Martial Arts Planet - Martial Arts in Kingston, Ontario

ARE YOU ON THE "CUTTING EDGE?"

By: Michael Sweeney (June 2003)

Allow me if you will to paint a little picture for you: You wake up one morning and before making breakfast, you realize that you need to go to the bathroom. So, out the door you go, across the lawn and into the outhouse. On your way back to the house you stop off at the woodpile to grab a couple of logs so that you can add fuel to the woodstove so that you can fry your eggs. Unfortunately, before reaching the house, the wood which you are carrying obstructs your view and you fall, opening a deep cut on your leg. The cut is bleeding quite badly so you wrap a cloth around it, hop onto your horse and head off to the doctor. Upon arriving at the medical clinic, the doctor appears quite concerned about the cut. Rather than risking infection he decides to treat the wound with leeches.

Should I stop here?

Are there still places in our country where we must use an outhouse and cook on a woodstove? Of course there are. Do we still use horses for transportation? In some situations, yes. How about using leeches in medicine? I was surprised to find that the answer is yes, in some situations we do use them. I don't however think that there would be anyone reading this on their computer that could not see that technology and education have allowed us to move beyond these methods.

How does this relate to martial arts, and specifically, your martial arts training? I am always astounded to hear about martial arts instructors who teach their students that some martial arts master had it all figured out a hundred or more years ago. How could it possibly be true that in every area of our life we have made advances, except in the area of martial arts training? The word "traditional" when combined with martial arts conjures up images for some people of "ancient secrets" passed down from the masters. Would you feel the same way if you brought your TV in for repair and the technician told you the he was going to use "traditional" methods for repairing it? How about if you went to the dentist and he told you that he had been treating his patients with "traditional" methods of dentistry?

Do we at Martial Arts Planet teach "traditional" martial arts? In some ways, yes, and in others ways, ABSOLUTELY NOT! What I do value and pass on to my students are the traditions of honour, integrity, loyalty and spirit that some of our martial arts ancestors trained with. And when I do have students who are interested in the historical training methods of the martial arts past, I will share them. What I don't believe in doing is teaching a student that the physical skills and training methods of the past are in some ways superior to current martial arts skills and that if they stick around long enough, they will "learn the secret."

This year, the skills taught at our school have evolved beyond what we taught last year and are light years beyond what we taught even five years ago. Next year I expect they will progress in the same way. Why? Because my staff and I are constantly learning, researching, training and testing our curriculum so that our students get the very best training possible. Keep attending classes on a regular basis and you too can be on the "cutting edge" of martial arts technology!