“Playing” Karate

by Henry Sieczkos
as printed in the September 2001 issue of the FMK School Newsletter “KIAI”  

  I recently came across a magazine article that I found interesting. The article’s topic was about “playing” the martial arts. Since we play football, baseball, soccer, and other sports can we also “play” Karate?  Playing infers fun, so can we have fun doing karate like we do other sports? The authors opinion and I agree with him, is that we can enjoy doing karate but it is not like any other sport. Other sports do not prepare you for defending your family. They also don’t prepare you for the worse case scenario, how to hurt somebody. To me this kind of training should be interesting and informative but I would not say fun. If the result of your training is the ability to hurt someone, this kind of activity should be taken seriously. We should like doing it, but should not be “fun”. We should be serious in class and always give our best effort. We should attend class as often as possible and listen to Sensei very carefully. Karate is a serious undertaking and should be treated as such.