In the last ten years, he and I both went from looking young for our age to him graying and me losing my hair. We laugh because neither of us is from Sacramento and we were fighting teachers (most teachers in Sacramento do not fight) and now, in our 40s, we both are shadows of who we once were and want to return to the ring. Jermaine, who is a descendant of John Keehan (yes, that Keehan), is preparing for a cage match while I am on a running regimen to fight in point fighting matches. We committed to working out once a week and sparring at least once a week.

I thought back to our sessions ten years ago and remembered the competition between us. We were both over 30 but still looked in our 20s. We were both still competing. We both had our own “groupies” who thought of us as the top dog in town. And when we first met, were constantly trying to outdo each other. The competition between us when we were younger was almost hostile, although we became friends because of it. When he fights in March, I will be in his corner, but before then I will do my best to kick his ass every opportunity I get.

Ah, the true martial arts training partner!

Let me give you the Filipino idea of a training partner.

In the Philippine fighting arts you will find many masters who referred to each other as a “training partner”, but it is not a partner in the way many of you think. Filipino teacher-fighters are very selfish with their systems and knowledge. When they train, they actually prefer to train alone, and the offer to “train together” is a coded way of saying “I want to see if I can whip you, and I also want to see what you do when you train.” LOL–yes, I am laughing as I type, because I am guilty of that even now. Jay spent a good portion of the last decade in Yemen, where he taught a private group of family members–mostly for fitness, but he had plenty of time to develop and modify his art. What he didn’t have was a guy like me, who would do my best to make him leave the dojo with three shoes–two on his feet, one in his ass–to see if his self-development has been in vain. It is very likely that your Masters and Grandmasters were like this as young men… They came up with an idea, they trained like a madman to see that idea manifest itself into physical skill, then they get with their “training partner” to see if they could beat him with it. The training partner, on the other hand, was there to try and decode it in the course of the match as well as beat it with his own technique.

And there you have the ongoing cycle of the martial arts friendship:  Two guys getting together, not so much to share as they endeavor to use each other’s skill to fine tune their own skill. Sometimes, they would actually share knowledge. Most of the time, they do not. But do not be discouraged by the refusal to share, as training partners are working individually to develop their own systems and really are helping the other develop his own style by being a rival. For the fighter must find the hardest stone to sharpen his blade, and someone softer will not afford him that opportunity to temper his skills. The better the skill of the partner, the harder you must work to beat him, and the better your own skill will be. On the other hand, a training partner who is too easy on you, too friendly, or too complimenting to is not going to do much to force you to work harder. This is very different from a workout partner who is simply trying to get you to push out a few extra reps; we are talking about a guy who is actively trying to outdo you, prove you wrong, and beat you. Few martial artists will actually do this and remain your friend. He isn’t trying to hurt you, but he isn’t going to make it easy for you either. He has a genuine interest in defeating you, and every victory you got while sparring with him is bitterly earned. He is a rare find; most martial artists are either too selfish, too shy, or too afraid to maintain a relationship like this.

As a martial artist, you would want to find and keep these types of training partners. These aren’t men you are trying to learn from, they are men you are trying to learn on. And this type of learning is difficult to come by.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

First I would like to clarify something I said:  fighter with better use of his reach…  Often, the taller fighters does not have good use of his reach as a advantage. A few good examples of this would be tall power punchers, or fighters who are tall but prefer to use short punches like the hook and uppercut. Or worse–taller fighters who like to clinch, fight inside or do not have the ability to keep shorter fighters away. Sometimes the taller fighter does not have longer arms, while a shorter fighter may have longer reach. If anyone has ever fought with a reach disadvantage, this can be a frustrating experience whether or not you are quicker than your opponent.

Ditto that for fighting a guy who is faster than you are. Just as frustrating as that is a fighter who fights you on the outside (meaning from outside your front foot), when you can’t seem to reach him with your rear hand. The ironic thing about this article is that I am about to show you how to beat me. For those who know me as a fighter, my strengths are that I fight from the outside, I use my reach well despite being only 5’7″, and I have a speed advantage over my opponents. Where possible, these are the things I teach my fighters to use as well as the advice I am about to give you to beat this strategy.

• First, you have the choice of trying to beat an outside moving opponent to the button versus fighting him on the inside. The outside firing position has many advantages, but it also has it’s disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that whatever you throw will not come down the centerline. If your opponent is a master of the centerline, he will intersect you at whatever you decide to use. (Side note, this is the primary principle behind a famous Eagle Claw form called Jeet Chune. You guys may know the rest) When you fight your opponent on the inside, shorter arms are actually a plus. Speed is secondary also.
• Go open. In this, I mean that if your opponent has his left foot in front, put your right foot forward. It will change much of what your opponent may have planned for you. The dynamics of the change of angle will confuse many opponents who have not prepared for this position. Then instead of fighting for the outside position, circle in the same direction he is going. This will put him right in firing range of your rear hand, which is now in the power punching position.
• Attack him in 2s and 3s. This is a universal fighting strategy for me and my style, yet you would be surprise how many fighters have no answer for it. Punching in combination is not natural for many fighters and they don’t do it well… let alone defend against it.
• Give him your head. As he moves drive forward with the top of your head. If he’s smart, he will uppercut you but that will leave his own face open and vulnerable to attack. He could also attack with a hook, but since he is lateral moving he will not have good power or timing to make it meaningful. If this is a streetfight, drive forward until you have headbutted him. A great fight strategy. Anyone who tells you otherwise can just put the gloves on and prove it to you. I know this technique well and will stand by it should we ever meet in person. If you use it, someone’s getting hurt–point blank.
• Break away and put yourself out of firing range to break up his rhythm. Break away from his punching, not straight back. He will be forced to stop what he is doing and re-engage you. When you come back together, initiate the attack. But this time, attack the position you know he is moving to, not where he is standing. Another good fight strategy for faster opponents.
• Counter hit. Even if your opponent is faster than you are, you can still gauge when he will be open to get hit. This will take some guts to do and toughness on your part, as you must accept that you might get hit while doing it. The beautiful thing is, you will make him pay for hitting you too. After he has taken a few good shots your opponent may be more careful and hesitate when he fires, and this will give you an opportunity to come out on top. The way this works is that when you know he is planning to hit–most of the time you do, just too slow to stop it–brace yourself, cover and attack at the same time he attacks. While you may get hit in this strategy, if this is a faster fighter you are up against, he will likely be using quick punches rather than power punches (especially if they are off the front hand). You, on the other hand, will attack with power punches. So he jabbed you in the forehead–you power-punched to the nose. Who comes out on top?

Hopefully I have presented this information in simple language and made it easy to understand. If you have questions, please post them and I will do my best to answer. If you are in the Sacramento area, email me and make an appointment to stop by the gym! I’ll even go a round with you to demonstrate if you need more detail. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Teach him to fish, feed him for life…

Oh, I just love true wisdom, and I’m sure you’ve heard this one. How can one not agree with it?

The idea is that we can keep spoonfeeding the needy, but if you teach the needy to feed himself he will be able to feed himself and be independant of you and handouts. The martial arts and development within the arts are very similar to this philosophy. No, I am not speaking of teaching men to teach themselves; that idea is proposterous. What I am referring to is teaching your martial arts students the most valuable skill you could ever give them. This is the skill, that if they never took another lesson in their life from where they are in their training from this point forward… that in time, they will be skilled enough to defend themselves, physically fit, and ready for combat as if they had been studying the martial arts all this time.

Allow me to break from this to inject another point. This is something that can never be taught in a seminar or video. It is something that I am positive that 100% of the seminar guys out there (yes, even your Grandmaster) is missing. It is the reason why my students will always beat your students, unless your students have developed a foundation elsewhere, besides those seminars. It explains one of the main reasons I am anti-learning by seminar. And even if I taught it to you right here, right now–any attempt to impart this in a seminar will fail.

The most valuable thing you can teach a martial arts student is not a technique or fight strategy. It is not a particular weapon. It is not a shortcut to proficiency in the art. In fact, it is the opposite to the shortcut to proficiency:

The most valuable thing you can teach a martial arts student is how to train.

Easy enough concept to understand, right? No. It isn’t that easy. One of the clichès I hear martial artist regurgitate over and over, and they think they are making profound sense when they utter it is the too-simple-to-deny-but-more-complicated-than-you-realize “Practice, Practice, Practice“. Babies, we are not talking about the damned Piano. Martial arts is not something that we simply practice to get. Sure, when we are infants in the art or learn a brand new technique, practice may suffice. But when you are serious about fighting and you have the goal of dominance, you must TRAIN. Big difference. “Practice” refers to the repeating of something over and over until you “get it”. Can you practice beyond mere “ability”? Can you practice your way to perfection?

Yes, you can “practice” beyond simply the ability to perform a technique or skill. You can even practice your way to “pretty good”. But if you wish for perfection or dominance–you want to reach your potential in the art and on the street–you must train.

So, what’s the difference, Mustafa? Let’s see what Google has to say about “practice“:

Perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one’s proficiency.

And “train“?

Teach (a person or animal) a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction over a period of time.

If you look at the definition of “train” (yes I know, it also says that “train” is a series of railroad cars, but we are referring to fighting, smarty pants) there are two important factors here. First, it includes “practice”. Secondly, there is the element of “instruction”. In practicing something, you assume that you already know it. With training, you are in the pursuit of more knowledge. Yes, you already “know” the skill because you must practice it. Yet, you are continuing to learn through more instruction. The martial artist assumes that he knows everything. Sure, the fake humility we find in the martial arts requires him to say that he doesn’t know everything. Yet the martial artist really does think he knows everything because he determines that his teacher’s classes are not complete enough, so he supplements with seminar and video. He prowls Youtube for more info to add to his repertoire. He attempts to teach himself through books. He believes in making his own path. The martial artist who “practices” his art believes that this alone will make him improve. Take a seminar to learn new stuff in one day, spend a lot of time “practicing”, and one day he will slap on the title of “Master”. Learn>>Practice>>Master. That is the idea behind this false philosophy in the art.

Where the fighter who trains is not just practicing. He is in the constant process of improving and learning more about what he is doing. When he trains, simply knowing how is insufficient–he wants to be able to do and do better. When we envision a man practicing, we see him alone, casually doing what he knows, over and over. When we picture a man training, he is not alone–he is with a trainer. The trainer is counting cadence, he is calling the shots, he is asking the man to perform more–and faster, stronger, more accurately. The man practicing may have learned his skill from someone else, but he is not adding more instruction and certainly not doing so under stress. Yet the man being trained is continuing to learn, and not only is it assumed that he does not know all, and he is not good enough and being pushed to do better. The action of the word “to train” involves two people:  The trainer and the trained. The word “practice” has no practicer or practicee… not only does this fail to make sense, it is also very arrogant and is as false as the level of the humility of the guy saying that “practice makes perfect”.

When you train someone, you make them do more than they think they are capable of doing. You find a way for him to fail in his attempts to practice. He must defeat something–a clock, a previous level of performance, an opponent. He is too slow. He is too weak. He is not good enough. Yet he continues, until he is satisfied with the results–and then he tests himself on someone else and concludes that again… he is not good enough. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

The most valuable thing you can impart to your students is the notion that in the gym, you are never good enough. Yesterday you were pretty good, today you suck, and you are in competition with that jerk who came to the gym yesterday. The saying of the Eskrimador is that skill is not what you are able to do–but how high your limit and potential are, and what you can do when you have exhausted yourself at that limit. In the martial arts, Eskrimadors practice too fresh. They do not put themselves under pressure enough. They surround themselves with friends. For them, practice is rehearsing a skill of coordination. The Eskrimador who trains is running a marathon against himself, and the sooner he learns to push himself to his limit and fight when he is scared, fatigued and in pain–the sooner he will be on his way to teaching and learning from himself. This is not something that will be easily learned. It will take about six months of being trained–understanding, accepting and expecting that concept as normal–before training replaces practicing in his vocabulary. This is the way of the Filipino Fighting Arts.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

I believe that the “next level” of the martial arts after taking students is developing your ability to make teachers. Teaching the technical side of the art is not enough; and the faux existence of martial arts “philosophy” that many teachers pretend to have doesn’t even deserve room for discussion in this article. (I will say this: merely putting up “tenets” on the walls of your dojo and in flyers and those silly creeds is not “philosophy”. Heck, it’s not even traditional for most of your systems) The fighting philosophy of the art, which is vastly different from martial arts philosophy, is something that should be included under teaching the art. Technical martial arts should also include fighting philosophy, although many teachers neither know both nor understand what the differences are. Yet learning the technical side of the art is a world difference from the art of teaching the martial arts. Few martial arts systems and genres other than the Japanese have a treatise on this subject. In the Filipino martial arts, I have only seen rules and by laws of corporations governing what monetary business Guros should abide by when they do undertake teaching. Rarely do FMA teachers actually receive instructions on how to teach the art. We have re-certification seminars and processes that are more money-grubbing than anything else, and they have nothing to do with producing the best martial arts student possible—which should be the fueling goal of any martial arts teacher and his organization. We have all sorts of goals, like “furthering the system”, “reaching the masses”, “showing the world our master’s art”, and “promoting the FMAs”:  and none of them address making those FMA students better than the Tae Kwon Do guys, Kung fu guys, Jujitsu guys… When I read those words, I hear “turning my school into a world-wide, money-making endeavor”. Sorry if you’re offended by my opinion. Perhaps you should change your motto.

25 years ago, many of the Arnis and Eskrima masters in thePhilippinesI have met—even the Filipino Karate masters—would brag that they had the best fighters in town. In the effort to recruit me as a student, or at least impress me as a visiting Arnisador, teachers would arrange sparring matches and demonstrations. Some of them spent a lot of energy trying to convince me that my fighting would improve as a student of their gym. Somewhere in all this “promoting” of the FMAs, we have lost this wonderful piece of the Filipino martial character. Our classes and gyms have given way to the seminar and crash-course, student-to-teacher turnover is occurring faster than recruits at a barber college. Filipino martial arts have become the seminar that businessmen who want to “add to their bottom line” can take to, well, add to their bottom line. We have ranking structures such as “Novice > Advanced > Associate Instructor > Apprentice Instructor > Junior Instructor > Full Instructor > Master Instructor” and they all take place with less time and effort than a McDojo Brown Belt at the shopping center.

That said, with the rush to turn our novices into instructors as quickly and painlessly as possible—we have lost the mission, the traditional mission, of the Filipino martial artist:  to produce superior and dominant fighters. As soon as the student can hold his own in a drill or sinawali, as soon as he can remember and his hands can regurgitate a memorized disarm (or to adlib and “pimp” that drill or disarm)—we certify him and send him on his way to “building” our worldwide organization.

Let me inject something. As a young man in thePhilippines, I recall meeting several well-known grandmasters who bragged to me that their systems were so famous they had students abroad that wanted to bring them to their countries to teach. On the few occasions that I met and even trained with some of these foreign ambassadors, I can honestly say that not a single one was impressive as a fighter. Sad to say, but not one could hold a candle to the intermediates I knew. It was disgusting, and I vowed never to do that. On the other hand, I met some fighters of the Yaw Yan gym while atSantoTomasUniversitywho bragged that they did not take any of these foreign students, unless they stayed inManila. When I trained with them, not a single one of them was anything short of impressive. And that gym promoted not a ton of students abroad or at home—but simply that their fighters could lick any man in town. You gotta respect that.

Back to the state of modern FMA, we absolutely must include as part of the learning curriculum for our students the art of developing skill through their students. They must study how to lead a class, how to build strengths and counter weaknesses, how to help students overcome fear and shyness, how to coach a fighter, how to explain concepts, how to motivate insecure students. We should give them opportunities to try out their ideas on their junior classmates (under supervision, of course), and monitor their teaching styles. We should help them develop their own twist on our twist on the FMAs, as creativity is one of the keys to mastery (not imitation). We must lead them through the winding and new path of “FMA Guro”, as we did for “FMA student”. And when they have satisfactorily completed this level, they should then graduate from FMA student to FMA Guro.

And we graduate to that “Next Level”, as well.

Soo…. What is the next level for the Guro who has trained Guros of his own? We will look into it another day, but the next level of train the trainers is “train the protectors”. It has nothing to do with making money, growing schools, or becoming famous; it has all to do with giving back to the community that gave us income. But we’ll discuss that later. Thanks for visiting my blog.

I can’t teach this concept by blog. To be honest, you would have to study under a teacher who understands fight strategy in order to accomplish it. Many teachers are only passing down techniques from their system with minimal instruction in strategy and fight science. It is difficult to find a teacher that has the right answer. Doing so is as easy as choosing your parents; it’s really luck that some end up with a truly knowledgeable teacher. It would be foolish for a beginner to think he can recognize a “quality” teacher, therefore martial arts students judge by whether a teacher’s bio is well-written or if he is well-known, well-spoken, etc. Yet you can become a student of fight strategy and the art of fighting and learn these things on your own. Yes, it would be difficult, but it is possible to train under a teacher while studying fighting science on your own.

I would like to offer some advice that may help you get on your way:

• First, in sparring, you should focus more on trying to land techniques, not hurt your opponents. The mistake would be to try and use your sparring sessions to dominate your opponents. But sparring during training is the inappropriate time to try and dominate; it is the time to learn, develop and test theories and techniques. If you are focusing on kicking your opponent’s butt, you’re missing the opportunity to develop skills in practice. Save the butt-kicking for the ring, and use sparring sessions to test out techniques and try the techniques you’re not very good at.
• At the same time—make your opponent’s attacks fail. “Fail” means his attack will either be blocked, avoided, intercepted and countered. Fight training is often too focused on attacking the opponent because it is the easiest, most painless way to train. Anyone can stand in front of the punching bag and wail on it like you were the next “Rocky”, but it is not that easy to have a guy attack us and we have to stop those attacks. If you were to spend an entire month on learning how to be attacked, I bet you’d see a nice jump in sparring success. To practice this, you can either do attacker-defender sparring sessions, or simply spar with the intention not to get hit.
• Lose the “take a hit to give a hit” mentality. Even hits that don’t hurt much can add up and lead to your demise later in the fight. The best way to fight is to make sure your opponent lands as little as possible. Not only does it result in a fresher, more confident you—it also takes away some of your opponent’s confidence in himself.
• Try to find techniques that allow you to counter your opponent’s attacks without the use of blocks. When you can eliminate blocking, you make your fighting more efficient, as your hands are free to hit since they are no longer occupied blocking.
• Learn to use the counter-to-the-counter strategy. I attack my opponent with a hook to the body. My opponent can utilize one of three basic counters to this attack (drop the elbow and block with the arm, block with the front hand, and the rare block with the back hand). When he does so, I should have a counter in anticipation of those three counters that are automatic. Do this for everything in your arsenal.
• Have a pre-planned set of counters for everything your opponent can do to you. Many fighters train their attacks intensely, and then leave defense up to chance and reflex. As a fighter, you want to have a good defensive and strategy plan. When you have them figured out, make them a vital part of your training plan and fight strategy.

Perhaps we will revisit this topic in better detail, but I am more inclined to write a book about it (lol). If you use these simple rules, I guarantee you will see more success in fighting.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

First Scenario (The Debate):  Opponent #1 attacks Opponent #2 by stating Fact A. Fact A is a good point and shakes Opponent #2’s confidence. Opponent #2 states random Facts to keep Opponent #1 at bay until he realizes the problem with Fact A. In fact, Fact A has a few holes in the theory, although it sounds good, it can easily be countered by Fact D. Once Opponent #2 states Fact D, Opponent #1 cannot come up with a retort because Fact D covers all the bases. Opponent #1 finally yields to Opponent #2’s argument as being superior. Opponent #2 wins the debate.

Second Scenario (The Shouting Match):  Opponent #1 attacks Opponent #2 by stating Fact A. Fact A is a good point and shakes Opponent #2’s confidence. He cannot think of random Facts, nor can he figure out any problems with Fact A’s primary idea. Opponent #2’s answer is to yell and scream an obviously faulty idea at Opponent #1. Opponent #1 yells and screams Fact A louder. Opponents 1 and 2 take turns yelling at each other, louder and louder. Onlookers cannot determine who is winning the argument because the yelling has become the focus of the discussion. Finally, Opponent #1’s voice gives out and he cannot yell any longer. Opponent #2 walks away the victor, not because of a superior argument, but because of his voice being louder and having more mileage.

There are many who believe that being stronger and fighting with more power counters superior technique and strategy. This notion is true, but it has limitations:

• Some opponents are stronger than you
• Some opponents cannot easily be hurt
• Some opponents have superior defensive skills and are difficult to hit
• Some opponents are faster than you and can hit you three times for every attack you throw
• Some opponents have superior footwork, so you will not be able to catch them, nor can you evade their attacks

The fighter then, needs to have a better method of landing his attacks as well as have a good set of defensive skills. I find that fighters tend to limit themselves to just knowing basics and combinations, and then they work to get bigger and stronger. The argument is when they catch you, they will hurt you. The counter argument is that you must first catch me—and be able to avoid my bombs. The counter to the counter is you can run, but you can’t hide. The counter to the counter to the counter is “oh yeah? Watch me!”

This can go on for days.

But we save time by developing our landing skills as well as our stopping and evading skills. Have the bigger guns, but make sure you also have better aim and faster reloading ability. If you have an opponent who cannot get away from you and he can’t overpower you AND he does not have superior strategy—he doesn’t have a chance. Learn how to make sure that this combination of scenarios happen, and I guarantee you fighting dominance. One needs more than just bigger arms these days, and you also need to have more than just the same old combination of techniques that everyone else is using. If you want to be a superior fighter, the work is done at the gym as well as the drawing board.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

The martial artist is supposed to be a perfectionist, but for some reason we convince ourselves that perfection is impossible and being ambitious is unbecoming of the martial artist. How foolish.

The Ultimate in combat is taking another man’s life, and it’s inverse is stopping a man determined to take your life. We cannot be complacent when in pursuit of the ultimate, unless your training does not have this goal in mind. It appears to me that most martial artists are in fact searching for mediocrity while ignoring–no:  shunning–the Ultimate. We speak of preferring to focus on “real” combat, whatever that is, over sport/practice/simulated combat, yet we never engage in “real” combat in practice. After all, if we claim to be training for fighting to the finish yet never actually “fight to the finish”–isn’t what you do simulated anyway? We talk of testing our skill, yet we never allow ourselves to be tested by doubters. In fact, we claim to dislike our doubters and avoid them like a rabid dog; who is “testing” your skill? You? Classmates? Friends? Could an 11th grader honestly test his own Algebra skills? Can a football team ever prove their superiority as a team without a rival or opposing team? Why do we insist on isolating ourselves to friends and friendly martial artists, when the first part of what we call ourselves refer to enemies? Why look down on those who seek to achieve greatness and think it’s okay to just be “good” in the arts?

When a martial artist does not engage in “martial” activities, he is guilty of being just an “artist”. An artist, my friends, is not a warrior but a guy who simulates reality. Fighting, war, killing–these things are about as real as it gets. Artists? I think of painters, sculptors, musicians, dancers. Artists are people who imitate life and reality, while the warrior either preserves or destroys reality.

And in life, what can be more “real” than living or dying? Living and dying, my friends are the first and last things a man does. Everything in between are less important than those two things. The martial artist engages in an activity that will determine when and if those two things will happen. We control nothing in our lives more important than whether we live or die. The only factor more in control of our life and death is the Creator of the Heavens and Earth. So if we are to be a deciding factor in life and death, should we treat our skill that depends greatly on whether we can defend our lives as a hobby? Should we treat it lightly and just believe that we actually can defend ourselves without actually checking? Are you the kind of guy who checks your car’s fluids regularly, or do you just hop in and drive all the time?

If we are martial artists who are serious about keeping ourselves alive should a conflict occur, doesn’t it make sense to keep our blade sharp, keep ourselves armed and ready at all time? One would think so, but too many martial artists approach this subject too lightly. They train casually, they treat martial arts training as social events, and they almost never allow a doubter to test them. They leave dojos if the learning stage is too slow, the training is too hard, or the fees too high. Rather than search for the best school to learn to fight, they look for gyms that are comfortable and welcoming. They look for big names and smiling faces. They cruise Facebook and MyFMA.net looking for new friends and neat video clips and seminars to go to and hold hands some more. And when they think of their martial arts skill, they think of themselves as “good” (or even refuse to admit that they think they are good) and then put down the guys who “think they are better than everyone else”.

Um, you’re a warrior. If you don’t think you’re the best in the business, you must be in the wrong business. Men who fight for their lives don’t cloak themselves in modesty. They aren’t afraid to be seen as “arrogant” or a braggart. They aren’t bothered by some guy saying he’s better than you or some dude walking around with his chest swelled up. Warriors have prepared themselves for the Ultimate and aren’t afraid to show you how well-prepared they are. This isn’t to say that warriors go around fighting to the finish at the drop of a dime. What I am saying is that warrior will show you, simulated or real, that he thinks he’s better and will welcome the chance to check his skill every now and again.

And when he has proven himself to be “pretty good”, he doesn’t rush out and start posting his shingle all over the internet hoping to hawk some videos and seminar attendance fees. He wants to prove it again and again, until he finds a weakness in his armor so that he can strenthen it again. He is not satisfied with being pretty strong, pretty quick, learning new and complicated tricks. His life is a constant battle to improve and testing himself and his skill. He does not fear defeat, as the only defeat that matters is the one when he dies–if he is ever fatefully destined to be tested in the Ultimate test. Until that day, he will test and train and modify, test and train and modify, and so forth, until he truly feels like he can lick any man in the room.

And when he feels that way… wash, rinse, repeat. Greatness is objective. It is only abstract in the minds of men who do not pursue it. If you are not endeavoring for greatness–for the ultimate level of skill and ability in the art–you are not a martial artist, but a hobbyist, who is at most striving to be “good”. Thus, you will never achieve the Ultimate in the warrior arts.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

I want you to listen well; what I am going to share with you will help you increase your enrollment–if you’re a martial arts teacher. I originally wanted to post this under “Martial Arts Philosophy”. But after thinking about who is to benefit from the article itself (and not who the article is about–it’s your job to pass the message on to the right people)–I decided to put it under “Business” instead. My sincere desire for this blog is more than just attracting business to my school. I want to see more FMA schools and traditional martial arts schools to be able to say that they stayed in business for two decades, just like a crummy old cranky Guro like me.

So, listen good.

Every man who enters your school, whether he expresses a true desire to study or not, is a potential student. If he says he wants to study or not, he could potentially use your services. If there was enough of an interest or curiosity that a man walks into a dojo, he has enough interest to need or want the martial arts. Perhaps he once studied the martial arts. Maybe he wanted to study the martial arts and procrastinated until he thought he was too old. He may have once been mugged or robbed. Every man has once experienced the burn of fear when he thought he might be attacked, or the threat of having to defend himself or his family. Most adult males would like to get into shape. All men want to feel that his family will look to him for protection–and very few men really, really feel like they can.

Let’s chew on that for a minute.

I restate:  FEW MEN TRULY FEEL LIKE THEY CAN PROVIDE AMPLE PROTECTION FOR THEIR FAMILIES AGAINST ALL THREATS.

Yes, most men don’t feel adequate. So they avoid the bad neighborhoods and shady-looking characters. They move to the suburbs where they feel like their kids won’t get bullied, their wives won’t be accosted or gawked at blatantly. They pick up their children from school because they aren’t sure their children know how to defend themselves. They will pretend that they feel safe. But the truth is, they don’t. And denying that fact makes them ignore the reality that they don’t know how to defend themselves and they are too cowardly to learn how and arm themselves.

Yes, I said it. They are too cowardly to go and study. So they work out, thinking this will help. Much safer to build muscle on your own than go and do any serious training. They watch MMA hoping to pick up a few moves instead of going to a gym and really learn those moves. They walk into martial arts schools looking for lessons for their 4 year old boys, when their real desire is to ask if you accept fat ass middle aged yuppie men.

And here we arrive at my point. When that yuppie male is broken down on the side of the street waiting on AAA, and some trouble maker thugs approach. EVERY man’s wife will turn to him and say the words he fears hearing, because he knows he has no answer for it:

DO something.

That’s right, John–DO something. What’s so sad about this, is that John is just as scared as his wife. He is just as helpless as his wife. And he is just as dependent as his wife is for someone to “DO something”. Except for John, that someone is the police, a pedestrian or good Samaritan, or maybe fate or luck by hoping that this will never happen. John, unlike his wife, has an abstract helper–besides God Himself–he is relying on the right person to be there to protect him and his family because he hasn’t done anything to prepare for that day when his wife will call on him to protect him. If she goes hungry, he is blamed for not bringing home the (turkey) bacon. If she is cold, it’s his fault for not heating the home. When she is unloved, he is to blame for not showing his wife affection. Yet for some reason, most men bury their heads in the sand when it comes to protection. You can’t buy protection with money, and real protection is something that takes blood, sweat and tears to have.

Let me say it again: Most men are afraid to prepare themselves for self-protection and arming themselves to protect loved ones. ALL men really want to prepare themselves. When they walk into your gym, they are secretly hoping that there is an affordable, SAFE, easy, pain-free way to get this protection.

Now you and I both know that “affordable” is up to perception. But safe, easy and pain-free? Feel free to laugh out loud… But regardless of the risks, it is a man’s DUTY to protect his family, and anything that happens to that family if he fails to arm himself will be his fault. Not only will he feel guilty, but his wife and children will no longer look at him as a man–because he cannot provide one of the most basic things a man should be giving his family. The community won’t even accept him as a man. How can he be respected when his family must look elsewhere for protection? It’s a terrible place to be, but for some reason most men are there. So when trouble arrives, he will just be a victim and his family will be victimized.

Unless, of course, he understands how important this skill is and how it is relevant to his role as head of the household. And that’s where you come in.

So, Mr. Visitor–if you go home, and your family are bound and gagged, and there are 3 thugs in your home looking for cash–are you prepared to do something about it? (Don’t let that dude leave your dojo until you two have had that talk) I’ll leave the rest up to you.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

I am actually thinking of a few other subjects I’d like to address as I write this (note to self:  address later! I digress), but something he did in our conversation sparked this article.

First I’d like to apologize for forgetting the man’s name. I asked him a few times, but he dropped so many names in our conversation I must have either forgotten while trying to remember exactly what his lineage was–or I was looking down on the floor trying to count how many he dropped. Apparently, in all of this research of who’s who in the FMAs, he obviously skipped over me and, in addition to thinking I was a part time guy, mistook me for someone who gave a damn.

Digressing some more…. when visiting a martial arts school you know nothing about folks, take some advice from me. Never go in trying to one-up the guy in front of you. Especially if you only plan on doing so verbally. If you are a martial arts expert, then introduce yourself as one and treat the conversation as if you were meeting a peer. If you are not looking for lessons, don’t act like you are. If you are curious about how they do business, then be forthright and ask the questions you want answers to. Like “how much do you guys charge a month?” and “where do you get most of your students from?” and “what are your classes like?”  And always, always–never try to impress or diminish the guy in front of you, especially if you know nothing about him.

Back to the conversation. So, he begins by telling me he was originally a Serrada student back in the 70s, then he met a Master in Vallejo who was so impressed with his Eskrima that he took him as a personal student, then this guy, then that guy…. zzzzzzz.

I realized the gentleman was not interested in lessons, he was not a teacher, and he was not planning to buy equipment from me. Not a problem. But sometimes I have interesting conversations with visiting martial artists, expert or not. So I listen–and that’s all I really get to do because the gentleman talked so much I doubt he even inhaled. Then he said something significant.

“In the Filipino arts, lineage means nothing.”

Um, no. See, in the Filipino arts, lineage does mean nothing–but it also means everything. Anyone in the Filipino arts as a fighting art form–not a business–knows this.

Lineage is more than just a reference point for braggarts and ego. It is knowing where your training, knowledge and skill originated. It is understanding the logic behind why your art is the way that it is. It is knowing why you have no forms, or knowing where the forms in your style came from. It explains why you do things the way that you do, and it gives legitimacy to everything you do. For a man with no lineage must work harder to validate his skill and respect (which have to do with more than just fighting skill), and a man with good lineage must work even harder than HIM to validate his art. Lineage tells those whom you encounter that you most likely know your stuff, and it can also tell those same people you probably don’t know crap. Lineage, depending on who’s in it, speaks loudly to the expectations of those around you.

And there is a saying in the martial arts, “You don’t take those masters into the ring with you.”

Idiots. Shows how much they know about the martial arts; or perhaps I should rephrase that to “how little they know…”

Little do you realize, you do take those masters into the ring with you. When a man sees you fight, he is looking at the manifestation of your master and all of his lessons he imparted to you, his experiences, his theories, and his training regimen–and the master before him, and all those things–and the master before him. With your 3-minute match, you either validate everything they’ve worked for, or you shame it. You stand for them and all they hoped for with the art. Whether you win or lose, you represent not just yourself and your teachers, but you represent all others from your art. Anyone remotely close to what you do: Your teacher’s classmates and their students, their training partners and their students, even foreign styles who are not connected to you by lineage–but perhaps from the same country or only a similar ideology to yours. When you fight, they are proud of you and they share in your glory, even if you lose (just lose graciously and not like a coward). They are pulling for you, and if you look good, they look good. And finally, your own students. They and their pride originates from you and how well you represent them. Train hard, do your best, excel, and prove your superiority. What more is there to the martial arts?

Trust me, lineage is not for us to use when we want brownie points. It does nothing for our skill. Name-dropping is meaningless without the skills to back it up. But without knowing, respecting, representing and having a duty to serve our lineage–our martial arts and our accomplishments become very self-centered and isolated. In this case, lineage does mean nothing. It is not here for us to use as a calling card or a substitute for excelling in the art. It is not a weapon to use to try and make some random Guro you encounter to feel inferior. Especially when that Guro you encountered just finished performing a thousand strikes, 100 pushups, and thinks your ego needs a bone-snapping wake-up call. If I were to name-drop who I had conversations with just this morning, he’d think I was lying.

Yet that’s not important. Who you learned from means nothing if you don’t make him look good when you step out on the floor. For this, lineage is a very unselfish gift we receive from our martial ancestors. It is our martial arts, and we honor them by giving them credit and by being the best representative of them as possible.

Can you imagine Neil Armstrong saying something like, “I am the first man on the moon. My Air Force unit, my science teachers, my pilot instructors, my family, my President, my country, my fellow astronauts, NASA–have nothing to do with it!”??

Yeah, whether a martial artist plays down his lineage, or he exploits it, he sounds a little like that. When he gives full credit to those who taught him, and devotes himself to being an example to the ones to follow him–he is honoring his lineage and therefore honoring himself.

Thanks for visiting my blog.