Being Open Minded

It was recently that I had listened to Iain Abernethy’s podcast called "What can Traditional Martial Artists (TMA) learn from MMA." A very informative podcast which points out that both disciplines can learn from each other, which is very hard for most Martial Artists to grasp. You can find it here if anyone is interested in listening to it:

http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/content/what-traditional-martial-artists-can-learn-mma-podcast?sms_ss=myspace&at_xt=4dab25ec976bf242,0

I had the chance to write to Iain about my thoughts on this podcast:

Hello,
I have listened to the latest podcast over the weekend. Very informative. These days I hear criticisms on both sides. I have been wary of this back and forth with Martial Artists saying "My style is better than your style." Traditional Martial Artists these days denounce MMA as a Martial Art and point out that these prize fighters are egotistical, barbaric and so forth, focusing on the physical side of Martial Arts. MMA practitioners look at Traditional Martial Arts as outdated, not effective enough and that forms are useless.

People should know that the difference between the two disciplines is that Traditional systems such as Karate was not meant for sports, fighting a match against an equally skilled opponent, the art was meant for civilian self-defense against an unskilled opponent. And MMA is designed for sport. Both disciplines can learn from each other in my belief. However, most Martial Artists are not open minded. Guys like Lyoto Machida and George St. Pierre had a strong foundation in one traditional style and then crossed trained in other disciplines to be skillful in the ring. So being open minded is an important thing to further develop your skills in the Martial Arts.

When I was starting out in Karate, I was aware of these things such as high ranking masters not liking other masters and putting down a “style”. That’s right, I said style. It seems to be part of the norm for decades, but in my view it shouldn’t. I have been a reader of Black Belt magazine since 2005. From what I perceived was that the magazine was trying to program into Martial Artists mind that the Martial Arts are split up into four categorical disciplines or styles, maybe some others would see it as 3, 5, or 6 categories, but the way I saw it, has the number 4 and they are, Traditional/Classical Martial Arts (TMA), Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Reality Based Self-Defense (RBSD), and Xtreme Martial Arts (XMA). Now I’m not knocking Black Belt mag. It is a great magazine that can gain anybody interest in the Martial Arts, but what the magazine is trying to propagate resulted in a strategy for division in the Martial Arts world. Add to that, there is still dissension within Traditional Martial Arts with petty politics. What I know to my knowledge that there are instructors that don’t want change and growth in the Martial Arts. The fantasy we Martial Artists live in is looking at the Martial Arts split into 4 separate categories (or whatever number you people see). My friend Bryan from the Black Belt mag Forums explained to me “that there is just the Martial Arts and not the Martial Arts split up into a number of categories.” The reality is that we are living in a psychological warfare here.

The differences between the four Martial Arts categories is that the Traditional Martial Arts has a number of ancient disciplines such as Karate, Taekwondo, Tang Soo do, Judo, Jujutsu, Aikido, Kung fu. The Traditional Martial Arts can also include disciplines outside of East Asia such as Boxing, Savate, La Canne, Stav, Sambo, Silambam, Kalaripayattu, Kuttu Varisai, Gatka, Fencing, Kuta/Hikuta, Nubian Wrestling, Hausa Boxing, Bate Coxe, N’golo, Tahteeb, Zulu Stick Fighting, Gambian Wrestling, Capoeira, Maculele, Mani, and Laamb Wrestling. Reality Based Self-defense have a few modern known disciplines such as Krav Maga, Systema, Haganah, and Target Focus Training, ideally used as both civilian and military combat.

It is not uncommon for instructors to discourage their students from studying other disciplines. I have heard stories from Forum members of the black belt magazine forum and Karate forums of their teachers forbidding their students to study other disciplines in the Martial Arts. The reality is that the “convoluted classical mess” which the late Bruce Lee talked about is still upon us, making us enslaved to tradition and following a blind devotion resulting in lack of creativity, and open mindedness. The 4 categories of Martial Arts don’t get along very much. Traditionalists thought that MMA is nothing more than savagery, barbarity and lacking on sportsmanship. Furthermore, most MMA practitioners are egotistical and focus on the physical aspects of the Martial Arts. Also Traditionalists most likely don’t consider MMA practitioners as Martial Artists. Xtreme Martial Arts (XMA) is a sport developed in the mid 1990’s and ‘till this day it is a hard to love sport amongst traditionalists and other Martial Artists, a majority of Martial Artists criticized this sport as being too flashy and lacks realistic combat, and quite often those practitioners are denounced as Martial Artists. The fact is that XMA is meant for sport which includes freestyle forms with complicated acrobatics, it is never intended for realistic Martial Arts combat. However, most of those practitioners have a solid foundation in at least one classical Martial Art. The traditional Martial Arts have often been the target of MMA practitioners and Modernists (RBSD) as being outdated, not effective, and being criticized by their curriculum of conveniently spoon feeding their students forms (kata, poomsae) for grading and tournament purposes finding forms practice a waste of time.

Every teacher in their respective Martial Arts can have human flaws; in order to get out of our weaknesses is to reeducate ourselves. If there are 4 categories of Martial Arts with nothing but bad blood and bickering between each other, we have to hit them with ancient roots of fighting systems. I’m not talking about going back to the 1700’s and 1800’s. You can go back to the Ming Dynasty 1392CE, but to understand 1392CE is to understand what happened back in the Paleolithic age and early ancient times. Iain Abernethy said that “Cross training is nothing new.” Therefore, in my belief, cross training has begun pretty much in the beginning of humankind. Developing one’s skills further has been an African conscious thought. The African people had invented Martial combat, developed mathematics, architect, spirituality, medicine, astrology, philosophy and many others and began to branch out all over the African continent and outside the African continent to rule many kingdoms. With their thoughts and talents they were able to pass on their wisdom to anybody. Minoan Cretes and Greeks were the first European to pilgrimage to Kemet (Egypt) and Kush (Ethiopia and Sudan), and they sat at the feet of Africans and learned many subjects, studying at Kemet’s first established library. The Greeks had also learned military combat and unarmed combat techniques, such as boxing and grappling from the African people and took that knowledge back to their homeland.

During the rise of the Kemetic/Egyptian Empire, trade routes were opened to all continents, resources such as clothing, food and weapons was introduced to every kingdom including Martial Arts concepts. The Kemites understood the importance of constantly developing your skills in combat. Therefore, in order to be a fully skilled warrior one must learn their grappling skills, boxing skills, and various weapon skills. In order to keep their Empire intact and win many battles is to keep developing your Martial Arts by adding new things and being innovative on the battlefield. Thus the Shuhari concept (to copy, to hold and to break away and innovate) was originally an African concept. These Martial Arts concepts had been passed down from every civilization because the Africans understood that the world can flourish through being open minded, and that is the power of sharing wisdom. It shouldn’t be taken for granted.

The beginnings of the division of the Martial Arts happened in East Asia with the Japanese rising to military power in the 1870’s Meiji restoration period. The Japanese were racially prejudiced against their Asian neighbours such as the Chinese, Phillipinos, Malayasians, Koreans and many others, and rose to Imperial power by colonizing those nations in the early 1900’s. During the start of the Boxer Rebellion in China. The Japanese looked down on the Chinese people as the “weaklings of Asia.” In the 1920’s when Karate was introduced to mainland Japan from Okinawa, the Japanese were trying to separate Karate from having any influence whatsoever with China, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma and the Phillipines. The Japanese saying is “The protruding nail that sticks out gets hammered down completely.” This saying revealed itself when the art from the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa) was formally called Tode was translated as China Hand, but the ideogram was changed to Karate empty hand. The names of forms such as Wanshu, Kushanku, and Chinto being names named after Chinese Martial Artists were changed to Empi, Kanku, and Gankaku. Including some of the names of forms were of hogen language (an Okinawan dialect) such as Naihanchi, Neipai, Passai were changed to Tekki, Naipaipo, and Bassai. It is clear that the Japanese were trying to deny that Karate had Chinese influence and say that their native arts are superior to others. Along introducing and dan/kyu belt ranking system and a standard uniform and 3K system of teaching their students. Now with the African people, to them there is no such thing as styles. It is not in their consciousness, only different disciplines and principles of the Martial Arts. All the Asiatic, European, North and South American, and Australian fighting systems have their roots in Africa.

After World War II the Westerners learned the Asian Martial Arts from the Japanese and Koreans and took these arts back to the western world, but still with the thought patterns of possessing a dominant art than the others, believing in a delusional that their style, their way is “the gospel truth.” Every fighting system no doubt has at least a little bit of African influence in terms of timing, and rhythm, which is an intricate part of Africa. Many Martial Arts has dance routines which had the intentions to hide deadly techniques, all of them influenced from Africa. If you see musical creative forms (XMA) in competition, it does have a little bit of an Afrocentric feel to it. When Capoeira Rodas are being played in the streets of Rio de Janeiro and other cities and villages in Brazil, it has its roots in Western Africa through song and dance moves. Music and Martial Art practices have bond together since the beginning humankind. What music does, it heals you and gives you an up beat type of mood when you are down and stressed out. Listening and playing music lifts your spirit. The Martial Arts helps relieve stress as well. So it is natural to have traditional and creative form being performed with music, it helps with your timing and coordination when you do the moves to the beat.   

Westerners further changed the perception of the Asian Martial Arts by running their businesses as a Black Belt Mill awarding students belts too quickly and many incidences and atrocities had occurred in the Martial Art world. In 1970 in Chicago there was the infamous Dojo Wars which the late Count Dante was involved in. The cause of it was a dispute with a rival dojo about the tournament fee. It can go down as the most horrific event in the Martial Arts world, many students were injured and a friend of Count Dante died in that battle. This was for real. Get the chance to google search Count Dante to read up on his autobiography or go to wikipedia. I thought to myself that Martial Arts are separating us apart than bringing us together, to be like minded people. The reality is that man is the cause of separating us fueled by egotism, and politics.

Tradition in the Martial Arts had been largely misunderstood as only holding on to the ways of how training was and still should be as such. In the African concept of training, tradition in Martial Sciences is to learn from everyone and bring in something new. Those were the concepts of cross-training to develop a new discipline, like contemporary Martial Artists such as EW Barton-Wright and Bruce Lee had done. Then be able to propagate training methods to develop effective warriors. To the Africans, there is no dominant “style,” it only depends on how the individual uses it effectively in combat.

In 1392CE Ming Dynasty China there was an influx of people from southern China migrating over to the Ryukyu Kingdom (modern day Okinawan Prefecture) in Kume Village, it was there that the Ryukyu kingdom had come into its golden age. The Chinese introduced Calligraphy, Astronomy, Architect, Language arts, and Martial Arts being further developed in Okinawa which became Ti. Thus, Okinawans and Chinese had a close relationship in trade for several centuries, prior to the Meiji Restoration, many Okinawans have traveled to Fuzhou province and other provinces in China to study their art, and then travel back to their native home and develop new techniques. Cross-training has always become part of tradition. It was Emperor Hong Wu who had liberated the Ryukyu Kingdom from Mongol occupation and established the Ming Dynasty in 1368CE. According to Abraham Hardy, Emperor Hong Wu was Sudanese Moorish and Mongol descent. He has written a blog on myspace title Hacomtaewresdo African Warrior Arts History and Lineage which is a good read. Asian civilization flourished in the medieval times as much as Europe when that continent was coming out of its age darkness. The Moors had made contributions which resulted in the revitalization of Europe’s economy and the status of education in both Europe and Asia. In the 14^th century CE, during the Almohade Moorish Dynasty in Europe, the Moors were the pioneers of the Renaissance era. During ancient times and the middle ages, the Africans were very instrumental in introducing their high knowledge to the world outside their continent.

I don’t say the word “style” much when I talk about the Martial Arts, because that word brings us to division instead of bonding us together as a family. If you have an individual who is from another planet that has inhuman features with four arms and eight legs, then we can look at that fighter practicing a different style. All of us have two arms and two legs. All of us Martial Artists Classical, Sport-like, and Modern-like should always learn a little bit from each other. You don’t have to have the desire to train in that system, but at least show respect to other disciplines. I can be able to learn a little bit from individuals like Scott Wu, Brendon and Dayna Huor, Austin Crain, Lauren Kearney, and Antonio Diaz to up my skills in competitions. The key is to be open minded, and it can bring us together as a family without divisions of styles. Style is just an illusion that breaks us apart. If a student asks me if he or she wants to learn another Martial Art discipline, I would say it would be a great idea to expand your skills in Martial Arts, but I suggest to you to be well-based in one discipline, and when you reach black belt, then you can go and train in another discipline if you like.

Sharing thoughts and ideas, and training in numerous disciplines in order to develop something new in the Martial Arts has been a tradition that had been misunderstood by many Martial Artists. We should never divide ourselves with our politics or think that our style is better than their style. These thought patterns are an illusion, and we must live in a reality that stood the test of time which the African people had influenced upon the world. In our mind, body and spirit, we should always be open minded.

Note: In many of my readings, the great Chinese migration into Okinawa happened in the year 1393CE. In one book in Patrick McCarthy’s translation of the Bubishi. While in some articles it said 1392CE, but the years are pretty close at least.

                                                                                       

                                                                                                                           Jonathan          

Origins of Martial Arts: The Real History

There had been much controversy throughout the History of mankind on the Origins of human combative systems. My seven years of Martial Arts studies lead me to ask many questions and have suspicions of what is fact and what is myth. It all started when I first started training in Karate. Although, the History of the system I train in seemed accurate, the origins of the Martial Arts as a whole has questionable authenticity. I have been taught that the origin of Martial Arts had been invented in one particular country, by one particular man. Then the arts went over to China, and then it spread to Japan and the world. I took it for what it is. I can even say this off the top of my head, but deep down inside me, that the history I have been taught is vague and has at least half fact and half myth.

I have been taught that the Indian Buddhist monk Bodhidharma (Chinese name Da-Mo) is considered the originator of the Martial Arts; he traveled from India to China and taught the Shaolin Monks in Honan province and taught the monks meditation. He noticed that the monks were falling asleep and physically out of shape and constantly being attacked and robbed by bandits. Then Da-mo taught them Zen Buddhism, breathing exercises and Martial Arts and the monks became physically healthy. I gradually didn’t believe in the story because this supposed event happened during the 6^th century AD. In between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Islam/Moorish Empire, in which Historians call this era the Dark Ages. So I was privately been going around questioning the Bodhidharma Legend. I began to be disillusioned about how the History of the Martial Arts was presented to me. How in the world can every combative system of grappling, boxing and the use of weapons can come from one man and spread throughout the world? So I branched out to find the answers myself. The Bodhidharma Legend has been all over the net, been mentioned in quite a few Asian Martial Arts books I have read, and portrayed in a number of Martial Arts documentaries such as Fight Science and Human Weapon when the subject is on Chinese Martial Arts. How can China have no combative techniques until the 6^th century AD? I asked myself. China has a long rich Martial Art History that even predates Bodhidharma’s arrival. I remember reading somewhere on the net that there are no records in India or Persia about Bodhidharma except in the Himalayas and Honan province and throughout China. So Indians never claimed that the Martial Arts started in their own country.

Three years ago I started a topic in the now defunct Black Belt magazine Forum about the History of Martial Arts. Many forum members I have interacted with say that Bodhidharma never invented the Martial Arts but contributed to the fighting system in China at that time. Another person that said, (I believe his name is Bryan, and he trains the Korean Martial Arts and a researcher of Medieval Combat)  that there is no way that the Martial Arts can start in one country, by one man and then spread throughout other countries overtime. I will never forget for what he said, “The human body is universal, the arm can break in Asia exactly the same way as it is in Europe.”

My former Sensei, Mike Coombs, Koryu-Uchinadi practitioner said, “Every civilization started and developed their own combative system.” I do remember him saying that. Although I was still wasn’t sure about what to believe in. All the while a Forum member told me that “why worry about investigating all of this? Studying the Martial Arts is about making history not finding out all of this.” I didn’t reply. I didn’t take heed to his message, I stubbornly wanted to know. Why not question? We need to question in order to understand our own roots.

The Origin of the Martial Arts has quite few theories:

1)      The Martial Arts originated in India by Da-Mo

2)      Martial Arts originated in East Asia, particularly China

3)      All Civilizations developed their own system of combative systems

4)      The origins of Martial Arts originated in the Middle Eastern Kingdoms

5)      The Martial Arts started in Greece (the art of Wrestling, Boxing and Pankration)

6)      The Martial Arts originated in Africa

I came to the conclusion that if those that say that all indigenous fighting systems developed from all civilizations, then these fighting disciplines have its roots where mankind began, I theorized that they have started in the middle-east and Northern Africa. Before training in the Martial Arts, I was just an ordinary fan of it that haven’t tried it out at the time. Like many people, at least those that never donned on a gi or any type of traditional uniform and try the type of discipline out, these people believed that the Martial Arts are only from East Asia. When you here the term Martial Art the first thing that comes out of people’s mind is Karate, Kung fu, Judo, Taekwondo, disciplines out East Asia and most of them are modified for civilian self-defense and sport instead of the use for the battlefield against someone who is equally skillful as you. If you Google search “The Definition of Martial Arts” the result you will get is anything that is related to unarmed combat, anything that is from East Asia. The result you will get is that the fighting systems out of Africa, Europe, Australia, and Native Americas are completely forgotten. For the new generation coming up, many people would think that the fighting arts outside East Asia are never even thought of.

If you put a lot of thought into it, Bruce Lee, the founder of Jeet Kune Do studied a variety of Martial Arts to form his own system. He had a foundational base in Wing Chun Kung fu, and then he branched out into studying a variety of disciplines based on Asian Martial Sciences, and also in European fighting arts such as Fencing, Boxing, Wrestling, and Savate. Anybody would say, “Oh, wait a minute, Fencing, boxing, wrestling, Sambo and Savate are not classified as Martial Arts because they are not Asian, they don’t have a belt ranking system, they have no spiritual/philosophical background, they don’t perform high fancy kicks,” whatever the excuse that these people have. I suggest for those who are of European descent to go out there and discover your roots through your fighting disciplines. Now I mostly say discipline and system mostly instead of styles because we have to get out of the narrow minded mentality for individuals that study and teach the Classical Martial Arts. Bruce Lee said something about getting out the “Convoluted, Classical mess.” Another thing is that Bruce Lee said, “There is no such thing as style, all of the arts are very similar. If you have a man who has two heads, four arms, and four legs; we have a completely different style.” Fast forward years later, we have my friend Bryan say, “The Human body is universal, the arm can break in Asia exactly the same way in Europe.”

I remember back in the Black Belt mag. Forum, when I started a discussion on the best Martial Arts movies of all time. I began say movies such as Troy, Braveheart, King Arthur, The Scorpion King etc. The thing is that these movies I have mentioned are movies that are overlooked as Martial Arts movies. I can go on and say Alexander the Great, The 300 Spartans, and Rocky are sadly overlooked to be classified as Martial Arts movies. I said this before and Bryan agreed to what I said. No disrespect to East Asia with their rich History of their Martial Arts. But does Martial Art movies always have to be related to Asian Martial Arts with flashy, aerial moves? No.

       A year ago, I have finally been able to find the answer I have been looking for 5 years of research. Where human civilization began was in Africa, so the fighting combative systems originated in Africa by the earliest tribes of the Kemites and the Nubians. Before any civilization and human recorded history existed outside of Africa, there exist a number of hieroglyphics on many tombs and temples of my ancestors performing forms of unarmed combat such as grappling, boxing, and weaponry such as the spear, bow and arrow in Kemet (modern-day Egypt), and these fighting disciplines spread throughout Africa. The earliest weapons were the spear, bow and arrow, Club and Mace, including other weapons such as the Boomerang. I first thought that the Boomerang originated in Australia, and I there is no doubt that many others have. There is a statue in Egypt of Prince Punt carrying a boomerang. This projectile weapon had been exported to Southeast India, being called the Valari, and to Australia being called the Boomerang. I have looked up a variety of sources from videos and articles of legitimate researchers, lecturers and professors of African Studies. The Africans were the first ones to build civilizations, introduce, Science, Astrology, Medicine (Pharmacology), Music and Mathematics. The thing is that my brother told me that our ancestors taught the world these things I have mentioned. My mother told me months ago that our ancestors built early civilizations throughout the world. Pyramids were built by Africans and not by Extraterrestrial Aliens. The oldest Martial Art Discipline is Nubian Wrestling. Many people believed that it was the Indian Martial Art Kalripayyatu. Kalaripayattu haven’t been formed since the post Medieval Crusader period 12^th and 13^th century AD. Nubian Wrestling became an influential grappling system treated as a sport and used for the battlefield. It is the actual ancestor art of many disciplines that we know of today such as Greek Wrestling, Kampfringen, Lancanshire Wrestling, Vajramushti, Judo, Jujutsu, Sambo, Mongolian Wrestling Shuai-Chaio Tegumi etc. Grappling and submission techniques of Nubian wrestling reflects those of other native disciplines mentioned. I have also heard that Da-Mo invented the imitation of animal movements, but in fact it goes all the way back to the Kemites and Nubians. When they perform unarmed combat, they imitated the various animals of their native villages. Nubian Wrestling have the wrestlers imitate the monkey. In China, imitations of animal movements existed at least a few centuries before Da-Mo’s arrival to Honan province. Other systems of combat was Kuta translated as defender of the Pharaoh. It’s an unarmed and armed combat system practiced by the bodyguards of the Pharaohs. The stick fighting art out of Kemet is called Tahteeb, and it is the influential stick fighting system to many African stick fighting arts such as Zulu Impi, and Kali/Arnis/Escrima of the Philippines.

We see the most popular Martial Art sport on TV called Mixed Martial Arts. We consider Bruce Lee the father of MMA, but the ancestor of modern MMA goes back to the land Kush (modern-day Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Kenya) called Pan Kau Ra Shen translated as Fighting with the Spirit of Ra. Ra is Egypt’s deity, God of the Sun. The Greeks were the first Europeans to encounter the Africans and learned the system from the Kushites and brought it back to Greece and renamed the Pankration (all force, all powers), and they took with them Kemet’s and Kush’s deities and renamed them Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Ares, Apollo, Dionysus, Aphrodite etc. So Pan Kau Ra Shen is the actual original Mixed Martial Art and the Kushites are the forefathers of MMA. I would also give credit for Bruce Lee for revitalizing the importance of being a well-rounded Martial Artist and never limiting yourself to one style/art/discipline. There are many Martial Artists that say, “Oh, nobody has done cross-training since the time of EW Barton-Wright and Bruce Lee, and these men had broken sacred tradition of the Martial Arts.” They are dead wrong. I will never forget what Iain Abernethy said in his Podcasts and writings, “Cross-training was nothing new.” There had been many Karate masters that have crossed trained and learned the art by a variety of teachers with different combative backgrounds such as Sokon Matsumura, Choki Motobu, Gichin Funakoshi, Chojun Miyagi, Kenwa Mabuni, Hironori Ohtsuka, Kanryo Higaonna, Shoshin Nagamine, Chotoku Kyan and the Kojo family descendants of the 36 families to name a few. To further explain this, cross-training in many types of combative formats began since the beginning of time. Kemet was the first world power and they took over many nations at the time. The world was opened to trade of many resources, that being the Martial Arts. And this was centuries before Da-Mo’s arrival to the Shaolin temple on Honan province. Therefore, all civilizations had foreign influence from one another in the combative arts. So the concept of Traditional Martial Arts has always been a natural transmission of cross-training, staying update and relevant. Cross-training is no doubt traditional and so many Martial Arts Instructors today had failed to understand the concept. The African people’s intention was to spread out and share their knowledge, to teach the world to be mind open minded and willing to share their wisdom. The true way of the warrior is to keep on learning, keep on expanding. I see Martial Artist that brought great influence for the African-American community such as Karriem Abdallah, Kilindi Iyi, Mohommad Ali, Jim Kelly, Wesley Snipes, and Michael Jai White and say they are following in the footsteps of their warrior ancestors. African war heroes should never be forgotten, but unfortunately hardly talked about in the History books are Shaka Zulu, an innovator of military strategy, and Hannibal Barca, considered by most scholars as “The father of military strategy”. Luckily that are mentioned in the book called 100 Great Military Leaders by Nigel Cawthorne, which I consider being a Martial Art book of mini-biographies of War Heroes of the past. Each time I train and each time I head to the dojo, I say to myself, “Man, I am truly blessed to be a scholar of the Martial Arts and have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors. 

 There is a Japanese word called Shuhari. Now the word and the teaching of the Shuhari doctrine is hardly ever taught in traditional and sport based dojos across North America. As far as I know, Iain Abernethy and Hanshi McCarthy teaches that doctrine. The translation of Shuhari can be broken down easily. Shu means to hold (hold on to the traditional system of which the masters passed down), Ha, means to break (break away from what the masters taught and be innovative) and Ri means to leave (To break away from what the teachers taught you and find your own martial path, to innovate, and create something new and be a pioneer). This is where most Martial Arts instructors frown upon. I remember reading an essay that my old internet friend Bryan written called Martial Arts Monogamy. He revealed the truth that many instructors, including his own are narrow minded and not allowing their students to train in other disciplines. So the concept is Shu, shu, shu instead of the Shuhari concept. If you want more information on Shurhari go to www.iainabernethy.co.uk, then go to Podcast and find the Podcast titled Styles: Are they killing Karate? If most instructors don’t want students to expand their knowledge they mostly think of the thought of the “my style is better than your style” concept. The early African tribes never thought of that notion. They thought that being efficient in grappling, boxing, and weaponry can make the individual a well rounded warrior, therefore it all depends on how skillful that warrior is. Also certain techniques may or may not work for all people depending on body type. If I teach my students a 540 kick, many students wouldn’t get it perfectly like I do, because it can be lack of flexibility, age, or body-type, so everyone has to adapt instead of me selfishly saying, if this move works for me, it can work for you.

The Martial Arts has its origins in Kemet and Kush of Africa, and not India or China, and I’m not saying this, Professors, Martial Artists, and field researchers are saying this. If it is hard to take in I would say that the information is out there, go find the right sources. I thank these individuals for bringing out this information in order to preserve History.

                                                                                                                   Jonathan

The Teaching Structure: How it Should Be

Recently, when I was teaching a kid’s Karate class, I have been told some stories from the kids I teach on how other schools go through their curriculum. I am glad to hear that they are well aware of how these businesses are run in a good way or the wrong way. One or two students told me that when they visited a Karate class at the YMCA, there are students from ages in-between 7 and 13 who are junior black belts or black belts to be exact. So for 7 years of my training I knew that this wasn’t right for Instructors to simply hand out black belts on a silver platter. For Head Instructors (Senseis, Sifus) who care only about the belt more about the main goal of building character for their students and never teaching them self-defense against bullies and criminals are teaching their students in the wrong format. In my personal opinion giving out a black belt to a student under the age of 16 is way too soon because most students don’t have the mental maturity to attain that level. The main reason why Head Instructors go through a fast promotion process in most schools that teach sport Karate or Taekwondo is that they care only about the money, thus a dojo will be nothing more than a Black Belt mill or “McDojo.”

For a while I thought that many schools that teach mostly the sport aspect of Karate or Taekwondo don’t teach their students about the History of the Martial Art system they teach. It comes to a point while writing a blog like this would get personal and touchy, but I have respect for those who are talented in any discipline they thrive for. I remember after receiving my Shodan, a friend of mine on youtube who trains in Shotokan Karate wrote to me that he keeps training in many schools because most instructors are not that good to teach. Furthermore, he said that most schools don’t teach their students the History of the art. At another time, it was last fall after I have competed at a tournament; my Sensei told me that he had some sort of feeling that most of the competitors that we have judged don’t know much History of their Martial Art system. I do remember that my Sensei was asking questions to a group of competitors moments before their competition began, and one of the questions he asked them was the origins of the weapons they train with such as the staff, kama (sickle), tonfas, etc. A majority of the competitors have no idea where these weapons originated from. What most dojos in North America teach is only the physical aspect. The pursuit of receiving ranks quickly without really earning it and going town to town winning trophies. Competing in tournaments is a fun event, but I always balance my physical and mental training out as best as I can. Studying the Martial Arts is not about belt rank and going out collecting big trophies, it is about character, maturity, self-confidence, and gaining knowledge of the Martial Arts. That is the mental aspects. I felt that it is right to share my wisdom and knowledge to any Martial Artist no matter what discipline that he or she studies because in my mind, these Martial Artists I have met and interacted on the internet are my extended family.  

There had been theories of various Martial Art researchers theorized that two person combative drills came first before prearranged set patterns called Forms (Kata in Japanese), such as Iain Abernethy and Pat McCarthy Sensei. It was last July I have attended a Hanshi McCarthy seminar, I remembered him saying that applications came first before Kata. He also said this in his translation of the Bubishi. Another theory was from Iain Abernethy in his writings on the History of Chinto/Gankaku kata and Kushanku/Kosokun/Kanku kata. Take for example the origin of Chinto kata. The kata Chinto was named after a Chinese sailor. The story was about a sailor called Chinto was shipwrecked on the island of the Ryukyu Kingdom (modern-day Okinawa), he had no food so he began going into villages and went about stealing food. The king of Okinawa heard of this news so he sent in his bodyguard Sokon Matsumura, a great swordsmen and Tode (Karate) master to apprehend the thief. Once Matsumura confronted Chinto in combat, he found out that both of them are evenly matched. Matsumura decided to let him go if Chinto would be willing to teach him his fighting techniques. The bunkai moves that Matsumura learned from him, he recorded these moves into a Form, which he named after his teacher. Another example was a Chinese military attaché named Kushanku sailed over to Shuri, Okinawa to put on a grappling demonstration to the natives there (not kata). The Okinawans learned these grappling techniques from this Martial Arts Master (meijin), and the natives recorded these techniques into a Form (kata) called Kushanku. To read more of this, it is on Iain Abernethy’s website (www.iainabernethy.com then go to articles).

Coming to these conclusions, I have thought that it was naturally innate for man to grapple/wrestle. It is also innate in animals to wrestle. There had been a few occasions that I have visited the pet store at a local mall and I have seen Kittens wrestling each other, also puppies. I remember watching on TV on PBS, cubs, Tigers and Lions wrestling each other. Now if you look at human beings, especially kids, the first Martial Art they want to learn is wrestling, kids love to wrestle each other, against their siblings or against their friends, it is human nature. The oldest Martial Art system was Nubian Wrestling, which the Greeks learned from my ancestors and formed Greek/Hellenic wrestling. The grappling system out of Africa imitate monkey postures and movements, because the Nubians have studied monkeys on how they moved and how they fought each other long before the Chinese and East Indians ever thought of animal imitations. That is something to take note to those that think of the word Karate when we talk about Martial Arts. However, being a thinker and looking deeper into the roots of Martial Arts, you would come up with many theories in order to reveal the truth, and the truth would set you free instead of taking what is learnt because you would never know that what you learn is a fact or a myth.

A few years ago, when I was a green belt (maybe blue belt), I was assisting in a kid’s Grading. When the kid’s were doing Japanese ippon Kumite, the defenders were to do a hooking block (kake-uke), while the aggressors throw a lunge punch. All the defenders had to do was to trap the punch and hook with the other hand, but most of them were having a hard time figuring out how to block the punch. And it frustrated my Sensei pretty much saying “You guys know how to do the block, so it shouldn’t be different when you put somebody in front of you.” Although I didn’t know the root problem, I originally thought that they were thinking too hard, but didn’t know the reason why they were thinking too hard on applying that block. We, the instructors of the Martial Arts are teaching our students wrong. We have to change our teaching structure, especially when people who want to learn Martial Arts…most people want to have a crash course on how to defend themselves against thieves, muggers and killers instead of starting a novice off by simply throwing blocks, punches, and kicks in thin air in repetition for months. The teaching structure was taught in this order:

A) Two-person Drills/Kumite

 Flow-drills, grappling/wrestling, Kumite/sparring, applications/analysis

         B) Single-person drills

Bag-work, Shadow Boxing/sparring drills, Fundamentals, Forms

I remember back in the black belt magazine forums, a black belt Sensei from the U.S. questioned me if Bunkai came first before kata. I explained my theory in detail and referenced Hanshi McCarthy’s theories on this coming to the conclusion that grappling, flow drills, bunkai sparring preceded exercise drills, Shadow Boxing, dance rituals and Forms. Since Karate was modernized and introduced to Japan after World War I, the Japanese changed the curriculum around, various changes happened such as introducing a uniform and a belt ranking system greatly influenced by Judo pioneer Jigoro Kano. The katas practiced in some of the Japanese Karate styles had the names changed, Kushanku, Wanshu, and Chinto were katas named after Chinese Martial Artist practitioners were changed over to Kanku (dai&sho), Enpi, Gankaku. On top of that the name of the discipline was changed from Tode (China Hand) to Karate (Empty Hand) because the Japanese were racially prejudiced against their Asian brothers. Although I kind of digress from explaining those changes, the major thing that the Japanese changed was the teaching structure by converting the art into a sport and implementing the 3K system. The 3K system of Karate is in this order:

Kihon (basics)

Kata (forms)

Kumite (sparring)

  How the Japanese taught in that order was to teach beginners basics and kata and then teach sparring bound by rules. The Japanese didn’t focus much on practical Martial Science to prepare their students for the street or battlefield properly, but instead these teachers taught their students how to win trophies instead. Originally bunkai practice gradually became neglected overtime back the early 1900’s when Anko Itosu began introducing Karate into the elementary school system, he felt that teaching the science of Karate to children can be too dangerous for them, so he invented katas that would be easier for kids utilizing mostly closed hand techniques, thus hiding the deadly techniques, he created the Pinan/Heian katas. Despite Itosu’s intentions of forbidding children to learn bunkai, it eventually swelled into limited knowledge for most instructors. When Karate was introduced to the Western world after World War II, the North Americans focused mostly on teaching Kihon and Kata first in order to have their students pass belt tests and to perform Katas for tournaments, the study of practical applications/analysis were greatly neglected. It has gotten so out of hand, that instructors care more about profit than focusing on teaching the principles of kata to their students. Back in the black belt magazine forums, one poster was complaining on how kata is pointless. With the modernization of Karate we see how much a “classical mess” it is. The word “classical mess” of what Bruce Lees said, can have many interpretations. You can believe it was meant that Martial Artists are married to only one style, being a slave to tradition, not knowing the facts on how past events came to this, how the History books had been altered, or seeing that the Martial Arts world had been more about politics than sharing wisdom to each other. All of these things are interrelated one way or the other. The student who thought that kata was a waste of time and it was pointless is not at fault for disliking it, it is the instructor’s fault for failing to upgrade their learning and seeking knowledge of bunkai self-defense against the Habitual Acts of Physical Violence.

To understand the root of prearranged set patterns, and I explained this to my friend in the Black Belt magazine Forums a couple years ago, is that my theory is that forms has it roots from exercise drills and Shadow boxing armed and unarmed that military men in ancient Egypt practiced, including dance rituals practiced by villagers, these method was eventually passed down to all civilizations in the early centuries of man in order to remember the fighting movements and to hide and deceive the fighting techniques much like Capoeira. Keep in mind that there was much use on the imitation of animal movements. In the spiritual beliefs of my ancestors, the spirits of animals were being transmitted onto the warriors to imitate animal movements that could be more effective when doing hand-to-hand combat. In Ti (which later became Karate) has ritual dance moves to hide fighting techniques. However, the two-person sparring drills preceded single-person drills such as dance rituals, military exercise drills and forms; not the other way around. The reason why many students think about the moves when being attacked is that single-person drills were taught in repetition first before two-person drills. Not because they are insubordinate or have inadequate Martial skills, and when you put them through weeks of Basics and forms first, eventually they would get board, have a short attention span, and begin to dislike kata practice to the point that they want to quit because they don’t have some sort of learning disability, it is the teaching structure being taught wrong. And if it is taught in the wrong order, then 9 times out of 10, the human mind of Martial Combat can psychologically throw an individual off. When being grabbed or seeing a punch coming after you, the moves should come out naturally without thinking, if the teaching structure is taught right in the old, traditional manner.  We got to go back to our roots on how Martial Arts were taught. To understand the root meaning behind Martial Art is:

Martial = fighting science, combative system, military strategy

If you take out the tial it would become:

Mars = Roman God of War derived from ancient Greece

Ares = Greek God of War

The word Martial means Roman God of War. The Kemitic tongue is pronounced Montu Arts. Montu is the Kemetic (Egyptian) God of War. The Greeks took that idea from the Kemites and changed the name to Ares. Then the Romans took that idea from the Greeks and changed the deity name to Mars.  The Martial Arts were used for military combat originally then it was used for civilian self-defense and sport, all having its roots in Africa. Back in ancient Sparta, children were taken into the Spartan training camps to be trained to serve Ares the God of War, and the Spartans were taught in order physical work outs, grappling, physical work outs, use of weapon combat, physical work outs, and shadow boxing unarmed and armed.

We should always have the balance to develop self-esteem, our health, self-confidence, along with the intellect of understanding the science of combat and history of the Martial Arts. If you gain knowledge of practical analysis and teach the Martial Arts in old fashioned orderly way, Forms would be more lively and vibrant thus giving the student great respect and interest in Form training instead thinking of Forms being a waste of time and energy. Never stop learning because there is so much to learn in a lifetime.

                                                                                                                             Jonathan