---

Psy. Ed. vs Mil. Sci.

Class registration at the start of my freshman year at Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University), was quite exciting.  A new adventure was underway that would, about two months later, lead to my first karate class.  During registration, I learned of two options for fulfilling the required physical education credit: Physical Education class, or Military Science.  Since I’d taken P.E. classes all of my life up to that point, this was a no-brainer; without hesitation, I chose Military Science.

Military Science For The Win

The Military Science program was part of the strong Army ROTC program at the university. The team of instructors consisted of Army personnel with various levels of experience and rank.  It was really interesting (okay, very cool) learning side by side with the highly focused, and highly motivated ROTC students.  Most of them, upon completing the ROTC program and graduating from the university, would go on to serve in the Army through active duty or reserve enlistment, or through service in the National Guard.

Prior to the start of classes that first semester, the Military Science team divided the enrolled students into four companies or groups.  The team assigned me to Charlie Company.  The focus of our learning experience would be military history and tactics, strategies, rules of engagements, and much more.  The class met twice per week: Tuesdays for a standard classroom class, and Thursdays for a hands-on field training class.

Since we were required to wear the combat uniform during field training sessions, we received the requisite Army gear during the first week of class.   The boots, socks, undershirts, cap, and BDUs (battle dress uniform) were all official gear. Our training included physical fitness, rappelling from the high tower on campus, low and high crawling through mud and dirt, throwing live training grenades (containing safer charges to keep us on our toes), marching and formation drills, etc., etc.  Several of us either volunteered or were chosen to be on the rotating cannon crew during NMSU’s home football games.  While I don’t remember who won the game when I was part of the cannon crew, I do recall how cool it felt to fire the cannon after a touchdown!

In late fall of that year, Charlie Company participated in a pre-dawn to dusk (and beyond) war-game simulation.   That was an amazing experience, even the endless hours of disassembling, cleaning, reassembling, and then again disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling, our weapons (all while eating pizza) after the simulation ended.

Civilian Dress Day

At the end of each Thursday class, the commander told us what to wear to the next training session.  Occasionally, we enjoyed a “casual Thursday” when civilian wear was acceptable.  That was rare and happened just a few times across both semesters. Of those rare times when we could wear regular clothes, the following is the only instance that I still clearly recall…

On a pleasantly warm and sunny spring afternoon during second semester, a buddy who lived on the same dorm floor and also a member of Charlie Company, stopped by to let me know we didn’t have to wear our uniforms that day.  I was a bit skeptical, but I thought I remembered hearing something to that effect.  This was about a decade before commonplace use of email, cell phones, and texting, so we had to physically seek out other students from our company to confirm the no-uniform day.  As luck would have it, we couldn’t find anyone who could verify what we believed to be true.  With time running short, we decided to go ahead and wear regular clothes to class.

We set out for the local, near to campus armory, the location of the Thursday training sessions. As soon as we arrived and walked into that armory, we realized either we were wrong, or everyone else–all of them in full uniform–was wrong.  Well, the look on the commander’s face said it all; we were wrong!  And then he ordered push-ups, lots of push-ups.  Oh, no, the push-ups were not for my buddy and me; that probably would not have gotten the point across.  No, the push-ups were given to everyone else, all 20+ highly focused, highly motivated members of Charlie Company.  And we, my civilian clothes-wearing friend and I, had to stand there, in the middle of the circle of slightly ticked-off college students and watch them do every last push-up that was meant for us.  Talk about an awkward and uncomfortable situation…

I learned a few really good lessons that day, and thankfully, none were physically painful! Charlie Company crew saw the humor in the incident and they allowed my buddy and me to live.  Needless to say, from then on, we always wore our uniforms when required.

Why We Wear The Karate Uniform

Whether we are talking about the military, or sports teams, superheros, or private and public schools, the uniforms that are worn, and why they are worn, matter.  For a traditional Japanese dojo, our dogi, or simply gi, matters. We can and should practice karate in a variety of clothing types.  Wearing your gi during class, on the other hand, offers the following benefits:

• Enhances group unity
• Uniforms allow for a greater range of motion than most everyday clothes
• Training in your uniform can help you get into “the zone” because that’s the only time you wear your gi.
• Like business attire worn to an interview, or formal wear worn to a top-tier restaurant, wearing your gi during training sets that time apart from the rest of your day. This helps you stay focused and in the present moment
• No need to figure out what to wear to each class because you already know
• No need to worry about clothes getting dirty–uniforms are supposed to get sweaty and grungy through good, hard training
• Builds discipline and responsibility by requiring students (kids, youth, and adults) to plan ahead and wash, prepare, and pack their gi (and belt) before they leave the house
• Displays one’s honor and respect for the Japanese culture, the art, our instructors, and our classmates

How We Wear The Karate Uniform

We like to keep our uniforms externally simple so we can focus more on the internal complexities of learning.  Even so, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• While there is no need to be obsessive, please keep uniform clean and presentable
• During cool or cold weather, students may wear white, gray, or other light colored shirts under the uniform jacket
• Likewise, students may wear light colored tights, yoga pants, long-johns, etc, under the uniform pants during cool or cold weather.  The leg openings of clothing worn under the uniform pants should not be visible below the gi pants leg openings.
• Please do not wear hoodies or sweatshirts or jeans under your uniform
• For safety (of self and of your partner), students shall not wear earrings, nose-rings, other jewelry (other than flat wedding bands), wristbands, and other non-training accessories during class

When We Wear The Karate Uniform

Other than the below, students shall wear the full uniform and belt during each class.

• You can wear regular clothing to class on special occasions.  Each class will be notified of such a change at least one day prior to class.  One periodic example is the case of a C-level Fire Test (pressure test) lesson.
• I understand that there may be times when students simply cannot wear their uniform.  Come to class anyway, and plan to wear your uniform to the next class.

If a student chooses not to wear their uniform and belt during class, I will gladly share the lessons I learned in Military Science…

Keep learning, keep growing, keep training,

EDB