The Goal
If your goal is to get a great career, then there are 2 paths you can take. Some people will have you go to college so you can do those high paying jobs, like a Doctor, or an Engineer. Some people have decent skills and just know the right people. There was a System Admin who never got his Degree, yet he is one of the most sought after people. His age? Mid-twenties. Most people need to work a long time before they become that special. Regardless of our path, the goal is still about the career you want and desire.
Martial arts follow a similar chronological path:
We have schools that teach karate, where you can earn your black belt. And we have Brawlers and Street fighters being asked to fight in the UFC. Regardless of the path, the goal is still about being a great fighter. In this article I will talk about how college is analogous to your kwoon (equivalent to dojo in Japan). But more specifically the relationship between: Rank and Degree, Style and major, and finally, what you learn verses what you apply.
Rank vs. Degree
You search and search for the right school. Some are too expensive and some have a bad reputation. But once you find one, you are going to be there for a long time. They have a lot to teach you and only the smart and dedicated people make it out with a title. For college, that title is a BA/BS; for martial arts, it’s your black belt. (I know some schools don’t do belts, so I’m using the term "black belt" to signify a rite of passage to the next level). Once you get to that level, you can either start with the main goal, or continue your studies. From the BA/BS you can get your masters and Ph.D. From the Black belt, you can become a Grand master. If you stay long enough, the school can take you up to the top levels.
Style vs. major
Everyone wants the best style of fighting. But best is highly subjective. It is up to the practitioner to decide his path and its up to him to decide its worth. Engineers commonly tease business majors because of the huge difference in difficulty. Failed engineers usually change to a variation of business. But engineers wouldn't have a job with business people. Who would buy their products without the marketing skill of learned businessman? There is no best style. In the end it's what you do with it, that counts.
There are so many majors to choose from. Some are practical like engineering, and some float around in theory, like mathematics. The engineer feels superior to the mathematician because he is applied in the real world. The mathematician feels superior because he offered the theorems that engineers swear by.
Each style will focus on varying levels of application and theory. Some are practical like Muay Thai and some float around in theory, like Wing Chun. The Muay Thai guy, thinks he is awesome because he sees his techniques working. He sees it in the Ring and he sees it out side the ring. He sees the brutality and the devastation it causes, thus he swears by this art. The Wing Chun guy feels superior because he sees all the theories being proved and applied by the Muay Thai guy.
Theories such as:
• Squaring up to your opponent (not side ways like TKD)
• Simple (nothing fancy like silat, just direct and to the point)
• Clinch (yeah, WC has clinch and so does wrestling.)
• "When they get the bow, we ride the string" (Its an analogy to bow and arrow)
There are more, but I'm not a full-fledged MT guy, so I wouldn't know all of them.
Major is analogous to Style. Each martial arts Style has to balance theory and practice. Without any theory, there is no practice. Without practice, there is no theory.
How do you use it
We all have different majors. Some have a reputation of making your rich, some don't. In the end it really is about what you do with the major. I've heard stories of very smart graduates that couldn't find jobs. It was the people that had internships and part time jobs that landed jobs quickly. This is analogous to martial arts. Some have a reputation of making you see dangerous, and some are just cute (and constantly laughed at). I've heard stories of grand masters never having a real fight.
You won't be successful if you never fight.
(Later in this article I'll show you some videos of Talented Kung Fu guys who look like they have never fought)
What ever style you choose, it is about what you do with it. How do YOU USE it? Will you spend your life studying the art or applying the art?
What you learn vs. what you apply
How much will you actually remember? As in, how much you will remember after you get out of college. Are you going to remember theorem 25? Maybe...Maybe not. What about all the essays and debates you had? Probably just the gist, but not the fine details.
After you get your degree, you have to put it in practice. Your practice will refine and solidify what you learned in school while forgetting everything else. I've befriended many engineers who remember learning calculus, but forgot. Their job didn't require it and they simply forgot.
You will end up learning a lot of material, but will seldom be able to put all of them into practice. It is only when you take a career in teaching that you will have to remember everything. Do you think a mathematician will remember all the theories? Only if he becomes a professor and teaches it for a few decades. But if he gets a practical job like computer science, he will spend his math knowledge applying it through a computer program. He will only use what is useful to him.
The same goes for martial arts. Unless you make yourself into a grandmaster, you won't be using everything you learn. You will refine it for fighting and use only the most common techniques and theories.
Traditional contains everything, fighting distills it
Everything I've mentioned above, I've done it as background for my ending statement. I've done it so you would understand the path that a fighter must take. I feel like Traditional martial arts are the libraries to martial arts knowledge. They have so much stuff that it's impossible to know all of it. The student will forget most of everything he learned and use the most relevant things in practice.
In other words he must simplify it.
If he doesn't simplify, he will lose. There was a traditional wing Chun guy he entered into the UFC. His opponent was a wrestler. The wrestler did two things: one, he took him to the ground, and two, he hit him in the head repetitively. click here to watch it
Here are a few more links
Watch the above videos closely and then come back and lets discuss it.
Yay! I just bashed my own art! Actually, I’m trying to make a point and using my art to take the bullet.
The kung fu people represent a plethora of technique and theory. They have theorized and prove these theories in the lab and they like to hold on to A LOT of theories. They all lost and most likely it was due to a lack of fighting experience AND a lack of simplification.
If you haven't simplified, you won't know what to use. If you don't have experience, you will stay naive.
Kung fu people will argue that they couldn't do their deadly techniques and therefore could not win. Well, how do you expect to do those "deadly" techniques if you don't practice them? How do you know your death inducing punch will kill a man if, you've never seen it happen?
There are arts that allow death-inducing blows, but that would be for another article.
So what is my take home message? Was it to kill people to prove your art? Absolutely not! My take home message is that you need to simplify your art and then apply it. Apply as much as you can. This is the only way to become a good fighter.
By Derrick Ho
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"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
~ Bruce Lee
I agree, Derrick! Though, I don't build the same analogy for the black belt. I've always seen the black belt as a high school diploma. With enough time, just about anyone can get it. But it should give you the tools to move on to more in depth analysis of your art. When I taught people techniques, I would tell them these basics that seem very simple and irrelevant are like the alphabet. I need to teach you these before I teach you to read. Then can waza... like words. Putting together words to make sentences. The dances were sentenced to make phrases. By the time you get to black belt, you should be able to communicate well... but you're not some kinda Poe. But what if you want to debate someone? You need to have command of ideas, and then share them in a manner that can overcome their position. The complexity of combat is difficult. So you would need to practice with someone who takes the opposing side.
ReplyDeleteJust as you said. We must learn our art, trust our art...then USE our art.
Thumbs up, dood. :)
Ah, You take the abc to sentence to essay to conversation approach. And it's valid when describing the the steps of going from one level of understanding to the next. Its fancy and I like that analogy but just so there is no confusion about the message I'm describing in my article, i'll say this:
ReplyDeleteThe most important thing is applying (to get experience). Some ppl come to believe that once you receive a high rank, you should easily be able to apply, but unfortunately it isn't true. I have colleagues who earned their ph.d and never got any experience and they have a very hard time proving that they are marketable.
So, my friend clearly had the title/Award/rank of a professional, but no personal experience to back it up. So unfortunately he had to settle for an entry level job and ppl with B.S. degrees get entry level jobs. His ph.d gave him the rank of a manager, but it didn't earn him one.
So in conclusion, It is the Man that makes the rank. the Rank doesn't make the man. Or to be more related to our argument:
It is the fighter that makes the black belt. The black belt doesn't make the fighter.