Bushido Hombu Martial Arts Club > Articles > Uncategorised > What commitment is required of a karate-ka?
This is not something that people think about before commencing a “career” in karate or martial arts. The general assumption is that it is no different to any exercise class run by a gym. The general public upon considering a martial art hobby will appreciate that to excel, they will need to put time in. They will also make the assumption that its fine to dip in and out as life allows.
The fictional Mr Miyagi covers this in the first “The Karate Kid” movie with his statement, having been told by Daniel-san that he guesses he wants to do karate….
Now there is merit here.
This final point is more relevant at higher grades of 3rd kyu and above (in our dojos anyway).
Firstly, all instructors and dojos are different. I have seen great karate-ka from dojo that only meet for an hour each week, likewise I have seen poor karate from people training 7 hours per week…. practice does not make per there is always the element of quality. I can therefore only comment within this post on how things are within our dojo. We have always made our expectations clear in both our syllabi and website (https://www.bushido-hombu.co.uk/members-area/commitment/). These are however only set as guidelines, not contractual agreements which is a subject I will end with.
So within our organisation, karate for all has always been my aim. This does however cause some compromise as a dojo leader, with a balance to be struck between dojo standard, progression of the dojo and making the dojo available for all. I have seen many instructors with very small numbers of members as they have taken the elitist approach to forcing commitment and only promoting and helping the naturally gifted, whereas I have seen others having to close their dojos after many years of running sessions and courses that end up only being partially attended due to the lack of commitment from members. Although many do not run dojos to make a profit, any dojo making continued losses will close when the lead ceases to fund it. (in my opinion why we have lost a lot of good sensei, while sub-standard “instructors” have built large organisations by selling a product).
So how do we make it work in our dojo? As with most things there are principles that I run the organisation by to achieve balance. I therefore consider the following factors:
To put this in more simple terms.
We have a simple pricing structure that makes training available to all for minimal financial outlay, with the consistent nature of monthly dojo fees helping the dojo and members plan and accommodate changes in circumstances.
We also have the guidelines already mentioned in this post that ensure members know what they need to commit to if they wish to progress at an average rate.
Essentially, we give our members as much opportunity as our finances allow and understand that some will only be able to ever commit a small amount of training. This will be reflected in the grades they achieve over a timeline, but will never preclude them from training with us and remaining members/friends/family.
As a leader however, we need to try our hardest to have this as the exception rather than the normal as for the group to progress and continue to improve, we need the 80% of our members to commit to karate to the prescribed level… with hopefully 10% going above and beyond to be the future pioneers and developers of karate for the next generations.
We have been running martial arts clubs in Hertfordshire since the mid 1990’s.
Our instructors have varied experience with some stretching back to the 1970’s.
The association is keen to support other instructors with a genuine love of martial arts. Memberships are therefore available for clubs, instructors and individuals.
We train, teach and lead with honesty and integrity.
We do not refuse alliance with any group or individual due to politics. If we feel we can call someone a friend, then we welcome you to share our martial arts journey.