When Tradition Becomes a Crutch: The Danger of Blindly Following The Past.

 

Posted by ADAM CARTER on APR 22, 2025

When Tradition Becomes a Crutch: The Danger of Blindly Following The Past.

(Approx 2 minute 10 second read)

In a world that’s moving faster every day – and feels more unstable than ever – traditions matter more than ever. They give us something steady to hold onto, offering a bit of order and comfort in the chaos.

Tradition is really just a belief, a habit, or a way of doing something that gets passed down. In the martial arts, we’ve got plenty of it.

And we get attached to those traditions because they carry emotion. They mean something. They remind us where we’ve come from and help us feel like we belong to something. They connect us to the people who came before.

But let’s be honest – some traditions stick around just because no one’s bothered to question them. We follow them because someone once said, “That’s the way it’s always been”. I’ve never liked that kind of thinking.

Especially in karate, people get hooked on the word traditional. But what exactly does that mean? A lot of what we now call “traditional” karate – uniforms, belt colors, line-ups, the way classes are structured – it all started around the early 1900s. Most of it only really took shape in the 1930s or ‘40s.

So it’s not ancient. It’s not timeless. It’s just history.

History can teach us something, if we’re willing to look at it honestly. Not everything that’s been passed down is gospel. Some things have been misunderstood or watered down over time.

Tradition’s only worth something if it still works today. It has to change as the world changes. That doesn’t mean throwing everything out. It means thinking carefully about what we keep, what we tweak, and what we let go of.

One of my teachers – someone I deeply respect, not just for his karate but for the way he lives – once told me to “carry the tradition into the future”. After more than five decades of training, he said it’s about time I found my own way. The ‘Ri’ in ‘Shu-Ha-Ri’. That has stuck with me.

History is the past. It’s stories, memories, and records. Tradition might start there, but it lives in the present. We shape it now. We teach it now. And if it’s going to matter in the future, it has to grow.

Too often, people get stuck in the past, holding onto tradition without ever questioning it. They get so wrapped up in repeating what their teacher did or said that they forget to think for themselves. I’ve seen this with one very senior instructor I know, who’s so focused on repeating what his teacher taught him that he’s stopped evolving. It’s like he’s frozen in time, unable to move beyond what was handed down to him.

When this happens, tradition stops being a tool for growth – it becomes a barrier. It’s like they hit a point where they stop moving forward. They’re not evolving, not learning, just locked in a loop of repetition. This is what happens when tradition is followed blindly – it becomes a crutch, not a guide.

Written by Adam Carter