Teaching Methods in Japanese Karate: Their Influence on the Perception of Mental Toughness Attributes

This paper is based on a qualitative study that investigated the perception of mental toughness attributes of ten senior teachers of Japanese Karate. A thematic analysis of the data identified one overarching theme, Karate culture and eight themes: (a) Training in those days was complete lunacy; (b) Nothing quite compares to the reality of facing someone you don’t know across the tatami; (c) I’m not going to let you beat me; (d) Positive attitude, (e) There’s always a challenge because you are putting yourself on the line; (f) Shut out the pain; (g) Once you look at that bloke that’s it, everybody’s gone, and (h) Before controlling others, control yourself. In addition, numerous related subthemes were identified.
Many of the attributes that emerged where consistent with previous qualitative enquires into mental toughness, such as the work of Jones, Hanton and Connaughton (2002), Thelwell, Weston and Greenlees (2005) and Gucciardi and Gordon (2008). However, a unique finding of this present study was the importance placed on the quality of self-control by participants; this may be related to the moral ethos present in karate practice. In addition, the ability to tolerant physical pain although not unique, emerged as a consistent and defining characteristic of mental toughness in relation to karate training.
The aim of this paper is to discuss the potential influence of Karate teaching methodologies on the participant’s perceptions of mental toughness attributes with emphasis on the management of pain and Injury.
Keywords: Mental toughness; Karate; thematic analysis; self-control; pain management.