Autumn 2008 - International Chito-Ryu Karate-do Federation of ...

The Responsibilitiesof the Senior StudentBy Anthony HorganWhen I was little and growing up, Iwas not a martial artist but acricketer. I wanted to be MichaelSlater, not Chuck Norris. While mostpeople would view these two sportsas being about as directly oppositeas one could ever hope to find, Idisagree and say that there are manysimilarities – and not just that wespend 4 days a week in the middle ofsummer running around in long whitepyjamas!Someone once told me that cricket isa team game, played by individuals.If there has ever been a better way todescribe a karate dojo then I am yetto hear it. Both have a skipper (orsensei) whose job is to lead byexample and impart their experienceand knowledge for the benefit of theteam. What they also have is aleadership group of experiencedplayers around them, the seniormembers of the dojo. While theskipper may be the leader at the top,without a solid support system, theyare never going to be at their best,and nor will the team. The sameapplies to karate.The senior members of the dojocreate this support system fromwhich the sensei can instruct. Weare the ones that help with all thelittle things that have to cometogether to make a dojo runsuccessfully. In this respect, thesenior members lead the way byalways being among the first to offertheir help for the most menial oftasks. Whether it be through helpingwith the cleaning of the dojo, helpingsomeone pull chairs in or out of therain, helping people get into lines orbow properly, it is a senior studentsresponsibility to help do what has tobe done, without being asked or toldto do it. They do it to set an example,to show that even though they are anindividual in the dojo, not everythinghas to be about them.Another of the more experiencedstudents tasks is to act as a gobetween for the sensei and thebeginners in the class. Think back toyour first lesson of karate – the firsttime you stepped into a dojo.Chances are there were peopletalking to each other, muckingaround before or after class and ifyou were lucky, coming up andintroducing themselves to you. Andthen, out the front were the “blackbelts”, the sensei and sempai’s. Thesensei can be a very overpoweringfigure, especially when you are justfinding your feet in martial arts. Assuch, it is the senior studentsresponsibility to help break the iceand make the new students reallyfeel involved in the dojo. Moststudents will find that they haveplenty of questions but don’t want toask them either before the group ingeneral or the sensei out of fear ofappearing “stupid” or being chastisedfor asking pointless questions.However, if there are other studentsthere, more experienced thenthemselves, who can help them withtheir queries, then 99% of the timethey will take advantage of them.Senior student in this context couldmean anyone who has studied forlonger, or reached a higher rank thenthe student in question. As such, a 5year old 10 th Kyu may well be asenior student, and this is the sort ofthe idea that should be embracedand encouraged by all – onewhereby everyone has theopportunity to help and be heard.Just as there are many roads to walkto reach black belt, there are manydifferent ways to walk those roads.Something that may be a stumblingblock for one person on the road,may have been successfullynegotiated by another – as such, ifthe means of communicationbetween everyone, especially thesenior students, are kept open, thenthe final result is a higher level ofkarate across the entire dojo.River of Knowledge – Spring 2008 26