Zen -Shin -Budo -Kai
Training Methods
What is
?FAST
TRACK?
or
WHY YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TRAIN FOR YEARS TO ACHIEVE YOUR
INITIALGOAL!!!!?
The rank system is a 20th Century invention, first introduced
by JIGARO KANO, the Father of modern Judo. This system was later adopted by
GUNJI KOIZUMI and eventually established as a modern practice by GICHIN
FUNIKOSHI, the founder of Shotokan Karate. This was to satisfy the Western need
for recognition of exactly where students are on the tuition ladder. Gradings were
totally foreign to all genuine martial arts until the start of the 20th
Century. There were certificates awarded at various levels, but in classical
martial art, the belt is underneath the HAKAMA for example. However, it
can take a lifetime using this system to reach any realistic rank.
Ranks were initially done on a time scale i.e. you could not be a 5th Dan until
you were 35 years of age, 7th Dan until you were 55, 9th Dan until you were 65
and 10th Dan, any length of time after that but at least 80 years old. The
final certificate of achievement was MENKYO-KAIDAN, the ultimate attainment.
So, to say that one could achieve 1st Dan Black Belt
level is quite realistic on a weekend or weekday course with your chosen
instructor, as there is a very, very long way to go after that. 1st Dan, is the
barest minimum standard in most martial arts and of little importance in
reality. 1st Dan, despite the title, is the lowest on a 1-10 scale, so you
should have every expectation of being able to achieve your 1st Dan in your
chosen Arts and start that long and lonely path that so many have travelled
before you, to your final rank attainment.
So, all you need
to do, is to dedicate the next 50 years of your life to your chosen art, quite
simple really !!!!!.
Ø All students
will be welcome. They will be greeted and treated with respect. Every
consideration will be given to any special requirements they may need.
Ø We have a
structured syllabus for each of the courses and each student will be given this
syllabus, on arrival, to study and work through with Sensei during their stay.
Ø We will build
on the skills and knowledge that each student arrives with.
Ø We will avoid any
exercises or repetitious training that is not necessary for the efficient
performance of the discipline i.e. bunny jumping, running barefoot, painting
fences, sanding floors, press-ups etc.
Ø We will attempt
to develop a rapport, which will enable the student to achieve their chosen
goals and maximize their full potential.
Ø We will deliver
the training in a mostly hands on method. This will not involve any physical
abuse, conditioning, violent or unnecessarily aggressive tuition.
Ø The above
training will be backed up with personal mentoring, support and guidance,
throughout the training period.
Ø As a follow up to the course we will, if
requested, provide back up, support and advise on how and when to start a club
with details of premises, insurance, child protection procedures, health and
safety procedures, supply of safe and tested equipment as related to becoming
an instructor in a club.
Ø You will
receive costs on application and no further hidden training costs will be
incurred during your training.
Ø The student will be observed during their period of training.
Ø The student’s progress, absorption and performance of technical skill and knowledge, will be used to assess the level of certification.
Ø Where
a student’s expectation is not fully realised, an explanation will be given to
the student, together with an action plan for the development of the required
skill.
In all cases,
please do remember, that you will need to do a minimum of 2 days per subject to
get a grading at black belt level. You could do an additional one-day course in
preparation for a future grading in another chosen art. On a one-day course you
could possibly achieve up to second KYU Blue Belt but not Black Belt rank. All
courses are covered by our Martial Art Qualification certification. This
qualification will enable you to start instructing on attaining your 1st Dan
and will enable you to acquire professional indemnity insurance, which is
essential before forming a club.
Our final word
on Fast Track is to
assure anyone who wants to attain a recognised
grade, that we give our utmost personal attention to detail and to the unique
needs of each individual student. We have found that many of our students are
experienced Martial Artists and have been training unrecognised for years by
the enforced Western grading system.
We remind you
that you can return within the year for further gradings.
As an example of the present chaotic state of rank
awards we re-iterate a reply to a student who had been training in martial arts
for many years, but could not find the support and self confidence to make the
step towards becoming a professional martial arts coach and actually making a
living at something that they loved doing. Read the following reply to a Tai
Chi Student and apply it to your present grading situation. When the student in
question asked his Sifu
if he could do a teacher
training course, was told, “You will have to train for many years yet to
consider that position". That student is now a professional coach making a
good living, enjoying life after training and qualifying after a Fast Track
course.
Hi - - - - thanks for your email. Yes, I can teach you to become a Tai
Chi Instructor, with a fast track course, providing that you have some experience
and aptitude, as it appears that you do. There is no Chinese ruling about how
long one should train before becoming an instructor. I can tell you that there
are several self-appointed “ governing bodies” but there is no official
governing body or set rules about Tai Chi training. To set rules and to enforce
extended training periods is totally unreasonable. No one has the right to say
how long it takes to become an Instructor. Who has the right to set these
extended training periods? Extended training periods are in my humble opinion a
get rich, money-making system with extensive on-going costs. To set rules,
conditions and extended training periods is against the whole principal of Tai
Chi. Tai Chi is fundamentally a complete system of freedom of thought, action,
mind and deed. The recently accepted symbol of Tai Chi i.e. the Yin/Yang
symbol, proposed that all things interact equally and opposite with each other
and that everything is possible, as long as everything is in balance. However,
from the Zen point of view to make distinction between this and that/ black and
white/ up and down/ forward and back, or any other word that you can think of
that has an opposite, is to already sub-divide the senses. In Zen, we propose
the centre path of no choice, i.e. the middle way, in Tai Chi or any martial
art all things are possible and it would be totally against the principals of
Tai Chi to set rules. One has to realise the fundamental thinking behind the
concept of Tai Chi and the concepts of Tao. Most instructors I have seen and
the classes I have witnessed, involved so much esoteric rubbish, avoiding
totally the actual pure tuition of Tai Chi by including such things as push
hands, meditation, Gestalt reasoning, visualisation and touchy feely encounter groups
etc. Some classes even ask you to bring a blanket or a cushion so you know you
will have to sit down a lot! We, at the Alexander Tai - Chi Foundation, are a
direct transmission school. We teach nothing but Tai Chi, to music, totally
avoiding all other distractions and diversities. In Tai Chi we are totally
alone, there is no opposing force. There is in reality, no enemy except
yourself. Tai Chi is the purest of martial arts and should not be clouded by
the other issues that instructors pad out their classes with. I suggest that
you find someone, who can “cut” (if you’ll pardon the words) “ the crap” that
goes with some Tai Chi tuition. I can’t hope in an email to convince you of the
validity of my reasoning, but in Tai Chi and all martial arts, all things are
possible, in all possible worlds. Take no-ones word (not even mine) about the
rules, regulations and constrictions of Tai Chi. There are none, otherwise it
would not be Tai Chi, it would be an enforced, regimented system. You are a
leaf floating in the stream of life; you have the right to follow the stream
down any rivulet that the stream takes you. Tai Chi should impose no rules, Tai
Chi just is. At the Alexander Tai - Chi Foundation we have one rule, Think big.
In other words, "Break out of the classical mess", as Bruce Lee once
said). Follow your heart, to that life long dream of actually making a living
out of something that you love doing, be it Tai - Chi, Swordsmanship, Karate or
Kung - Fu.