Rude Awakening of Hatsuo Royama Sensei

As I've mentioned earlier, Hatsuo Royama sensei is one of Nakamura sensei's famous student. I was fortunate to find some information from Korean websites regarding his experience with this extraordinary master.

I feel that it's important for all of us to have a rude awakening from time to time, and realize the need to improve. Unless we receive a little shock to the system, we may end up in a same spot for years. Constant progress.

One of the thing Nakamura sensei said to Hatsuo Royama, then a 19-year old with quite a bit of karate experience under his belt (and as a student of Mas Oyama), is this:

"YOU DO NOT POSSESS ANY KARATE TECHNIQUE."

Ouch.

That must have been quite a bit of shock to someone used to knocking people out in kumite. Not just a little improvement, but a complete overhaul was needed. 

This is a reminder to us that the road to karate mastery is a long and winding road. There is always room for improvement, and even the simplest technique is worth a life time of study.