Traditions, Assumptions and Make-belief……
By Professeur Buitron
Many who enter in the martial arts really never have a clue on which style of
system they should train in. In fact the majority of 17 and under students are
placed in the nearest martial arts school to either their parents’ works or
home.
For several reason expect the style or system of the martial art taught, those
reasons are the following: shopping, doing daily errands for the house hold or
as a substitutes for a babysitter are the main reasons.
So parents do not seem to be looking for the most practical, life preserving
styles; in fact they are looking at practicality in time, traveling distance and
above all Price.
When I trained as a child and Teen the Martial arts class were roughly $30 to
$40 dollars in the 70s and in the 80s it was raised to about $60 to $70, in the
90s the price was in the $80 to $100 price range. Today the prices of tuition
are now between $125 to $150.
This reason is not to compare arts but to the obligations of operating a school
with Rent, Equipment, Advertising and Insurance Prices continue to escalate. It
is the main reason for tuitions to be raised.
It is not a fad but a necessity of daily operations of a school. This is seen
with privately operated schools and not those operated in the YMCA or Recreation
center schools which normally keep the tuition between $30 to $50 price tag to
their teaching and with half of the tuition going to the center.
Nonetheless Fads do exist in the Martial Art Realm in the 70s Kung fu grew, why?
Bruce Lee grew in popularity, and then came Chuck Norris which provided growth
for the Korean styles of Tang Soo Do and Tae Kwon Do benefited.
The fads quickly changed in the mid 80s when the Ninja craze came in full effect
and in Laredo the traditional Japanese instructors wore Tabi boots and ninja
garb as well as pranced around meditating in a lotus position claming the five
elements. Was the norm in Laredo.
While in college in Dallas another fad grew and dwindled quickly that was the
growth of Tai boxing or Muy Tai. Why? It was brought forth by the movie Blood
sport off Claude Van dame. Every chop and block school was teaching the sport
which had in actuality never really seen outside of Los Angeles.
This decimation of tradition by the many, lead the martial realm in the US into
a huge disarray of convoluted misinterpretation of the martial arts in general.
You suddenly saw Korean martial artists sporting ninja outfits teaching you to
become ninja in class or the majority of Karate instructors wearing black
uniforms instead of white and claiming to be ninjas, while still portraying as
being traditional martial artist to their mother art.
Teaching kids to telegraph kicks while going against all the principles of
defending oneself correctly. While telling them their Instructor{s}) were taught
tai boxing in the service and that it is the hardest kick in the World.
Thus what happened to the tradition of purity or of correctness? Who knows but I
am grateful for have instructors who cared for teaching actual realty in the
martial skills that I acquired.
This lack of tradition or the claming of tradition is a huge ace to many martial
schools, an affirmation which is sometimes a double edged sword. That can be
divided into two following opinionated sides:
1. For those not claiming a tradition Usually claim that they are following the
divine Martial arts road either is usually seen today by the following:
a) On one hand with the MMA crazy which in my opinion is a more valid than the
ninja crazy of the 80s?
I. You see young instructors with no experience teaching you how to fight.
Claiming and teaching many that they do not need fundamentals, principles or
understanding of attacks.
II. That you simply have to use your objective to win a fight.
III. That every fight goes to the ground.
IV. They usually teach Tai boxing or kickboxing mixed with judo or jujitsu or
even college wrestling claiming to have either trained under a pro or fighting
in a MMA fight that never actually happened. While there are some good schools
that are franchised by a good pro MMA fighter who turned coach. Those are good
but the majority are seminar junkies and youtube masters entrusted to teach your
child or you how to protect your life.
b) The other side of the non tradition claiming schools you will find
instructors claiming a form of tradition( usually an assumption) with a self
made up style or system with five or more non-comparable arts mixed up in
theory, concepts and actions.
c) You also have fast paced ranking schools where the students are geared on a
black belt program. Usually these are found within the chop and block corner
schools where the percentage of students are children than that of adults and
taught by some individual prancing to be a master.
d) Then you have many non-traditional bearing schools actually and most
camouflaged reason for lack of tradition is because of the instructor’s
self-promotion of his rank. Usually you can simple find out when a system that
they are teaching, actual highest rank is less than what the instructor is
wearing. Example: Shotokan highest Rank is 5th Degree and you have 8th degree
black belts running around.
e) Then you have martial arts instructors that compare everything as being the
same. Even when movement is movement. Comparing kicks that might look the same
in a photo finish, does not actually mean that it is delivered the same
mechanically or with the same power or even with the same precision. These
opinions usually come from the normal chop & block corner schools.
2. Now for those schools that care about tradition, the following is usually how
to set them apart:
a) Usually the instructor will inform the prospect student that he teaches a
certain system or style, its lineage who taught them.
b) If the school teaches several arts they are taught separate and not
implicated together.
c) They are not afraid to explain the ranking structure of the federation,
association or guild that the school is affiliated with. In fact all members
will belong to the federation or association that they are affiliated to.
The understanding of this part of the martial arts is where many become
confused. I will express an incident that I had. I was at the grocery store
about to pay when the young lady behind me asked, do you teach martial arts? I
replied with yes. She happily screeched out and said same here.
By the look of her face she was no more that 20 years old. So, I asked her,
“What style do you teach”. She looked at me and at the cashier and said, “I
teach martial arts, that is what I teach”. I continued to reply with I
understand but what style or system do you teach? She turned and high fived her
friend and said to me, “I teach martial arts and I am certified.”
She responded in telling me, “You do not understand martial arts, do you. I do
the same as you, I teach people how to kick box, just as the picture on your
shirt.” So I Left by say well good luck on your venture. That was a major eye
opener and is the reason for teaching correctly and specifically.
Parents and students should find out the happenings in the martial arts school
that they belong too. Because joining a martial arts school is like purchasing,
a used car: and it’s too late when you see the problems arise.
Many must first analyze that the world has been fighting since its creation, and
it was not Homo-sapiens that invented the martial skills. We simply named them.
So as time continued passing and modern recorded of the first civilizations
grew. The different civilizations developed the means of protecting themselves
and thus we have martial arts worldwide.
This is the main reason we should keep tradition alive, for that respect. For
the many that established those arts. Yet many should understand just as
traditions, customs, languages and ideas filter society the same occurred within
the Martial Arts.
So, I will compare martial arts to languages (systems); the different styles
(schools of thought) are no more than local dialects as well as Slang’s exist,
thus the same. Let me explain:
• karate will be the language and shotokan, shito ryu, goju ryu are the
dialects.
• Kenpo/Kempo is the language, in which the dialects will be american kenpo,
nihon kenpo, shorinji kenpo or Lima Lama
• Kung Fu the language has Shaolin Kung Fu, Hung Gar, Choy le fut, wing chung
dialect and the slang being JKD.
• Savate and Boxe Francaise are Languages, will have Danse De Rue Savate, Boxe
Francaise: Savate as the dialects followed by Boxe de rue, Savate defense as
slang’s.
• Pentjack Silat the mother language with chimande, Sera Harimau and Mande muda
as dialects
• Capoeira will be divided into angola or regional are Languages.
They all have some elements in common and are recognizable between practitioners
of the different styles (dialects), but still have difficulties understanding
some aspects.
They share an evolutional common grammar, sentence structure (techniques) and a
pattern of expression (fighting principles), yet the idioms differ. Which in
many cases end up being differentiated systems or styles if they evolve
divergently?
We need to be cautious and not mistake a Language/ system, dialect/style with
slangs. While languages and dialects have structure, this is where traditional
schools are founded upon; slangs (a school which teaches no tradition) is
exclusive localized by an instructor. Many of the slangs claim a tradition that
is where the confusion lies.
Slang type schools usually claim a language, yet are separate from the language
or dialect that they claim. Thus when approached by a member of a language. They
do not understand what's being said, and either shy away or tell their students
not to partake in the events of the groups of true languages or workout with
members of the groups of dialects.
Some slang words may from time to time go to the public domain such as MMA ,
combat karate , while claim concepts. Slang words/techniques fall into oblivion
as soon fad ends in some cases, while others are absorbed into the grammar of a
dialect, never actually becoming part of the language.
In the marketplace of martial arts, all schools are not created equal. Martial
arts teachers generally do not answer to a state regulatory commission or a
government agency, and there exists no watchdog group to ensure the quality of
instruction. Anyone, in fact, can acquire or purchase a black belt, rent studio
space and, to the unwitting public, appear to be the second coming of Bruce Lee.
This can actually be remedied when you look for a school that actually teaches a
traditional system and is affiliated with a reputable federation, association or
guild. You need to acknowledge the regulatory governing bodies’ rules, if there
are a sporting entity check the state regulatory departments, which are usually
the boxing commission as in Texas.
Be safe and practice hard with acknowledging what you have studied in the past
and what you actually want to learn in the present, since in the future your
life or that of a loved one might depend on it.