Martial sacrilege (part 3)

Interesting idea. Would be nice to have a number to put myself ahead of the others. Would also be nice to have a degree I can promote the next chairman to when I retire, or the others can vote on when I pass on, as I expect the art to outlive me.

You could get very weird with that though. As you keep just giving yourself Dan grades.
 
On developing ones own style..

Me and maybe half the folks I know who've been training for a long time.

As for rank, I don't particularly care what rank someone is, says they are, or promoted themselves to. For me, I've turned down all rank advancement since 1988. [fourth dan] Heck, I'd probably be a Coquelicot belt by now. [I looked up colors you never heard of]

Say you teach. And say you hook up with others who teach something different. If they show you something that works really well, that is either different than what you do, or some of it works much better than a particular part of your art, do you pass it on to your students? I'd sure as hell want my teachers to pass it on to me. Might be a fighting technique, a self defense technique, a training technique, an attitude - I don't care what it is, but if you know how to teach it and don't pass it down to me, a dedicated Martial artist stdent - what the heck is up with that?

As for legitimacy...I've found that an open door policy allowing anyone to come in and fight works wonders for legitimacy.
 
When I was younger (and even more foolish!), I vented my outrage over something similar to one of my Japanese instructors. He laughed at me and told me that it was his great-grandchildren's problem not his, so he didn't care about it at all. When I looked totally perplexed, he carefully explained that it didn't matter at all to his training what anybody else does, so he ignores them completely. All those that so desire are free to invent their own styles and call themselves Grandmasters. If their new style is no good, it will die out pretty quickly. If it is still around and thriving when his great-grandchildren grow up and begin looking for a martial arts school, then it will be their problem to determine if it is worth attending.
 
Now and then, even in our lifetime someone turns up in the world that has exceptional skills to be revered and go down in history. I would not refer to them as styles but perhaps a refined 'art'. Did O Sensei makes stye called aikido? What a stupid word to use.

Apart from that........ I guess with my experience I could have started a number of "styles" But I chose to spend a lifetime trying to practice the way my mentors have taught me, not take the easy way out and 'change it'.

Anyone can do that and write themself a few grades.
 

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