(Time)

Four decades ago my mother told me “as you get older time seems to go faster.” Now I am older then she was then, and all I can say in agreement is “where has the time gone?” It seems that it was only a few years ago when I first wanted to study a mysterious art of self-defense known as Karate. Now fifty-seven years have passed. Years after I beagn studying Chito-ryu Karate my teacher asked my wife and I if we could organize a United States National Chito-ryu Karate Federatrion. We told him that we would give it a try, and the rest is history. That was forty years ago. Today the United States Chito-ryu karate Federation is perhaps one of the best small karate organizations of its type in existence.

(Training)

When looking back to examine what has made this possible, several things become evident. As an organization we have never trained as if we had all the answers, on the contrary; our training has always been conducted with an open mind and with a willingness to learn. We have studied basics, kata, kumite, self-defense, etc. We have had excellent mentors to help in our research, including: Masami Tsuruoka, Shojiro Sugiyama, Hidetaka Nishiyma, Fumio Demura, Hirokazu Kanazawa, Yoshiaki Ajari, Takayoshi Nagaminie, Ryuko Tomoyose, John Sells, Patrick McCarthy and Ronald Johnson. This is by no means a complete list, so for those I have failed to include, please accept my apology!

(Theory)

My theory has always been that if we see a person who does something better then us, we should try to learn from them. If we see a person who needs help, we will attempt to help if they want and accept it. In this manner our karate will improve and we will get better. If we learn better ways to train or do a technique, our practice of Chito-ryu will improve. To this day we do not have all the answers, but we have most of them and are still willing to learn and improve.

(Injuries)

As I trained during the past fifty years I have had the opportunity to speak to many oriental karate teachers. The majority of them agree that some of the training methods we used in the past were wrong. We over-trained by doing exercises which were bad for our bodies, or we did exercises that were not bad for us but we over-did them through excessive repetitions which caused ligament damage. We need to guard against this in the future.

(More on Time)

Training time accumulates so if you train one hour a day, this is better than if you train one day a week for seven hours. Our time is limited. One thing we can never purchase is more time. With work, school, other outside activities and our families, our actual training time is limited. In your karate training, you will never have time enough to do everything. You must develop your basics, and kata. Then later you work on your distancing, footwork, and sparring. Still later you work on self-defense, which suits you?
One suit will not fit all. As you train, study and learn, the time will begin to fly, as it did for my mother and has done for me. Best wishes to you, never quit and enjoy the trip. The whole study of karate (like life itself) is about the trip, not the final destination. It is quicker then you might think.


William J. Dometrich Hanshi
Co-Founder U.S. Chito-Kai