Does there seem to be something lacking in your training ?
You like many other long term martial artists may feel that something is missing. Perhaps you are not sure just what it is, yet you have a strong feeling that something is just missing. If this sounds like you don't think you are alone in that feeling. I myself had that feeling for many years. At the time I did not know what I was missing. It was my intention to keep searching, questioning, seeking until I found what I was looking for. The answers I was looking for became to be evident after many years of looking. It turned out that there were several interrelated things rather than a single issue. So what am I talking about? Well the answer is not simple.
You may have noticed the modern trend that involves someone creating a so called "New" martial art. These "New" fighting arts are simply combinations of techniques from several other martial arts. Say of instance an instructor teaching a Japanese style feels that his particular style has a weakness. His training may have led him to believe that the style lacks effective kicking. So he learns Korean kicking and adds that to what he practices. Later he begins to feel that the style also lacks strong grappling techniques. Therefore he seeks to learn from grappling arts and then adds this to his style. Sound familiar? Although the arts being combined may vary, this trend has begun to sweep the martial arts world. So why now? Could it be that martial artists today have gotten so good at their art that they are now experts on their style and so are now aware of the shortcomings of the art that practice? I think not......... I believe that there are several major problems that have caused martial artists to seek to try to improve what they practice.
Is I look back over the years several things stick out. First the old masters in the history books had abilities that are rarely if ever seen today. Why are these types of abilities not common in todays martial arts. The reason is simple. We do not study what the old masters studied! We also don't train the way they trained! Although most martial artists will tell you that they study an art based on ancient fighting techniques, it is for the most part not true. How do I know this? It was not something that just popped into my head suddenly. Over many years I began to see small thing that did not add up. At first it was small things that others might not even have noticed. One example can be found in old photographs of the old masters. If you take the time to do your homework you will see something that might amaze you. It is rare that you will see pictures of the old masters (50 to 100 years ago) doing high kicks. You also will rarely see spinning or jumping kicks. While you may find a few there are very few pictures of these techniques. The reason is simple. The old masters either did not do these techniques or they did not feel that they were very important. Another thing that is curious is that many of the old karate books show mostly kata. If there is any self defense shown it is very basic in nature. So again you might ask why? It is easy to forget that the martial arts were originally developed as life protection arts. They were meant to be used only in a life threatening situation. If used it was likely that the result would be that someone would die. The arts were serious and deadly. they were not for sport or competition. As such the arts were not taught to groups of students. Back in those days a masters might only teach a few students during his lifetime. Many times in th early days the only ones taught were family members. Training was done in secret. Each master had his own special secrets that he did not want others to know. Foreigners were not allowed to even see these arts for many years. As time went on the western world became aware of these mysterious fighting methods. Westerners then began to seek out instructors that would teach them these arts. World War II played a big role in the spread of these arts to the western world. U.S. military men stationed in Japan after the war began to study the martial arts. Later upon returning to the U.S.A. they established schools to teach these arts to other Americans. Likewise, other arts were brought here due to the Korean War. So what's the problem?
We need to step back and consider this issue from the perspective of the Oriental masters. Japan is a good place to start. Consider that at the end of WWII we occupied Japan. We had just defeated Japan and Germany. If you were a Japanese master would you be willing to share your fighting secrets with foreigners? Especially those that you considered your enemy? Surely it is obvious that most of the training was not the best training available. this however was and still is in many cases what most martial artists have available to them.
The issue is even more problematic when you consider that many Oriental masters were not taught the true art themselves. Yes you read me right. We assume that Oriental masters of high rank must know the best self defense that their style has to offer. While in some cases they do many times the high ranked masters still have not been taught the secrets of the art they practice. Even when you find a master that has this knowledge, he may not teach it to his students. Those few that do usually teach only a small number of their most dedicated students. Those students have proven themselves by their many years of dedication and trustworthiness. These privileged few are usually taught in private. Not only that they will most likely not be allowed to share what they are being taught with others.
So what is boils down to is that for many years the highest masters have been very reserved in sharing the most effective fighting skills with their Oriental students. In turn those students are reserved about sharing it with their future students. Westerners have in the past been less likely to have been taught the secrets. As generation after generation of new students became instructors, masters, grand masters, the secretes became more and more rare.
At this point you may be asking yourself what kind of secrets am I referring to? Am I talking about some fantastic punch or kick that no one can defend against?....... No nothing like that. The real secrets are and always have been in the forms or kata. The kata were designed to be like a catalog of self-defense techniques. Kata appears to be routines that one would practice to develop the techniques of punching, kicking, and blocking multiple opponents. Yet anyone that has studied for a while knows that trying to use the techniques found in kata simply does not work in a real fight. Some martial artists believe that kata was meant only to teach balance timing and coordination. Again I think before accepting that notion we need to step back and look at the old masters and what they could do. If you believe as I do you believe that the old masters were deadly fighters. They were no nonsense students of effecient fighting methods. It is not realistic to believe that the old masters would spend much of their time practicing kata if they were only of small value. They old masters spent many hours practicing kata because they understood that within the kata were the true fighting techniques. Kata was not designed to teach how to fight multiple attackers. They were catalogs of many single possible attacks and deadly responses based on knowledge of the body and its weak points. Kata teaches how to grapple, throw, lock, pin, knockout, or kill. It dooes this by mapping out the pressure points of the body. not only that but it teaches the proper angle, and direction to access the pressure points for best effect. This was and still is the biggest secret of the martial arts. I say that it still is the biggest secret, because there are many martial artists that simply don't believe that there are secret applications in the kata. It is not surprising that this is common. If you have never seen the real applications or felt how effective they can be using very little effort, how could you believe. In some cases instructors have told their students that there are no secrets. Most students trust their instructors beliefs. So the lack of knowledge of the true art continues on generation after generation.
So now I will return to the so called "New" martial arts being created with increasing frequency today. These "New" arts would be un-necessary if the martial arts were taught fully. The old styles were complete fighting systems. for the most part each art taught methods for dealing with kicking, grappling, punching, locking, ground, fighting, throwing, ....etc. It is because most martial arts have not been taught completely that students are feeling a need to add techniques to fill in the gaps. Sad but true.
You may have noticed the modern trend that involves someone creating a so called "New" martial art. These "New" fighting arts are simply combinations of techniques from several other martial arts. Say of instance an instructor teaching a Japanese style feels that his particular style has a weakness. His training may have led him to believe that the style lacks effective kicking. So he learns Korean kicking and adds that to what he practices. Later he begins to feel that the style also lacks strong grappling techniques. Therefore he seeks to learn from grappling arts and then adds this to his style. Sound familiar? Although the arts being combined may vary, this trend has begun to sweep the martial arts world. So why now? Could it be that martial artists today have gotten so good at their art that they are now experts on their style and so are now aware of the shortcomings of the art that practice? I think not......... I believe that there are several major problems that have caused martial artists to seek to try to improve what they practice.
Is I look back over the years several things stick out. First the old masters in the history books had abilities that are rarely if ever seen today. Why are these types of abilities not common in todays martial arts. The reason is simple. We do not study what the old masters studied! We also don't train the way they trained! Although most martial artists will tell you that they study an art based on ancient fighting techniques, it is for the most part not true. How do I know this? It was not something that just popped into my head suddenly. Over many years I began to see small thing that did not add up. At first it was small things that others might not even have noticed. One example can be found in old photographs of the old masters. If you take the time to do your homework you will see something that might amaze you. It is rare that you will see pictures of the old masters (50 to 100 years ago) doing high kicks. You also will rarely see spinning or jumping kicks. While you may find a few there are very few pictures of these techniques. The reason is simple. The old masters either did not do these techniques or they did not feel that they were very important. Another thing that is curious is that many of the old karate books show mostly kata. If there is any self defense shown it is very basic in nature. So again you might ask why? It is easy to forget that the martial arts were originally developed as life protection arts. They were meant to be used only in a life threatening situation. If used it was likely that the result would be that someone would die. The arts were serious and deadly. they were not for sport or competition. As such the arts were not taught to groups of students. Back in those days a masters might only teach a few students during his lifetime. Many times in th early days the only ones taught were family members. Training was done in secret. Each master had his own special secrets that he did not want others to know. Foreigners were not allowed to even see these arts for many years. As time went on the western world became aware of these mysterious fighting methods. Westerners then began to seek out instructors that would teach them these arts. World War II played a big role in the spread of these arts to the western world. U.S. military men stationed in Japan after the war began to study the martial arts. Later upon returning to the U.S.A. they established schools to teach these arts to other Americans. Likewise, other arts were brought here due to the Korean War. So what's the problem?
We need to step back and consider this issue from the perspective of the Oriental masters. Japan is a good place to start. Consider that at the end of WWII we occupied Japan. We had just defeated Japan and Germany. If you were a Japanese master would you be willing to share your fighting secrets with foreigners? Especially those that you considered your enemy? Surely it is obvious that most of the training was not the best training available. this however was and still is in many cases what most martial artists have available to them.
The issue is even more problematic when you consider that many Oriental masters were not taught the true art themselves. Yes you read me right. We assume that Oriental masters of high rank must know the best self defense that their style has to offer. While in some cases they do many times the high ranked masters still have not been taught the secrets of the art they practice. Even when you find a master that has this knowledge, he may not teach it to his students. Those few that do usually teach only a small number of their most dedicated students. Those students have proven themselves by their many years of dedication and trustworthiness. These privileged few are usually taught in private. Not only that they will most likely not be allowed to share what they are being taught with others.
So what is boils down to is that for many years the highest masters have been very reserved in sharing the most effective fighting skills with their Oriental students. In turn those students are reserved about sharing it with their future students. Westerners have in the past been less likely to have been taught the secrets. As generation after generation of new students became instructors, masters, grand masters, the secretes became more and more rare.
At this point you may be asking yourself what kind of secrets am I referring to? Am I talking about some fantastic punch or kick that no one can defend against?....... No nothing like that. The real secrets are and always have been in the forms or kata. The kata were designed to be like a catalog of self-defense techniques. Kata appears to be routines that one would practice to develop the techniques of punching, kicking, and blocking multiple opponents. Yet anyone that has studied for a while knows that trying to use the techniques found in kata simply does not work in a real fight. Some martial artists believe that kata was meant only to teach balance timing and coordination. Again I think before accepting that notion we need to step back and look at the old masters and what they could do. If you believe as I do you believe that the old masters were deadly fighters. They were no nonsense students of effecient fighting methods. It is not realistic to believe that the old masters would spend much of their time practicing kata if they were only of small value. They old masters spent many hours practicing kata because they understood that within the kata were the true fighting techniques. Kata was not designed to teach how to fight multiple attackers. They were catalogs of many single possible attacks and deadly responses based on knowledge of the body and its weak points. Kata teaches how to grapple, throw, lock, pin, knockout, or kill. It dooes this by mapping out the pressure points of the body. not only that but it teaches the proper angle, and direction to access the pressure points for best effect. This was and still is the biggest secret of the martial arts. I say that it still is the biggest secret, because there are many martial artists that simply don't believe that there are secret applications in the kata. It is not surprising that this is common. If you have never seen the real applications or felt how effective they can be using very little effort, how could you believe. In some cases instructors have told their students that there are no secrets. Most students trust their instructors beliefs. So the lack of knowledge of the true art continues on generation after generation.
So now I will return to the so called "New" martial arts being created with increasing frequency today. These "New" arts would be un-necessary if the martial arts were taught fully. The old styles were complete fighting systems. for the most part each art taught methods for dealing with kicking, grappling, punching, locking, ground, fighting, throwing, ....etc. It is because most martial arts have not been taught completely that students are feeling a need to add techniques to fill in the gaps. Sad but true.
posted by Charles B. Stanley at 4:48 PM
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