It
is not uncommon in the Martial Arts world that many Martial Artists can have a
big ego. No matter what age you are and what belt rank you are. Many of us are
not able to control our ego. In my 7 years of training in the Martial Arts, I
have met or heard about a few people that have egotism. When I received my
black belt a year and a half ago, I vowed to be a humble person. My Sensei kept
me in check and made sure that I won’t act like a big-headed big shot. Many
Martial Artists who made it to black belt think that they are better than the
kyu belts and know more than the kyu belts and the sad thing is that they brag
about it, most likely teens act that way. In the Martial Arts world, egotism
can be our own worst enemy. When I got my black belt I was offered some perks
while I’m instructing and training. One of them is having a special change room
for the black belt club. However, by my own personal decision, I turned down
that offer and decided to still change with the kyu belts. The reason for making
that personal decision is that I felt that I am acting superior to the kyu
belts in a way, and I’m not like that. A big part of me says that I am more of
a student to the art still, and that I’m still one of the kyu belts. I know
more than them, I have more experience than them, but I’m not better than them,
I keep learning things in my training and how I teach. Since teaching is not
easy with all ages and with students with a range of learning style differences
and types of autism, I am always willing to take advice from my seniors and my
juniors. More importantly I have grown into a father figure or big brother-like
figure. I have trained kids that don’t see their fathers often because their
parents are either divorced or they never knew their father. It will benefit
students more to learn discipline in that atmosphere order to avoid harbouring
anger and hanging out with gangs engaging in negative activities. It is a
privilege to pass on what I have learned.
Kids
who have a high kyu belt ranking in the Martial Art system tend to change and
have an ego or have an ego from the start. They’re more worried about belt
ranks instead of building character, and improving their skills. More or less
it can stem from the teacher who cares more about the money and less about
educating their students. Young and old alike must come to the understanding
that coloured belts is just an indicator of progress, it’s not like “yeah I’m
the man now.” The old saying goes “The belt is just a piece of material that
holds up your pants.” When Karate was developing in the Ryukyu kingdom
(Okinawa), the natives their only trained in loin cloth on warm days. Belt
ranks never existed back then until Karate was introduced to Japan. Gichin
Funakoshi decided to adopt a dan/kyu ranking system in the art. He borrowed
that idea from Judo founder Jigoro Kano. The thing that gets me is when
students set a goal to get to their 1st dan (Shodan) and end up
reaching that rank with flying colours, they simply quit. I’m not saying they
take a little bit of a hiatus or train at another dojo. They simply stop
training altogether thinking that they have learned everything they needed to
learn and that they are a master. Those that have done this simply don’t
understand that Martial Arts training is a lifetime, when you get to Shodan; it
is a new beginning of your training or just the beginning of your training. I
can say if an individual cares only about obtaining coloured belts, you would
know that if he or she reaches black belt they would retire completely from
training.
In
my personal opinion I think that kids shouldn’t be Black belts, or Jr. Black
belts. This is a hot topic to discuss in the realm of Martial Arts. Many people
would go against what I say, but through my own experiences, I say that kids
under the age of 16 shouldn’t be black belts because it’s a big responsibility
to set a positive example. And a majority of kids who are black belts are
big-headed. Therefore they don’t have the mental maturity to carry the load of responsibility.
The problem is that we lack an understanding in the History of our art. To
understand how we got to do what we are doing, we have to go back to understand
what happened in 1393CE Ming dynasty. To understand why we are training in our
art we must go back to understand 1507CE, to understand why we are training in
our art we must go back to understand what happened in 1609CE. To understand
why we are training in our art we must go back to understand what happened in
1879, and to understand the history of our art we must go back to understand
what happened in the 1920’s in mainland Japan. To understand our history of our
art we must go back and understand what happened in 1945. That is my basic
outline in terms of chronology.
When the Asian Martial Arts were introduced
to the Western world by war veterans and some instructors from Japan and Korea
it had flourished into its golden age. Then overtime, the arts such as Karate
and Taekwondo became more of a commercialized sport, and the education of learning
self-defense as a top priority was overshadowed. The reason being is that
instructors just want to make lots money through commercialism and running a
black belt mill (McDojo). In most tournaments you would see competitors
sporting multi-coloured gis (Karate Uniforms) and all of that. Before I even
donned a Karate uniform and walked into a dojo to give this thing a try, I
thought all this commercialized hype was cool. When I was training in
traditional Karate for a while, I begin to realize how a scam it can be while
training in a McDojo due to pricy membership fees, merchandise fees, grading
fees and tournaments fees, and instructors that use their political power by
adding taxes to what instructors sell that don’t even relate to their own
state/provincial governmental taxes, thus abandoning their path as a warrior
scholar and taking up the role as being a con artist salesman to accomplish
their goals to make themselves filthy rich and spend their money on something
that may or may not relate to Martial Arts. Even those that engage in nepotism
in their dojo is a cancer towards traditional Martial Arts. Individuals who are
relatives and family friends to a Sensei can get an easy pass, furthermore,
receiving a black belt on a silver platter. It is just simply saying, “Oh we
like you young man, show me a few katas and I’ll give you your black belt and
certificate.” How does that feel to others that had to work hard and pay their
dues to achieve their goals than others? They can be envious. If that type of
practice at the dojo where I train happens, I wouldn’t stay around. Those that
expect to get an easy pass because they think in their minds that they are
special in one way or the other; don’t have the heart to be successful in the
Martial Arts or in life. You must earn it. As a scholar of the Martial Arts, I
felt that following the old budo way was the best path, going back and
understanding the roots of the art that I take through lineage and so forth.
The sad thing is that many young students that train in Karate or Taekwondo
lack the knowledge. All they know is to do this and do that and win lots of
trophies. Also, receiving belt ranks very quickly until getting to Jr. Black
belt at a young age. It is bad business for Martial Arts schools because
students are not educated enough and they are unable to fully grasp combative
principles. On one positive note, many Martial Arts students are becoming smarter,
if their instructors are being corrupt; they are willing to leave and find a
better instructor instead of blindly being loyal to him or her. However, in a
bad economy we must be aware of Martial Arts instructors that have an ego and
be desperately greedy because there can be more of those individuals out there.
In
the brotherhood of the Montu Arts, now Europeanized term as Martial Arts, we
have messed up really badly. I speak to those who have claimed titles in your
system, Senseis, Sifus, Gurus, Renshis, Kyoshis, Shihans, Hanshis, we must lead
by example or else we would lose our youth for the youth who are the future.
Don’t put business matters before your students; do not let your ego get the
best of you. Those that introduced military science to the world would be
disappointed in us. Those that developed Karate would be disappointed in us. I
ask these questions for those who are reading this. Do you still want to play
politics? Do you want to be narrow minded? Would you sell out? Would you
continue practicing nepotism? Would you continue to put your own students down?
Would you continue playing the shady salesman/con artists? If so, your Martial
Arts journey would be in vain.
HTP NTR
Jonathan
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