Noah Mitchell began karate in 1983, experiencing a strict training approach to the art. A decade later, Mitchell began learning kobudo and after another decade, he began learning battodo and Toyama-ryu. In 2006, Mitchell opened his Mountain Stream Budo, offering many different martial arts and allowing his students to cross train like he has. Today, Mitchell took some time to talk about those experiences. All images provided by Noah Mitchell.
Martial Arts of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Hello and welcome Mitchell Sensei! Thank you for taking the time to join us today!
Noah Mitchell: It is a pleasure to be here.
MAYTT: You began learning Okinawan karate in 1983. What was it about karate that sparked your interest in the art? What is it about karate that continues to inspire you to train today?
NM: I was totally uninterested in karate in 1983. All I knew about karate then involved poorly dubbed Sunday afternoon kung fu flicks. I was in junior high school and a friend of mine was beaten up while he was on his way to my house. The bullies shoved his face into a thorn bush because he had a British accent. Afterward, he told me that he’d had enough and that he was going to study martial arts. I laughed this off, but the following week he said he’d joined a karate school and asked me to join as well. I resisted this, but in the end, peer pressure won out. It took about a year, but I fell in love with the art and when I start something, I don’t quit! [Laughs] I’ve been training for forty-one years now. Budo has become a way of life for me, as cliche as that sounds. I can’t imagine a life without daily training. What continues to inspire me today perhaps is the fear of not training!
MAYTT: How would you describe the training you experienced when you first started karate? In what ways have you seen the art change or evolve over the course of time?
NM: Back in the mid-1980s, adult karate classes were huge. Our organization had perhaps 150 local members, and classes consisted typically of twenty to thirty students. Free sparring was a big part of it, and back then no one wore gear of any kind. I very much doubt there was much in the way of insurance, either! [Laughs] Instructors were very strict, as were rules; if you arrived late to class, you were told to go home. If you misbehaved, you’d be given pushups or other punishment. Occasionally, people were booted out of the dojo. This all changed during the subsequent two decades. As attention spans grew shorter and people began to participate in more than one extra-curricular activity or hobby, fewer adults were attracted to traditional budo. Fads arose that became competitive, and ubiquitous TKD schools, krav maga, BJJ, MMA, and even gyms that offered a quick class in the early morning before work seduced many people from more traditional arts. Adults were too busy driving their kids around to multiple activities to participate in long-term endeavors such as traditional budo. People became more litigious and often insurance companies have a firm say now in what you can or cannot do in a class.
MAYTT: Wow. In comparison to your karate training, how do you conduct your karate classes with new and returning students?
NM: Insurance companies, parents, and students’ expectations have changed enormously since I started training in the early 1980s. For example, we would occasionally train in the dark, put obstacles on the floor to simulate uneven terrain, and train outside in the warm weather. None of this can occur now. Instructors back then would mete out punishment for misbehavior, lack of etiquette, late arrival, etc., including pushups, standing in a corner holding a shinai over your head for five minutes, or other physically difficult exercises that were often humiliating. None of these, at least in New York where I am located, would fly today. Sparring gear – head, hand, and foot protection, and mouthguard – must be worn always when sparring. However, I think the main difference is that Americans view a martial arts dojo these days as a place where you’re paying for a service. They expect to advance in rank regularly – I insist on quality over quantity at my school, so rank is ALWAYS earned and never given; students do occasionally fail rank shinsa – to be treated like a paying customer regardless of rank, and so forth. It’s a different mindset for sure. Not that training was better forty years ago; it was merely different. I think some changes are for the better for sure. As fun as it is to tell I-walked-uphill-to-school-in-five-feet-of-snow-both-ways stories, I feel that some changes are absolutely for the better.
MAYTT: A decade after taking up karate, you enrolled yourself in kobudo. How have you seen that expansion of training help further your understanding of karate?
NM: I’m a firm believer in putting on a white belt and starting something new. I know a lot of high-ranking instructors who are afraid of doing that or who don’t want to be seen by their students as a beginner in anything. Being a beginner brings you freedom in training. I tell my students jokingly that a white belt is a license to suck. You don’t have the responsibility of quality and skill that comes with rank. More than anything, starting over in a new art helps you remember what it’s like to be a beginner and helps you empathize with your students. On a less important level, it helps you to understand how all martial arts are connected. Movements, techniques, and even applications in kobudo can be likened to those of karate. Understanding these similarities helps you to improve your overall comprehension of both arts.
MAYTT: Additionally, in the 2000s, you began practicing Toyama-ryu and battodo. What was it about Japanese swordsmanship that you wanted to learn more?
NM: At that time, my Japanese jujitsu instructor decided to add some BJJ to his curriculum. I was not at all attracted to BJJ, but many of my classmates joined a local BJJ school to help them improve their grappling skills. I felt that I wanted to begin some new training myself, but not in BJJ; our kobudo style includes over a dozen traditional Okinawan weapons, but not the Japanese sword. I felt attracted to sword arts and wanted to add that skill set to the three other arts that I was practicing.
MAYTT: I see. What was it about BJJ that disinterested you while you were training Japanese Jujutsu?
NM: I am not attracted to competition-based arts (kendo, judo, BJJ, etc.) that incorporate combative rules. This is purely a personal response and not at all meant to imply anything negative at all about these arts. All martial arts have different structures and each appeals to different practitioners. Rule-based combative arts such as BJJ and MMA appeal to an enormous number of people; they just aren’t what I look for in budo for personal reasons.
MAYTT: How have you seen the addition of Japanese sword arts help compliment your understanding of karate?
NM: I don’t think sword arts contribute in any significant way toward my understanding of karate. They are vastly different by nature. The sword art I practice is even very different from kobudo, despite both involving the use of traditional weapons. Since I’ve been training in karate a lot longer than I have been in sword, if anything, my karate base helped in very general ways when I was first starting out in sword. For example, my understanding of stances, balance, how to generate power and focus, concepts such as ki-ken-tai-ichi, etc. but these are very broad concepts; swinging a sword and punching are very different and require a different set of skills.
MAYTT: In 1988, you began teaching at a youth program when you received your black belt. What was that experience like for you and how has that helped you become the instructor you are today?
NM: I was a senior in high school and had just gotten my shodan in karate. The previous teacher at the community center was moving on, and I was asked to take over. It was my first experience teaching. A lot of people involved in the budo have no interest in teaching; they’re happy to come in two to three times per week, sweat, learn some stuff, and go home. Teaching those kids revealed to me that I loved instructing as much as I did training. In 1988, I had no desire to teach karate as a career, but it did introduce me to the joy of helping others learn.
MAYTT: When did you establish your Mountain Stream Budo? What factors influenced your decision to open your own school?
NM: I opened MSB in 2006. I was working in the film industry and teaching karate and kobudo at a dojo that was owned by one of my seniors. After the turn of the century, he began to lose interest and he essentially turned the classes over to me and one of my colleagues. He did nothing to help the school grow, and by 2005 there were only a handful of students left. I realized then that either I needed to open my own dojo or very soon I would have nowhere left to train. I opened Mountain Stream Budo and literally the same week was hired for two feature films, back-to-back, and was away for over two months, leaving the teaching to my top students. Upon returning from the movie work, I realized that this dichotomy couldn’t be sustained, and that I had to choose between a career in film production or martial arts instruction.
MAYTT: You are part of the Okinawa Kobudo Doushi Rensei-kai and serve as their New York State Shibu-Cho. What are some of your responsibilities and duties as branch head?
NM: As NY State Shibu-cho, I am responsible for making sure that all OKDR-affiliated dojos in New York are run properly and abide by the by-laws of the federation. I also have to make sure they get what they need, that students who are eligible for testing to dan-level ranks are given the opportunity to participate in shinsa and gasshuku events, and that dojo nushi are benefitting from their membership. My instructor is the head of the organization worldwide, and I also act as the liaison between him and all OKDR members in New York. I have to make sure all members pay their annual dues, and that news is passed down to dojo owners and then to all students.
MAYTT: Final question; being a practitioner and holding high ranks within four different martial arts, how do you approach students who want to train more than one art at a time?
NM: I very, very strongly encourage students to train in more than one art at a time! [Laughs] I make cross-training affordable at my dojo – the cost of studying a second art at MSB for those already enrolled in one is seventy dollars a month, which is very very cheap in NY! [Laughs]. If someone wants to study an art that I don’t know, I encourage that as well. I have a number of students who train at other dojos as well as at mine. I ask them to share what they learn. It not only helps them to improve as bujin, but I love learning and can find something interesting or worthwhile from anyone or any martial art. I keep an open mind and students appreciate that; I know a lot of instructors who limit their student’s training outside of their own dojos, probably due to fear of losing students to teachers who might know more than they do. It’s unfortunate and makes students feel controlled. I love seeing my students take up new arts either at my school or elsewhere, and if they’re attracted to an art that doesn’t interest me, who am I to discourage that pursuit?
MAYTT: Thank you again for this great conversation!
NM: Thank you for having me.
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