Interview: Mark Groenewold

by Jason Stanley

Recently I asked Mark Groenewold, author of "Karate The Japanese Way" whether he'd be interested in answering a few questions for us.... and of course he obliged. Here it is...Enjoy!

You've been practicing karate for sometime now Mark and of all places to learn you chose Japan. Why did you go to Japan in the first place? Was it to find a place to train in karate or was it for another reason? Please explain the circumstances that took you to the other side of the globe and what year that was.

I would like to say that I had always planned to go to Japan, but that is simply not the case. There was never any "fate" involved, no "zen-like karma". I still think that it all kind of happened out of sheer dumb luck. But here is the main gist anyway:

After I graduated from university in 1990, I went to the People's Republic of China for a year to work as a lecturer at a teacher's college in Yantai City, Shandong Province. It was a wild experience and after one year I returned to Canada, but I think that I might have returned too early. For the next year I was pretty unhappy with life in university again, studying in the Education Department, and made a decision to try to get teaching work in Japan, where I heard that jobs were dropping off trees.

In the meantime, however, I joined friends of mine who belonged to the university Wado Kai Karate Club. They raved about how cool it was, how cool Sensei Rempel was, about how they would never quit, and about how they were going ALL THE WAY TO BLACK BELT! Well, I joined the club, and within a couple months they quit. And then I got accepted on the JET program through the Japanese Consulate. I was pretty thrilled and then I was on my way.

When I arrived in Japan I wanted to take karate lessons again. And that is where I met Taniguchi-Sensei in the little town I moved to called, Terai, in the prefecture of Ishikawa, a beautiful area of the Hokuriku region which faces the Sea of Japan. I started to train with Taniguchi-Sensei in 1992 and haven't stopped yet. It has been an unbelievable ride.

This is a very difficult question. And I would very much like to steer clear of generalities about how Western and Japanese culture differ. In Japan there are lots of differences within dojo cultures, and the same can be easily said for the West. Some dojo, both East and West, are very disciplined and strict. I have seen lots that involve a lot of yelling and severe emphasis on decorum. I have seen others, both East and West which are more laid back, experimental, interactive, and generally, for me, more fun.

I get the impression, however, that there are many dojo in the West that would very much like to emulate the Japanese way of doing things. Sometimes this transference has some success, in other cases, the transference is not so great and we can see some very odd behavior going on.

What style is it that you practice, and what organization do you belong to?

The style that I study and practice is Shotokan with the JKA in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. I have been a member since 1992, and am the most junior instructor in the Terai-Shibu.

How have you found adapting to the Japanese culture? How long did it take to feel comfortable in a foreign land? What were the major hurdles that you had to jump, besides not having Starbucks until recently?

Starbucks has arrived! And that has been a nice touch of the West back here. As for adapting to the culture, I think that this kind of thing comes in waves. Some days are great and you think, "I am a multicultural adaptable guy! My Japanese rocks! I am a man of all seasons!" And then there are other days, times when things are going all to crap and you think, "I am a hopeless dork. My Japanese is terrible! I gotta go get some coffee at Starbucks."

I like Japan. I like it a lot. And I have some very nice friends here too. Taniguchi-Sensei, along with some other close friends here, have a very special place in my life. I can hardly count the number of times I have had a Japanese friend or co-worker bail me out of some kind of trouble. I have had misunderstandings at the bank, the post office, the supermarket, in traffic accidents, with insurance people, with neighbors, with the police, with total strangers, and in every case I could call on a Japanese friend to help out, help mediate hard-to-fix situations, and make life much smoother. I cannot count the number of times that I owed someone else for helping me. It is really quite overwhelming when I pause to consider it.

Please describe your Shodan grading.

Hell. But that stuff is in the book. I can't say that it was an experience I would recommend that teachers inflict on their shodan candidates, and I am still somewhat ambivalent about the value of such severe testing. It is something that I am grateful for, yet horrifyingly fearful of ever having to go through again.

Do you teach karate now at your club? If so, what do the students think of having a westerner as a karate instructor? If not, is there something that prevents you from teaching there or are there simply enough instructors?

Yes, I do teach at the dojo that I belong to. Taniguchi-Sensei expressed a need for me to teach for a couple purposes. The first was for me to give something back to the dojo that trained me for so long, and the second was to help me improve my own karate. For Sensei, and I see the value of this too, the act of having to explain and teach something demands that as the teacher you must master the material which you are presenting.

The Japanese student's responses are usually mixed. With kids, sometimes they are shocked to have a big foreigner teach them in karate, but they recognize my place in the dojo and usually have no problem with it. I also joke around with the kids so that I don't come across as the big bad scary barbarian. The training is serious, but the encouragements are kind. Just like Taniguchi-Sensei. The man teaches me how to teach as well.

High school boys are a bit different. Some of them are just fine with me teaching/leading them in training. I do things a bit differently than the other teachers, and I think that they like that. A couple high school guys have given me a bit of trouble, but in such cases I simply ignore them. That sounds a little harsh, but ignoring someone in the dojo, particularly someone who is your junior, sends a pretty strong message to the student. There are times that we all the adults and high school guys get together for kumite training. It is usually in that kind of context where the boys get separated from the men.

Is competition karate a big deal in Japan or is the tendency to teach more traditional kata, bunkai and self defense? What's the major focus at your club?

Competition is very important for junior high and high school students as there are many tournaments during the year for them. A lot of emphasis is placed on focusing the student towards kata or kumite, usually along gender lines. Girls do tons of kata, along with effeminate boys, and the tougher guys do a lot of kumite drilling. Bunkai and self-defense are two areas which are most certainly deficient in our club's training, but I must also put forth the caveat that there are severe time limitations, coupled with the general safety of Japanese society that affect the style and method of teaching.

For my own training and study, I am very interested in bunkai and self-defense. So I read, discuss things with Taniguchi-Sensei in his bakery, and make that part of my own study. I think that I am profoundly lucky to have been in contact with Dr. Elmar Schmeisser and Vince Morris to help me look at this part of karate much more seriously.

Do you have a makiwara at your club? If not, how do you test and develop your impact training? Is makiwara training common in Japan?

We do have a makiwara at our club and it gets pounded once in a while, but it is not regarded as the magic talisman of karate training. It is good to have, but it is only a tool, just a thing. For impact training, Mori-Sensei and Taniguchi-Sensei have students do a lot of work with focus mitts, as well as the heavy bag. Makiwara training is pretty common in Japan, but from my experiences, is not heralded as the be-all and end-all of how to train for impact.

How much time percentage wise do you spend on each of the following during class - Kata/bunkai, Kumite, Stretching / warm up/cool down, Kihon, Self defense, Other?

A typical class goes anywhere from one to two hours. The first 10-15 minutes are spent warming up and stretching. We then spend the majority of the class on kihon, the bedrock of karate. Kata and kumite are at the end. Self-defense and bunkai are really left for adults to pursue on their own, particularly because there simply is not enough time, and the dojo is full of children who need a lot of time to work on the fundamentals. A cool down of about five to ten minutes caps of the class. After that a quick line up, reading of the dojo kun, and a bow out. That is what happens when we have kids all over the dojo. If it is a mainly adult, or high school student group the atmosphere is much more relaxed. Students and teachers stretch and warm up on their own, Mori-Sensei or Yoshioka-Sensei will drill the youngsters in kihon for about 30-40 minutes, and then we might get into some kata work, or more likely, kumite practice.

What advice do you have for others?

I really have no advice for other people. I am actually quite loathe to suggest to other karate students what they should do, particularly as I feel like such a student myself. All I have to offer are encouragements to people who have decided to pursue karate for whatever reason. You made a good choice. There is so much to study, so much to explore, and lots of good teachers out there to help you figure out what to pursue. We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of things in karate to understand and explore. Today is a great day to belong to a dojo.

For my own personal curiosity and plain ignorance, where does the name Groenewold originate, and how the heck to you pronounce it correctly? =)

You can pronounce Groenewold as "Grew-ne-walled". That sounds pretty good. It is a Dutch name that means "Green Forest", or maybe "Greenwood". It looks much more exotic than it really is. Appropriate for me, I think, in a way.

Thanks a lot for letting me answer your questions. It has been a pleasure and an honor. Thank you!

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Please visit Mark's web site where you can learn more about his experiences in Japan, and of course his very interesting book, "Karate The Japanese Way" which is available on his site and at Amazon.com

http://www.karatethejapaneseway.com