KyungYet

I understand. It was kind of the elephant in the room. I'm glad you put it out there. And I do at least reference the "Glasgow kiss" (which is a headbutt - so you probably don't want one, even if she IS cute).

Hello, everyone! I'll skip the huge summary and boil it down for you: I'm writing a story in which the protagonist is a descendant of Ireland's greatest hero, Cu Chulainn, and he is training with the descendant of Scathach, the Scottish warrior-woman who trained Cu Chulainn. Get all that? I'm finally at the part of the book where I'm discussing his training with this woman. It's modern day, but they'll be learning how to fight with sword and shield. But Scathach was also a barehanded fighter, so I want to incorporate that as well. A few things you could help me with! 1) What might a brutal, combat-ready martial art style from Scotland look like in today's world? I've looked up Scottish martial arts and it basically seems to be boxing and sweeping... I need to add more than that. Is it closest to Muy Thai? Krav Maga? 2) What important lessons could my inexperienced protagonist learn about how to win his fights? Some examples I have are controlling the center of a battle; using feints; understanding and disrupting your opponent's rhythm, etc. 3) If you're feeling extra creative (I don't know how many of you consider yourself creative folk outside of the realm of the MA!), do you have any thoughts on what the studio might look like, the ceremonies might be like, the uniforms might look like, etc? I suppose this implies some knowledge about ancient Scotland you might not have. But maybe not: I just like cool-sounding ideas! =) Well thank you for indulging me! I didn't even know where to post this - it's certainly out of the realm of our normal discussions, but who better to bring this question to than a bunch of fellow martial artists, right? KY

At first I was surprised that this post had gotten so many replies, but when I think about how frequently I (and therefore I imagine, all y'all) hear words like the ones that began this post, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that these thoughts are really at the heart of everything that makes us martial artists. I will confess that I posted this with a strong opinion of my own: that being able to beat the pants off of someone else DOESN'T mean you're the best around (and nothing's gonna ever keep you down) (sorry, Karate Kid reference). I've seen too many thuggish martial artists who just have that aggressive drive that makes them really good fighters... but watching their technique, I would hardly qualify them as the best martial artists around. Unfortunately, there's a certain macho percentage of the karate population that only recognizes one's value if they can outpunch you. The end. And as someone who has been training and instructing for nearly 30 years now, I can tell you there's more to the martial arts than that. But I HAVE been interested in the conversations that remind me that martial arts are, at their heart, martial, and that without the fighting component, we are more or less ballet (we are. I'm totally okay with that. Both are beautiful and require great discipline and strength). I think it comes down to the fact that there are many pieces to the martial arts, such as: Actual technique/skill Physical Conditioning (speed/power/endurance) Aggressiveness/Fearlessness Mental toughness/focus ... And lots more. So when someone says, "if I can kick your bum, I'm a better martial artist than you are" it becomes clear to me that there are so many aspects to just that one facet - as always, it's just more complicated than that. Are you just stronger than I am? Are you faster? Are you more aggressive? Less fearful? Do you have better technique? Focus? Did I just have a mentally "off" day? And so on. So I guess I'm just going to strive to improve myself in all things, because it can't hurt. Kyung Yet

Sensei 8... what you're describing is exactly what I'm wanting for my style. I'd rather be a 3rd Dan for life, and know that I deserve that rank, than be a 9th Dan surrounded by a motley crew of people who's skill - my own included! - is truly unknown. You gave me the perfect answer. But while I recognize your style must be Japanese, I'm not familiar with all the terms you use (I'm from a Korean style). If you don't mind sharing, what is your style? Shotokan? Karate? Anyway, it sounds really challenging in the way I'd want martial arts to be challenging, and I wish I had the authority/say-so to bring that kind of impartial, straightforward, rigor to my organization... which is big, and well-known, unfortunately. Thank you for your answer! KY

Jaypo - Not rude! I expected something along these lines from someone. It's a real puzzler because in the martial arts there is such a focus on rank, and rank order, and respect towards rank... and at the same time there is an equal focus on humility, and the UN-importance of rank, etc. Sometimes it's tough to sort out. I mostly agree with you about the JCVD-kicking guy not necessarily being better than the lower-kicking, more knowledgeable guy. But to not get off track, the case I'm describing is much more extreme than what you're perceiving. You have the skilled guy who is a 2nd Dan, and the guy-who-looks-like-an-orange-belt-in-basically-all-ways who is a 5th Dan. I agree that there is ego involved, which is why I'm trying to focus on improving myself and not on the rank of others. But at the same time, it vexes me that my studio/organization has allowed the promotion of people who are not fantastic, because it reflects poorly on the studio/organization. As an unfortunate side-effect, people who ARE skilled but are of lower rank (e.g., myself, in this particular story) end up wrestling a bit with the resulting ego-knot of being told that their kick "needs more snap" by a person who has their foot in the wrong position during their kick, which was weak, during which they dropped their guard to their waist. Y'know? But: I do agree that a MAist can learn something from anyone. I've had comments from beginner rankings who observed something useful that I could take away. It isn't always the case, 'tho. Good thoughts! KY

Thanks, guys! You have no idea how much better this makes me feel. I rarely hear complaints from guys my age or older either because They think men shouldn't complain. They think martial artists shouldn't complain. They don't want to admit they have a weakness. But frankly, hearing others admit that some days it's tough, but that the answer is to just keep (carefully) pushing and working and training is super-inspiring. Now, off to go for a jog and stretch! KY

I wouldn't say you're wrong! I might say you're using a one-size-fits-all approach. I understand why. I often but not always agree with it, because some 17 year olds are more mature (and more skilled!) than some 30 year olds. This will not be the rule, but there are always exceptions. I think the JBB is there to prevent a false sense of security. I can just see some poor 14 year old with a 3rd degree black belt get his/her bottom handed to them and wonder "how did this happen? I'm an advanced black belt!" Obviously, this has to do with skill level, strength, and as you mentioned, emotional maturity. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not sure what the 100% optimal answer to this is. Our studio has 2nd and 3rd degree black belts under the age of 18. Some of them are truly stellar martial artists, with great attitudes and tons of maturity/responsibility. But some of them definitely should not be wearing anything other than a JBB. I think maybe that the instructors need to make a call together. That is, you've probably had an over-18 student who wasn't mature enough to test. Maybe they had poor control, or a bad attitude, and you had to tell them that they failed their exam or weren't ready to advance in the first place (or even that they needed to leave your studio!). If a student is ready, a student is ready, and I might be willing to make that call (ideally, with the collusion of another black belt or two) for people of various ages, ranging from teenagehood into adulthood. But you have to draw the line somewhere. Maybe 15? 16? Indeed, it is a knotty little issue, and I appreciate your thoughts on it!! KY

I wish this forum had a "like" button like Facebook.

"All that matters is whether or not what you do is effective in a street fight," is the nice version. "I can probably kick your rear, so your rank doesn't matter," is the less nice version. Agree or disagree? The true measure of a martial artist is whether or not they can beat you in a fight? The. End. I have my own opinions, but I'd like yours. KY

Believe it or not, the basic forms are exhausting and difficult for me. In our style of Tang Soo Do, which is Americanized and non-traditional (its the Chuck Norris System), we have Sang Gup or advanced versions of the basic forms. So Ki Cho Hyung Il Bu Sang Gup adds a stepping front kick before each center punch. Ki Cho Hyung Yi Bu "Sang Gup" adds a stepping front kick before each high punch on the corners, and reverse punches after each block down the center (which has been changed to low-inside-high-outside blocks). When I do these, they are EXHAUSTING. I dislike them. The timing of landing that punch after the kick is a pain in the rear. The quick shifting from back to forward stances down the center is a pain in the rear. Plus, to boot, they're a little boring, so it's hard to get inspired to do them the 9000th time. I honestly found the advanced forms easier because they weren't made up in the past few decades by Americans. I love the flow of the older, more traditional forms - theyre interesting and dynamic and my body just likes the feel of them better. So yeah. Basic form number two advanced is the hardest for me still today, and I've been doing this for 30 years. Give me Kong Sang Koon any old day. KY

I have nothing new to add to what others have said, but I wanted to simply chime in so you could see how many people agree: It's great that you're thinking about starting the martial arts! Do it! Anything worth doing is going to be tough. It's going to make you stronger, and more disciplined, and more confident! If you have a good instructor, (s)he won't push you beyond what you can realistically do. But they WILL push you, and that's a great thing! I'm looking forward to hearing about your progress! Best wishes! KyungYet

I'm in my 40s, but some days I feel more like I'm in my 60s. My feet hurt. My knees hurt. My hips hurt, and I can't kick as high as I used to, even though I stretch every day. My lower back hurts. MAN, does my lower back hurt some days. Is this normal or am I just aging poorly? I'll be happy to listen to your grandpa/grandma-like complaints since I just saddled you with mine, and I'm also excited to hear any training/rehabilitation advice you might have so I can keep up the same level of vigor, flexibility, and passion into my 50s, 60s, and 70s! Tanx! KY

I've been wondering, lately, about some pretty complex issues in martial arts regarding testing criteria, organizational structure, respect for rank, and my own personal humility. It's too much for my little mind to wrestle with, so I bring it to you, my community. Let's start with my personal issue and get it out of the way, because I know up front that it's egotistical and I've got a good clamp on it in the studio (but less in my head, which is why I'm here). I'M WARNING YOU: this is going to sound arrogant and annoying. People are supposed to be humble and patient, and I know I have to work on these things! But I can't work out these issues if I pretend to "get it" and lie, right? So here I am, in all my narcissistic glory. Be gentle. I admit my faults. I'm testing for my next rank of black - my first rank test in almost 25 years. During that time I went back to grad school to get my PhD (which was NOT conducive to training, let me tell you!), and have been teaching karate in various contexts (including running a program at the University level). Now I've returned to the studio I taught at in the 1990s to teach again and to train up for my next rank. It makes me really happy to reconnect with this community and help out my old friend (the owner of the studio, who is a 9th degree master). But I'm having some problems with the other black belts. I am certainly not the highest ranked black belt in class anymore... I undertested and am now ranked well below my skill level, after some 30 years of teaching and training. So it would be tough enough on my ego to have so many black belts lining up in front of me in class, and giving me orders and "advice" as it were... but the hardest part is that... most of them sort of suck. There, I said it. It seems like black belts are awarded more and more nowadays based upon persistence and not performance. One of the students I gave their first karate lesson to, ever, is now three ranks of black belt higher than I am (and makes it known that this is the case), but does not show a commensurate level of skill. The difference is simply that she continued to test while I did not. And I grant her that! She WAS more consistent in her testing than I was! But what about ability? I worry about what it would look like to an uninitiated stranger to walk into the studio and watch a class. "How come those people in the front of the class aren't the best martial artists?" they might wonder. And I wonder the same thing. I understand making some allowances for getting older (I sure am!) or being injured, but other than that, shouldn't your high-ranked black belts perform in a much superior manner to your lower ranked black belts? The upper ranked belt tests in our (very large) organization (which I would rather not name, thank you very much) don't even involve the performance of any martial arts. From Master rank on up, it's about service and having being certified in a number of seminar classes, and it's based on years spent in training. There is no actual performance criteria. So. I wonder what other schools out there are like. Are your tests ability-based through the ranks of black? That is, if you can't "do stuff," will you still pass? Are your instructors hard on what qualifies as "doing stuff" properly, or will they pass students if they "try hard" or have been there a long time? Is this what you feel testing should be based on? At what level should actual performance stop being the main criterion? To be clear, I always line up appropriately, I always pick up targets and the like when paired with a higher ranked black belt, I always show proper deference and respect in response to their corrections (be they useful or less useful). It's only in my head that I get irked. I would say, "well, it's my own fault for not testing enough - I'll just test up to the rank I deserve!" but there is a four year wait in between tests, so I will be unlikely to catch up to these people who continue to be awarded belts for taking seminars and just sticking around long enough. I don't know if I feel like I should be promoted or they should be DEmoted. Really, I just think they shouldn't have been promoted this high in the first place. I know martial arts aren't about lording your rank over others, or about attaining "prizes" of rank that make you feel important. I know this. Believe it or not, this is more about what I perceive to be disrespect to the entire style: belts awarded undeservedly to retain students, or to reward long-time students for loyalty and persistence; the awkwardness and oddity of high-ranking students mismatched to their ability level and lower-ranking students with much higher ability levels unable to proceed quicker/further due to strict rules about how frequently one can be examined. It's my sense of justice that I think is being tapped into here - I think I just want everybody to look like the rank they hold... and unfortunately, since I'm now part of this weird universe, my stupid ego has gotten involved. Ok, go ahead and yell at me a little if you must, but also maybe give me some thoughts on what your systems look like in this regard, and whether you feel belt tests should be merit-based or effort-based, and some advice on how I can crush down my ego a bit and be a better black belt even in an environment I find a little unfair. Unfortunately, I can't just find another studio because a) the organizational rules are exactly the same at all other studios of this type, b) I don't want to change styles, and there aren't a ton of other studios that teach my style to being with, and c) I DO like my old studio and the master instructor and I'd rather work this out in my head and be loyal than stomp off somewhere else. Feeling better having even written this out, Kyung Yet

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. I generally like martial arts, and I generally like martial artists. There's one thing we frequently do, however, that I dislike as a rule: put each other's styles down to new students and to one another. After earning 1st Dan in my chosen style, I went from studio to studio, trying out their free lessons to get a feel for them. On my part, I was genuinely curious: I'd read about many well-known martial artists such as Bill "Superfoot" Wallace or Chuck Norris, who had begun their career in one art (judo, as it happens, in both cases!) but found their calling in another. Further, after fighting in a number of tournaments, I thought it would only be to my benefit to understand the way other martial artists thought and what their typical movements were like. During that time, I learned the idiosyncratic differences between a number of arts - but one thing that each of them had in common was this: they all told me they were better than the others. A Lua instructor told me conspiratorially that, because his style hit multiple times per strike, his was better than "simple" styles like Shotokan. A Shotokan instructor pointed out that they didn't do fancy flying kicks like tae kwon do, because "pretty high kicks" were a waste of energy when you can knock someone out with a single punch. An aikido instructor informed me, with grave seriousness, that the striking arts all had it wrong: the only path to true victory lay in using an opponent's energy against them. Time and time again it happened. Sometimes I noticed a trend when I told instructors that I was already a black belt in another style. They would take special care to point out the many ways that their art did things better than mine. I was a little dumbfounded, as well as disappointed. And I vowed I would never do this myself - a vow I have since rarely broken in nearly 30 years. I say "rarely" because I've caught myself saying derisive things and then instantly regretting them. Putting something down in order to draw a favorable contrast to something you value is human nature, and that's only one among a number of reasons I think instructors do this. 1. Instructors, especially in today's economy, are trying to increase their student base. Convincing newcomers that you are the best, that your studio is the best, and that, indeed - your WHOLE STYLE is the best, gives potential customers incentive to spend their money on your studio instead of someone else's. This is just basic marketing strategy. 2. Psychology and sociology have long examined the dynamic of creating favoritism within groups ("ingroups") and derogation towards those outside our group ("outgroups") in order to increase affiliation (see Tajfel, H. (1970); also see every high school, everywhere). One way to make students feel important, and increase cohesion between them, is to give them the feeling that they're members of a special group that is better than or in conflict with other groups. This particular phenomenon has been used to explain everything from why we follow social norms to basically all of racism and sexism - so it can certainly be a powerful methodology. 3. Psychologists have also posited a phenomenon called "cognitive dissonance," in which after having made a choice, a person feels the need to stay consistent with that choice lest they feel "dissonant" (a mental sort of discomfort or unease). Thus, a person who perhaps hesitantly buys a Prius may start singing the praises of their new vehicle to convince themselves as well as others of the wisdom of their choice (see Festinger, L. (1956)). The more time and energy one has invested in a particular choice (e.g., an intimate relationship or a martial arts style), the more powerful the need to avoid this dissonance. 4. With great power comes great responsibility. And a great ego. Some people simply think they're better as a matter of course; give a person the confidence that they can dominate others physically and then give them people who look up to them and want to emulate them, and some of those people just become... jerks. There is probably science behind this particular phenomenon as well - but this should also be public knowledge. Setting aside #4, it may sound as though I've just outlined a number of effective methods for gaining and retaining students. Why shouldn't instructors utilize them? Because martial arts shouldn't just be a business out to make money regardless of methodology. Because martial arts shouldn't only raise up those that belong to one particular group, ignoring or actively slandering others. Because martial artists shouldn't teach or act so as to validate their own life choices to themselves, regardless of the effects of this on their students. Because martial arts has a philosophy, and it's generally something like: be respectful of others. Friends who are parents will frequently ask me what martial art their child ought to take, and I always answer the same way: it doesn't matter. All martial arts are in their own ways effective, beautiful and character-building, if taught the right way. I tell these parents: pick your martial arts studio based upon the instructor. And one of the things I tell them to look out for is whether or not the instructor demands that their martial art is the best way and the only way. Another problem is that if we take the argument that one style is "best" to its logical extreme, and we convince everyone we tell that all other arts but ours are easily deconstructed, it would mean the eventual eradication of all other martial arts styles. Can you imagine if everyone in the world acknowledged the superiority of Gracie jiu-jitsu and became practitioners to the exclusion of all else? I don't think even the Gracie's themselves would want that. Well, maybe. But you see my point: martial arts are as diverse as the people who created them are, and it's a boon to us all that this is the case. I try to live by my own words, so when a student asks me if I'll be "mad" if they try Muay Thai or whether or not I think their friend's style is good, too, I always tell them that all styles have their strengths and weaknesses and that they're welcome to try any one they want (I do encourage them to get a black belt in our art first though, just to create a solid base, before bouncing around from style to style as I did). I'm always disappointed when I continue to run into this phenomenon today, but I think we can turn it around: the class right before mine at the university is t'ai chi ch'uan, and some students have asked me what I thought about it. "Isn't it just for old people?," they wondered. So I told them no, it was a really interesting style that develops excellent breathing and internal strength as well as some excellent self defense and weapons skills. But later, a t'ai chi student told me that when she had asked the instructor about my class, he had answered by saying that "that Tang Soo Do class after us... all they do is shout and hit things! They have no understanding of internal energy!" So what did I do? I returned to my old habit of taking a free lesson - I came early to his class one day and asked if I could join in, because I was interested in learning more about the great art of t'ai chi. Then I invited him to give a demonstration and a guest lesson to my students. And now we're quite collegial with one another. Because that's what the martial arts should be about: mutual respect and cooperation.

Loved them. That guy is really talented. What I enjoyed about them (in addition to what's already been mentioned) is the aspect of misdirection. Something that looks like a jump spinning heel kick but becomes a round kick attacks the opposite side of the head from what the target expects. Same for something that looks like a jump spinning inside crescent kick (or "butterfly" kick) but becomes a heel kick has the same benefit. One more thought: if you develop enough power and flexibility, a kick to the head is an automatic knock-out... just go watch some TKD fight vids. GingerNinja doesn't look like he *couldn't* knock you out with a head kick, yeah? LOL KY