The following is a New Year Message from my Sensei, Paul Mitchell. It is really intended just his own club (Wells Traditional Shotokan), as Paul is a very modest man who does not write as publicly as I do. However, Paul has a much greater depth of knowledge & understanding of martial art than most others. He teaches much more deeply than many other more famous and higher graded Sensei that I’ve trained with at seminars etc.
Although he refers below to Karate, it can be applied to nearly all traditional martial arts. The original can be found at on his club website News Page.
“So here we are at the start of another year – 2012. I would like to say that this new year is full of promise but I think you’ll probably agree that socially and economically our society is in a pretty bad shape. My feelings on this matter are mixed to say the least, firstly it saddens me that the most vulnerable in our world suffer the most but the positive side of this situation is that it can cause many people to re evaluate the things which are important to them. Do we really want to go much further down the road of materialism? The question to me is, does this desensitise and cause our young people to become selfish and lazy and does this in return make for decent caring, responsible adults? You may at this point be wondering what does this all have to do with Karate training. I have to say absolutely everything. To me Karate Do is the antithesis of modern living. This is why I feel that to truly train, one must feel for the past and live in the present whilst looking to the future. It is all too easy whilst training to get caught up in the movement of Karate and to think that it is purely a physical exercise but these movements are just your tools, they must be sharp and they must work. But all said and done karate training is about perfecting your inner nature by using your outer form”.
Anybody interested in training with Paul and learning more should check out his website course page. Those who attend are never disappointed and always go away with new insights.
