Shodan
Shodan, or first-degree black belt, is a significant achievement in the
martial arts. I believe that the standard for shodan should be high, and
this essay articulates the aspects of what a shodan are and what the ikkyu
(third-degree brown belt) student should focus on to reach shodan.
Lower-ranking students can use this as a "so that's what's on the horizon"
guide, although the Zen fable about the student, who practices twice as
hard, taking twice as long to achieve mastery, applies here.
The simplest definition of what shodan means to me is the beginning of
mastery of the first three of the elements of life: physical, mental, and
emotional. Beginning of mastery of the fourth and last element, spiritual,
is not a requirement for shodan, as spiritual development is very personal,
and thus, is both too difficult to assess, in addition to being arguably
inappropriate to develop in the dojo.
In this essay, I use the word "mastery" usually in the sense of "beginning
to master". Every shodan is a beginner; as one's understanding of karate
deepens, it seems to me that one is constantly finding new ways to be a
beginner, and never truly attaining mastery.
Physical
Physical mastery means a focus on precision of physical force rather than
volume or intensity of force. There are no objective displays of physical
prowess (e.g., "do X number of pushups continuously") as part of our black
belt test, as not everyone is capable of such (anyone with bad joints,
someone who is 80 or 180 years old). Instead, physical technique is
emphasized: precision of body and limb alignment and positions, mastery of
breathing and coordination.
Physical mastery is usually the first the karateka attains; this often
occurs around brown belt.
Mental
Mental mastery means having a solid understanding of the principles of
Isshinryu. Repeatedly analyzing one's own form is the foundation; teaching
then expands on this, as everyone learns what they know and don't know by
teaching. Rather than having a large corpus of knowledge that must be
memorized and parroted back, instead there are a small number of very
subtle principles that guide all movements and provide probably different,
but in their own way correct, perspectives to all questions.
Teaching others is how one realizes where one's mental mastery is lacking.
As a karateka advances in rank, they should be anticipating questions and
trying to find ways to merge principles into a single, more subtle
principle.
Emotional
Emotional mastery means using and channeling emotions. It is not enough to
do techniques in a clinical, detached manner: we must put ourselves in the
fight and use our emotional selves to add power and intention to our
techniques. The anecdotes about wholly untrained people besting veteran
fighters exist because the untrained person uses and channels their emotion
to overcome their detached, uninvested opponent.
Burst and Endurance
A shodan test is a very demanding test. Viewed from one perspective, the
person testing must demonstrate burst capability by having each and every
technique be strong, focused, etc, while demonstrating endurance by
maintaining a high standard over the course of the test. Viewed from
another perspective, the entire test is a single burst point: endurance
must be demonstrated over the course of months. Over the span of from
minutes to months, the student must be able to bring a high amount of focus
to bear at all times.
The mental wall and the physical wall
A shodan must understand the difference between the mental wall ("This is
what I think I can do") and the physical wall ("This is what I actually can
do"), and during their training, occassionally strive to sail past their
mental wall and train near their physical wall. Over time, their mental
wall should be only a short distance from their physical wall.
Focus and overcoming obstacles
The combination of endurance, months, and the mental and physical walls
requires a large amount of long-range focus: accepting that a large amount
of work must be demonstrated, and that each demonstration must be
consistently at a high standard.
The combination of endurance, hours, and the walls requires that the
student drags themself to class even in the face of opposition: they may be
feeling sick (be it physically sick or emotionally distraught) or they may
have competiting influences ("my good friend is visiting from out of town"
or "I'm behind on work"). Maintaining one's balance of competiting
priorities and being willing to make necessary changes to focus on karate
during ikkyu is a requirement for shodan. This should not be construed as
"karate should be top priority", as that is inadvisable: one's own health,
significant other, family, and job will usually take priority over karate.
Major life events (e.g., weddings and funerals) will rightfully take
priority over karate. Nonetheless, the student must demonstrate that, for
the relatively short period of many months, they can consistently make
karate a top priority.
It is entirely reasonable that a karateka will not wish to dedicate
themselves to karate because they do not wish to make karate that high a
priority. Such self-realization is very important, and that student should
understand that they will never reach shodan.
Self-determination
A shodan is responsible for their own training. During ikkyu, they should
demonstrate self-sufficiency regarding their own training: they should be
aware of their own deficiencies and be addressing them through their
training.
Teaching and Contributing
By teaching others, one finds out what one knows and doesn't know. This is
a key to understanding karate, and from here, one can develop a deeper
understanding by interacting with others and seeing how the very same
techniques work or don't work for others.
The shodan should be contributing to the Art in some manner. This can be
done in any number of ways: studying one kata, focusing on sparring,
becoming an expert on Japanese language and/or culter, incorporating other
arts are some immediate examples. It is expected that people's interest
will change over time, which is fitting, but at no points should black
belts just be going through the motions.
Almost everything
At the end of ikkyu, there should only be a few differences between what an
ikkyu does and what a shodan does. First is tests: only black belts are
empanelled. Another is unsupervised contact: ikkyus should not be leading
contact drills without supervision.
Everything else, including activities outside the dojo like club
administration, recruiting, and outreach, should be the responsibility of
the ikkyu and other senior students.
David Leung
Arlington, MA
Created: 11 Feb 2010 15:37
Last updated: 8 March 2010 13:31