Outside of the Dojo

Training in the dojo is training in an idealized form. It certainly has it's place, but sooner or later we much step outside. How well does your training carry over?

Below is an excerpt from a post that appeared at Okinawan Fighting Art: Isshin Ryu. The full article may be read here.

If you only practice in the dojo; if you only train in the dojo; if you build experience(s) only in the dojo then you can imagine how little you know, understand and have experienced. There is a whole wide world out there and we encounter every day in every moment small things that relate and connect to what it is we strive to achieve within the dojo walls. Many of the small things may seem irrelevant to what we do in the dojo and as you already know and can readily imagine those irrelevances actually provide us experiences that we can then translate to proper trigger concepts to what we do "doah if you will" in the dojo. 

If you only train, practice and apply skills in the dojo and you don't relate that and other studies with an interconnection the the way of the dojo you can understand then how much you short yourself of the possibilities of the dojo, both in and out of the dojo. 

To truly achieve the way to the dojo you have to “transcend” that dojo and take that to the streets. To transcend the dojo one must connect the dojo to everyday life. Even when it seems to stand far from what is in the dojo. If we expect the things we do in the dojo to be relevant and workable, practical if you will, to the streets be it sport competition or self-protection against aggression and violence then transcension  of dojo practice, training and understanding must be relevant and connected to what is done in the dojo. Otherwise the dojo becomes not a dojo but a club where one socializes then leaves the social reality of the dojo at the dojo doors when re-entering the real world. To make the dojo real-world applicable it must transcend beyond the dojo doors. 

To practice, train and understand only in the dojo is to NOT practice, train and understand the martial arts within the dojo proper for martial arts to be understood is to live the training and practice in every moment of life whether obvious or not.