Dokugaku - Training for the Isolated Student
First, a flat statement: You can not learn a martial art from a book; you must have a teacher. But, having said that, I will modify the statement by saying that you can still accomplish a lot on your own.
Self-study, dokugaku in Japanese, is something everyone should do, even if you live next-door do your dojo and can attend classes every day. For the isolated student, however, dokugaku must become the primary method of training.
In this article I will present a training syllabus, a plan of action, for a self-study program. No, this won’t be as good as attending classes in a proper dojo, but it will be a lot better than nothing.
Why bother? Assuming that you are already an instructor in one art, why should you go to the trouble of learning a new one? There are several good reasons.
First, from a purely tactical point of view, there is the simple fact that there is no such thing as a perfect martial art: judo has some great close-range techniques, while karate provides a wonderful set of medium-range techniques; conversely, the judoka is very weak against kicks, while the karateka is nearly helpless when taken to the mat. So, by learning another ryu, you can fill in some gaps in your primary art.
Then there is the matter of the “big picture”. The vast majority of martial artists study one of the atarashii-budo, a modern martial art such as karatedo, kendo, judo, or aikido and, because of this, they are never exposed to the samurai heritage of budo. Many instructors will, therefore, require that a senior black-belt study one of the older arts, such as iaido, to insure that he acquires a feeling for history and tradition. This has the added benefit of providing a certain polish, as the koryu arts tend to be much more involved with reishiki than do their more modern relatives.
But, the biggest reason for learning a new art is simply that it is fun. Remember back when you were a white-belt and every class was a new adventure? For most of us, that was a time of both stark terror and tremendous excitement, and our most common thought was, “Wow! This is so neat.” Studying a new art is often nothing more than a wish to recapture this feeling.
So, let’s get started....
The Commitment
The first thing you must do is make a commitment to learning the new art. You must make a serious commitment; Just thinking, “I would really, really, like to do this,” isn’t enough.
If you were a member of a large dojo, you would get a lot of positive feedback from your fellow students—You would have seniors to help you through the difficult spots, and the lack of ability among the beginners would constantly illustrate just how much you have accomplished. But, as an isolated student, you are all alone. Are you ready for this? Have you, in the past, demonstrated that you are a self-motivated individual? Believe me, it won’t be easy and, if you aren’t highly motivated, you might as well not even start.
“ ...if you aren’t highly motivated, you might as well not even start.”
Then there is the matter of money. You will need to make at least one visit to an instructor per year. One full weekend of intense training a year is an absolute minimum, and several sessions would be much better. Does your financial situation permit such travel?
Finally, and this is assuming that you already hold rank in some other art, there is the requirement of “emptying your cup”. After several years (or decades) of sitting at the front of the mat, some people find it very difficult to recapture the nyunanshin, the “pliable spirit”, that is required for learning another style. If you can’t honestly think, “I am a beginner and know nothing about this art, and I will approach my training with a true beginner’s mind,” again, you should not waste your time trying to learn something new.
Irimon
Before you can begin your studies, you must be admitted to the ryu. This may be difficult.
If you are an instructor, you are all too familiar with the fire-brand, the young person who enters your dojo swearing that he will be the best student you ever saw and devote his life to the art. And then, when he discovers how much work it is, drifts away.
The instructor of the art you wish to learn has had the same experiences, so he may not be terribly enthusiastic about accepting you as a student. (After all, if you were really serious, you would quit your job and move close enough to the dojo to attend regular classes, wouldn’t you?) This negative attitude is compounded by the fact that, as a remote student, you will require a lot of extra work.
So, you must show the instructor what you’ve got. Don’t talk about studying the new art; do it. Don’t talk about visiting the instructor regularly; do it. After a few months of seeing you do your job, he should start to feel that you are serious about this and, possibly, worth his time and trouble.
The Kyoka
You need to acquire a kyoka, a list of the techniques you are supposed to learn. When you get this list, have the instructor grade the various waza and kata as to their importance. This is to insure that you proportion your training time correctly, giving the most attention to the most important things.
Another good trick is to have the instructor note the number of key points in each technique. For example, in the aikido technique katate-dori shiho-nage there are five distinct actions and nine key points. So, by placing a notation of “(5/9)” after the name of the waza, you will insure that you don’t forget something important.
Make sure that you add the list of taiso to the kyoka. These are the specialized exercises of the ryu and, because they are so basic, they normally aren’t even listed in the curriculum. (Taiso are such things as the knuckle push-ups of karate, or the wrist-stretching exercises of aikido, and each art will usually have a unique set.) But, although they are so simple that they don’t appear on the school’s list of waza, they are the first things you should master.
One very important point is to have the instructor demonstrate each technique against you. This is critical if the art is of the hands-on variety, such as jujutsu. More about this later.
You should also find out the average time for learning this set of techniques and, when you return home, mark the date on your calendar—establishing such a deadline will greatly enhance your training.
Finally, focus your attention on this kyoka, doing simply what is required, no more, no less. If your introduction to the new art was a major seminar, chances are that you learned some advanced (and fascinating) techniques. Forget them. You won’t accomplish much by trying to run before you can walk.
The Kyokai
Your next step is to, if at all possible, establish a kyokai, a “study group”. This is not a formal class in which you teach those things which you have learned; it is only a group of people who get together regularly to teach themselves.
I can’t stress the importance of such a group too much. Yes, you can learn by yourself, but it will be much more difficult. If nothing else, the group heightens the energy level of the practice session. But, if you are forced by circumstances to train alone, follow these guidelines anyway: They will provide a disciplined structure to your studies.
(I know of one young man, wishing to learn karate, who went so far as to put an advertisement in the newspaper asking for training partners: He offered free instruction in what he had learned in return for them showing up for regular practice. He acquired two fellow students, and became a pretty good nidan.)
An excellent method of creating the proper mental attitude among the members of the group is by using a special class reishiki. Instead of beginning the session like a normal class—lining everybody up by rank, bowing to the shinza, sensei, and yudanshakai—try this method:
Line up in order of height.
Bow to the shinza.
The people to the left and right of the center of the line shikko-sabaki around to form a circle.
Everyone bows.
Note how this eliminates that classical feeling of “sensei and deshi”, and creates an attitude of “we are doing this together”.
This should be a formal kyokai. That means that you practice in a specific place (even if it is only your back yard), and at a specific time. By taking such a disciplined approach you will accomplish more, and accomplish it faster, than if you simply practice whenever you have the time. Also, you should all dress appropriately. If the new art uses color belts for rank, wear the one you deserve.
Now, let’s begin training. It is best to focus each session on a particular technique. Start by simply walking through the movements, making sure that you are including all the key points—At first you will probably want one member of the group to read these aloud (from your notes) while the rest of you are practicing.
Once everyone is capable of executing the entire sequence without any major mistakes, start burning off reps. Don’t think about what you are supposed to be doing, just do it. Do it a lot. You will discover that, if you simply keep repeating the waza, your body will teach you quite a bit—As you become tired, you will instinctively attempt to conserve energy by economizing and, more often than not, the most efficient method of doing a technique is the proper way to do it.
After completion of this stage of practice, you should switch to hikitate-geiko. This is a process of “pulling each other up” and involves a lot of verbal feedback. Assume, for example, that you are practicing shiho-nage. In this case, uke should be constantly (and quietly) making comments such as: “That didn’t tilt my shoulders much,” or, “Your arms feel very stiff here.” During this period the time you spent as uke for the instructor will be invaluable: If you can remember what a good technique felt like, it is much easier to figure out how to execute it properly...“Sensei’s grip was much softer here, but much stronger there.”
(If you are practicing a two-man form alone, make sure to go through both sides, acting as both uke and nage, against an imaginary partner.)
Another good form of practice is to have one person (or one pair) execute the technique while the rest of you watch. You will probably discover that some member of the group looks significantly better than the others, so then it is just a question of figuring out what he is doing that you aren’t.
Studying a kumite alone will never develop the proper sense of timing and distance that partner practice creates. But, there are a lot of other elements that can be worked on. Posture and balance, for example, are actually best learned alone.
Finish the session with a period of questions and comments. If someone comes up with a question which nobody else can answer, make a note of it.
Visiting Sensei
As I previously mentioned, you must visit a qualified instructor at least once a year. Because this travel will probably cost you a significant amount of money, you should make every minute count—one hour on the mat should provide 3,600 seconds of valuable training. A resident student, one who sees the instructor several times a week, can get away with forgetting a question: he can always ask it in the next class. You don’t have this luxury.
Start by collating all those lists of questions you have accumulated since your last visit. Type them up and leave a space after each one for the answer. You will want to put this master list on a clipboard and have it handy at all times. So, even if you are taking a lunch break, you can still be learning. (This constant barrage of questions is going to drive the instructor crazy, but that’s his problem.)
You should also have an annotated copy of your kyoka. Color-code this according to how you feel about the techniques. (e.g., Highlight waza that you feel confident about in green, and ones that still feel very awkward in red.) This will insure that you spend the most time on the things that need the most work.
A handy, albeit non-traditional, addition to your equipment should be an audio recorder. You will discover that you can dictate into this much faster than you can write and, because it is so easy to do, you do more of it. Despite this, retain your notebook. You will need it for such things as footwork diagrams.
The greatest thing about a large and active dojo is that it provides you with a lot of training partners. You should take maximum advantage of this during your visit and get some mat time with as many different people as possible. Don’t make the mistake of constantly training with the same person, or you are apt to wind up with a technique that only works against that particular individual.
Basically, you need to treat this visit like what it is: A rare and special opportunity to learn. Don’t waste a single second, either by asking about something you don’t need to know, or by failing to ask about something important. You don’t want to be on the airplane, heading home, and suddenly think, “Damn! I forgot all about....”
“Basically, you need to treat this visit like what it is: A rare and special opportunity to learn. Don’t waste a single second, either by asking about something you don’t need to know, or by failing to ask about something important.”
Be advised that one of my personal hates, one which many other instructors share, is asking a student, “What do you want to work on?” And then hearing him say, “Everything.” This drives me up the walls. You can’t work on “everything” in a single weekend: there just aren’t enough hours in the day. So, always make sure you have a specific list of things to do. Schedule every hour of your visit so that you don’t waste a minute of it.
One final point: Take the promotion exam. Even if you know you are not ready, take the test anyway. By doing so you will discover exactly what your weakest points are. You may even discover that something you thought needed a lot more work is actually passable.
Guests
If you can afford it, bringing your instructor to your dojo is a valuable experience. This, however, is probably not something you will be able to do on a regular basis.
But, to paraphrase Will Rogers, “You will never meet a man you can’t learn from.” So, make a point of letting other schools know that any member of the ryu is welcome in your dojo. Even if the visitor is only a white-belt, and only shows you what he learned in his last class (which also happened to be his first class), odds are that you will learn something from the experience.
Remember the saying: “In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king.” So, don’t assume that you must learn everything from a senior instructor. A lot of black-belts make this mistake: The student assumes that, just because he is a yondan in judo, it is beneath his dignity to have a karate green-belt teach him a kata. Actually, the reverse is true: When you are just starting out in an art, a junior student probably has exactly the information you are looking for.
Basically, you want to become like a sponge and absorb every bit of information from every possible source.
Tameshiware
Even in a hands-on art such as aikido, where the majority of practice is done with a partner, there will almost always be some solo exercises. For example:
In kenjutsu, students frequently use a makiwara made from an automobile tire for striking practice. They also cut sheets of newspaper mounted in a special frame.
In aikido, students develop power in suri-age by (forcefully) sliding the edges of their hands up a smooth wall.
In judo, students develop a strong entry for a hip throw by bumping their hips against a wall.
In kyudo, strength is developed by pulling on a loop of surgical tubing attached to a short stick.
You should make a special effort to learn every one of these exercises from the new art. There may be several dozen of them, and regular (and fanatical) practice of these will form a major part of your training.
Books and Such....
Having said that you can’t learn an art from a book, I would also advise that you purchase every book and video available that have even a slight relationship to the art you are studying. You never can tell....
One good trick is to take a book to your instructor and have him annotate it. Assume, for example, that you are studying the Daito-ryu. Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere contains some information that would be very valuable and your instructor could, with a red pen and a few minutes, cross out all the extraneous data and leave you with an excellent reference book.
Even if the book is only vaguely related to your new art, it can be worthwhile. Consider this: Suppose you wish to study a little-known style of Okinawan karate. There are no books on the ryu, but you could learn a similar kata from any of the many books on the JKA style. This would act as the framework for the actual kata of the new ryu and save you a lot of time when you visit the instructor—Instead of having to teach you the sequence of techniques from scratch, he now only has to teach you how each of the techniques should be done.
Something that would be worth its weight in gold would be a video of a promotion exam, if your your instructor says it is permissible. (Tip: If you are allowed to record an exam, don’t keep fooling with the camera. Set it up, hit the button, and walk away. More than one instructor, after initially granting such permission only to see a class turn into a camera session, has changed his policy.)
Additionally, you should ask permission to make a monthly video of yourself doing techniques. Send this, along with a request for feedback to your instructor.
Then there is the matter of your notes. Quite simply, “notes” aren’t enough. You want to create an encyclopedia. Every single bit of information you learn goes into the book, complete with footnotes, diagrams, and cross references. And then you study this book daily. Remember, the average instructor assumes he will have to repeat a class ten times before all the students understand it. You, on the other hand, only attend one class, so you have to do the other nine on your own.
Conclusion
Can this be done? It sure can. As an example, one of the most highly respected renshi in the Itto Tenshin-ryu is a 12-hour drive from the nearest senior instructor. He earned his menkyo with dokugaku, and he did it all by himself. There are a number of other people who have done the same, and I would rate their quality as equal to that of students who attended regular classes with a fully qualified instructor.
Can anyone do it? Definitely not. It take a lot of dedication and self-discipline, which the average person just doesn’t have. To be successful you have to adopt the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “Things which must be done generally can be done,” as your personal philosophy and classify mastering the new art as a must-do item. Not something you want to do, not something you would like to do, or even something that you need to do. It must be something that you must do.
The key point is to approach the endeavor as what it is: R&D. You are like a scientist, working alone in his laboratory, doing research and development. You have a vague idea of what you want to do, and are busily at work figuring out the best way to do it. You will, as this is an old art, spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel, but that is something you should view as an exciting challenge rather than a depressing obstacle.
So, if you are one of the few, and are very hungry, go for it. As I said, it can be a lot of fun. And you can never tell what manner of new and fascinating rooms you will enter...Until you go to the trouble of opening the doors.
The End
