The Meaning of "Do"

Have you heard the word “do” used in martial arts?

Do you know what it means?

The following was written from the perspective of Sensei H.E. Davey, director of jujutsu at SMAA:

Do is the Japanese version of the Chinese word Tao (道) as in the philosophy of Taoism. We see this character used in everything from chado (茶道), the “Way of tea,” to shodo (書道), the “Way of Japanese calligraphy.” It implies that studying these activities goes beyond those specific arts and includes the art of living itself—life lessons if you will.

It’s in this sense that practitioners of shodo, budo (武道), and other Do forms say they’re practicing a Way of life. Yet, frequently they just say it, but often don’t live it or effectively teach it.

Strong words, but after decades of studying various Japanese arts in Japan and the USA, and after writing several books on these age-old disciplines, I’m starting to understand a bit about this topic. What’s more, although I sometimes criticize teachers of these subjects (including myself), I also believe that we really can discover a new, better way of living by practicing budo and similar arts. If I didn’t feel this way, I wouldn’t have written books about those arts and taught several of them for over 50 years.

Read more in our latest article.

Find Your Way at an International Martial Arts Association

You can embrace the concept of Do at an international martial arts association like SMAA! To get started or ask a question, call (734) 720-0330 or submit a contact form here. We look forward to welcoming you into the martial arts community.

The Land of the Living

What can you learn from watching your martial arts teacher?

Life is too short to aspire to mediocrity. It's better to shoot for the stars and only reach the moon. Nowhere is this truer than in the martial arts. To animate your martial arts with the spirit of greatness, choose the most profound role models you can find and follow them with an obsessive devotion. That's your best chance to receive the direct transmission of the deep spirit of your martial art. If and when you receive the direct transmission, keep in mind that it includes everything—the sounds in the room during your training sessions, the rare smile of your sensei, the warm air coming in through the windows, the pain of learning, the salty tears of exhaustion, the crushing pathos of washing your teacher's gravestone, and the incredible energy of great martial arts techniques executed with clarity, energy, and joy. The complexity and emotion of your martial arts should be very profound indeed.

It may not be easy to find such incredible role models or to recognize them when you do meet them. One way to hone your skill at discerning greatness is to get in front of it and pay close attention. Make every effort to find it, and when you do, study wholeheartedly with those who exemplify it.

That's it. Thinking back on your training, will you be able to say, "I truly did everything I could to give myself a chance at greatness?”

Read more in our latest article.

Start Your Path to Greatness at a National Karate Association

Ready to set your 2025 martial arts goals?

SMAA is a national karate association, but we offer more than just karate! As part of SMAA, you can also learn aikido, iaido, judo, and jujutsu. To take the first step on your martial arts journey, call (734) 720-0330 or submit a contact form here.

Missing from Our Lives

When you practice a kata, are you going through the motions, or are you putting your spirit into it?

The extraordinary musician, the exemplary painter, the best writer, the gifted singer, and the exceptional martial artist share a unique sort of magic. There's a depth to their performances that only a keen eye can see, only a sharp ear can hear. Their notes are not just notes, their brush strokes are not just brush strokes, their words are not just words, their voices are not just voices, and their kata are not just kata. Instead, they're a deep expression of a collection of meaningful experiences, distilled through countless hours of practice and years of reflection.

If you watch, read, or listen carefully enough, you can sense the depth of their technique. If you're lucky enough to have seen their teachers or role models, you'll also be able to see echoes of their predecessors in their art. That's an extraordinary expression of love... granting immortality to an artist by ensuring that his or her art is preserved in your body, mind, and spirit. The level of your tribute corresponds to how well you internalize the nuance of his technique and how well you understand and give life to the principles he held dear.

Lightweight players dominate today’s martial arts world. By that I don't mean people who are small in physical stature. Instead, I mean people who are small in character, technique, and aspirations. Consider carefully the school you plan to attend. Is the approach all about rank? Does the curriculum change frequently... is it more focused on variation than on depth? Are the lead instructors out of shape, mean spirited, or simply poor technicians?

Read more in our latest article.

Start Your Path to Greatness at a National Karate Association

Ready to set your 2025 martial arts goals?

SMAA is a national karate association, but we offer more than just karate! As part of SMAA, you can also learn aikido, iaido, judo, and jujutsu. To take the first step on your martial arts journey, call (734) 720-0330 or submit a contact form here.

Recognizing Nippon Jujutsu

How do you know you’re learning authentic jujutsu?

"I'm certain my teacher is showing us real Japanese-style jujutsu (or kenjutsu, bojutsu, etc.). Some of his movements are identical to the ones I've seen in samurai movies from Japan."

I’ve heard this before as well. So have Steve Fabian Sensei, Ohsaki Jun Sensei, Kevin Heard Sensei, Wayne Muromoto Sensei, and other longtime Nippon jujutsu teachers at SMAA. Speaking for myself, I’m sympathetic to anyone’s desire to have faith in their sensei, but this kind of statement reveals a huge lack of knowledge concerning Japanese martial arts in general.

Samurai movies are not usually produced by martial arts experts. Their goal isn’t educational, but aimed at entertainment, and real koryu bujutsu is often deceptively simple. It doesn’t necessarily look good on film. Those aren’t real swords in Seven Samurai, and while sometimes real martial artists are consulted in movie-making, their goal is still to entertain more than to recreate.

Explaining how to recognize authentic Nihon jujutsu, beyond asking for proof of certification from valid groups, is a huge subject. Fabian Sensei, a Director for the SMAA Jujutsu Division and seventh dan, did a fine job of addressing this for our journal. You can find his article here.

Read more in our latest article.

Learn More at an International Martial Arts Association

Are you researching a specific ryu, a particular dojo, or jujutsu in general? You can send your questions to leaders in the SMAA Jujutsu Division; we’ll be happy to help! For other questions about our international martial arts association, call (734) 720-0330 or submit a contact form here.

*Pictured in this blog: Stephen Fabian Sensei, Director of Traditional Jujutsu.

Categories of Classic Jujutsu

Did you know that there are different types of classic jujutsu?

In general, jujutsu during the Edo period was practiced by bushi, ashigaru (“foot soldiers”), torikata (“medieval police”), and civilians. In genuinely old systems it considered the fact that the bushi might be wearing armor and facing a similarly clad opponent, both of whom had to be able to fall safely as well as perform other actions while wearing two swords. The wearing of arms and armor limited how one could grapple and fall as well as the techniques that could be used.

Striking techniques were less common (to protect the hands and feet from being injured when hitting armor), and if they did exist, were sometimes done using the butt end of weapons. Joint locking techniques needed to consider where different pieces of armor came together, and in this sense, they had something in common with cutting with a sword. So, if you visit a dojo claiming to teach a version of really ancient jujutsu try to visualize the techniques you see in the context of two people wearing arms and armor. If you can’t see how the techniques could be done under these circumstances, you might want to ask the teacher about this.

Read more in our latest article.

Learn More at an International Martial Arts Association

Are you researching a specific ryu, a particular dojo, or jujutsu in general? You can send your questions to leaders in the SMAA Jujutsu Division; we’ll be happy to help! For other questions about our international martial arts association, call (734) 720-0330 or submit a contact form here.

*Pictured in this blog: Stephen Fabian Sensei, Director of Traditional Jujutsu.

Practice Doesn't Always Make Perfect

What do you think of the phrase “practice makes perfect?”

Koryu study is basically this: you break down bad habits and try to institute new ones, hopefully better ones. It takes years of training, but training without thinking or self-correction produces no improvement. You are simply reinforcing bad habits and making them harder to break. I think it was football coaching legend Vince Lombardi who said something like, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

What he meant was, even if you put in time and effort in training, if you are training the wrong way, you aren’t really getting any better, you’re only getting better at doing something badly.

Even the best teachers I know are never satisfied. Of their own kata, they would say, “Mada, mada.” (“Not yet, not yet.”) They were constantly polishing their skills. These were men and women who were superb in their arts, yet they were never satisfied. And that dissatisfaction was what, perhaps, caused them to excel as far as they did.

Finally, going back to your mental approach: You also need the ability to self-evaluate. That means you have to see clearly whether or not you are doing things right for yourself. You need to tame your body and ego so that they do not get in the way of a truthful, honest feedback.

A teacher may guide you along the way, but a teacher can’t carry you to the end. He or she is only a guide, who points the way. It’s really up to you to walk that road and get to your destination yourself. The really hard work has to be done by you, as in other aspects of your life.

Read more about effective practice in our latest article.

Work Towards Perfection at a Japanese Karate Association

Looking for a martial arts community?

SMAA is a Japanese karate association that also offers aikido, iaido, judo, and jujutsu. To get started, call (734) 720-0330 or submit a contact form here. If you need a second opinion, check our Google reviews!

Perfect Your Practice

How confident are you in your martial arts skills?

In all traditional Asian combative arts, there is a strong emphasis on reaching a particular expertise in the repetition of proper form, none, perhaps, more so than in iai. Since iai proper does not have competitive matches (although lately they have instituted a kind of forms competition in some organizations in Japan) that pit one person against another, the only way to evaluate expertise in iai is through perfection of form.

There may be variations from one dojo to another, and one teacher to another in the same school, but there are some basic signposts that declare that you either “get it” or you don’t: your timing, perhaps, or the way you move, handle the sword, the angle of your chiburi, or angle of the cut with the sword. This is one step beyond simply repeating the steps or procedure. This is polishing the steps and instilling in them the particular way you move with the sword in hand.

When you begin to “get it,” your sword work begins to assume an actual personality: that of your own, of course, but also that of the ryu you are performing. That balance, that tension between individual character and the characteristics of the ryu is the hardest to attain as beginners. When you start with iai, everything may seem random and arbitrary. If you progress, however, and you observe other ryu, you should come to a realization that there are implicit reasons why you do things a certain way, and why another ryu does things a different way.

You may want to slouch and hunch your shoulders because all your life that’s how you’ve stood. Or your body wants to use your shoulder and arm strength instead of your hip muscles. You have to consciously, mentally, force yourself to make the corrections. The other part is you also have to make the connection with your own body, forcing it to move that way too when you perform the kata. Again, there may be long-standing habits in your body that you have to break.

You have to see what is being done, internalize the concept in your mind, but you then have to transmit that movement to your body. A lot can mess things up in this two-step process.

Read more about effective practice in our latest article.

Work Towards Perfection at a Japanese Karate Association

Looking for a martial arts community?

SMAA is a Japanese karate association that also offers aikido, iaido, judo, and jujutsu. To get started, call (734) 720-0330 or submit a contact form here. If you need a second opinion, check our Google reviews!