept yourself is whether self-improvement relative to the day before has occurred or, at least, been attempted.\u00a0 Additionally, one actively strives to apply consistently the morals and values that have become part of one’s being.\u00a0 Freed from the destructive forces of other’s acceptance or rejection, the karateka meets the world with head up and shoulders back with the full knowledge that failure will occur as part of the process and is not a terminating event.<\/p>\n

In short, there is no reason, need, or desire\u00a0to be “bossy.” “Bossy” people often define self-worth in terms of the extent to which they can manipulate and control others to do as the “bossy” person wishes.\u00a0 Control of others is equated with being powerful and must be\u00a0constantly sought in order to\u00a0maintain arbitrary standards of self-importance.<\/p>\n

Leadership, on the other hand, involves structuring one’s presentation and interaction with others with the aim of helping others grow while achieving a common group goal.<\/p>\n

So don’t come to class with hopes of getting to be bossy some day … Come to class and learn to lead … like Sempai Kailee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The kanji depicted above reads “Shu ha ri.” \u00a0The term references the journey of the karateka as he or she moves from beginner to black belt to advanced student and how the relationship with one’s Sensei may change along the way. \u00a0This blog post is not about that. \u00a0There are many fine articles on the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Transitions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shawn-roberts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1315,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/1315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}