Zen Do Ryu Shodan Grading Essay

Matt Cutler

2006 I am honoured to have been asked to write about my experience and thoughts on Zen Do Ryu Freestyle Karate. It shows that my Senior Instructors have faith in my ability to pass the Shodan grading requirements; this essay being one of those requirements. That faith in itself makes me feel very humble. My two senior instructors Kyoshi Gregg and Shihan Derek have over 50 years of martial arts experience between them. Compared with that, even at 1^st degree black belt level, I will still know extremely little and subsequently will have a great deal more to learn. I thank them both along with the other instructors I have met along the way for their help to get me this far.  I started training in Zen Do Ryu at Largs Bay Dojo solely because my then seven-year-old son had achieved his junior yellow belt and I wanted to help him further.  At that stage I had no previous martial arts training but I still wanted to help my son. So it was that I started training in long yellow shorts and a black t-shirt (albeit dragged in kicking and screaming by then Renshi Derek).  Time went by and as I trained, I looked at the green belts doing their training and thought it would be really great if I could ever get that far. I looked also in wonder at the brown belts after seeing one of their gradings.  To me then, it was all still  “pie in the sky stuff”, yet here I am today. Accepting the honour of wearing a Zen Do Ryu black belt will to me, carry a responsibility to use my knowledge carefully and wisely, to further my training and to widen my knowledge base. Then one day perhaps, help teach others the Zen Do Ryu style. I see the “journey” to black belt as walking down a corridor where you are always guided forward but the steps you take have to be your own. With each step forward there are more and more exit doors offering up excuses for you to stop. Excuses such as “I’m too old for this, my knees are gone, I’ll never be fit enough, am I good enough?” are some exit signs that tried to lure me. As for what to do about your own exit signs, maybe the codes of the Bushido will help.  Truthfulness, Honour, Loyalty, Self-Control, Benevolence, Politeness and of course, Courage.  I am approaching the end of the corridor with only one door left to open.  My first step through that door will be as a black belt and the start of a whole new journey.  Family is a word that I have found that genuinely attracts me to Zen Do Ryu. Both my children are Zen Do Ryu juniors.  I have found that in my search for further knowledge of our style, I wanted to visit other dojos.  I felt very nervous when I first went to visit Kancho Steve’s dojo at Salisbury and just as nervous when, more close to home, visited Kyoshi Bill’s dojo at Semaphore.  It was through these visits that I found Zen Do Ryu was not “textbook” and true to the name, each instructor had their own way of providing guidance in the practice of “freestyle” karate. The one constant however was a recognition that I was a member of Zen Do Ryu and that I was welcomed without judgement. In that regard, I would also like to thank the members of Murray Bridge and Meningie dojos for their support. I practice karate simply because I love it. Zen Do Ryu has taught me increased self-awareness and self-control. I am very proud of what I have achieved so far but recognise (can I stress this enough?) how little I still know. I am constantly re-assessing my goals and striving for new ones.  Unlike the public perception, a black belt does not make you Superman. In the words of Kyoshi Gregg, gaining a black belt simply means the end of your “apprenticeship”. 

I do karate and I love doing karate. My belt is a yellow 2 tipe my traner’s karate name is keyoshy,my ather traner’s karate name is renchy. I am looking forwed to geting my yellow 3 tipe. My friend dose karate to his name is samuel. He thing’s he’s’ better than me at karate and I now he is.