The video below is doing the rounds on Facebook and although I shared it with my friends, I nevertheless feel that more needs to be said, if for no other reason than to draw attention to the wonderful performance by Dave Kengen. I want to make it clear right now that nothing I am writing below is intended to denigrate Mr Kengen or his performance. On the contrary, I am deeply impressed with all that he has achieved.
As you can see from the picture and the video Mr Kengen is severely physically disabled. What it must be like to live like this I don’t think any of us can even pretend to approximately understand. And yet what you can also see from the picture and the video is that Mr Kengen is a practicing karateka.
Who would have thought?
I think most of us (all of us?), including me, would never have believed someone with the kind of physical challenges Mr Kengen obviously faces would even turn up to train at a dojo in the first place, let alone stick it out and achieve a brown belt ranking.
And it is this brown belt I want to talk about.
A lot of people talk about how unimportant belts are (well, I say a lot…perhaps it would be fairer to say a lot of sixth dan grades and above are the ones who seem to make the most noise…without relinquishing their ‘unimportant’ grades…). A lot of people talk about how belt grades have been commercialized and have become a commodity that is bought and sold rather than earned (not just the belt itself, but the rank the belt supposedly signifies). A lot of people talk about declining standards and about how a black belt today is worth less than it was a few decades ago.
I would like you to consider where you suppose Mr Kengen fits into all of this.
Without announcing the performance of Bassai Dai before commencing the kata and without the accompanying performance of the three girls I don’t think many of us would recognize the kata for what it is. Maybe if we paid close attention we might recognize the enbusen and the timing of the movements but as for the techniques themselves we would be hard put to quickly label them as being those of Bassai Dai. As for the applications of the movements, does anything there strike you as being practical? Are any of the girls really trying to attack and hurt Mr Kengen. Someone with two arms and two legs putting in that kind of performance would most likely fail a grading.
Someone without two arms and two legs is being (rightly!!) praised for his courage and skill…and has reached brown belt level.
A standardized grading system cannot work effectively when presented with people like Mr Kengen.
But without a standardized grading system surely the standard would drop?
An extreme example rarely is sufficient to prove a point; but an extreme example does help to clarify more clearly the point of discussion and I feel the performance of Mr Kengen falls into this latter category. So while the example of Mr Kengen may be of an extreme variety, it nevertheless is exposes an issue probably every sensei in every dojo is going to face at some point: what do you do grading wise with a student who is unable to attain the required physical standards but who at the same time has the heart of a pack of lions?
I don’t have a definitive answer to offer you. This is something to think about and dwell on…perhaps for the rest of your life.
And to Mr Kengen…Osssuuu!!!
