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“They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” – Confucius (551 - 479 BC)

After fifteen years of blogging every week, this will be my last posting for the foreseeable future.

I began my blog as part of the requirements for the Ultimate Black Belt Test. My first posting went up on November 4, 2007 and I have not missed a weekly posting except when I was taking part in a UBBT event in Alabama without access to a computer or the internet. After Master Tom Callos retired the UBBT project, I continued my weekly blogging as an act of discipline to set an example for my students.

I have nothing but gratitude for everything that Tom Callos has brought into my life. So much of my current daily practice came about because of his guidance and encouragement. I have not regretted accepting and implementing his advice on anything, and the fifteen years of weekly blogging is probably the most powerful gift he has given me.

Not all of my posts were good or even pertinent. Often my postings were more about the discipline of following through with my promises and commitments as opposed to the thoughts and ideas I was recording. Regardless of the intent behind any particular post, I learned a lot about myself and the world around me from the process. No regrets.

My focus from this point on will be shifting from my own personal training and evolution to that of my students. I have been blessed with a long, prosperous career in the martial arts and I want to devote my remaining time to improving my student outcomes, influencing positive change in the martial arts industry, and promoting egalitarian ideals and initiatives within my community.

Ending my run is a bittersweet moment for me. I have mixed emotions about my decision but I am at peace.

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss (1904 - 1991)

Traditional Forms

I have been blessed throughout my life to have had access to many mentors. I owe all my accomplishments to their experience and their willingness to share that experience with me. One can go so much further if they can benefit through the wisdom of those who have gone before.

This past week I was very disappointed to see one of my past mentors post a video about forms training in the martial arts. In his video he included an old video of himself grading for his black belt where he provided commentary as his old self performed a form and applications of his form against opponents. His running commentary was a cynical analysis of how useless his form and bunkai would be in a real self defence situation. Every aspect of his performance was put down and disregarded as useless. 

I am seeing more and more schools eliminate teaching forms as part of their curriculum. This approach has been trending ever since the martial arts were introduced into the west and it is threatening the very future of the martial arts.

First off, if forms training did not apply to real world self defence, traditional marital arts and forms training would not survived over two thousand years. There is a reason why arts like kung fu have been around for a couple of thousand years - it works. It has been my experience that those who do not value or teach forms training do not understand forms training.

Forms training has many benefits and applications in the modern world. The three main benefits are:

• Health. Forms training reinforces the body’s proper structure by reinforcing better posture and ideal alignment of the skeleton. This in turn supports proper organ location, spacing, and function. Overtly, forms training provides a good cardiovascular workout while building muscle mass and flexibility. Forms training is the also the best form of moving meditation I have experienced. There is a reason why martial arts training has proven beneficial to reducing stress.

• Skill. Everything physical that one learns in the martial arts is found in forms training. Every movement has a purpose. That purpose can be the expected self defence applications associated with the movement but the purpose can also be less obvious. Some of the techniques within a form are about flexibility and efficiency of motion. In hockey terms - the drills a team works on in practice have real world application in a game by helping the players develop speed and efficiency within their own skill sets.

• Fighting. Before the advent of protective pads, sparring in the martial arts was much more dangerous. It was impossible to practice your technique and applications at full speed because of the danger it presented to your training partners. Forms training was how a fighter trained and prepared safely. All the best forms practitioners I know are also the best fighters.

Forms training is the essence of traditional martial arts. You cannot eliminate forms training from your training regime and continue to call yourself a martial artist. While all martial artists are fighters, not all fighters are martial artists.

“The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about.” - Wayne Dyer (1940 - 2015)

Teaching and Learning

The biggest hurdle that most students of the martial arts face when attempting to master their art is being able to differentiate between knowledge and skill. Knowing how to do something is not the same as being able to do something.

If I want to learn how to use a computer program and take a course to teach me how to use the program, if I do not immediately start to apply the knowledge, I will lose everything I have gained. Application reinforces knowledge.

In kung fu one can learn a new technique but if one does not take the time to actually apply the technique, the skill to use the technique is not acquired despite knowing the technique itself. It is akin to not being able to pull off a David Blaine illusion even though you know exactly how the trick is done. David Blaine has practiced a lot more than you have in order to do the trick as well as he does.

Teaching is one of the best learning tools any of us has when it comes to mastery. When you teach a technique it reinforces your own knowledge by forcing you to look deeper into the intricacies of a technique so that you can explain it better to your student. We instantly become aware of the hypocrisy and mediocrity within our own training when we realize that the eye for detail we are applying to our students’ technique is not always being applied to our own technique within our training. By teaching, our eye for detail becomes contagious and will permeate to our own training.

“When one teaches, two learn.” - Robert A. Heinlein (1907 - 1988)