Do the old rivalries still exist?

[Nick_UKWC]

A couple of us were chatting to Sifu last session and he mentioned briefly that in the 80's there was a lot of rivalry, people turning up at Dojos and the like, challenging instructors things like that.

 

He said it seems to have calmed down a bit these days but I was wondering if it was just less obvious. Does anyone have any experiences they want to share?

[manuelito]

yes it still happens. a friend of mine was challenged after finishing his last class for the evening. 3 guys came up to him and started chatting with my friend after the class and then a few minutes later challenged him. my frien declined. the reason they challenged my friend was because they thought my friend did not have the right to teach the particular style he was teaching. i think it would have been a bit different if these gentlemen did not corner my friend when he was alone.

[shotochem]

A true martial artist would not make challenges.

 

Only thugs and criminals who have no respect for the arts in which they trained would.

[Nick_UKWC]

It sounded like it was mainly about egos and money. Not what martial arts should be (but all to often are) about.

[Shane]

It happen to my Instructor in the mid 90's, I was pretty surprised I did not think that stuff still went on and that was 10yrs ago. Lucky for the guy my Instructor pretty much laughed it off, My instructor didnt care who was teaching what or who had another school in town. He was not about that at all, we were all about intense training and having a good time doing it. Now I have my own school and last week another school opened up in town here and the Instructor came in and talked to me, it was great we talked about working together for community functions ect., similar to when I opened up and contacted the Instructor of the local Karate dojo. Thats how it should be showing each other respect. I know some might look at each other as competition but I guess I'm lucky here because the 3 of us offer complete different training programs, and we all know everyone out there is looking for something different. So instead challenging other schools to duals you should go challenge them with the task of working with you to help the local community.

 

My thoughts

[Little Dragon]

A true martial artist would not make challenges.

 

Only thugs and criminals who have no respect for the arts in which they trained would.

Masters DO make challenges,but its for different reasons than thugs and criminals.Usually for Reputation,Rivalry,or To Establish Order like manuelito had said.

[Ricochet]

I once jokingly suggested to out kung fu teacher that we go challenge the wushu guys down the hall (I'm in a club at a university). He told me that once upon a time, guys would sometimes come in to challenge them.

 

More recently, we were just starting class, when a bunch of wrestling guys came in (we train in the wrestling room), and started doing their training on the other side of the room. As our teacher was trying to figure out how we'd do things since we didn't have the full room, as we normally do, I said to him, "Aw, c'mon - we can take them!"

 

Oh, I'd make a bad sifu.

[DokterVet]

A true martial artist would not make challenges.

 

Only thugs and criminals who have no respect for the arts in which they trained would.

 

I don't understand this. If you respect your art, shouldn't you be concerned with making it as effective as possible? In fact, shouldn't it require effectiveness to be respected as a fighting style?

 

Wouldn't challenges continually test the art in order to refine it?

[HumanTyphoon]

Yeah, I mean didn't people have a bunch of challenges in the old days? I mean in the old old days, when great great grandpa was only a kid.

[Ricochet]

Nowadays, a more reasonable thing to do would be for a school to go to another and ask in a respectful manner if they might spar against each other. This is done sometimes, and if, indeed, the goal is to further one's understandings of the art, there is no reason why it couldn't be done in this way, instead of barging in with an inflated ego and condescendingly issuing challenges.

 

Anyway, just because challenges were issued in the past doesn't mean that we have to do them now. They did a lot of things in the "old days" that we don't do any more. The arts have changed, and it's important to remember that the sociopolitical climate and culture these days is very different from the ones in which they were originally developed.