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Common myths about training in martial arts

(or what you will NOT find at Martial Arts Planet)

Myth 1: Hundreds of years ago, some martial arts Master had it "all figured out!"

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 wood stove 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 wood stove? 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. Martial Arts Planet students can rest assured that they are on the "cutting edge" of martial arts technology!

Myth 2: You must use honoring titles such as Sifu, Guru, Sensei, etc. in order to maintain the proper sense of respect in school.

This is one of the most pervasive habits in the martial arts, and goes back to the military style of training we will discuss later.Your students should be quiet and respectful when you are teaching because they are there to learn and genuinely respect you, not because they have to refer to you by a title from a different language. The kind of students who are impressed or motivated by these types of titles are not the kind of students we want at the gym.

Myth 3: You must teach your classes by having your students line up and grunt acknowledgments in unison.

This myth long associated with the more traditional martial arts stems from teaching methods derived from military. What most traditional Japanese martial arts consider to be Budo training methods, are nothing but. During the era of Samurai and warrior class of Japan, men and women trained in a very efficient, aggressive, and by today's standards, what would be considered "informal" way. When World War II broke out, Japan no longer had an exclusive military class. What they were in need of was a large military force. In order to create such a force, soldiers would have to be drawn from all segments of society. The Samurai, who never needed to be yielded at or prodded to train for combat, were replaced by merchants, farmers and tradesmen. Budo (the warrior way) was replaced by drill sergeants, straight lines of soldiers repeating the same moves in unison, yelling, titles of rank and a military style of teaching designed for people who were thought of as too inept to learn the traditional way. It is time to throw all this away! There are better ways to teach!

Myth 4: You must not give your students too much information, too fast, because "if you sell all the merchandise on your shelves, no one will come back to the store."

This is perhaps the stupidest myth associated with "martial" arts. It may apply to a teacher of forms and techniques, but should never be a concern to a Fighter. If it is, then you lack the most valuable commodity a martial artist can have: Imagination. How can you run out of an art that has no limitations? If you believe this asinine myth, quit teaching the martial arts now. You are in the wrong occupation!

Myth 5: You must teach a lot of information at once or your students will get bored.

This myth is true if you are teaching a crop of students who measure their progress by the accumulation of techniques and the size of their note books.

"I was taught movements and concepts from Rickson Gracie in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu two years ago that I am just beginning to apply and use now. Imagine if I logged those movements in my notebook and then said to Rickson 'OK, I know these now... show me more'. I am sure he would just laugh. However, with arts such as Kali and Jun Fan students learn a double stick pattern, or trapping combination, and then quickly request more variations and techniques to add to their notebook. The attitude of 'I have 27 double stick patterns and you only have 12' becomes common. The thought 'can I apply any of this?' does not seem to even occur." Matt Thornton.

When teaching people who are interested in learning how to really defend themselves, it is not necessary to teach a million techniques. Teaching the fundamentals well, and showing drills for their application, will always be greeted with enthusiasm. The seminars of Rickson Gracie prove this point.

Myth 6: You must not associate with your students in an informal way or they will lose their respect for you.

The kind of students who would lose interest in training because they realize that their instructor is a mortal human being, are not the kind of students we want at Martial Arts Planet. We believe that you must know your students well in order to motivate them well, which is why you will frequently see our staff organizing and participating in social events such as picnics, baseball games, movie nights, etc.

Myth 7: You should refer to people differently depending on whether they are "senior" or "junior" in your art.

Are you the kind of student who is impressed or motivated by titles such as Master, Soke, Kyoshi, etc., or by your instructor's claims of being a "23 degree Black Belt?" If so, you are typically not the kind of student who is attracted to Martial Arts Planet. Myth #6 demonstrates the dramatic difference between the beggar's humility and warrior's humility. The beggar will bow down and scrape the floor for any man he deems to be greater than him; but at the same time he will demand that any man he deems to be lesser, bow down and scrape the floor for him. The warrior bows down before no man, and allows no man to bow down before him. At Martial Arts Planet we strive for the humility of a warrior and shun the humility of a beggar.

Myth 8: In the martial arts, men’s and women’s classes must be separated.

There is nothing farther away from the truth than this! For most women, the primary goal for training in the martial arts is not competition, but self-defense. They want to be able to stop or divert a potential aggressor (usually a man) in a “street-fighting” situation. For women, solely training with other women might be a nice social or athletic event and gives good fitness conditioning too, but from the point of view of self-defense against an aggressor - man, it is useless. Why? Simply because men are usually larger than women and they don’t fight the same way as women do. So, to develop skills useful in real “street-fighting” situations, women have to train in similar conditions - with men, at least part of the time. There is also an important factor of psychological conditioning. Women training with men are not going to panic or be impressed by the larger size and aggressiveness of the male aggressor as they have been exposed to it many times before!

Myth 9: Women should not grapple, especially not with men.

Well, this is more question of a personal choice. In martial arts there are as many men as women who enjoy the long-range combat (punching, kicking...) but who don’t like to be in close (clinching or grappling) range with their opponents. That’s fine. But there is one thing which makes it different for women. As said before, most women do martial arts in order to gain some experience in self-defense. Attacked by a man, there is much higher probability for a woman to be taken to the ground than there is for a man. That’s a simple question of size and strength. And in that situation, it is of crucial importance for a woman to know how to defend herself. When fighting with a larger and stronger male on the ground, the use of proper technique is her only chance to escape or even save her life. The technique does not come by itself, it must be learned during the realistic training. So, grappling with larger male partners has its important place in women’s MA training. Many women realize that and would like to learn some basic ground fighting. However, there is something else to stop them. The society. The common view of any closer contact between two opposite sexes as something which should not be encouraged. Well, grappling is a close contact, there is no doubt about that! Any woman (and, by the way, any man, too) can feel uncomfortable in such a close range the first few times. But, as she (or he) progresses, she finds very quickly that in martial arts people are not divided to men and women. All of them consider themselves "only" as human beings on their way to find and improve themselves. The martial arts way is the way of respect for each other.

Typical experiences at ordinary martial arts schools:

The typical class in most Martial Arts schools might consist of the student practicing a prearranged "dance" by themselves, in the air (katas, forms). This is what we call training a "dead" pattern. It might then progress on to one and two step sparring against a cooperative opponent. What this means is that your partner will pretend to attack you with a prearranged move and you will then respond with a prearranged move. Keep in mind that in a street fight your attacker will never attack you with a prearranged move. And he most definitely will not act as a "dummy" for you, holding his arm motionless in the air, so that you can look good. Finally, after a while, advanced students might be allowed to engage in "free sparring" against another opponent. Unfortunately, even this "free" sparring almost always involves a very restrictive set of rules. In short, it is all as far away from a street fight as one can get.

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