The Martial Intellectual

   You know some people may look at that title as a good thing. A martial intellectual. You know the truth is it can be a really good thing if it's done correctly. Unfortunately sometimes people get so into what they are doing they can lose the connection they need to benefit the very people they are trying to help. When you try to bring this to someone's attention it can be the most frustrating thing in the world and alot of times there is no nice way to go about it.
   For me a martial intellectual is something I don't want to be I'd prefer to be an artist. Famed writer Charles Bukowski once said, An intellectual is elitist by nature. They take things that are simple and make them hard to understand so they can only be enjoyed by other intellectuals. An artist however takes something hard to understand and makes it easy for everyone to attain." I'd much rather be a martial artist.
   Have you ever listened to someone give a lecture that obviously loves the sound of their own voice more than you? Have you ever worked with someone who takes 15 minutes to explain something you could've explained in 2 minutes? If so then you have a good idea of what I'm talking about here. Now imagine you just got a job as a cop fresh out of the academy and you don't really know anything and you walk into a class taught by one of these verbal masturbation aficionados.  You may know how to throw a punch when you walk in that door but you won't know how to wipe your ass when you leave. I wrote an article years ago about a similar situation where people that were pretty good fighters before learn how to fight badly by taking certain martial arts. This article isn't about quality of techniques in a given art this is about learning. I'll give you another example. I currently have a 4th Dan in Judo. When I was coming up through the lower ranks we had to learn the Gokyo no Waza. This is 5 different sets of throws you learn on the way to your 1st Dan belt. There is a throw in the first set called O Goshi. O Goshi is the main hip throw you always see done. Then later on there's Harai Goshi but they aren't in the same set. To train these throws separate leads to memorization not learning. The gokyo no waza though it has some great techniques sucks as a teaching model. First of all you have to learn the names of the throws. The problem is that judo throws don't have names what you are actually learning is a description of the throw...it's instructions. As an instructor your supposed to be giving those. So if your not traveling to non english speaking countries why do you need to know the descriptions in japanese? The functional answer is that you don't and you shouldn't have to learn them. It just sounds impressive for you to know them. Kind of dumb isn't it? I bet you would learn Harai Goshi alot easier if I said, " Hey sometimes when your doing that hip throw the person can slide off your hips and counter you so if you feel that swing your leg back and up and flip them over it. Makes alot more sense that way doesn't it? Oh but the martial intellectual can't handle that because they don't get to say japanese words and make you feel less intelligent than them for not knowing them. By the way I did learn all the techniques in japanese.
   So you see that stuff in traditional but oddly enough it's even worse in modern martial arts. Enter the reality based martial intellectual. These are the guys that read all the science books and know all the statistics. They know everything you can't tell them anything. First of all I want to say it's good to do that research I do it myself. That is definitely a good thing. It can help you maximize the efficiency of your programs tenfold. The problem is when they don't keep it in it's proper perspective and become an educated idiot. That means book smarts but no common sense. I use science and statistics to keep my programs current. However when I'm talking to others whether it be through an article or teaching a class in person I try to simplify my language. This is not to say that people are dumb by any means but this isn't there field it's mine. If I went to their job I probably wouldn't know shit either. I can have all the knowledge in the world but if I can't transmit it then it's useless. I have friends who have written books and I know they are brilliant people. When I read their books I have no idea what they are talking about. I can tell how smart they are when I read their work but it's all wasted because they can't communicate with the public. Whenever I teach police I usually give a 10 minute talk about the program and use some psychological terms but they are functional and the only reason I do it is to explain why what we do is different than what they may have seen in the past. I've read articles in the past where these guys get so into themselves they actually come up with new terms for things like saying doctrine instead of concept so they can correct people about it and expect them to know it. Frankly, that is irrelevant bullshit. It isn't helping anyone defend themselves to know it. It's nothing more than the martial intellectual verbally masturbating for themselves and they don't even know it. I almost called this article Your So Smart Your the Dumbest Mother Fucker I've Ever Met. Always use the terms people are the most familiar with not what makes you look the most intelligent. It's about helping them not you. Maybe verbal masturbation is too spot on I should say non physical self gratification so they will feel better about it.
   About a week or so ago I posted on a thread. Now I generally hate posting in groups and try not to join them because no one ever learns anything from them. It's just a bunch of chiefs with no indians trying to one up each other. It's a complete waste of time. I can't even remember the original post but it got around to whether or not there was a growing MMA style threat that police needed to account for in their defensive tactics. Now the fact is that is a real threat. Defensive tactics programs all over the country have had to account for it. 20 years ago you didn't see alot of groundfighting in police training now it's everywhere. Why? It's because of MMA. I had to work a defense for rear chokes and strangles into my program because I had several officers have incidents where they were on the ground cuffing someone and another person came from behind and yanked them off the assailant by using the so called rear naked choke. Now was this around before MMA? Of course is was it's been in the Judo syllabus for a hundred years. Was the attacker an MMA fighter? Probably not he probably just watched pay per views. Most of these attacks probably aren't by the actual fighters themselves usually wannabees. The students however know these as MMA attacks that weren't being done 20 years ago so if it is or if it isn't doesn't matter. It's how they know it and that's how we'll deal with it. Well there was a guy on that thread. Actually a brilliant guy and from what I can see has a good program as well. However he is a martial intellectual. His point of view was that MMA techniques used against officers are not on the rise. He had this whole breakdown of skilled, experienced, and some other thing. The fact that officers I teach see these attacks on a weekly basis didn't matter to him he was right regardless. Demanded proof as if he was some governing body of whatever. It seemed really odd to me and I became annoyed by it. If you push me I'm going to push you back so eventually I just left because talking to this robot was pointless. I had other friends there and didn't want to start a war plus I was starting to lose my cool over the idiocy of it all and wanted to keep things professional. The fact is it doesn't matter if the guy is skilled or experienced or anything else. It doesn't matter if he was in the octagon or just watched pay per views. If you don't account for that type of attack in your training you will be undone by it. It's becoming more common I get questions about it daily. The guy actually agreed with me at one point on certain types of training for it but he continued to hurl back handed insults to save face for some reason. My point is that whole thing was over irrelevant verbiage. It was pointless and stupid it was a martial intellectual at his worst. People know the term MMA they don't need a history lesson on the origin of each move. They don't need a complicated breakdown of three things when one will cover it. They don't need your bullshit they need your help. Answer these questions:

Does knowing this term make me a better fighter?

Does understanding certain verbiage help me defend myself better?

Is there a simpler way to say this than what I'm hearing?

If you answered no to the first two and yes to the last one then someone is wasting your time verbally flogging the dolphin on your dime. Martial arts have been around a long time. You can study book after book and more than likely all you are going to do is learn new terms for old terms because until you can learn some terms that are going to make people's knees grow on the back of their legs what you know isn't that big of a deal. If your a martial intellectual get over yourself your not that smart. People have been defending themselves for thousands of years without you. They have been doing it forever without your groundbreaking verbiage. The fact is correcting people and all that stuff just makes you look like an ass and outside your circle nobody cares what you think and they do just fine. Outside my circles no one cares what I think either and that's just fine with me. So guys if you run into one of these verbal masturbators try not to get too offended by them. Instead pity them and all the free time they must have to come up with all that irrelevant pointless bullshit they cling to. Oh yes......... and have a nice day.