The transmission of the dojo is layered.
Some things will make sense rather quickly.
Others take some insights.
A few can only be understood through the weight of years.
The trust is that every movement, every exercise, every
correction is understood that it has the gravity of eight hundred years behind
it.
Every class at the dojo begins with a series of fundamental
movement, most of the time lead by a senior student, other times be the teacher
himself.
Tsuki gata- punching
was one of them.
The class would line up and strike through a series of
punching focus mitts being held by a seniors student. Walk up, hit the mitt and
move past, circle back around.
I always enjoyed punching, the movement, the feedback, the
directness of it.
But at some point I began to become a little critical of it.
Class was a special place, a way to step out of space and time
for a few hours. A chance to put aside the responsibilities of the day, the
obligations, the things to do, and practice movement in a sacred space.
The time was precious and with so much to learn and receive,
was the time best spent spending so much time punching?
I mean, couldn’t ‘t we just work on that at home, or outside
of class with the senior student meetups?
The first point explained to me early on was that to unlock
the art one had to be able to deliver a good punch.
Not the best, or most proficient, but something straight, on
target, and with the motivation that the person on the receiving end didn’t
want to get hit with it.
With that movement-motivation they would be forced to do the
technique, whatever technique was being worked on. Likewise, by giving a good
attack a good counter was responded and one would learn correctly what the technique
felt like by having it correctly done to them.
All this predicated on a good punch.
That made sense, but was so much punching still needed in
class?
Some time later I understood tsuki gata from a new layer, the layer of shoshin, the beginner’s mind.
That there was something about being forced to approach the
same basics, in this case punching, over and over again as if it was the first
time one was seeing it and practicing it each week. That attention to detail, refinement,
and spiritual understanding underpinned all the lessons, and tsuki gata was the most-straightforward
way to taste it.
The final layer was explained to me when I started leading
the punching practice at the start of class, as the teacher gave me a new layer
of understanding.
He explained that while he loved all the students in the
dojo, not everybody was here for the same reason, and that was ok.
For some training was more casual, an interest for sure, but
something to do during the week, which on hearing this was an alien concept.
Casual?
Yes.
And for those students, especially, it was important that
they were able to aim a punch and hit solid, as that might be the only lesson
they are able to effectively receive from the dojo, and in that if they leave
the dojo after a few months, or a year, they will at least have that lesson of
hitting hard.
That lesson might be very important for them one day, long after they have left and forgotten about the dojo.
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