- Thread Starter
- #21
Unfortunately, I've experienced it both online (more so) and in person.
Lack of Professional Courtesy Among Martial Artists
- Thread starter Indie12
- Start date
Unfortunately, I've experienced it both online (more so) and in person.
I tread lightly here. Truth be told because I do not wish to be misinterpreted. I have been in the Arts for over forty years. I've been so very fortunate, had the opportunities to train in different Arts, with many fine instructors and many, many fine fellow students. Martial Arts is different than other fighting arts - wrestling, boxing, knife fighting etc. It is more passionate, it is usually thought of in a higher, and more personal, regard by the practitioner than are other "gyms". That is not a shot against those other gyms, for I have spent many years in many of them, and they have taught me much.
There is, also, usually a History associated with the training of each style, and with each individual school's interpretation of that style. And you know how history is, it's usually a different perspective of each country involved in each period mentioned, and, more importantly, the people who lived that history. I believe it is that very passion that makes emotion run so high among Martial Arts and the Martial Artists who practice them.
There is sometimes smack talked about different styles. Not by the public, but by the players themselves. Sometimes, it is out front, cold and ugly, other times it is behind closed doors, amongst those who train and bond together. Some of it is anthropological in nature, a tribal thing. Sometimes it is business related, because let's face facts, running a Dojo is often a business. And that's not a bad thing, it's just sometimes the way it is. If you can't stay open, you can't help anybody. Because of the passion involved in what all of us here love, the Martial Arts, we sometimes get caught in moments of weakness. We speak without thinking, we maybe humorously lash out against "that other place across town". We all have those moments of weakness. Maybe that's why we train, to eliminate those moments and be better people.
Yes, there is sometimes a lack of professional courtesy, but the lack of "martial courtesy" is what is most troubling. I have found that those that slander the other guy are the ones to close their doors the quickest. It may take a few years, maybe a decade, but they soon fade into a long ago memory.
Let's hope we all rise above it, even in our weakest moments.
There is, also, usually a History associated with the training of each style, and with each individual school's interpretation of that style. And you know how history is, it's usually a different perspective of each country involved in each period mentioned, and, more importantly, the people who lived that history. I believe it is that very passion that makes emotion run so high among Martial Arts and the Martial Artists who practice them.
There is sometimes smack talked about different styles. Not by the public, but by the players themselves. Sometimes, it is out front, cold and ugly, other times it is behind closed doors, amongst those who train and bond together. Some of it is anthropological in nature, a tribal thing. Sometimes it is business related, because let's face facts, running a Dojo is often a business. And that's not a bad thing, it's just sometimes the way it is. If you can't stay open, you can't help anybody. Because of the passion involved in what all of us here love, the Martial Arts, we sometimes get caught in moments of weakness. We speak without thinking, we maybe humorously lash out against "that other place across town". We all have those moments of weakness. Maybe that's why we train, to eliminate those moments and be better people.
Yes, there is sometimes a lack of professional courtesy, but the lack of "martial courtesy" is what is most troubling. I have found that those that slander the other guy are the ones to close their doors the quickest. It may take a few years, maybe a decade, but they soon fade into a long ago memory.
Let's hope we all rise above it, even in our weakest moments.
