For your convenience...

All kigu encourage you to face yourself

There is an element of karate training that is no longer available to the majority who practice it; I'm talking about the need to face yourself on a regular basis and see what you discover.  I have no doubt that many of you reading this think that's exactly what you have been doing, it's what your instructor has been demanding of you, it's what makes 'you' a budoka! Yes, well, okay...but look, I don't see much evidence of that stuff in the way karateka interact with each other, so maybe it only exists in your mind...and the advertising material you use to attract people your way.

Many dojo have mirrors, although not so many karateka who use them can see what is being reflected back...they're too busy looking; a bit like the guy at the gym who can't seem to lift anything unless he's watching himself do it in a mirror. Yes...yes...so you look like your dream image, but is that the point of the mirror, or just the way you're using it? Kigu are not there to ad 'spice' to your training. They are not there to give you the edge over the karate academy down the road that doesn't have them, they are there to help you learn about your true nature.

There's little about karate training, that is of any value, that's convenient; and yet the advertising I see would suggest otherwise. "Little Ninja's from 6 pm to 6.15 pm" - 'Junior Samurai from 6.20 pm to 6.45 pm'. 'Junior Adults class from 7 pm to 7.30 pm' And then the big one...the 'Senior Adults' class. As that runs for a whole hour, it's not as well attended as the others, but hey...it's not easy being a 'Black Belt'...right?

Thank goodness you're training at a 'real' dojo and not one of those other places. I suppose if you 'need' your customers/followers, or as you no doubt like to call them...your 'students', then you have to set things up to suit them, I get that. But look, once you 'need' followers/students you then begin to make things convenient for them, and that's the tail wagging the dog, so please don't tell me you're still teaching karate.

I'm so glad my teachers never made things easy, it was a lesson that has proven far more beneficial than any 'technique' they may have shown me......