What’s wrong with American Martial Arts?
What’s wrong with American Martial Arts?
Today it would seem that there is a martial arts school/dojo on every corner. There are almost as many martial arts schools as there are grocery stores. This would be a good thing “if” the quality of instruction were common. Exactly the opposite is true. The martial arts are about self-defense, possibly in a life or death situation. It is not about earning belts, how flexible you are, losing weight, or getting in shape. When I started training in the 1960's, there were very few martial arts dojo to be found. Generally the training was tough and injuries were common. Few if any children were seen training. The martial arts still were thought of as a serious and dangerous fighting method. Slowly over the years, martial arts students began to look at the martial arts as a potential way to earn a living. As time passed, more and more dojo opened. The standards changed. Fighting became less important. Making a profit became the real goal. Many dojo owners went out of business in the 1960's and 1970's due to financial problems.
The newer dojo began to start running their schools like health clubs do. The dojo started requiring the students to sign contracts. Many promised that the students would become black belts. Right when things seemed to be looking bad things got worse. Dojo began to run belt promotions on a regular basis. The requirements became less about self-defense and more about attendance, flexibility, breaking boards, and competition. Time requirements began to get shorter. This allowed the dojo to charge more often for promotions. More belts were added to increase profits even more. Dojo increasingly began to sell merchandise. As this trend grew, more and more useless items began to be sold. To increase sales many dojo began to allow the students to wear a school t-shirt instead of a Gi top during the summer months.
The minimum age for students began to change to recruit more students. Now it is common to find dojo that allow 3 and 4 year olds to join. They knew that as the students ages got lower, they could no longer stress realistic self-defense as a reason to join. Now many schools promote children (and adults) learning respect, making good grades in school, ...etc. (Although these are admirable traits, they have nothing to do with learning to defend ones self in a life threatening situation).
One business practice that is very disturbing yet common involves the use of computers for business. Like many fields specialized software for martial arts schools has become almost the norm. Software designed specifically for this purpose is not a bad thing. The problem is some of the built in capabilities that have been included. Several years ago, I was researching the many different martial arts business software packages. My findings left me very upset. Many of these programs are set up to automatically promote all the students on a regular basis. All that the owner has to do is to enter the time required between belt promotions. The computer then automatically promotes all active students that are in the system.
Birthday parties? Yes, it is sad but true most of the commercial martial arts schools in the area rent out the school to hold martial arts birthday parties. The martial arts once a deadly form of life protection techniques is in many cases not much more than a day care center. Oh yes, and if you don’t think I’m right, check out how many are now offering to pick up the children and bring them to the martial arts school.
One final issue that will support much of what I have presented here can be found in many phone books. Take a look at the Yellow Pages advertisements. Take note not only of the wording, but the pictures. You will see that it is easy to see that the advertisements target children.
NOTE: It may seem that I’m against children being in the martial arts. That is not the case at all. I do however resent any place teaching what they call martial arts but are really just baby sitting services. The words Martial Arts refers to Military Arts. Those are strictly combat arts, not the watered down commercial things taught at many so called martial arts dojo.
For a long time I would get upset when I’d here a martial arts school referred to as a Studio. Now I have begun to prefer that term to describe them. After all the word dojo, is meant to mean; “The Place where you Learn The Way”. Most Studios surely miss the mark there.
Today it would seem that there is a martial arts school/dojo on every corner. There are almost as many martial arts schools as there are grocery stores. This would be a good thing “if” the quality of instruction were common. Exactly the opposite is true. The martial arts are about self-defense, possibly in a life or death situation. It is not about earning belts, how flexible you are, losing weight, or getting in shape. When I started training in the 1960's, there were very few martial arts dojo to be found. Generally the training was tough and injuries were common. Few if any children were seen training. The martial arts still were thought of as a serious and dangerous fighting method. Slowly over the years, martial arts students began to look at the martial arts as a potential way to earn a living. As time passed, more and more dojo opened. The standards changed. Fighting became less important. Making a profit became the real goal. Many dojo owners went out of business in the 1960's and 1970's due to financial problems.
The newer dojo began to start running their schools like health clubs do. The dojo started requiring the students to sign contracts. Many promised that the students would become black belts. Right when things seemed to be looking bad things got worse. Dojo began to run belt promotions on a regular basis. The requirements became less about self-defense and more about attendance, flexibility, breaking boards, and competition. Time requirements began to get shorter. This allowed the dojo to charge more often for promotions. More belts were added to increase profits even more. Dojo increasingly began to sell merchandise. As this trend grew, more and more useless items began to be sold. To increase sales many dojo began to allow the students to wear a school t-shirt instead of a Gi top during the summer months.
The minimum age for students began to change to recruit more students. Now it is common to find dojo that allow 3 and 4 year olds to join. They knew that as the students ages got lower, they could no longer stress realistic self-defense as a reason to join. Now many schools promote children (and adults) learning respect, making good grades in school, ...etc. (Although these are admirable traits, they have nothing to do with learning to defend ones self in a life threatening situation).
One business practice that is very disturbing yet common involves the use of computers for business. Like many fields specialized software for martial arts schools has become almost the norm. Software designed specifically for this purpose is not a bad thing. The problem is some of the built in capabilities that have been included. Several years ago, I was researching the many different martial arts business software packages. My findings left me very upset. Many of these programs are set up to automatically promote all the students on a regular basis. All that the owner has to do is to enter the time required between belt promotions. The computer then automatically promotes all active students that are in the system.
Birthday parties? Yes, it is sad but true most of the commercial martial arts schools in the area rent out the school to hold martial arts birthday parties. The martial arts once a deadly form of life protection techniques is in many cases not much more than a day care center. Oh yes, and if you don’t think I’m right, check out how many are now offering to pick up the children and bring them to the martial arts school.
One final issue that will support much of what I have presented here can be found in many phone books. Take a look at the Yellow Pages advertisements. Take note not only of the wording, but the pictures. You will see that it is easy to see that the advertisements target children.
NOTE: It may seem that I’m against children being in the martial arts. That is not the case at all. I do however resent any place teaching what they call martial arts but are really just baby sitting services. The words Martial Arts refers to Military Arts. Those are strictly combat arts, not the watered down commercial things taught at many so called martial arts dojo.
For a long time I would get upset when I’d here a martial arts school referred to as a Studio. Now I have begun to prefer that term to describe them. After all the word dojo, is meant to mean; “The Place where you Learn The Way”. Most Studios surely miss the mark there.
posted by Charles B. Stanley at 12:56 PM
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