Kumite Tips #1/Kumite Tips #2/Kumite Tips #3/Kumite Tips #4/Kumite Tips #5/Kumite Tips #6/Kumite Tips #7/Kumite Tips #8/Kumite Tips #9
"Do not think that you can learn Karate only in the Dojo"
Here's some famous quotes similar to Funakoshi's idea of Karate education...
Lord Chesterfield
"The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet".
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyfull of words and do not know a thing. The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education".
Robert F. Goheen
"If you have both feet planted on level ground, then the university has failed you".
Sir William Haley
"Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it".
Aristotle
"Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well".
You see, Karate is not just kicking and punching, it's a way of life, and it's built upon fundamental principles.
What is taught and what is learned in the Dojo is directly applicable to one's life outside the Dojo.
Everything from respect, concentration, timing, kime, awareness and adaptability can be utilized in business transactions or when dealing with people on any front.
Your decisiveness, goals and actions, coupled with the knowledge that there is no power on this earth that can guarantee your life won't be snuffed out in a flash...
...gives the Karate-ka a distinct advantage over his fellow man and makes his/her actions that much more powerful.
I believe Funakoshi was trying to say, take what you learn in the Dojo and apply it in your life...
...that's where the real battles are fought, not in the Dojo.
RJF
