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Hanshi at the First Ever Black Belt Camp in
Switzerland in 2001. Hanshi is 3rd from the left in the front
row. |
“You don't stand in kiba dachi, you sit in it,” he
demonstrated “and then you swivel your hips around like this to
do your jun-tsuki. Spchhhlaat.” One could just imagine a
nose flattening with that sound!
Now I always use the word “Whang!” when providing
sound effects with a technique (when not kiai-ing of course),
but then, I'm only a 1st kyu and he's an 8th dan, so he's got about
40 years of training on me, and is probably right.
Eighth dan Hanshi Steve Arneil teaches Kyokushin like
a human being, and not some mystical master of the martial arts, as
many of the highest ranked martial artists are often portrayed. He uses
human expressions, and makes jokes, both visual and oral. We did not
hang on to his every word as though it was coming from some heavenly
being, but we did listen. He isn't God, but he is GOOD.
We were to enjoy a fair sampling of his techniques and teaching methods
in the coming hours and, tiring as it was, my only regret was that I
could not make it a regular event.
Hanshi Arneil was invited to visit Sydney for a couple of weeks
during August this year to give Kyokushinkai practitioners a seminar
on some of his world renowned training methods. In addition to the weekend
seminar, he spent nearly two weeks teaching at several of the Kyokushin
dojo around Sydney and I had the good fortune to have time to be at
a couple of his sessions. But more about that later.
Steve Arneil was born in South Africa in 1934, got a degree as a mechanical
engineer, and worked in copper mines. His interest in the Martial Arts
was such that at the age of 17 he had a black belt in Judo, and was
reasonably well versed in both Kenpo and Karate. This naturally led
him to Japan where, in the late 1950s, he joined Mas Oyama's first dojo,
then a transformed ballet studio behind Rikkyo University in Tokyo,
only 500 meters from the current honbu. There, together with
many of the other luminaries of Kyokushin, he trained, and talked, and
trained, and helped in the development of the then embryonic Kyokushin
karate, and then trained some more.
He was the first person after Mas Oyama himself to complete the one
hundred man kumite, surely the supreme test of spirit in a martial
artist. He was 30 years old and a 3rd Dan at the time. Mas Oyama himself
had performed this feat for three days in a row, and legend has it that
he turned up on the fourth day to continue, but no one else did. At
the time, Mas Oyama intended making it a requirement for the 4th or
5th Dan grading, but he soon found out that not everyone had the right
stuff — but Steve Arneil did.
After he left Japan in 1965, he went to England where he co-founded
the British Karate Kyokushinkai (BKK) with Shihan Bob Bolton,
who is now resident in Australia. Though he was personally very close
to Sosai Oyama, Steve Arneil decided some years later, for very personal
reasons, to sever his ties with the Japanese based International Karate
Organisation (IKO) of which Mas Oyama as the head, and to which the
main proportion of Kyokushin worldwide paid allegiance. This did not,
however, affect his karate, and his influence spread across the Channel
to Europe and beyond, to the extent that he now has affiliations in
at least 19 countries around the world, all under the umbrella organisation
of the International Federation of Karate (IFK) of which the BKK was
a founding member,
In fact, recognition of his contributions to British karate and that
of the rest of Europe as well was so widespread that the 8th Dan he
currently wears was awarded, not by Kyokushin alone, but by the whole
of the British karate community regardless of style.
One of the countries that has swelled the ranks of the martial arts
enormously is Russia. During the communist regime, martial arts were
illegal and therefore only practiced clandestinely. During that time,
when he visited the Soviet Union, it was as a fitness instructor and
all training took place outdoors in tracksuits so that they could break
into a jog at a moment's notice. Since the breakup of the USSR however,
the number of IFK Kyokushin practitioners alone in Russia has risen
to around 70,000 and the average dojo size is about 2000. Apparently,
due to the great demand, and lack of dojo space, members train in shifts
and queue outside the dojo in their dogi even in the bitterest cold
of the Russian winter!
Part of his ideas about being the head of the IFK is that local laws
are local laws, and that local organisations should be permitted to
work within those laws as they please, whether he (or UK law) approves
or not. For example, in Russia and in Israel they practice Kyokushin
style full contact from the age of nine! When a child gets KOed, his
or her parents sit proudly by applauding, and wishing their child better
luck next time. Here in Australia, we do not allow our competitors to
compete in full contact tournaments until the age of eighteen (except
as colts against each other), bearing in mind that our full contact
tournaments are just that – no protection except for mouth
and groin guard and some common sense rules about certain types of attacks
e.g. groin, eyes, joints etc... Much as he disapproved of the Russian
system, he had to stand by and accept it, as these were the local Kyokushin
conditions, and local laws permitted it, and his leadership principles
required it.
Everything is relative. In Australia and the UK, childrens' competitions
of this sort would be completely and utterly against the law for very
sound health and welfare reasons In those countries however it can be
argued that if KOed is all that will happen to your child, then things
are pretty good, since the daily dangers on the streets are considerably
greater!
Steve Arneil, the engineer, probably hasn't done much engineering
since he left Japan in the “good old days”, but it has influenced
his training philosophies and teaching methods. During the seminar he
very strongly emphasised the mechanics of karate, and demonstrated this
by showing the inherent strength of a correctly executed sanchin
stance. Actually, it was Sempai Cheryl Bailey who had the dubious
honour of being chosen to illustrate his point. Using borrowed belts
to mark the lines of the stance on the floor and in the air around her,
he then spent a considerable length of time showing us how the sanchin
stance was made up of mostly triangles, which are a naturally stable
and strong shape, including a few resounding thumps and whacks to various
parts of Sempai's arms, chest, and and legs to prove it. He even related
it to the girders and beams in the ceiling structure of the dojo we
were in. In the meantime Sempai Cheryl was still standing in sanchin.
He then related another story of the “old days” back at the
first honbu, where they used to train their buttocks for sanchin
by holding a 10 yen coin between them and walk across the dojo. He even
demonstrated the walk (without the coin) to everyone's amusement (you
had to be there!), except for Cheryl, who was still in sanchin
dachi. Then he finished the discussion about the mechanics. After
the demonstration was over, Sempai Cheryl walked away, seemingly
as fresh as a daisy. But for those who continued to watch her, while
of course keeping an ear and an eye on Hanshi, the effort she
had undergone was evident by the way she surreptitiously wiped the sweat
from her brow - numerous times.
Until Hanshi's visit, I had always thought there was only one
Sanchin Kata, the hard one, you know, where one has to contract
every muscle and do ibuki breathing with each move. Hanshi
taught us another two: the first is a gentle, tai chi-esque one
in which one does each move, including the breathing, slowly and smoothly.
This one can be used to relax after a fast and furious part of a training
session. No strong muscle contractions, just flow. The second form was
a power sanchin kata; fast, hard, and with a kiai at each
move. That's not hard, you might say. True enough, if you only do it
once through. Hanshi uses it as part of his tournament training.
All the non-fighters do the tai chi-like version. The fighters
do the kiai version TEN times. Everyone must finish at the same
time. We tried it — black belts with kiai and all others
did the flowing version. When the slow version was finished, the result
was kyu grades 1 and black belts 6, and according to Hanshi,
not a very good six. The black belts, ranging from 1st to 5th dan,
included several national champions and international competitors.
Now we know part of the reason why, in 1975-76, Hanshi's team
was the first non-Japanese team to win the World Karate Championships!
We've all done kihon and ido geiko — seemingly
endless repetitions of the same technique or combination either standing
still or moving back and forth. Hanshi Arneil takes it a step
further, making it harder, but perhaps more appealing to the beginner,
certainly so for the more advanced. Firstly, you change direction with
each combination. Doing this with a normal lunge punch is simple, but
when using combinations, say front leg kick, back leg kick, block, and
punch, or changing techniques with each change of direction, you find
that your brain may well be working harder than your body! Think quickly,
and work both sides of your body evenly, are the principles here. We
always thought that we were fulfilling those principles, but this proved
us wrong. The second point, and this is what can make it more appealing
to beginners, is that he varied the method of execution of the techniques
between formal style and street style. This way, a raw beginner can
begin to learn what he or she probably came to learn – self defense
– without having to spar and risking injury (or injuring someone)
before they have developed better control.
A formal punch looks nothing like a street-style punch, but they both
have their uses. The former helps you to develop power and control,
and the latter teaches you speed and focus. Put them together and you've
got good karate!
Steve Arneil is a very practical karateka. It has been said that every
technique has at least three applications, and that if you can't find
three, you're not looking hard enough. Hanshi Arneil looks for
four! He also sincerely believes that the primary goal of training in
the dojo is to actually train, because that's how it was in the
Oyama dojo. “What sacrilege!”, you may all gasp. But no, he's
quite serious, and in order to achieve that, each movement should be
executed to get the maximum work out of you. For example, you don't
worry about your belt being crossed over in the back – that's a
working belt — so you take less time to tie it and have more time
to train. The other way is for formal occasions. When kneeling down
in the dojo, no fancy moves, just squat, support yourself on the ground
in front with your punching knuckles and lift your feet for maybe a
half second, then lower yourself smoothly to kneel. It's work, but it
is work. When not much doing any stretches and warm-ups that involve
bent knees, don't bend them all the way. Keep your shin at right angles
with your thigh. This is potentially less damaging to the knees, and
it makes your thighs work harder. (Of course, those are only two reasons,
there must a couple more)
Steve Arneil's karate is both eclectic and undogmatic. He has no qualms
about adopting principles and techniques from others, even non-martial
arts, and he has no problems in dropping things that don't work well.
The tai-chi like sanchin kata mentioned earlier is a case in
point. The pressure point releases he showed us later also were un-Kyokushin.
This is what Kyokushin was in the beginning, he said, a mixture of different
styles.
The Kyokushin I had been taught was dogmatic; no one thought to question
the words from high. During the seminar, Hanshi told us we were
all so flatfooted in our technique, and made it sound like a sin. I
don't think he was watching me. He was watching the front line with
the sempais, senseis, and shihans. And flatfooted we were, but only
because that's what we had all been taught to do. No one dared to think
otherwise. We had been Told that this was The Only
Way. Instead, he taught us to think deeply about what we were
doing and how we were doing it, not just with stances, but all techniques.
He also said not to be afraid to question your seniors (might I suggest,
tactfully) because they too are human.
If you haven't already guessed it, I like Steve Arneil's Kyokushin
Karate! It has retained the vigour of youth that Sensei Cameron Quinn
manages to convey in his book (The Budo Karate of Mas Oyama,
Coconut Productions, Brisbane) about the origins and development of
Kyokushin. It's still hard, in fact, in some ways its even harder than
what we had before. But it's fresh and stimulating, practical, and it
allows you to flex your cerebral muscles to counterpoint the flexing
of your corporal muscles, thereby giving you a good overall workout.
It is a well rounded karate meant for the thinking karateka among
us.
