mc dojos and the like

[Lau gar]

is martial arts getting popular bad for it?

 

there will be more fake dojos arts not teached properly and martial arts abused by people who like fights ie.thugs.street fighters.

 

will the arts become sports rather than arts

 

i just thought (iv'e been doing a lot of thinking since getting my blue belt)

 

 

[rabid hamster]

I think as the years go by martial arts will get more popular, and sooner or later it'll probably become more sport.

[ckdstudent]

More people in the martial arts can't be a bad thing, at the least it means more people being healthy, and learning something about defending themselves even if it isn't much. You do have the McDojo problem, but that's just the price to pay.

 

 

[Pacificshore]

I believe the more exposure martial arts can get then the better. What it will come down to is whether or not martial arts dojos instill in their students a solid foundation of what the martial arts/their particular system is all about.

 

Teaching martial arts as a business is a double edge sword. In one respect you want to pass onto others all that you have learned, but in order to stay in business you have to charge for things such as testing, selling product, charging fees, all to cover your overhead no matter how small.

 

Perhaps a way of avoiding the MCdojo image is by operating out of a community center, or teach on a part-time basis, or simply trying to strike a balance between teaching and selling the martial arts, which is no easy task in itself. Especially if this is what you choose to do for a living. Then perhaps it'll just have to come right down to your reputation in youir community, and the quality of students you have taught. Just my 2C.

[Withers M.A.A.]

Well with anything the more popular something is the more chance for poor quality. If Martial Arts become more and more popular then YES more McDojos will pop up but hopefully with the number of GREAT instructors out there this will help minimize things.

 

As for not teaching for money. That is a double edge sword yes, but like any service that is offered people must pay. If you go to a restaurant then you expect to pay for your meal and service so why should martial arts be any different?

 

Gincin Funacoshi was one of the founding fathers of modern karate and had trained over 10,000 students. He wanted to promote people to instructor status so they could teach here in the U.S. Do you think some of these students were top notch? Prob. not. But I bet the majority of them were.

 

just my $0.02

 

 

[shuriken_girl]

I got a karate book, "Dynamic Karate" by M. Nakayama, who was a student of Funakoshi Gichin. Great book, highly reccomended.

 

He basically wrote the book out of concern since karate has been having growing popularity as a sport, not as a way of life.

 

In the U.S. the martial arts are definently losing quality. If you look at arts like Judo or Ju jitsu they've been really watered down from their original form. Used to be more fighting and less wrestling, and a good example of how arts can get worse over time instead of better. (My opinion)

 

I think the arts will survive mostly in their home countries and not in western countries.

[SaiFightsMS]

At the end of WW2 there were was a great demand for martial arts instruction in Japan and Okinawa and not enough qualified teachers. So there would be those who would take classes in the daytime and then go teach their students in the evening what they had learned earlier. So you see the McDojo concept is not a new one.

 

Just another 2 cents worth.

 

 

[searcher]

To answer the first question I think it is our responsibility as martial artists to help keep the thugs out of our inside training sessions. If they want to get the very best of training they will want to change their ways and be a part of what we are and if not we need to keep pushing ourselves to be better so we will be able to defend the innocent and ourselves fromeven our own classmates.

 

Now for the second part it is up to each of us to maintain the purity of our own arts and not let anyone waterdown our styles. This does not mean we can not learn something from somebody else it means do not forget your roots. I myself train in several different arts, but I keep them seperated from each other when I train and when I teach.

[Withers M.A.A.]

I agree that it is our responsibility to keep the meaning of the martial arts alive. We need to instill the true Martial Spirit into our students and see to it that the heritage continues in the right direction.

 

 

[Iron Arahat]

With organizations that promote musical kata, open forms, create a pattern, and martial arts tricks events martial arts is moving in a bad direction.

 

These types of events help create mcdojos, focus on movie action garbage, and dance routines. Musical kata with cowboy hats and doing a hoedown during you form (saw that recently in Vancouver). A school can focus on dance rather than skills that are worthwhile. Watered dow at its best.

 

Most people in martial arts today don't know their own lineage...