I remember back in 2003 I was in Virginia taking an Instructor's test.I'd never been on a plane before in my life and was scared to death flying from Alabama. I was already sick and was running a fever of about 102 but I'd worked hard to get where I was and nothing was gonna deter me from taking this trip. Two days before my test my shoulder was dislocated in training, but that wasn't gonna stop me either. The test was 3 days long and sleep deprivation was a big part of it. Both my hands were cut up from climbing and bleeding. The second night I was crawling over a dumpster when the roof collapsed I managed to bang off the side of the opening before flipping down in there. When I got up the next morning the left side of my hip was purple and I'd lost alot of mobility in my left leg. Thank God today I was going to have to spar multiple attackers all morning. After all that I made it through my test and passed it. I found out afterwards I was the first guy that ever passed that rank test under this instructor. The fact that my registration number was 001 was kinda a tip off. I walked away from that test with much more than a belt. I'd pushed myself to my limits and done so much more than I ever thought that I'd do. Looking back on it I'm glad the test was so hard because it was an opportunity for me to learn about myself and it was a life changing experience. I learned what I could do if I just had the determination to go for it and never back down. It changed the way I approached martial arts and the way I looked at other martial artists, but the best thing is that it changed me. Before that week I worked on a line in a factory. When I got back 2 months later I was the manager over that area. That week helped shape the person that I am and made me a leader. I felt like I came away with much more than a belt I came away with a new life. That's why to this day I'm very proud of my 5th Dan in Ninjutsu.
As a director for 2 martial arts organizations I get to visit alot of schools. I get invited to watch alot of belt tests but with what I've seen being passed off as martial arts these days I'm probably going to stop visiting because I just can't bear to look at what's happening anymore. I went to watch a test recently at a Karate dojo. Now the fact is there's good karate and bad karate mostly depending on the instructor the art itself is fine. Apparently this was a typical dojo. When it was time for them the demonstrate their blocking skills the attacker would attack unrealistically and never even aimed for the guy's face. They were just going through the motions. The instructor was letting them get away with it. It was all just choreography and painful to watch. The throws were awful and when they sparred I had to just excuse myself. Yet at the end everyone just smiled and clapped and went through the motions like it was the greatest thing in the world. When instructors allow this to happen they are robbing their students. You don't reward mediocrity. Each one of those students could be good fighters if they were just pushed to do so, but that isn't gonna happen. I've heard instructors use the excuse that if they made it hard then they wouldn't have any students. It's just a business to them now and that's very dangerous. I'm not picking on just one little school understand me when I say this practice has become typical all over the world in every art. This is dangerous because these people now have faith in abilities that they don't possess which could get them killed or seriously injured. When something like that happens what do you think happens to all that self confidence you supposedly gave them by giving them a belt they didn't earn. They just take their tests and keep being lied to and at the end all they have is a belt.
I've been to several dojos where an instructor is teaching a defense against a double lapel grab basically showing a wrist lock. One of the green belts asks the instructor,"Wouldn't it be easier just to slap the guys ears because against big guys it's not easy to get them to let go like that?" He was pretty much told he didn't know what he was talking about because he was just a green belt and the instructor had a black belt. It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that the green belt was right and I told him so after the class. You see the goal here is to teach people to realistically defend themselves. It doesn't matter what art you teach if a technique works you should use it and you shouldn't teach techniques that don't work. I've seen students that were good fighters before they started martial arts and afterwards they couldn't fight at all. They actually paid money to some jackass for 3 years to train them to get their butts kicked. That my friends isn't martial arts. It's just BULLSHIT. I know for a fact alot of these instructors have never been in a fight or any violent confrontation. They just teach what they were taught and put themselves up there as a warrior and believe their own hype because they dont' know any different. You've got to pressure test this stuff. I used to go see a chiropractor who was a good friend of mine. Sometimes I couldn't see him because he was constantly at some seminar making sure he had the latest and greatest techniques and new advancements to make things better for his patients. Guns are also always being updated to fire better and faster or be more lightweight and do more things. If a doctor refused to use updated techniques and instead only wanted to use medical techniques and logic from the 1700's would you want that guy as your doctor? Would he even be allowed to practice medicine today? Of course not. Would you want a cop carrying a gun that never even shot one? If your a cop would you want to carry a gun from the old west or the new stuff? How about SWAT teams carrying the old civil war muzzle loaders? Well the fact is martial arts instructors are doing exactly that and are still allowed to teach without ever having to update anything or even give a damn if what they are doing damages the public. Then again as I said before some instructors use the excuse that if they taught rough techniques they wouldn't have any students. Let me ask them a question. Why are you teaching? Is it to provide a public service and help people or is it to provide a disservice and just get paid? If you care then look at your techniques logically see if they make sense. Go to some of these websites and look at film of violent attacks and see if your even teaching defenses against them. Most important of all dammit don't take shortcuts. You don't necessarily have to throw them from the wolves from the start. Start off a little bit slower and let them build up to the harder training, but make sure they are building not flat lining. As the training progresses increase the contact and have them going full blast by black belt time.Take the time and make sure the student is doing the techniques correctly and don't let them slide and don't reward them when they haven't earned it. Make sure that when they get that belt that they have something more. Make sure they have something special that's going to make their lives better. Make sure that at the end of their test they are left with more than just a belt. Thank you for taking the time to read this article.
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