Picking a Martial Arts School in the Phoenix Valley

Horror stories abound about many martial arts schools in the Phoenix valley. One of the largest traditional American-Okinawan-Japanese martial arts associations in the country, which has ties and lineage traced to Okinawa and Japan, notes that more than 85% of martial arts instructors and schools, have no proof of lineage, with instructors displaying diplomas purchased on- line from diploma mills. So, you can be guaranteed to run into this problem when searching for a school. 

So, why doesn't government control the licensing of martial arts instructors?

Heaven forbid if that ever happens!

Government is even more ignorant of martial arts. 

One school we are familiar with in France, teaches out of a Catholic School, because the French bureaucrats do not recognize Shorin-Ryu karate, and instead they only license Shotokan karate.  This is insane, particularly if one has any knowledge of martial arts history.

Shorin-Ryu karate is one of the primary forms of karate developed on Okinawa hundreds of years ago, the home of karate. Karate was invented on Okinawa! So, in this sense, France is outlawing the most legitimate karate schools, because the government is ignorant of history.

'Aerial karate', original sketch
courtesy of Soke Hausel

In 1922, a master of karate from Okinawa by the name of Gichin Funakoshi traveled to mainland Japan and taught Okinawan Shorin-Ryu at Jigoro Kano's dojo in Tokyo. Kano is known for many things including the creation of judo from jujutsu, a modern yudansha-mudansha ranking system for martial artists, and the introduction of judo and kendo to the school curriculum in Japan, which later opened the door to karate clubs in Japan's schools. After teaching the Japanese Shorin-Ryu karate for decades, the Japanese members of his dojo decided to rename the simplified Shorin-Ryu after Funakoshi. Funakoshi wrote some articles and books under the pen name of Shoto, so his students called their karate Shotokan in his honor. Even though it is called Shotokan, it is actually Shorin-Ryu karate without kobudo. So, you should now understand how ignorant the French government is about karate. And based on what we have seen in the past with government in general, it is not something we would like government to get involved in. After all, it was just last year (2019) that Arizona finally made it legal for Shorin-Ryu martial artists to carry and train with nunchaku in public, and the Arizona legislature had no idea why the Okinawan farmers' tool had even been outlawed. 

'Eye of the tiger' original sketch by
Soke Hausel

We know of a husband and wife combination of legitimate martial arts instructors from Gilbert Arizona, with proper credentials and the wife was even of Japanese samurai lineage. They both taught periodically in a Mesa karate dojo, and mentioned that their grand-children were taking classes from a martial arts school in the East Valley that had no evidence of lineage or proper certification. The owner of the dojo (a dojo is a place for training in the traditional martial arts as well as a place to practice sane meditation. Dojos are places for dao, and typically include arts that end with the suffix - 'do', meaning a 'path' or the 'way'), periodically would walk into and interrupt classes and lean against the wall wearing a jacket over his gi, and talk to the students while sipping on a can of coca-cola. His instructors were teenage black belts. The grandparents were appalled at their daughter's choice.

In another case, another mother took her two kids to two popular dojos in Gilbert, Arizona. One was described on its own website to be mixed martial arts (note - there is no such thing as mixed martial arts). After leaving that school, she moved to another school near the Gilbert town hall. This one taught the kids how to do forward rolls, run around in circles, do push-ups, while a lady screamed on top of her lungs (and wearing street clothes) different orders. She had two large teens wearing yellow and white belts as her assistant instructors as they taught the kids everything but karate - yet this was listed as a martial arts school and the class was listed as a beginners kid's class.

So, learn what you can about martial arts, history of martial arts, what it requires to be an instructor, what a diploma looks like, and search the internet about the schools before you waste thousands of dollars on a bogus contract.

There are many things one can look for in searching martial arts schools - here are a few:
(1) Is the instructor's diploma available to view - is it written mostly in kanji?
(2) Is the school affiliated with a international martial arts association?
(3) Is the school a mixed martial arts school?
(4) Does the school have a kamidama? Do they recognize the shoman of the dojo?
(5) Check the internet and search the name of the dojo, the name of the association, and the name of the instructor.

Judo in Arizona

"Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered. Those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the wise win before the fight, while the ignorant fight to win." - O Sensei Ueshiba

This lady use to scare some of the men in the jujutsu
classes at the University of Wyoming with her
 powerful technique.

Many of us visualize judo as two sweaty people wearing heavy, white uniforms grabbing at each other’s uniform to foot sweep or throw in a dazzling display of the art. Judo reminded me of wrestling when I was young, but with different rules and a different uniform. It was suppose to be a self-defense, but I was a bit confused in my youth because it looked more like a sport or contest than self-defense.

Some judo was taught in the US military for combat even though that which was taught, had little practical application.


Judo (柔道) translates as ‘gentle way’. Based on history, judo is a relatively new martial art compared to most traditional arts and most varieties of judo are practiced as a combat sport: only a few traditional judo clubs focus on judo as self-defense (the way it was intended) rather than sport. And is a soft art? Far from it! It is brutal and requires incredible endurance.

Demonstration of yubi waza (thumb throw) on Brett Philbrick
at the University of Wyoming Campus Shorin-Ryu Karate club.

Judo had origins in Japan in the late 19th century. Its most distinctive characteristic is the majority of practitioners compete. Judo was introduced as an Olympic sport in Tokyo in 1964, and at that time, competitors were separated into 4 weight classes. The object of the contest was to throw, immobilize, subdue an opponent through grappling, or to force an opponent to submit by applying joint locks, or execute a choke restraint to get your opponent to submit.


Although most are familiar with throwing and grappling in judo; judo also includes self-defense applications such as hand strikes, kicks and even weapons. But the strikes in the sport are used only in kata and are not part of competition or randori (judo free sparing) which has a tendency to lessen the value of Judo as a self-defense. However, the practice of randori is beneficial in providing practitioners a method for building timing and reflexes and to teach to react to attacks, rather than think about the attack. If judo practitioners provided equal time to randori and self-defense applications, judo would be an excellent self-defense – but the majority of judo practitioners focus on competition and little time on self-defense.

As a young adult, the creator of judo, Jigoro Kano did not weigh more than a hundred pounds; thus he was bullied and decided to pursue jujutsu at the age of 17. At Tokyo Imperial University, he studied martial arts and literature and eventually received a referral to study Tenjin Shin'yō-Ryu: a jujutsu style that emphasized technique over formal exercise.

The early history of judo cannot be separated from its founder: Jigoro Kano (1860–1938). Kano was born into a well-to-do Japanese family: his father was a Shinto priest. Kano initiated a major reformation of jujutsu and included techniques that emphasized development of the body, mind and character. At 22, he began studying jujutsu at the Eisho-ji Buddhist temple in Kamakura. This became known as the Kodokan, or "place for teaching the way". Today, the Kodokan Institute for Judo is in Tokyo and is the official headquarters of the judo world that was established in 1882 by Kano.

The primary focus on Judo is throwing (nage-waza) and groundwork (ne-waza). Sparring in judo known as randori means ‘free practice’. Randori involves two practitioners who continuously attack one other with any judo throw or grappling technique in their arsenal. Striking techniques (atemi-waza) such as kicking and punching, along with knife and sword techniques are retained in judo kata but not in randori. For reasons of safety, chokeholds, joint locking and sacrifice techniques are subject to age and rank restrictions.



Kano saw jujutsu as a group of disconnected tricks and he wanted to connect these, eliminate useless techniques, and make his art flow like water. His reformation of jujutsu discarded techniques that relied solely on superior strength and adapted techniques that redirected an opponent's force to make use of superior leverage. Judo was originally called Kano Jiu-Jitsu and later called Kodokan Jiu-Do or simply Judo. The word ‘judo’ shares the same Chinese root ideogram as "jujutsu": "jū" (柔). This kanji refers to ‘gentle’, ‘soft’, or ‘supple’ depending on context. The use of jū is an explicit reference to the martial arts principle of the ‘soft method’, characterized by the indirect application of force to defeat an opponent. It is the principle of using an attacker’s strength against himself.

 The second Chinese character used for judo and jujutsu differ. In jujutsu (柔術), this means "art" or "science" of softness. In judo (柔道), it means ‘the way’, ‘road’ or ‘path’, which has philosophical overtones which was Kano’s intent. This is the same kanji also used to distinguish budō from bujutsu and karatedo from karatejutsu. Use of do was a deliberate departure from the ancient combat martial arts, whose sole purpose was for killing. Kano saw judo as a means for governing and improving oneself physically, mentally, emotionally and morally.



Wrist restraint - any law enforcement agent would do well to train hard and constantly in jujutsu or judo. The public has a strange perception that jujutsu is not as violent as karate. But that's only because they have not seen the throws and restraints used by the greatest living martial artist - Dai Soke Sacharnoski. It is enough to put fear in any person. In this photo, Shihan Dai Kyle Gewecke of Gillette applies wrist restraint on Sensei Brett Philbrick of the Laramie Police Department during a police baton (kioga) clinic at the University of Wyoming.

Judo practitioners traditionally wear heavy, white uniforms called jūdōgi, or ‘judo uniform’. The jūdōgi was created by Kano in 1907 and similar uniforms were later adopted by many martial arts groups. The modern jūdōgi consists of white drawstring pants with a matching white jacket that is fastened by a belt (obi). The jacket is intended to withstand the stress of grappling, and as a result, it is much thicker than a karate uniform (karategi).

Most judo today is sport, thus in randori when an opponent successfully executes a chokehold or joint lock, the other will submit, or ‘tap out’. When this occurs the match is over, the tapping player has lost, and the chokehold or joint lock ceases. Judo is also a self-defense art and uses forms (kata) that are pre-arranged patterns of attack and defense, which in judo are practiced with a partner for the purpose of perfecting technique. Knowledge of various kata is a requirement for the attainment of a higher rank.

Randori assists in tuning reflexes and the ability to respond to attacks without thinking, making this a relatively effective method for self-defense practice. Many forms of jujutsu focused on individual techniques in self-defense applications that were choreographed without randori. But through time, most jujutsu styles have adopted randori into their training regimen.

 Seven judo kata are recognized by the Kodokan. In addition, there are a few kata not officially recognized but practiced by some Judo clubs.

 Grandmaster Soke Hausel applies te waza (hand technique) with foot choke on Shihan-Dai Kyle Gewecke (4th dan) from Gillette, Wyoming during a self-defense clinic at the University of Wyoming in Laramie (2004)

Joint locks (kansetsu-waza) are effective combat techniques because they enable a jūdōka to control an opponent through pain, or if necessary, to cause separation of the locked joint. Chokes and strangulations (shime-waza) enable the person applying the choke to force the adversary into unconsciousness. In competition, the jūdōka wins if his opponent submits or becomes unconscious. Rules in judo are intended to avoid injuries and ensure proper etiquette.

Applying wrist lock on Wade Stenger from
Albuquerque at University of Wyoming
class (about 1990).

Judo has three categories of points: ippon, waza-ari and yuko. An ippon means one point and wins a match. An ippon is awarded for (1) a throw that lands the opponent on their back in a controlled manner with speed and force; (2) for a mat hold down (or control) of sufficient duration (25 seconds); or (3) for opponent submission. A waza-ari is awarded for a throw that does not quite have enough power or control to be considered ippon; or for a hold of 20 seconds. A waza-ari is a half-point, and, if two are scored, they constitute the full point needed for a win. Yuko is a lower grade score, and is only considered as a tie-breaker; it is not cumulative with one another. Yuko points are scored for a 15-second hold down. If the person who secured the hold down already has a waza-ari, they only need to control a hold down for 20 seconds to score ippon by way of two waza-ari. Throws lacking the requirements of an ippon or a waza-ari might score a yuko.

Judo has formed the basis for military training around the world. The Japanese police have trained in judo since 1886, when judo (at the time known as Kano Jujitsu) defeated several established schools of jujitsu in a tournament.  Judo's lineage in traditional jujitsu combined with police and military applications, has resulted in kata specifically designed to teach technical principles for self-defense.



Soke Hausel instructs members of the military in self-defense.

  

 

Aikido in Arizona

Te waza (hand throw) demonstrated by Soke Hausel at Casper,
Wyoming clinic.

Aikido is a Japanese martial art modified from jujutsu in the 20th century. Aikido (合気道) (the way of harmony) is a grappling art created by Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) in Tokyo. According to Farkas and Corcoran (1983) the art was created in 1942; however, like any art, it is difficult to say exactly when it came about as martial arts are created over extended periods of time and constantly evolving. Frederic (1998) suggests aikido began its evolution in 1931 and its governing association dates to 1948. The name ‘aikido’ was officially registered with the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1942.

 The creator of aikido, Ueshiba was described as religious and nationalistic and created his art with religious and nationalistic overtones: he particularly avoided including any connection to kempo (Chinese hand) and other Chinese arts (Frederic, 1998) to be sure this was an indigenous Japanese art. At that time in history, nationalism in Japan was rampant.

 Ueshiba linked aikido to Zen and Shinto: national faiths of Japan (Farkas and Corcoran, 1983). He emphasized harmony between breath, spirit (ki), and body (tai) combined with nature while emphasizing harmony between mind (shin) and moral outlook (ri). In Zen, followers believe the center for meditation and power is the tanden, a point situated 1.5 inches above the navel. This point is emphasized as the source of power in aikido and is the point from which ki (spirit) is thought to originate.

Ueshiba began in Daito-Ryu Aiki JuJitsu and through time, named his new art Aikido. Today, more than 30 different sects of aikido exist. Aikido emphasized the philosophical aspect of martial art referred as ‘do’. ‘Do’ (pronounced like the female deer) means ‘way’ or ‘path’ to enlightenment. Many techniques (waza) in jujutsu and judo require close contact grappling; whereas Ueshiba avoided such techniques in favor of placing an attacker at a distance.

Ueshiba’s philosophy was to defend against an attack without causing great injury. To do this, aikido attempts to redirect an attack by blending the attacker’s movement and redirecting the attacker’s momentum against himself. This is done with entering and turning movements. Aikido uses many joint locks to manipulate an attacker while attempting to direct an attacker in the direction of the force generated by the attack. Joint locks are usually followed by throws. Aikido attempts to lead an attacker (uke) into a circular path so that the defender (tori) turns on an axis. The circular motion allows the defender to neutralize an aggressive action by gaining control of momentum (Westbrook and Ratti, 1970).

Like jujutsu, aikido starts with atemi. Atemi is a vital point strike used to disrupt the attacker’s balance and is very important, particularly in places like Arizona. This is because people in Arizona sweat. Its hard to believe, but very recent government-funded research identified Arizona as the place where people sweat the most in the US. Did we really need the government to spend our taxes to determine this piece of information?

 Following atemi, the defender uses evasive moments and body shifting (tai sabaki) to manipulate the attacker’s force so it can be used against the attacker who is redirected and thrown. Many techniques in aikido end with grappling to subdue the opponent.

 Most techniques in aikido are used to control (katame waza) or throw (nage waza). According to some sources, there are over 700 techniques that fall under these two categories and are derived from basic kata (forms) of aikido. Aikido kata consist of freeing oneself from basic grips or grabs (te hodoki), throwing, and immobilizing with use of pressure point attacks (kyusho) on joints (kamsetsu gaeshi). Aikido practitioners also use a limited number of weapons as part of training that include bo (6-foot staff), jo (4-foot staff) and yawara (short stick) (Frederic, 1998).

According to Mitchell (1998) aikido lost much of its effectiveness through time. Genuine attacks were replaced by compliant attackers: a would-be attacker typically runs forward with arm held out until the defender employs a defense. This is followed by a symbolic strike or atemi. However, without a focused and powerful atemi, one learns to defend improperly. As a result, some aikido masters separated from the mainstream aikido association and attempted to develop more effective methods for self-defense. Tomiki aikido incorporated contests to try to improve reflexes, but this is something that was already part of many jujutsu and judo arts, where continuous defenses (randori) are performed non-stop. Another school, Yoshinkan aikido, focused on the importance of ki requiring their uke to attack with energy and force. As a result, Yoshinkan aikido has been used to train many Japanese law enforcement agents as it is thought that this emphasizes more realistic atemi.

 The atemi (or strike) in aikido is very important. If not practiced with focus and power, the practitioner will learn an incorrect response to an attack. An atemi can include shuto (open hand) strikes to the arm, teisho (palm strikes) to the chin, kozumi geri (kick) to the chest, etc.

 The traditional aikido dojo (place of the way) is simple. Floors are matted since practice involves throws and unlike judo and jujutsu, the aikidoka (practitioner) does not slap the mat (tatomi) when thrown, but rolls out of the fall (ukemi) similar to ninjutsu. To practice these types of break falls, aikidoka dive onto the floor extending one slightly curved arm forward while curving the spine to keep the head tucked in. As a student progresses, these dives become higher and higher and cover greater distances.

Aikido, like most Japanese martial arts, has a ranking system of colored belts (kyu) that vary from school to school. As one progresses, they may reach the upper levels of aikido or dan (black belt) ranks. Aikido practitioners typically wear a hakama (split skirt) with a gi jacket. Since aikido manipulates the joints, teaching this art to children should be avoided.

Exercises in aikido serve to loosen wrists and joints. During training, the wrists are seized and twisted and joint locks applied until the uke either slaps himself on the thigh as a sign that the tori should stop applying pressure, or until uke yells ma te. Through time, the wrists become supple. The more one practices, the less the wrist hurts. However, in the beginning, one can expect sensitive and swollen wrists.

Because aikido does not involve intense striking and kicking techniques such as karate, the public views this art as being less violent and is therefore a good art for many law enforcement agents. It also focuses on restraints, another important law enforcement application. There are several aikido schools in Arizona.