Blah blah blah.
Answer me this hot shot... What were the traditional martial arts designed for?
In my years in the martial arts, as you all can see, I have seen a lot... A LOT. I saw the "reality based" stuff really kick off in the late 90's... I was a UFC/MMA fan BEFORE it was cool... I remember starting to train Brazilian Jiujitsu and everyone asked me "What the hell for?" I remember going into my mostly point Taekwondo based school at the time and when me and my dad would spar it looked more like an MMA bout than a TKD match... I remember the looks I got from friends at Taekwondo/Hapkido class when I told the instructor (who actually tested at the same time as me, and with a very poor performance, hence the disdain I pretty much showed said 3rd Dan afterwards) "Hey, me and Pops hafta cut out early... Boxing class with Randy and Dale." At first it was "Great, you guys can teach us..." Then when we get in "Look, this bladed, weight on the back foot stuff is useless... Slap kicks to the head? Y'all remember when I was on crutches earlier this year right??? Jacked up ankle? Yeah, that's what a slap round kick buys you: Surgery. That stops RIGHT NOW. Gloves up!!! (punches partner in face... LIGHTLY) See?" it's not so fun anymore because "it's not fun." I've also taught in a school as an associate instructor where the standards were set SO LAX that if you showed up and paid your fee... you were promoted. "You're ready to test." Shows up... Can't get through anything, remarkably underwhelming physical preparation, and literally must be coached through everything step-by-step by an instructor... and this ran the gamut from beginners to black belts... What a crock!
I TOTALLY understand why the Reality-Based trend is capable of marketing itself as it does! And why some sports, like Mixed Martial Arts, can with good cause put down most of the traditional martial arts out there right now. I want to make it perfectly clear right now... I do not like how most traditional martial arts are presented. I am probably one of the biggest MMA fans you'll ever meet and if you look at my certificate wall, you'll see that I truly am a MIXED MARTIAL ARTIST and unlike a lot of "mixed martial arts" students, I actually hold MULTIPLE black belts and instructor certifications. I want to be clear that this is not a dig against either side, just my point of view on how both sides misrepresent themselves.
Let's start with the traditional martial arts... I'm only going to use arts I know, and the impressions billed are from schools I've been affiliated with but have not managed.
You want to take "karate" or something similar... The instructor will tell you it provides "Self control, discipline, physical fitness, self defense..." and a few other things... But those are a given. And then most of the time you'll get told about the sport aspect... OK, cool... You'll most likely be invited to a trial class or period of trial classes and start your training. I know of one organization that mandates verbatim how their instructors teach a class.... And I know this because I was a member of it for a long time... And despite not being a member of said organization for over 2 years... I can still recite a class to you word for word from having done it so many times. This is a double edged sword. VERY easy to teach an "instructor" how to spit verbatim a memorized script if you will... But that doesn't mean they have a clue what the f*** they're talking about, pardon my French. I've also been a member of organizations that were so lax, there was no standardization whatsoever and schools of the same organization had no commonality but a patch... And these are both examples of organizations I personally have belonged to.
Will tradition martial arts give you the things promised? To an extent...
Self-Control and Discipline: ABSOLUTELY! There is nothing better for this than the traditional martial arts, but keep in mind I have a VERY biased opinion on this as what little of those two things I have came from the martial arts. Putting that uniform on, keeping it to an acceptable standard, the respect, the customs and courtesies, the environment, the bowing... the stuff that the reality based side specifically avoids is a GREAT environment to foster these things.
Physical Fitness: That is ENTIRELY dependent on the art and how the school and class is ran! I have trained at schools where "physical fitness" was just a warmup and then the rest was very relaxed and slow paced and your heart rate is only up for five to ten minutes or so. I've also been in classes where within 10 minutes my uniform was drenched in sweat and at the end of a 45 minute class I could wring water out of my belt (NOT the soft, absorbent top... but the thick belt!) and needed a few minutes to catch my breath! This is what a lot of sport martial arts instructors hit big on... Because like any sport, the better shape you're in the better chance of you have at winning, which is true of anything in life unless you're competing on how to die a long, slow, agonizing death. But this can be misleading... If you're going a few rounds, 2, 3, 5 minutes... it's all long as hell when someone is trying to hit you! SURE this will be great cardio for you... If it's continuous. One organization I belonged to had a 90 second round... stopped the bout when a lead of a very low number of points were achieved... and oh yeah, any time a point was thought to be seen, the ref stops the bout and calls for a judges' score where all four corner judges get to see if they noticed a good point... Which means every few seconds, you get a few seconds of a breather. That's like "I'm going to run two 100m sprints but I'm going to stop for about 20 seconds every 30 yards or so... and on the jog back I'm going to do the same thing." Sorry dude... Ain't no fitness in that. Sure, the classes this organization runs can get pretty intense but I know many of their senior leadership... and most of them aren't in the best of shape... Just sayin'.
Self Defense: This is where A LOT of traditional martial arts aren't just behind the curve, but some are flat-lining. Many still train in the vacuum of the singular, big, stepping in attack with a formalized ready posture and ritual. I personally put a very senior instructor in one organization in his place on this one... I'd went to an event... A lot of my senior ranked peers were present... And someone in the locker room noticed my mag pouch on my belt from under the stall in the head while I was changing... And asked of course if it was "what I think it is" which he thought it was what in fact it was and we got to talking true self-defense and one question was presented and said senior comes up (I know of no one in this organization who likes him) and starts telling me how what I'm doing "won't work because... here I'll show you... ***** (word blocked to keep organization from being publicly ID'd out of respect for friends still a part of it) ***." And I did... with the finest sucker punch I learned the hard way when I was bouncing... And it connected. And said "expert" staggered back wide eyed and with his mouth open... "BUT I OUTRANK YOU AND YOU SHOULDN'T...." "Sir, with respect, I wasn't teaching ******(Omitted for same reasons)****, I was teaching true street defense. And last I checked... You haven't ever had to use your skills for real, right?" "Well no but I've been... " "Exactly my point." (Why'd I start TFTG? I kinda have an attitude problem when it comes to idiots and/or assholes trying to tell me what to do... Just in case y'all haven't figured that one out yet.) The sad reality is... Street self-defense is true interpersonal combat. A memorized pattern from a specific attack is fine for the purpose of drilling, but when the attack is totally static and in a vacuum, it is my personal and professional opinion (and I'm not claiming to be anything other than what you read above... A long time martial artist with a martial arts instruction, military, and security employment background...) that this is self-defeating. Prior school affiliations again... Self-Defense training, if you want to call it that, consisted SOLELY of a set series of memorized patterns against one very specific attack which came on request as opposed to at random and competition style point sparring... this means no punches to the head (Taekwondo here) and kicks to the head score more so are more strongly encouraged. Sad reality is, this is about the polar opposite of EVERY ACTUAL FIGHT I GOT INTO OR SAW WHEN I WAS BOUNCING. The only kick above the waist I ever saw was a spinning side kick thrown by me into the gut of a guy trying to grab me from behind to stop me from pulling his buddy off a guy who said buddy was giving a pretty good tune-up to (had it been across the street, i.e. not my problem, I probably would've said "Truly nice work!" to the guy... Problem was, it wasn't across the street so it WAS my problem!)... and it worked. But I wouldn't recommend most people try that!
To me, the competitive and sport aspect of the martial arts were both the best thing and worst thing that ever happened to the community. The sporting aspect attract A TON of people to the martial arts, I mean a TON! Think of how many people FLOCK to MMA fights after The Ultimate Fighter reality show brought it into the mainstream? Seriously... I bought TapouT shirts when they had bad ass sayings on them and so people would ask me "what does that word mean?" Hell I have one of the ORIGINAL "Definition" shirts from them that I ordered online right before I came home from Twentynine Palms! I was wearing Bad Boy in high school and thought it was AWESOME to start my senior year's "What did you do this summer?" conversations with "I GOT CHOKED BY RENZO F***ING GRACIE!" Circa August 2004, no one I knew outside the martial arts world had ANY IDEA what "Gracie" was... the difference between a "stand-up game" and a "ground game" or even what the phrase "Mixed Martial Arts" meant... A couple years later, let's say 2006-2007 timeframe, a few people know about "UFC" and such... Flash forward to 2008-2009... EVERYONE knows about it! I'm not saying "Competition Martial Arts Are BADDD" at all... I'm actually glad that the sporting events bring people into them... What I'm saying is SO many of the traditional martial arts are emplacing all kinds of rules and other mess to keep them "from becoming MMA" and such... Like Taekwondo... When I started competing in Taekwondo (FYI: I won a State Championship in it when I was 16) in 1995 (first tournament) it was full contact and you could expect to the the shit knocked out of you when someone connected! Punches to the head were verboten since the art is known for it's kicking but let me tell ya... a side kick in the chops from a talented TKD guy WILL LAY YOU OUT!!! And I mean FLAT ON YOUR ASS!!! QUICK! How do I know this? Well, I got my first concussion from martial arts while training for that first tournament... From a well placed side kick to the chops from a talented TKD guy! I think that may have contributed to why I needed braces as a teenager, but part of may just remember how much my jaw hurt afterwards, and no, 18 years later I have NOT forgot that part! Flash forward to 2003... NC State Games. I'm sparring this kid (my championship was as a forms/patterns competitor... more to follow on that later) and he's way out of shape, I'm fresh back (as in home for a week) from a High School Air Force Junior ROTC Leadership School at The Citadel... needless to say, I wasn't in too bad of shape at the time... This kid never hurt me, my dad was cornering for me and EVERYONE who watched the match said I beat this kid... Apparently, after the review at the end of the bout... I lost something like 9 points for "Excessive Contact" and "Unsportsmanlike Conduct." So now I'm really pissed and ask "What was unsportsmanlike?" Apparently, when the timekeeper rang the warning bell (10 seconds left of the break) during the rest between the 2nd and 3rd (final) round 15 seconds early then announced the mistake, it was "an attempt to intimidate the other competitor" (as if my then size 11 foot rapping up side his head repeatedly and him going airborne in the second which I have on video by the way didn't have him scared to death of me already!) when I decided to stay standing and move my legs... Excessive contact came from when I kept hitting him full contact (I thought the judges just weren't scoring my points... So I figured "if he is moved by the kick, there should be no mistaking it was a solid point..." and apparently I was VERY wrong!) over and over and over again... No one told me to back off, but apparently his coach bitched about it. Not my fault he's a wuss and out of shape... Not my fault he didn't train. We were the same age and in the same weight class... Ergo, he should've been more than capable of bringing the same intensity and power, correct? Flash forward again... Still a member of the same organization... This group "discourages" its members from competing in tournaments they don't sanction, and those they do sanction they only allow their members to compete it. Knock your opponent out? Sorry, dude... You lose. You read that right... Contact went from full to "light touch." Rounds went from 3x2min for kids and 3x3min for adults to 1x1.5min for all that stops to score every point... Weight classes don't exist at most tournaments but age divisions do... And if you protest any judge's call, even if professional and courteous about it, they'll strip everyone from your school of any medals... THAT is the path sport taekwondo in one organization went down. The Olympics on the otherhand, THAT is the sport taekwondo I came up with, only we didn't wear those ridiculously stupid chest protectors for many years... And I refused to except when training for a tournament, and my last tournament was that State Games in '03.
Sorry for the book paragraph...
So let's look at the newer sport martial arts...
Brazilian Jiujitsu... I love it. It's fun stuff. But you'll never catch me in a tournament for it. Nothing against it, but I'm here to tell you, if I get on the ground I AM GETTING UP and I am going to destroy anyone and anything trying to prevent that... It's great stuff, but in an actual fight, anyone who tells you to take the fight to the ground is a total idiot and an absolute fucking retard (and I'm leaving that one intact for effect)... Why? Well, in a BJJ tournament I can't slam your head into the pavement when I mount you can I? We're rolling around on a nice comfy mat... We have a referee to stop me from gouging your eyes out or biting a chunk out of your arm when you're trying to choke me... We can't strike... at all. Sorry, but if you're training for self-defense, tournament style Brazilian Jiujitsu (IF that's all your coach knows and teaches) is just not productive... The art itself is GREAT, but the limitations imposed for the sake of sport build bad training scars for self-defense. As long as you drill truly no-holds barred (and yes, this can be simulated safely, it just requires some simple things you should already have at a martial arts gym, a little common sense, and a supervisor to ensure it doesn't amp up too much) you can keep your "evil genius" brain working. How do I know this? Come to a TFTG Ground Assault Survival course... Or talk to anyone who was present during my TFTG GAS Period of Instruction at the Chun Moo Hapkido Annual Training Conference this year... We trained eye gouging... We trained bashing the head against the deck... We trained for destroying limbs instead of getting a submission... I know, I know... In the street a tap means good job keep going... I use that line too, dude. But I also know of a few incidents where sport-BJJ trained LEO's, including one who is a personal friend of mine, let go out of habit after a suspect tapped and got their ass whipped as a result! As long as your instructor can break down and articulate the difference between sport and combat then you should get good self-defense instruction.
Mixed Martial Arts... This I could go on for DAYS about this one... If there is one sport that is best suited to self-defense, as much as it pains me to say it... This is the one. But keep in mind... you're not going to learn sneaky tricks. You're not going to learn how to deal with certain weapons you may encounter (knives, sticks, guns, etc.). You're not going to get as much of the discipline, self control, and all that other good character stuff from it. And you may be training with thugs. See, that's the problem with some MMA schools. I know of two within a couple hours from that will train you if you're a felon, don't care about your active gang affiliation showing your visible tats and colors, and do no form of vetting whatsoever as to who they're dealing with. Not saying you should have to have a background check to do MMA but Jesus Christ, you're making Fighters, not true martial artists in an MMA school... I do know of many schools that DO vet who they train, as they should, because they understand what they're doing... and they also have quite a few LEO students who'd either walk or (in the case of a few I know that took the liberty during class one night) pound the absolute shit out of someone they've had to deal with recently in a venue where it's now totally legal and requires no UOF report. Most see someone they know professionally and walk. Plain and Simple. Which brings me to the next point: A mixed school... Running traditional martial arts classes with an MMA program can cause some issues... Most MMA trainers are very much Type A personalities like myself and handle their classes in a way I have no issue with... But if a Soccer Mom has little Johnny in for a private while the MMA guys and gals are doing their thing they usually don't want to see the sweat-pouring and pulse-pound smoke session called conditioning, the brutal striking sessions, and the ground portions that are very fun for me but have a tendency to be taken wrong by the uninitiated. I have seen this cost students in the kids program in a school where the kids program keeps the lights on. Why does "one student" being pulled turn into "students" plural? Think about it... Most kids train not to train but to be with friends and have fun... If their friend stops for whatever reason, odds are they do too. Don't think it happens? I've seen it happen more times than I can count. Can running a Traditional School happen with an MMA program? Sure. But it takes a lot of "doing" to make that happen. Next... There is no such school that I know of that trains MMA and shows you how to NOT play by the rules. For true combat, this is imperative. Why do you think some crews get all suited and booted in high end protective gear, Blauer's PDR system and High Gear comes immediately to mind (this is neither an endorsement or criticism of the system or gear, just an example of a system that uses such equipment and practices as mentioned), when training? So the attacker can attack unrestrained and the defender can do whatever they need to do with no risk of truly injuring the attacker. With MMA, that's almost like trying to make a game out of true combat, which just can't be done... It's as close as you can safely replicate, but what works in an MMA cage MAY not work on the street.
What about all the other reality-based systems out there? They actually do teach self defense. Some teach little more than over priced common sense. Some teach good techniques but in an antiquated model. Some teach good theory but not so good techniques. Some claim to teach things that they don't too...
Reality-Based Self Defense (hereinafter "RBSD") Systems are one of those things that if you just want PURE self-defense, and nothing else, it's the way to go. Me personally, of all the RBSD systems I've seen, I like Mike Lee Kanarek's HaganaH/FIGHT (Fierce Israeli Guerrilla Hand-to-Hand Tactics) the best... namely because Mike's not just some researcher with a couple black belts, he's a long time martial artist that got blood on his hands while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. There are some out there that are just re-branded versions of something else. I know of a couple that take the curriculum nearly verbatim from an organization I used to belong to, change a couple things around, change the name, throw "Reality based" somewhere in there, and go to work. And that happens quite a bit actually.
What you won't get in a RBSD class is all that character, discipline, self control, customs, and courtesies from a traditional class! No titles, no belts (well... some SAY that, but still use them), no uniforms (ditto), and just self-defense. There's a time and place for that.
So... In this world of Reality Based training, are the traditional martial arts still valid?
I've went at length contrasting the two types of training... Do they Compare?
The answer to both questions is an unequivocal YES... IF the instructor understand the difference between what they teach and claim to teach.
Can you teach sport and still have good self-defense?
Yes, you can.
Can you teach all the traditional martial arts values and still have a rock solid system for the modern world with all it's laws and stuff?
Yes, you can.
How?
By understanding where your art comes from.
My own primary arts (Taekwondo and Hapkido) have different lineages. Taekwondo is an evolution of ancient systems used by Korean warriors at a point in time when they were pretty much the world's whipping boy and every time the Japanese or Chinese got a burr up their backside they came a knocking and usually brought a couple thousand angry guys with sharp pointy things looking for conquest, you know... the usual. It's continued evolution pretty much turned from self defense and battlefield usage during and immediately after the Japanese Occupation (which ended with WWII) and started transitioning over to the sport aspect as Americans came into the ROK during and after the Korean War. This brought a lot of people into the art and still does to this day. But as more and more and more attention is given to the sport aspect, the original intent is sort of getting lost in translation. I remember a time when what I brought home from Taekwondo class could easily translate into a standing fight... Over time, this went to the wayside. Hell, I remember when we used to do Judo like throws and takedowns in Taekwondo class for that matter! Not so much anymore...
Hapkido is a derivative of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu brought to Korea by a man (Choi Yong Sul) and developed further by his student (Ji Han Jae) which also incorporated many of Taekwondo's kicking and striking techniques and was initially intended for the same purpose as Jujutsu or Aikijujutsu... Really jack someone up at close range. Remember, the Japanese joint-locking arts were developed to break and destroy bones during open combat at a time when striking was just plain dumb because odd were your opponent was armored, not unlike the modern battlefield, actually. It is still very much intended for the same purpose, only the aggressive tactics of old have been bypassed or left by the wayside, either intentionally or through oversight, and the passive and defensive side remains. Where Taekwondo over-emphasized sport as it evolved, Hapkido has NOT evolved (though my instructor and TFTG CMI Jason Landaas has introduced a new training methodology that is sure to change that as it gets out there! I promise you that!) and still trains the same was as they did when Ji Han Jae first used the term way back when, half a century ago.
Therein lies the problem... RBSD is designed around a current problem... Traditional Martial Artists are often regurgitators or are bound by their organization to be a regurgitator. They take what was given and hand it down verbatim. I understand that... but I also understand that if the Samurai were still around today, I bet their armor would look more like what's hanging up on the back of my door right now and the horns on their helmet would be replaced with modern 3rd Gen NODs... And their swords would be augmented, if not totally replaced, by modern firearms. The bow of old would become the precision rifle. The spear the machine gun. The long sword the carbine. The short sword by the pistol. Don't believe me? Turn off "The Last Samurai" and look at history! The gun actually DID augment the weapons of old at the end of the Samurai's tenure.
Tradition is great, and teaching a traditional class is awesome... it's a connection to a warrior culture that really makes one feel connected to the warrior inside... But when it's time to teach self-defense, can this be relevant?
Sure it can!
The wrist grab, so popular in hapkido to the point that me and CMI Landaas joke in private that most hapkido classes, including one very prominent one claiming to be the gold standard, for lack of better words, in self-defense... 70% of what they do starts with "Here, grab my wrist."
400 years ago, a wrist grab was VERY common! How do you stop a man from drawing his sword? Control his wrist! How do you prevent someone snuffing the draw of your sword? Defend the wrist grab!
Unfortunately, I think I'd get just a little bit of attention if I put my Daito in my pants belt and walked up to the local stop and rob for a drink... And even with women, the wrist grab is not very common... Why spend so much time on it? "It's a reference point." Yeah... A bad one! It doesn't translate well to other positions one could find themselves in while engaged in a combat situation, even if that's just the local drunk won't quit trying to pinch your ass while you're waitressing... "Here, grab my wrist." Now, I'm not going to divulge the reference point we use, but EVERY wrist grab technique we learned in Hapkido works there... ALL OF THEM, bar none! Do we teach the wrist grab? SURE! At advanced levels "This is where what we do comes from."
So, what we do mixes the two... What about what YOU train?
Of course... if you're capable of making the connection.
Think of every technique you do... Every point-scoring, round winning exchange in the ring or cage... As you train it, "Red Team" it... And cut off your competitor's mind about winning the match... Then cut off the blinders of seeing what the motion is and start looking for the little things, the "hidden secrets" as some call them, that turn a simple technique into a destructive one... A painful submission into instant need for surgery... And remember that every safety rule put in place to protect your opponent is meant to be broken when you're in the parking lot.
As long as you understand that EVERY martial art you may train in was originally intended for the battlefield and meant to kill people... not defend yourself or stop an attack... but stop a heartbeat and defend your people as a whole... then you will be well on your way to preparing your traditional martial arts training for a reality based world.
"I'm an instructor. I want a good self defense program that allows me to maintain my traditional training methods."
Look at how you actually fight (not compete or do patterns) and take your same techniques and apply them there. Remove the one attack and stop vacuum at a reasonable point and progress to spontaneous and unscripted attacks while moving away from memorized techniques and rather teach simple tactics that give the student options... Let's look at a sucker punch... Instead of teaching "Outside block, step in at a 45 degree angle, straight punch to the nose" teach both outside and inside blocking and show a variety of strikes from that point... keeping in mind another hand is available and a pair legs as well. Then progress... What are more people likely do when in this position? Now you've just gave your students something new to learn at the next belt or series of belts and are still using ONLY techniques from your traditional system... Don't think this happened 400 years ago? I'm pretty sure the warriors who survived to pass it down didn't stay alive by NOT training to stop more than just one attack with no follow-up from the attacker...
"I'm an instructor and I teach a sport system... I want to incorporate self defense that uses some of the same tactics as the sport but doesn't become MMA."
Take the blinders off dude... Do some research into what your system USED TO BE before it became a sport and I bet you'll find some good stuff to use.
"I teach MMA, how do I make it more family friendly?"
Sad reality is, it's not. Kids have to be handled different than adults and even teaching traditional martial arts in a mixed setting isn't the best way to deliver it. Keep the classes strictly separate... If you tell a 8 year old to "harden up" when it starts to hurt odds are it's not going to go over very well. You tell me to "harden the f*** up" and I'll say "Roger that, Coach" and try to kick myself in the butt for being a candy ass.
"I don't want to change what I do..."
Then quit saying you're something you're not! If you're a sport, and concentrate on sport, don't say you teach self-defense, because truly you don't! If the class isn't strenuous, don't talk about fitness! If there is no customs, courtesies, character, or stuff like that, don't say there is... Just be real and I'll have no issue with you. I don't claim to be something I'm not, why the hell should I NOT take offense to someone else bastardizing the martial arts I love so much by doing so?
I know this is long and is good healthy mix between past experience, rants, comparison, contrast, and laced with some French (and yes, I kiss my mother with that mouth and if you come around me when I'm not teaching I promise you this was pretty tame and calm) and I hope both informative and entertaining... After 107 minutes, I'm calling it a wrap.
In closing,
Traditional martial arts can be taught in a way that is as reality based as the more in vogue reality based self defense systems, no matter what those guys try to say... Because face it, unless their system is ACTUALLY used on the battlefield (and quite a few actually are taught to military and law enforcement personnel), then how can it be ore reality based than a system that was literally born and bred for battle?
If you're an instructor, bill yourself as what you are and not what you're not because not all martial arts, and instructors for that matter, are the same thing...
And if you want rock-solid techniques using your system, I'm certain they're there, it's just a matter of how far do you want to dig back to find them.
Hope everyone got something out of this.
If you want some H2H training, feel free to contact us and we'll see if we can't make that happen.
Stay Frosty and I hope y'all all had a safe and happy Independence Day 2013!
v/r
Kenny Smith
Chief Master Instructor
President, Total Force Training Group