Commonly Held Martial Arts' Myths

Myth 1: You must use honoring titles such as Sifu, Guru, Sensei
Myth 2: You must teach your classes by having your students line up and grunt acknowledgments in unison
Myth 3: You must not give your students too much information, too fast
Myth 4: You must teach a lot of information at once or your students will get bored
Myth 5: You must not associate with your students in an informal way
Myth 6: You should refer to people differently depending on whether they are "senior" or "junior" in your art
Myth 7: In martial arts men's and women's classes must be separated
Myth 8: Women should not grapple, especially not with men
Myth 9: You must not use resistance because "the technique is too dangerous"

Myth 1:

You must use honoring titles such as Sifu, Guru, Sensei,.... in order to maintain the proper sense of respect in school. This is one of the most pervasive habits in the martial arts, and goes back to the military style of training we will discuss later. Your students should be quiet and respectful when you are teaching because they are there to learn and genuinely respect you, not because they have to refer to you by a title from a different language. The kind of students who are impressed or motivated by these types of titles are not the kind of students we would want.

Myth 2:

You must teach your classes by having your students line up and grunt acknowledgments in unison. This myth, long associated with the more traditional martial arts, stems from teaching methods derived from the military. What most traditional Japanese martial arts consider to be Budo training methods, are nothing but. During the era of Samurai and warrior class of Japan, men and women trained in a very efficient, aggressive, and by today's standards what would be considered "informal" way. When World War II broke out Japan no longer had an exclusive military class. What they were in need of was a large military force. In order to create such a force soldiers would have to be drawn from all segments of society. The Samurai who never needed to be yielded at or prodded to train for combat, were replaced by merchants, farmers and tradesmen. Budo (the warrior way) was replaced by drill sergeants, straight lines of soldiers repeating the same moves in unison, yelling, titles of rank and a military style of teaching designed for people who were thought as too inept to learn the traditional way. It is time to throw all this away! There are better ways to teach!

Myth 3:

You must not give your students too much information, too fast, because "if you sell all the merchandise on your shelves no one will come back to the store". This is perhaps the stupidest myth associated with "martial" arts. It may apply to a teacher of forms and techniques, but should never be a concern to a Fighter. If it is, then you lack the most valuable commodity a great teacher can have - imagination. How can you run out of an art that has no limitations?! If you believe this asinine myth, quit martial arts now. You are in the wrong activity!

Myth 4:

You must teach a lot of information at once or your students will get bored. This myth is true if you are teaching a crop of students who measure their progress by the accumulation of techniques and the size of their note books. "I was taught movements and concepts from Rickson Gracie in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu two years ago that I am just beginning to apply and use now. Imagine if I logged those movements in my notebook and then said to Rickson 'OK, I know these now .... show me more'. I am sure he would just laugh. However, with arts such as Kali and Jun Fan students learn a double stick pattern, or trapping combination, and then quickly request more variations and techniques to add to their notebook. The attitude of 'I have 27 double stick patterns and you only have 12' becomes common. The thought 'can I apply any of this?' does not seem to even occur." - Matt Thornton. When teaching people who are interested in learning how to fight, it is not necessary to teach a million techniques. Teaching the fundamentals well and showing drills for their application will always be greeted with enthusiasm. The seminars of Rickson Gracie prove this point.

Myth 5:

You must not associate with your students in an informal way or they will lose their respect for you. The kind of students who would lose interest in training because they realize that their instructor is a mortal human being, is not the kind of students we want. You must know your students well in order to motivate them well.

Myth 6:

You should refer to people differently depending on whether they are "senior" or "junior" in your art. This myth demonstrates the dramatic difference between the beggar's humility and warrior's humility. The beggar will bow down and scrape the floor for any man he deems to be greater than him; but at the same time he will demand that any man he deems to be lesser, bow down and scrape the floor for him. The warrior bows down before no man, and allows no man to bow down before him. At this gym we must strive for the humility of warrior and shun the humility of a beggar.

Myth 7:

In martial arts men's and women's classes must be separated. There is nothing further from the truth than this! The primary goal for training the martial arts for most women is not competition, it is self-defence. They want to be able to stop or divert a potential aggressor (usually male) in a "street-fighting" situation. Training with women might be a nice social or athletic event, and gives good fitness conditioning too, but from the point of view of self-defence against a male aggressor it is useless. Why? Simply because men are usually larger than women and they don't fight the same way as women do. So, to develop skills useful in real "street-fighting" situations, women have to train in similar conditions - with men. There is also an important factor of psychological conditioning. Women training with men are not going to panic or be impressed by a larger size and aggressiveness of the male aggressor. They have seen this many times before!

Myth 8:

Women should not grapple, especially not with men. Well, this is more a question of a personal choice, first of all. In martial ats there are many men as much as women who enjoy the long-range combat (punching, kicking...) but who don't like to be in close (grappling) range with their opponents. That's fine. But there is one thing which makes it different for women. As said before, most women do martial arts in order to gain some experience in self-defence. Attacked by a man, there is much higher probability for a woman to be taken to the ground than there is for a man. That's a simple question of size and strength. And in that situation it is of crucial importance for a woman to know how to defend herself. When fighting with a larger and stronger male on the ground, the use of proper technique is her only chance to escape or even save her life. The technique does not come by itself, it must be learned during the realistic training. So, grappling with larger male partners has its important place in women's MA training. Many women realize that and would like to learn some basic ground fighting. However, there is something else to stop them - society and the common view of any closer contact between two opposite sexes as something which should not be encouraged. Well, grappling is a close contact, there is no doubt about that! Any woman (and, by the way, any man too) can feel uncomfortable in such a close range the first few times. But, as she (or he) progresses, she finds very quickly that in martial arts people are not divided to men and women. All of them consider themselves "only" as human beings on their way to find and improve themselves. The martial arts way is the way of respect for each other.

Myth 9:

You must not use resistance because "the technique is too dangerous". This type of attitude is what makes many martial arts simply ridiculous. If a technique is so dangerous that it cannot be practiced with safe, progressive resistance from your partner (and still work) then it should be dropped from the curriculum - it simply is not going to come together for you when you need it most against a fully resisting, struggling opponent. If you have not repeatedly tested the move/technique with aliveness (timing/energy/motion - the three elements ALWAYS present in a real fight) you cannot expect to improve the most essential element, timing. If you only incorporate moves and techniques that can be practised against a progressively resisting training partner, you will build up the necessary skill required to make the move work - even when someone is trying to stop you.

Aliveness Gym Aberdeen

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu & Mixed Martial Arts for EveryBODY