Steve Morris is answering your question on his blog

I’m right-brained, and most people are left-brained.

That's unfair to start with. Because Nick is "wrong brained."



In fairness to Nick, he asked a question in an open forum, where the answers could be challenged and debated. He cannot now do this, as Steve has chosen to post his view in a way that can not be directly scrutinised. The debate would have been good to watch, and I know that Nick would have been up for it, wrong brained or not!

Cheers for that Socrates, great piece.

I really liked the article/post and found it very interesting.
But I didn't see it as an answer to Nick. I read it as Steve saying it was spurred by a question Nick asked but in essence the article is clearing up Steve's history as it applies to karate for anyone who has an interest or questions and mostly the misunderstandings/interpretations of his karate history. Or non history since it only took up a relatively small portion of his years.

I don't see it as an answer or even as open ended where a response is warranted. More of an autobiography concerning early influences and karate/martial arts and part of his path to today.


Tommy

Tommy,

I didn't see it as an answer either I'll probably go to my grave waiting for one...oh well.

The only misunderstanding is one I still have and that is where he claimed on his web site a long time ago he'd only done karate for eight years. I have photos of him in his gi, doing karate back in the early seventies standing with Gary Spiers and Yamaguchi Sensei. Lo and behold some twenty years later I dropped into his club for a semi-private session with Gavin Mulholland, Stuart G and Dan (kyokushin, now Goju) and he was wearing his gi and teaching kata. How does twenty plus years equal eight?

Still confused...still waiting.

Nick

PS: He also claims he isn't a genius and any claims by others is designed to spare them doing hard work.

Two points arise.

1. here's a dictionary definition of the word "genius"

a single strongly marked capacity, aptitude or talent

Now, if that doesn't define him and his stuff then I'm really the pope

2. He goes on about thinking about things differently than the rest of the world who think logically.

Logical structure is how we've been training the masses for donkey's years. I.e. you go to school and do grade one and your ABCs before you begin doing advanced calculus, we learn crescent kicks before we learn how to do them while jumping and spinning and we join the Army and become privates before they make us generals and put us in charge.

Now, if we take people we know to be geniuses in their respective fields,
we usually find they did not do well in that structured logical system

Of Albert Einstein...we learn

Einstein's early years did not mark him as a genius. His parents worried because he was so slow to learn to speak. He didn't care for such organized education; he hated having to attend classes regularly and take exams.

Of Bobby Fischer the chess genius...we learn

Fischer dropped out of Erasmus in 1959 at age 16, the minimum age for doing so, saying that school had little more to offer him.^[17]

Vincent Van Gogh...another one who eschewed formal training of any sort...

Without any proper training, or even having open artistic talent, Gogh doubted his abilities, and was supported in this doubt by his parents. However, Theo continued to push Vincent forward and supported him financially. The outcome would be the creation of a master of art, who evolved from his doubtful shell into a brilliant but besieged mind very rapidly.

and Sergy Rachmaninoff's story teaches us..

Rachmaninoff was found to be quite lazy, failing most of his classes,

In fact history is replete with genii who did not do well in structured logical organized (and some say limiting) environments, which is exactly what Steve M says in his piece

Not only am I not invested in a system of any kind, but by nature I'm opposed to over-organization and the neat and tidy approach to teaching and learning that is typical of martial arts

and...

If I had taken an orderly, systematized approach to martial arts, I never could have progressed to where I am now

So, while claiming not to be a genius, he in fact defines himself exactly as one. Holy contradiction in terms batman.

As for being right brained and everyone else being left brained...

Sorry but when I see the image in the following link she is most definitely turning clockwise despite my best efforts to make her go the other way.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html

Guess that makes me right brained as well...

Nick

What a great litle optical illusion.

Clockwise for me, though I could make her go either way, as well as change part way through.

I'm a fudgin' genius too!

The very first time I saw it, she went the other way for a second, and then never again...bizare.

Nick

I've heard that you swing both ways... Weren't you a Builder in the Village People?

Isn't that an old Zen Do Kai photo????????

Er...no I wasn't...and you shouldn't be going back through your album collection to post pics here.

Nick

"The very first time I saw it, she went the other way for a second, and then never again...bizare."

exactly what happened when i looked at it - tried for ages to get it to go anti-clockwise again... but no luck...

Hey Nick,

Just why did you call your method F.I.S.T.?

Given anyone a good F.I.S.T.I.N.G. lately?

I can feel a song coming on.......

Nick Hughes wrote: I have photos of him in his gi, doing karate back in the early seventies standing with Gary Spiers and Yamaguchi Sensei. Lo and behold some twenty years later I dropped into his club for a semi-private session with Gavin Mulholland, Stuart G and Dan (kyokushin, now Goju) and he was wearing his gi and teaching kata. How does twenty plus years equal eight?

back in the early 80s i had long hair for a while. late 90s i grew it quite long again when i had some dreadlocks.

Oh No!!! i was a long haired hippy for 2 decades???

err no

Melvin...

a, that's a poor comparison mate. If he renounced it after eight years then what are you saying...he picked up a gi again just for me??? You're following a fashion trend which come and go...Steve is hardly so vacillating no?

b) He was also in a gi in the meantime...I merely pointed out the earliest pics I have of him and the latest recollection of him I have in a gi to show a time frame.

Nick

A person can refer to structure in more than one way. There can be structure as far as order or some sort of non haphazard way of learning and then there is structure as it relates to organizational rules etc. At the birth of karate the Okinawans had no exact “structured’ teaching method. They taught what they felt like teaching in no systematized order. Only when Japan decided to accept karate did it become more structured. Japan wanted it to follow other combat sports or training methods and have a grading system based on “easy to hard.” I think that before that the Okinawans did just fine and even afterwards still had the better karate.

There is a difference between structure in schooling and karate (or like methods). While Steve may not like structure, he does teach fundamentals before other more advanced training methods and techniques. That is natural; but it isn’t an organization with strict rules on foot placement and every other body movement. Many people (myself included) have used the ABC example. We learn to write the alphabet and print before moving on to script and then signing our own name etc. But does that really make sense? Is printing really the basics of script? I don’t think so. Either you write something out or you print it…two separate things. Printing is only to learn what each letter is or means. It has no bearing on your script “form.” So it isn’t a basic technique; it’s more like a hidden bunkai!

It is natural to teach easy things first or to walk before running, but that isn’t necessarily “structure.” It isn’t a rule; it is just a safeguard for idiots. Who would deny building a good foundation? Certainly not Steve, but concrete rules on how to do that, IMO, suck.
I have had a similar argument with a friend of mine for years. I say he is MR. Spock while I am Captain Kirk. He needs logical, mathematical conclusions for everything. His world is black and white. He doesn’t believe in grey areas and is always spouting how 2+2=4 and 4+4=8 etc and there is no way around that. Those are material things and have no relevance to life or love or compassion or things controlled by human emotion or thought.

I wrote somewhere (either here or on Steve’s forum or in an article…I can’t remember) that I think in colors while some tend to think in black and white. This allows me to morph and change shape because I see the big picture rather than a rigid form. It isn’t different or odd/unusual, many people are like this just as some like hot weather while some prefer cold. But at the same time there are many who need a logical explanation for everything. It has to play out mathematically. I may still practice karate techniques but that doesn’t mean I’m practicing “karate” as in a structured organized method. I practice it how I like and change it how I see fit rather than a structured rule bound system which most karate is (again…I know…not ZDK).
The structured teaching methods of traditional karate aren’t teaching fighting and they are doing a poor job of teaching ‘good’ self defense which is what karate is supposed to be. The ‘structure’ is what is getting in the way.

On a separate note, Steve had mentioned that he finds the karate gi to be a comfortable training outfit. Is there a rule that says wearing one is reserved for only true ‘organized’ karate practitioners? He said he wears one now and again to train. Could he have worn one on the occasion that he was training with traditional minded folk? Maybe out of comfort or even respect? I am doing a seminar next month at a traditional karate dojo. I am bringing my gi just in case. I will follow whatever they are comfortable with. My gym shorts or a gi. I prefer the shorts….but… whatever, I will abide. Uh Oh! Am I still practicing karate??!! I don’t officially practice karate anymore. I don’t abandon what I have learned; it is all a part of me. I may be caught doing sanchin kata which I do as a warm up sometimes. But I practice it for its isometric value rather than it’s “kata” value…it’s a good warm-up. Does that mean I am still practicing”karate?” I practice reverse punches and side kicks too. These are things I try to bring into my MMA fighting that others don’t. I also practice my sweeps because others in MMA don’t normally. “OOH he’s still practicing karate”….no not really.

I think that left brain logical and mathematically conclusive thinkers would see Steve in a gi and say, “he is practicing karate….it must be so, he has a gi on.” In a robotic manner.
The free thinkers may not even notice.


But hey, far be it for me to speak for Steve. I’m not. I’m only making my own observations because I enjoy the debate. By the way…I saw the image moving clockwise. However I also couldn't’t help notice that she had pretty nice tits and her nipples were hard. Now what is the point of adding that much detail to a test? It makes me question the validity.


I'm a little confused by the other points in the post. Are you arguing the point that Steve may be implying that he is not a genius? Are you thinking he is saying he is not? I'm confused because it seems that you are complimenting him (damn Steve...you're a genius!) while he is saying...." No I'm not." And now you are trying to prove that he is?

Tommy

Tommy,

Yes, I told Steve he was a genius...he claimed he wasn't..and, in his blog, claims anyone saying he is, is using it as an excuse why they too can't be genii.

I provided a definition and examples as to why I think he is.

As for the gi and karate...mate, you weren't there, I was. He wasn't wearing a gi for comfort and doing sanchin as a warmup. The entire four hour class was traditional karate from start to finish except for thirty min at the end where we worked thai kicks, including all the Japanese terminology. The weeks following, when I was in Russia on a gig were the same. I know because 3 of my mates were the attendees and I was asking for them to keep notes of what they were doing.

Nice try though

Nick

To be honest I don't give a flying fudge what when or how. It's right now that matters. He's teaching and saying things that hit a chord with people like Tommy, myself etc who believe there's so much missing in TMA and actually in alot of MMA classes.
I've only trained with him for a couple of hours and would already put him as the biggest influence in my training, and that's over 15 odd years. I didn't see anything particulary new in the exercises he does etc, it's the way he creates the enviroment of a fight, the madness etc of a fight in his training that is appealing. He also has a knack of showing up the gaping weaknesses in your game that no-one I have trained with has done before.
Genius? No. Just lots of hard work and dedication I think. Get him back on the forum I say.

Nick Hughes wrote:
He wasn't wearing a gi for comfort and doing sanchin as a warmup. The entire four hour class was traditional karate from start to finish except for thirty min at the end where we worked thai kicks, including all the Japanese terminology. The weeks following, when I was in Russia on a gig were the same.

So is that like catching someone smoking after they've said they quit or is it more like catching someone you've been suspicious of changing into Superman in the stock room at work?

Actually I'm surprised it didn't make the headline news!!!

I know because 3 of my mates were the attendees and I was asking for them to keep notes of what they were doing.

Were they disguised as shrubbery placed strategically around the room


Tommy

Steve left the forum on his own volition.

The history of him being here is this:-

In the Admin area we were discussing who to ask to be another Q&A person. One point I made waa that any new person should prove themselves in the members section first, just like Mick Coup and Nick Hughes did. Dave T didn't have to of course, as he was a founder Q&A member.

Lito told us that we were not going to have any more Q&A whatsoever, so the discussion ended. Then Lito told us that he had accepeted Steve as the new Q&A. No discussion. That was it.

Lito set up a new forum and invited Steve over, but then they fell out very quickly. Lito couldn't resisit changing Steve's posts, taking what he considered to be profanity out. Hilariously he changed the word "fuck" to "fudge." Although sympathetic to Steve's plight I couldn't help howling laughing at those posts.... Fudge me they were funny!

Over here we were happy for Steve to say what he wanted. I didn't agree with all of it (like the "you must post a clip" methodology), but I wasn't that bothered. I was Steve's place to do as he considered best.

But Steve had a few reasons for leaving, including not thinking he made enough money out of the members, and not liking one of the Q&A's. We accepted his resigination and remain friends.

But I did feel vindicated. If someone has to prove themself as a member first you can be more assured that they stick around when a Q&A, rather than leave when the going gets tough.

Steve is still a member, and there are no plans to ask him to reconsider his decision. If he asked to become Q&A again I would be asking the other mods to consider requesting that he prove his worth as a member first.

There are no prizes for guessing which other Q&A host he did not like.

Are you sure there are no prizes because I really think I could get it.

I think she goes both ways

..

I think she goes both ways

I'm might be off the mark with this but if your reply is meant to say I don't like Steve you couldn't be more wrong.

I got a ton of information from him the first time I spoke with on the phone when I lived in London and I got a ton more when we trained (karati ) with him in Horsham...I only wished I hadn't got dragged away to whichever protection gig I was on.

I'm the one who keeps claiming he's a genius (which is something he disputes)...hardly the mark of someone not liking someone else.

I also think it's astounding that he's the only martial artist in the world that I'm aware of who nobody (at least that I've heard) has said "he can't do the business." Even Bruce Lee has people saying Ali or Tyson or Chuck Norris would have kicked his arse. Same for Norris, the Gracies et al. Find me one of them and I can find you a post where someone has said somebody else can kick their arse. You can't find anyone on the other hand saying Steve Morris can't do the business...nobody, nada.

Obviously on a forum you're hardly likely to find everyone agreeing with absolutely everything other people post...otherwise what would be the point. (Interestingly enough I received quite a few PMs from people who said they were glad to hear the opposing view when we debated things)

I can't think of anyone...even my instructors in Australia who's shoulders I stand firmly on, that I agree with 100%. Most of the guys it's about 90-95% of their stuff is in accordance with my stuff...the other 10% is what makes forums fun.

Unfortunately it would seem Steve didn't like people not agreeing with him so he quit the forum...me, I'm the other way, I'll quit the day everyone DOES agree with me.

Nick