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MARTIAL SPORTS VERSUS MILITARY ARTS

Since the earliest of times, man has been compelled to defend himself, his  family, and his clan, against those who would kill or enslave him, and his.  

To meet the need for self-protection and self-defense, tribal fighting systems were developed.  These were the earliest form of military arts.

As people settled into villages, and later towns and cities, the problem of self-defense increased.  More so again, with the development of city-states and nation-states.  As culture and civilization grows more complex, so too does the complexity of training in the military arts increase.

Thanks to television and the motion picture industry, when the term “martial arts” is used, people generally tend to think in terms of fighting arts from Asia.  This is obviously a conditioned response by those outside Asia, where such an association has no basis in fact or logic. Every city-state and every nation-state was formed by, or was facilitated by, indigenous military arts.  The Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Persians, to name just a representative few, all had highly developed fighting systems based upon their culture and technology.  Thus it has always been, and so it remains today.

Today, however, in the so-called post-modern world, a period still seeking it’s own identity and culture, we are faced with a dichotomy.  That is, that in a period of world-wide uncertainty wherein many educated and politically-aware people correctly perceive an increasing need for the ability to defend themselves and their loved ones, national governments are increasingly imposing restrictions on the ability of their subjects to do so. 

Any dependence on government is an indicator of powerlessness.  To depend upon government for one’s own safety, is also to ignore the lessons of human history.

“Bu” is the Japanese word for war (in Korean, “Mu”).  “Jutsu” is generally translated as “the techniques of”.  Bujutsu, then, are the techniques of war.  This is what was studied by the ruling class of Japan, “Bujutsu”.

The techniques of war are always what is studied by the ruling class.  That class which always enjoys the greatest personal freedom.  Demands for peace always emanate from those who have their freedoms, temporary as they may be, doled out to them.

There were a number of knowledges and skills which comprised the learning of a traditional warrior.  Indeed, this is true in most warrior cultures, not just in the Japanese.  I am only describing the Japanese because it is – currently – the most widely recognized. 

The warrior needed to study tactics and strategy, what we would describe as scoutcraft skills, and the various strictly military fighting skills, both armed and unarmed, mounted and dismounted, on land and in water.  It also included medical skills for dealing with disease, often found – then as now – in remote areas and in military camps, and with injuries from travel, training, and combat. 

Nor were the liberal arts ignored.  Obviously, the ability to read and write was important, otherwise how could the military classics be studied or orders, reports, and  messages written.  Painting, calligraphy,  music, and mathematics, were also part of the armormentarium of a well-schooled warrior.  Just as obviously, it took many years to develop a properly educated warrior, albeit a lot less time to train a low level “samurai” or a common soldier.

Armies, however, do not usually fight themselves.  In Japan, moreover, there was not just one army.  For most of its history, there were many.  Each of whom developed its own philosophy and its own school of fighting. 

In 1592, Japan began a series of invasions of the Korean peninsula, for the stated purpose of conquering first Korea and then China.  Japan failed.  What it did accomplish, however, was the looting of much of Korea and the taking of tens of thousands of prisoners.  These prisoners were monks, scholars, nuns, artisans, builders, craftsmen, etc., whose forced labor on behalf of Japan would result in an explosion of “Japanese culture”. 

Those prisoners also included instructors in the Korean military arts.  The exploitation of those instructors, by the schools of the various Japanese  military formations, elevated the quality of the Japanese training tremendously. It was the true beginning of fighting styles that we now consider traditional Japanese martial arts.

About the same time as the War Between the States in the United States, the Emperor seized control of the government.  We refer to this as the Meiji Restoration. 

In doing so, he also ordered the dissolution of the Samurai system in Japan.  It would have also spelled the end of the Japanese martial arts, except for one man – Kano Jigoro.

Kano was the most extraordinary Japanese of his era.  An educator by profession, he started studying Jujutsu in his teens.  As a remnant of the old samurai days, he twice had to take a blood oath never to reveal the “secret” Jujutsu techniques that he was about to receive, one oath for each of the two styles of Jujutsu that we know he studied.  It is reported that other styles opened their books to him also, an act which would have been impossible just years earlier.  While still in his 20’s, Kano opened his school for the study of Kano-ryu Jujutsu.

The reputation of Jujutsu had sunk so low, however, due to its use or adoption by street gangs, criminals, punks, and former samurai, that Kano was unable to persuade the upper-class parents of his college students to allow them to study Jujutsu.  Thus he changed the name of his style to Kodokan Judo.  With this name change came a complete change in his philosophy with regard to the martial arts.

The Japanese word “Ju” is sometimes translated as “gentle”, making Judo the “gentle art”, not a good translation by the way.  A better translation would be “suppleness” or “flexibility” or even “giving way”.  The Bamboo bends before the storm and survives.  The Oak stands strong and hard against the storm, and breaks or topples, and dies. 

Bujutsu, as I have noted, speaks to the techniques of war.  Kano, however, described Kodokan Judo in terms of  “Budo”, breaking with centuries of tradition.  In Europe, a tradition had grown about the “knightly virtues”.  Virtues ascribed to a medieval class of warriors, who seldom possessed the qualities now being attributed to them.  If it worked for the Western Europeans, why not for the Japanese.

Thus, “Bujutsu”, the “techniques of war” gave way to “Budo” the “way of the warrior”. 

Henceforth, within Kodokan Judo, the techniques of fighting would no longer be taught – nor learned – simply for the purpose of self-defense, but rather for the more noble purpose of improving one’s self as a total person.  It was simply brilliant.

Unfortunately, the Emperor was also impressed with this compelling concept and put it to use for a much darker purpose. 

Kano made additional changes in the way that his martial art was taught.  Many of which were adopted by other arts and styles, and for which Kano is given little or no credit.  This

includes the introduction of the “belt system”, by the way.  At the end of the day, Kano’s fighting system was recognized throughout Japan – and the world – as the most effective system of self-defense.

It is appropriate to note at this point, for ChungTongKwan Yudo practitioners especially, that Kano himself went to Korea to teach.  The Kodokan – Judo’s headquarters – opened a branch on the Korean peninsula, from which it supervised Judo in Korea.  With the liberation of Korea from Japanese rule in 1945, the Choson Judo Association was formed, by Kano’s Korean students and Kodokan high dans. It became the yudanshakai (promoting authority) in and for Korea.  In the 1960’s, the Choson Judo Association was divided (by the Korean government) into two separate organizations (sport and traditional). Chung Tong Yudo was jointly chartered, as the first international Korean military art, by both of these organizations.

In the 1930’s a government official visited Kano and informed him that the decision had been made that Japan would enter the Olympic games, and that he, Kano, had been selected as the one to bring this about.  As a loyal Japanese and subject of the Emperor, Kano set forth to make this happen.  Some unknowledgeable historical revisionists have attempted in recent years to make it appear that this was a quest by Kano to have Kodokan Judo made an Olympic sport.  That is the opposite of the truth.  Kano was violently opposed to having Judo made a sport, as one of his senior students was to learn in an incident that has been widely reported.  Kano clearly understood that sport judo was the opposite of what he intended for his cherished martial art.

Kano Jigoro, probably the leading Japanese personality of the last century, died in 1938, the first year of World War II.  In 1945, having been militarily crushed, and no longer an empire, Japan was occupied by United States military forces.  This occupying power ordered all martial arts training facilities closed, as part of the effort to excise the martial character of Japanese culture, from the nation’s cultural fabric.

In the following months, the Kodokan requested permission to reopen on the premise that it was not teaching any martial art, but rather that it was a sport training center.  This was done under the pretext that if the Olympics, which had been scheduled in Japan, but were cancelled because of Japan’s invasion of China, had been held, a demonstration of Judo would have been conducted.  Thus, they asserted, Judo was almost an Olympic sport. 

The Kodokan Judo Institute was allowed to reopen, and the staff of the Kodokan immediately set about turning their clever falsehood into the truth. Henceforth, Kodokan Judo would be an Olympic sport, not a martial art.  Kano Jigoro, and his life’s work, were betrayed.

Today, the International Judo Federation, not the Kodokan Judo Institute, is the world headquarters for Olympic Judo.  Belt ranks issued by the Kodokan Judo Institute are not even recognized by the International Judo Federation, except through their own governing body in Japan, and then just as another school. 

Judo promotions are now based upon participation in athletic competition.  Participation either as an athlete, a coach, a referee, or other game official.  Advancement is not upon knowledge, nor upon skill in performing the gamut of techniques of what used to be a military art.

What then is the difference between a military art and a martial sport?  I have described the traditional school of the warrior.  In the traditional Korean military arts, that traditional school of the warrior is now called a kwon.  There are different kwons within each art, such as ChungTongKwan Yudo or HaeMuKwan Hapkido or JungDoKwan Taekwondo.  The learning of these arts is a lifetime study within these kwons.

As an aside, the titles above are the proper manner in which to to cite a Korean military art.  One does not say “I study Yudo”.  One says “I study ChungTongKwan Yudo”.  The kwon is always named.  If a practitioner cannot name his kwon, each of which is registered with the governing body of the art in Korea, he or she is practicing a martial sport or at a rogue school.

Some of the subjects studied by the ancient warriors were listed above.  Now let us look at some of the current subject ares required for dan (black belt) promotions in the traditional Korean military arts.  These include: etiquette, historical studies, anatomy and physiology, defenses against assorted weapons and multiple attackers, weapons familiarization, the development of physical power, methods of teaching, ki development, swimming with hands and feet bound, underwater swimming and fighting techniques, defense techniques from the seated position, defense against attack with rope, defense with a cane, emergency treatment of bone and joint misalignment, resuscitation techniques, defensive techniques from a kneeling position and when lying down, training with the sword, archery training, massage for stimulation of muscles, massage for healing (100 hours of massage training), accupressure (400 hours of accupressure training), spear training, study of herbal healing (800 hours: including herbal teas & tonics, bolus, compress, extracts, decoctions, infusions, ointments, oils, hydrotherapy, poultices, herbal syrups, salves, powders, and tinctures), acupuncture (1200 hours), development of new techniques, jumping from great heights, long jumping techniques, high jumping techniques, the study of physical education, bone breaking, fan training, stone & coin throwing, knife throwing, needle & chopstick throwing, and horse back riding. This listing does not include the subjects leading up to the black belt level, nor does it list specialized training.  Nor is this listing complete.  It is merely provided as an example of what the minimum requirements are, and why it is referred to as an “art”.  In point of fact, the traditional Korean military arts are both art and science.

In contrast, the martial sports are sports derived from the military arts.  The knowledge component of the martial sports is a very, very small fraction of that required for the military arts.  The skill component of the sport competitor is also very limited as compared to the traditional military art.

An Olympic swimmer may swim very fast, but he or she does not have the competencies of the military combat swimmer. The Olympic competitive shooter may do very well putting holes in a paper target, but he or she does not possess the skills of a military sniper.  The Olympic Taekwondo competitor may kick to the head very successfully, but the first time he or she tries that technique on the street against a practitioner trained in one of the seven active traditional Taekwondo kwons, their first injury will be a fractured or dislocated knee or hip.  Bringing sport training into a battle is the same as coming to a gunfight armed with a knife.

It is also important to point out that all traditional Korean military art practitioners cross-train.  One does not find a Master or a Grandmaster in a Korean military art who is not also a Master or a Grandmaster  in two or more other Korean military arts.  The Korean Martial Arts Instructors Association, to which all the recognized traditional military art bodies in Korea belong, facilitates cross-training and mutual education, by the instructional standards to which its member organizations adhere.  There are no one-trick ponies in the traditional Korean arts, as there are in martial sports.

Finally, there are the matters of purpose, tradition, and lineage.  The bottom line purpose of any military art is success in the event, if one is forced to defend one’s self or family from attack.  The bottom line purpose of organized sports, is winning contests, recognition, and glory.  One does not find the illustration of a woman who disabled her assailant, posted on a box of “Wheaties”.  The successful defender against a home invasion does not get a free trip to Disney World.

The military arts have traditions which may go back centuries and lend credence and legitimacy to the system or style, the school, and the practitioner.  The martial sports are merely a spinoff from the military arts.  A sport competitor may ride a horse and know how to fence, but that does not make him or her a cavalry trooper.  With rare exception, the traditions which do exist in martial sports are borrowed, or stolen, from the original military art. 

Lineage is the bloodline of a military art.  In the United States, many ethnic Koreans moving to the United States broke with their own kwon in Korea, and issued rank certificates to their students which are unrecognized in Korea.  These students have been deprived of their lineage.  Other students study in schools under an instructor who broke away from his or her own instructor, issuing fancy rank certificates of no real value within the art which they study.  These students have no lineage.

There is another term for lineage, as applied to the military arts, that is “legitimacy”.

This then brings us to the core issue as it relates to military arts versus martial sports. 

Military art practitioners are students of an art and science, whose ultimate purpose is success in personal combat, and which possess martial etiquette, customs, traditions, and a legitimate lineage and heritage.  Rank in the military art is the external indicator of the level of knowledge and skill of the practitioner.

While there are any number of local, regional, state or provincial, national, and international sport organizations meeting the sports needs of athletes and their supporters, the pinnacle of sports is one of two organizations, the Olympics and the World Games, depending upon the sport involved.  Neither the International Olympic Committee (IOC) nor the World Games is a military art entity of any kind. 

The International Judo Federation (IJF) and the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), as two examples, derive their authority from the IOC.  The sole authority of the IJF is over the Olympic Sport of Judo, for which it is the international governing body (IGB) under the authority of the IOC.  United States Judo, Inc. (USJI) derives its authority from two sources, the IJF and the Federal Sports Act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law.  Thus USJI is the national governing body (NGB) for the sport of Judo in the United States.  Neither the IJF nor USJI can issue rank in any military art.  Neither has any authority over any military art.  This is especially true of the IJF and Kodokan Judo, since the IJF does not even recognize the Kodokan any more and, moreover, Judo under the Kodokan Judo Institute, has been a sport since 1945 anyway.

Sport Taekwondo has two international governing bodies.  One for South Korea, the World Taekwondo Federation, and one for North Korea, the International Taekwondo Federation. 

In South Korea, sport Taekwondo is known as “Kukki Taekwondo” or National Taekwondo.  Kukki Taekwondo is an amateur sport with its headquarters at “Kukkiwon” in Seoul, under the Korean Amateur Sports Association.  The WTF imposed a requirement on all WTF international competitors requiring a rank certificate from Kukkiwon in order to participate in international competition. 

Meanwhile, there are seven active kwons in Korea that practice the military art of Taekwondo.  These comprise the Korea Taekwondo Association. There are two additional, inactive, kwons.  One, whose founder, now deceased,  is considered a traitor by the Korean people, and another, which became more of an organized crime family, and whose current head is living in the United States.  These military art Taekwondo kwons do not recognize Kukkiwon rank certificates.  One would expect this, given the limited military art education of the sport practitioners.

While participation in organized sports may be a good thing, it is not a good thing for the athletes to imagine  themselves, or to portray themselves, to be a warrior.  They are not a warrior, they are an athlete.

The pentathlon started as a military game.  The Biathlon was a training course for mountain troops.  Orienteering was started as military training. These are all sports derived from military techniques.  Yet, none of the athletes in these sports portray themselves as military art practitioners.  What benefit is gained therefore by athletes, participating in other military sports, those derived from Asian military arts, falsely portraying themselves as military art practitioners? 

© 2010  Joseph F. Connolly, II.  All rights reserved.

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MEDITATIONS FOR MARTIAL ARTISTS

Ki Center Balancing Meditation for Martial Arts

To balance your Ki centers through meditation, simply concentrate on each Ki center beginning at the base Ki center. Visualize the Ki center as a sphere spinning and visualize bringing white light directly into the sphere until the sphere is full of the white light… Picture the white light cleansing the sphere and removing all of the negativity within the sphere. If you can concentrate on this enough you will actually be able to feel the subtle energy field here and the vibration of this happening…. now picture a bright red light entering your Ki center with vibrant red energy refilling the whole sphere until it is completely full. Now Move up to the Sacral Ki center and repeat the same procedure only filling it with orange light instead of red, and move all the way up all of the Ki centers in this manner filling each with their own color after cleansing….

These are simple meditations: Most people notice a significant difference just after doing one of these meditations.

THE WALKING MEDITATION FOR MARTIAL ARTS

To begin. Choose a room or an open space. Choose a beginning point and ending point. This ending point can be anywhere form 10 feet to 10 miles!

Take a deep breath at the starting point. Concentrate on the here and now.

At this beginning point of your mediation. With each step you take say out loud one of the things you would like to change. You may repeat your sayings more than once if you need to. Sentences like, “I deserve to be treated with respect.” or ” I have had enough procrastination”, “I am unhappy”.

Now when you reach your end point, turn around, with each step back to the beginning point say only positive, affirmative sentences like, “I am Happy”, “I am a perfect being”, “I have all that I truly need”, etc. Make one positive statement for every step that you take back to the beginning. When you reach the end/beginning, take a deep breath, Breathe in gratitude, breathe out a smile. (do this until you feel it. IF the distance wasn’t long enough, do it again. Continue the walk until you feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually better, lighter.

You may also wish to carry a basket of stones, shells, buttons. etc. and place each down as you walk along and pick them up on your return trip. Remember, your intentions are so very important, intend to relieve yourself of the burdens that you carry that no longer serve you for your highest good, Intend to releases, to forgive , to act, and/or to move on.

WHITE LIGHT MEDITATION FOR MARTIAL ARTS

1. Sit or lie comfortably.

2. Take a deep, slow breath in and slowly exhale out. With each breath in and out, allow your body to relax more, and more, and more. Let your body sink into the chair or floor (or whatever).

3. Focus on your Crown area and allow it to open to receive the energy from this ball of white light. As you open your Crown Ki center to receive this energy you feel completely at ease, completely safe.

4. Draw down this white light energy into your forehead, your eyes, nose, cheeks, and chin.

5. Draw down this white light energy into your throat, shoulders, elbows, wrists, to each and every finger, Feel the energy in your fingertips right now. Feel it tingle with energy and excitement.

6. Draw down the white light energy to your chest, hips, thighs, knees, calves, ankles, into each and every toe. Feel the toes tingle as the energy fills them.

7. Picture this white light energy filling up your entire body. You are the white light energy, and you will now expand yourself. With each breath in and out expand your white light energy to outside your body. Fill up the room, the building, the neighborhood, the city, the state, the country, the world, the universe. You have expanded throughout the entire galaxy!

8. When you are ready to return, bring your energy back into the building, into your body. Allow yourself time to adjust once more to your physical form and when ready, open your eyes. Wiggle your fingers and toes. Stretch both arms. Overhead and take a big, deep breath in and slowly release again. You are truly a white light being, a child of God!

About The Author: Richard Hackworth is a best selling author and personal success coach. He is the Editor of World Martial Arts Magazine at www.worldmartialartsmagazine.com and co-host of the World Martial Arts Magazine Show at www.actionradio.net . His website at http://www.richardhackworth.com  offers free articles and resources help you achieve optimal health, wealth, and success. Richard’s Free E-course “Ten Steps To Maximize Your Life” is jam packed with tips and techniques for the achieving all your goals in life. Subscribe for FREE at http://www.richardhackworth.com . Add him to your friends at www.worldmartialartsnetwork.ning.com .

Martial Arts Legends of the Past

Dr. Ron Stone

American Dragon Martial arts Academies

Clermont, Florida

For no apparent reason I began compiling some of my favorite martial arts stories.  They are martial arts tales which I have either heard, or have personally told for almost thirty years.  This is the first part in a series of three of my favorite martial arts legends.   I do not vouch for their accuracy or authenticity, only for the interest they generate when told.

1.  The Martial Arts Legend of Mind Over Body: ( my title, not my story)

            I heard this martial arts legend over twenty five years ago and for some reason it stuck with me.  As it was told to me there once was an ancient Japanese Karate dojo with two very different students.  Both of them were black belt masters of Karate and both desired to be the very best that they could.  The first master however was dedicated to personal harmony and practiced his Karate Katas (forms) constantly, for hours on end, all the while striving for perfection. 

The other martial arts master believed in matching his skills against others in combat and had little if any use for forms.  He eventually left the martial arts school and gained fame for picking and winning fights all over the countryside.  Over time however he became obsessed with match-fighting his old classmate from the martial arts school.  Finally he waited in hiding and cornered his opponent on a deserted road where he promptly boasted of his martial arts skill and challenged the other martial arts master to a fight.  He would give him no other choice but combat.

Just as this second more aggressive martial arts master was about to attack however, his old classmate began performing one of his Karate Katas,  (kind of like Daniel did in one of the Karate Kid sequels …again my words ).  The skill and absolute perfection of this martial arts performance so stunned and impressed the attacker that he immediately realized that to proceed with the fight would mean to face certain defeat.  Of this he had no doubt.  Instead he bowed, turned silently, and walked away, never to be heard from again.

Moral of the story…   The martial arts are about trying to be the best you can, not about trying to best others.

Martial Arts Legends of the Past: Part 2

Dr. Ron Stone

American Dragon Martial arts Academies

Clermont, Florida

This is part two in a series of three articles about my favorite martial arts stories. I hope that you enjoy it. I do not vouch for their accuracy or authenticity, only for the interest they generate when told.

2. Martial Arts Legend: The Night Stalker  (again my title)

If my memory serves me (and it gets foggier with every pasing year) I believe I read this back in the 70’s in some martial arts magazine.  Again I can’t vouch for it other than to say true or not it is a fun martial arts story.

It seems that there was this talented martial artist who found himself all dressed up in a tuxedo and on his way back from some social function.  As it turns out he ends up deciding to travel home on the New York subway.  (I know, it sounded strange to me too when I read it.  After all who wears a tux but can’t aford a taxi?)  At any rate he ends up alone on a dark and deserted subway station platform late at night facing a street gang of hoodlums (my generation’s term for gang bangers).  As the gang approached the martial artist obviously intent on robbery and doing him more than bodily harm, the martial artist weighed his options.

The martial artist’s choice?   Well that’s where the fun begins.  His choice was to back himself into a corner to avoid being surrounded and silently face the gang.  Suddenly the martial artist rips off his jacket and shirt and drops to his hands and  knees.  He then began slobbering, snarling and actually barked at the gang.   When faced in the dark with this crazy bare-chested man drooling, snarling, growling and barking at them down on all fours, the gang members all turned and fled for their life into the night screaming “Werewolf, Werewolf!!!”

The martial artist then put his jacket back on and went home with a torn shirt, a dirty tuxedo, but no bodily injuries.

Moral of this martial arts story…..  Don’t underestimate the importance of the psychological factors in combat.  Or… It’s better to lose your shirt than your life.

Martial Arts Legends of the Past: Part 3

Dr. Ron Stone

American Dragon Martial arts Academies

Clermont, Florida

This is the final part of a 3 part series of articles about my favorite martial arts stories. I hope that you enjoy it. I can vouch for their accuracy or authenticity of this final story because it happened to me personally.

3)  The Martial Arts Teachings of Kwai Chang Caine

By 1974 I had been in the Unversity of Florida’s Judo club for three years.  In those days I was a big fan of David Carradine’s character on the popular Kung Fu television series.   Caine always preached humility and had a passive philosophy which for some reason was very appealing to me at the time.  ( will admit however that I had been raised a John Wayne fan and sometimes the western desire to kick butt conflicted with the Kung Fu mindset.) 

In  those days it was unheard of to hear people discussing their martial arts skills or rank outside of class.  Then as now, one simply did not boast about the martial arts.  In fact it was not unusual to know someone for years without realizing they held black belt rank. 

Okay, so back to the story.  Back in the day, a small group of my dorm friends and I got into the habit every weeknight of gathering around a small circular fireplace in the lobby after dinner and discussing politics, sex and religion for an hour or so. 

School had just resumed for the year and our group began to reunite around that fireplace we usually did  with one exception.  The was a newcomer to the group that I hadn’t yet met.  If memory serves his name was Jack.  At any rate Jack must have been a future Obama supporter because he didn’t seem to agree with anything I said. 

When it was my turn to make some political point or another Jack suddenly pointed a finger at me from across the circular fireplace and very angrily told me to shut up.  (Actually he said “shut the @@&& up).  Unaccustomed as I was to any kind of violent behavior in this group of friends, I was stunned and truly thought he must surely be kidding.  I then proceeded to make a joke of the matter which only served to anger him more.  “I told you to shut your mouth.  One more word out of you and I’ll have to shut it for you!” was his abrupt and rather response.

I was so shocked at the anger directed at me from a total stranger over something so insignificant as a friendly college discussion that I just stared at him.  Before I got physical however (the John Wayne instinct in me), one of the girls in the group put her hand on my knee and whispered that she didn’t want me to fight.    The fact that I had a big crush on her at the time factored in somewhat, so I just sat there and stared back, all the while squeezing the chair’s arm so hard I actually perforated the leather with my fingers. 

Jack then proceeded to boast to the group about how lucky it was that I had decided to to back off since he was a serious martial artist.  To this day I really don’t know which made me angrier; getting insulted in front of the group, being bullied without responding, or listening to him boast of the martial arts outside of the dojo. (that Kung Fu dilema again)

In accordance with the martial arts teaching of Kwai Chang Caine I just had to get up and leave.  I did so quietly and as I left I heard him bragging of his yellow belt rank. (serious hard core martial artist that he was).   I had so much pent up anger in me that I promptly threw up after reaching my dorm room.  I spent the rest of the night with a migraine and an ice pack on my forehead.

A couple of days later there was a knock on my door and I opened it to find this very same Jack asking to come in and appologize.  As it turned out, he had heard some unfavorable things about me from someone I knew to be a drug using, cheating lowlife.  Jack explained that even before we had ever met he had formed a bad opinion of me  based on this fellow’s faulty information.  Jack went on t explain that once he found out more about me and discovered the truth about that other fellow, he began to regret his actions. 

    Jack also explained that he had subsequently learned that I outranked him in the martial arts and was impressed with the fact that rather than rearranging his face I had taken the high ground and simply walked away.  Jack finally admitted to me that he had learned a valuable lesson about the martial arts.

I told him truthfuly that I felt it took a big man to admit his mistakes and then invited him in for a beer. (All right so sue me, my roomate and I kept a few against-the-rules brewskies hidden in our dormroom.)  We eventually parted on good terms (beer will often do that) but I will have to admit that as things turned out Jack eventually would stil remain a jerk at heart.

The bottom line is that after that I felt a lot better about my decision not to butt heads.  Looking back at it thirty years later I am very proud of my behavior, but will secretly admit that I still regret not leaping over the fireplace and proving my warrior spirit in front of al the girls.

Moral of this martial arts story:  Never discuss politics, sex or religion!

Or:

Don’t mix your martial arts role models’ philosophies

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January 4, 2010

Attn: World Martial Arts Magazine Editor

Dear Sir,

In the last 45 plus years I have read, collected and thrown away thousands of  Martial Art magazines, some of which have gone out of business and others which have managed to stick around. Mostly those magazines just featured some school or individual.

A few months ago a friend e-mailed me the link to your site at www.WorldMartialArtsMagazine.com. What a refreshing new concept it is. Through the forum and blog this magazine allows It’s readers to get involved with questions to the editor, post Hall of Fame events, tournaments announcements and articles from contributors, school locations, health products and much more. This is a must subscribe to magazine. I’m sure there’s something there for everyone.

Speaking for myself, it’s really refreshing to see a magazine finally written for the educated adult professional martial artists. I was amazed with the quality of the articles.

To offer articles from leading martial arts entertainment industry experts like film star Sophie Song, World Champion Jason Sterling and best selling author Dr. R.W. Stone in a free publication is unheard of. The articles on school marketing and the martial arts philosophy articles are the best I have ever seen. Thank you for providing this valuable information platform to the martial arts community. 

Sincerely,

Gregory V. Glover / Master Instructor

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