When I was walking out of the Dojo after my Sandan testing my head was full. I had already gotten my results and I was successful, but I had the same feelings that any sincerely dedicated Karate devotee would have: Where could I have done better? Did I scrape through or was it decent (it’s never a slam-dunk)? What was going through the heads of the panel that graded me?
Sandan is a tremendous milestone on the Karate Road: it comes with it the ability to teach, to be called Sensei. Of course, many people don’t put much credence in rank, but I liken having a Karate teacher without a recognized and documented pedigree to being treated by a Dr. who says he never really bothered with getting certified.
All of these questions were rolling around my brain but there was another question that I now had to consider: What is a Sensei?
This question was posed to me at the end of my evaluation by Shihan Andries Pruim, a member of my testing panel. He challenged me to write an article on what becoming a Sensei meant to me. This is because the Sensei I currently train under see Karate as academic as well as physical. To be a Sensei, according to them, you must be able to back your teachings with solid knowledge.
The Kanji for Sensei looks like this:
If we took this at face value, we’d probably say a Sensei is one who is born before his/her students or has ‘gone before,’ or ‘walked the path before,’ but I don’t believe that covers it. More accurately, when we look deeper, the idea here is that someone born before you has lived longer and – typically – has more life experience. As a generalization, a Sensei is someone with more experience than you, in the same way that a schoolteacher would have more experience than the students they teach.
The key is though, that experience is relative: lots of training alone doesn’t make you a great Karateka, just like playing lots of golf doesn’t make you a great golfer. I’ve played golf for years, and until I started playing with someone who really knew the mechanics, nuances, and proper technique, I was playing it wrong. So, practice only makes perfect if you know the correct way to do it.
Also, no amount of training and knowledge makes you a teacher. Teaching is an art. I once had a ‘Sensei’ who used to say, “I don’t care how you do it, as long as it’s perfect!”
In my thirty-odd years of practicing karate, I’ve encountered Sensei both older and younger than me; most legitimate and dedicated, and some not so much. So, if we desire to teach Karate, the primary question we need to ask ourselves is what do “I” aspire to be as a Sensei? What skills – technical skills, and soft skills – do I wish to impart?
I can ramble on about pop-up Dojo’s and self-appointed Sensei, but that’s of no use to anyone. In answering Shihan Purim, I posed another question to myself: What does a Sensei do?
In my opinion, they teach, research, train, and influence.
A Sensei is one who knows (has internalized) what they are teaching.
In my former life, I taught computer programming, and while teaching a basic lesson one day, I wrote the following syntax on the whiteboard: “If X, Then Y, Else End If.” I went on to tell the class that “If X” equates to saying, “If X = True”, and one of the students piped up and simply said, “Why”? I offered the response that the shorter syntax was just the logic written into the intuitive programming code language we were using. But realistically, I didn’t know the answer beyond that.
Valuable teaching requires knowing, and knowing is a multi-layered faculty. If a Sensei is teaching a Kata, knowing the movements is one thing, knowing its fighting principles is another, knowing the Kata’s history is another, and knowing dojo-level and street-level applications is another.
A long-distance friend of mine, Sensei Robert Remington, made a comment a while ago about “internalizing techniques.” It’s a concept where you must work on a technique until it makes sense and ‘flows.’ I’ve figured out that if you’re fighting your own body to do Karate waza, something probably isn’t correct in the mechanics of the technique. Internalizing means understanding the concept behind the technique as well as the movement. You can’t say you ‘know’ a technique until you’ve internalized it.
Of course, thought has to be given to the ‘truth’ of what you are teaching. The truth of Karate has to do with where what you are teaching came from. One can find Waza online and pass it on to your students. It may even be correct, but it also may be contemporary pseudo-Karate. A Sensei is responsible for validating what they are teaching: research the original and consider the iterations of it through the years. Karate evolution is ok if it isn’t stripping the original Karate of its value or its truth.
A Sensei is a discerning researcher.
After the syntax class I was teaching I went to another instructor at the college where I worked and asked him about the deeper logic when using Boolean (true/false) syntax statements. Frankly, I asked him because he was a more seasoned instructor than me, and he knew more. Fortunately, I had recognized early on in my teaching vocation that I needed to make research a regular part of my career.
As for Karate, I was about twelve years old when I donned a Gi and white belt for the first time, and as I watched and listened to the senior belts in the class, I thought about how I’d love to get to a place where I knew enough about this stuff to teach someone else. Back then, research meant borrowing books from a guy I knew, and subscribing to a Chuck Norris magazine…and I did.
I’m not in the camp with those who believe Karate was, is, and always will be, the same. Karate has evolved and will continue to do so. I believe that the study of the Karate of the past helps us with the Karate of the future. Karate changed when it came from China (and elsewhere) to Okinawa; it changed when it went to Japan; and it changed yet again as it became commercialized and sportified.
Research is one method of staying connected to Karate’s roots, and an effective Sensei is one who sees all sides of the coin and is able to defend their position on Karate concepts, based on knowledge. I’ve heard a few times from various karate teachers: ‘Take it all in but keep only what works for you, keep what is effective.’ Success in teaching Karate comes from understanding the movements physically, and knowing their function as it relates to fighting. Part of this knowledge has to come from doing your homework.
A Sensei is one who trains.
I have had the pleasure of training under a couple of Sensei. They are from different generations and backgrounds and have somewhat different teaching styles, but a very significant thing they have in common is that they practice what they preach: they train. On Saturdays, I am on an internet video call with Hanshi Don Owens who (despite health issues) is on his feet demonstrating and pontificating Karate techniques. When not teaching, Don Sensei uses Karate (Kata in particular) as a means to his well-being. On Sundays and Wednesdays, I am in class with Sensei Brian Power who is passing on his energy and passion for Karate. When Sensei Power isn’t in the dojo teaching, he is in his own Dojo training.
Why? If you’ve been training for 30, 40, or 60 years, why still train when you’re not teaching?
Simply put, Karate is a cradle-to-grave trip where nothing is ever mastered. Everything you learn in karate, from the basics to the complexities, needs to be stirred once in a while in order to keep it from getting stale or cold. Add to that the fact that karate is moving Zen in that it has tangible mental and physical health benefits.
I don’t think we ever reach a place in Karate where we say, ‘I know it all now,’ because there are endless techniques, and each and everyone requires analysis and persistent practice. A Sensei learns, polishes, learns, and polishes again….and again.”
A Sensei is an influencer (like it or not).
If we hear the word influencer these days, we may think of the Internet and its ubiquitous number of personalities vying for the attention of viewers all over the planet. Most of it is as superficial as the day is long, but it is working. Countless people walk, talk, think, and dress in a way to mirrors their online muse. In essence, anyone who has an audience for any amount of time can be an influencer. A Sensei is no different.
Sensei have students with them under their tutelage, for months, years, or even decades. What they explicitly teach is only one aspect of what they pass on to their students. Attitudes, mannerisms, personal beliefs, virtues, etc., all come through when interacting so closely on a weekly basis. On top of that, the traditional understanding of a Sensei was that if they said jump, you responded with How high! No one questioned and no one veered off what was being taught. Thus, the onus is on a Sensei to be cognizant of the messages they are sending and how they are sending them.
I’ve watched ‘Sensei’ at Karate competitions being bullies, and others acting like unapproachable deities. Both are mutually abhorrent, in my opinion. Sensei can’t always be morally and politically perfectly correct, but they should endeavor to be sensible, respectful, and somewhat humble. A Karate practitioner who lacks humility also lacks the Budo spirit.
At the end of the day, a Sensei has to ask him or herself what they are leaving their students with: A passion to win? A passion to get better? A desire to be a better person? Courage? Confidence? Respect? Because, like it or not, a Sensei has a lot of impact in a very big way.
Rather than an article, I know that a book could be written on what a Sensei is. I know a Sensei is a teacher, but a Sensei also has to find a balance between maintaining respect in the Dojo while not being over-disciplinary. A Sensei is a friend without forgetting that a respectful division must exist between the teacher and student. A Sensei encourages and praises, while constructively criticizes.
Finally, I categorically believe that Sensei has to embody and maintain a passion for the Art. I have Sensei right now who radiate energy when they enter the Dojo and when they teach. They believe in what they do. They trust in what they teach. They have found a truth in Karate that has become a part of their very being.
Will I be that kind of Sensei? I can only hope I will. But I do know Karate has a truth for me. It has helped me stay focused through difficult times and I get excited when I know I am addressing a class, just to teach Kata or Kihon. Karate still fascinates me. Perhaps my father summed up what a Sensei is in just a few words. He had a phrase for what he called good people. He would refer to them as “the finest kind.”
Perhaps as a Sensei, that’s what I need to be… or at least aspire to be.
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Loved the article!