Should it martial arts be licence?
- Thread starter still learning
- Start date
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Some folks might say "Well, if it helps improve the overall quality and weed out the bad ones, then why not?"
I'll respond by asking who they would think would be in charge of determining what good quality is, and what isn't. Let's face it; governmental officials aren't going to be too knowledgeable about the martial arts in general, and any attempt to make a "one size fits all" standard would be disasterous.
Different martial arts do things differently, plain and simple. This is true even when comparing two schools in the same style. Who is to say what is right and what is wrong? Something that could be considered "wrong" in one style of martial arts could easily be considered "right" in another.
Is it really the business of a someone who has less knowledge than the worst of the McDojo trained people, to tell Oyama's people (Kyokushin Karate, full contact sparring, no pads) how to run their dojo? Is it really any of the Gracie family's business to dictate to the Wing Chun Gung Fu schools how to teach their classes? Should the boxing committees really have a say so in how the Gracie family runs their dojos?
Better yet, should Ashida Kim or the late Count Dante have a say so in what goes on in other schools?
The answer is simply this: No! I don't want people who are not in the system to dictate what my school does.
It's up to the folks who run martial arts schools, as well as all of the practitioners to self-police their operations (not in a legal sense, but you get the drift). The instructors have an obligation to keep their classes safe, and the students have an obligation to practice safety, and what exactly are the limits is up to each individual school to decide. Plain and simple.
Some folks might say "Well, if it helps improve the overall quality and weed out the bad ones, then why not?"
I'll respond by asking who they would think would be in charge of determining what good quality is, and what isn't. Let's face it; governmental officials aren't going to be too knowledgeable about the martial arts in general, and any attempt to make a "one size fits all" standard would be disasterous.
Different martial arts do things differently, plain and simple. This is true even when comparing two schools in the same style. Who is to say what is right and what is wrong? Something that could be considered "wrong" in one style of martial arts could easily be considered "right" in another.
Is it really the business of a someone who has less knowledge than the worst of the McDojo trained people, to tell Oyama's people (Kyokushin Karate, full contact sparring, no pads) how to run their dojo? Is it really any of the Gracie family's business to dictate to the Wing Chun Gung Fu schools how to teach their classes? Should the boxing committees really have a say so in how the Gracie family runs their dojos?
Better yet, should Ashida Kim or the late Count Dante have a say so in what goes on in other schools?
The answer is simply this: No! I don't want people who are not in the system to dictate what my school does.
It's up to the folks who run martial arts schools, as well as all of the practitioners to self-police their operations (not in a legal sense, but you get the drift). The instructors have an obligation to keep their classes safe, and the students have an obligation to practice safety, and what exactly are the limits is up to each individual school to decide. Plain and simple.
IMHO:
License regulation of the Martial Arts will only serve to create new govermental departments that we as tax payers must fund. Also the fees that would be imposed for licenseing will only serve to further line the pockets of the goverment.
Govermental oversite or licenseing of the Martial Arts industry will in no way guarantee the quality or professionalism of the school or teacher. This can only come from ones own self.
I have been in the construction industry for years and hold several licenses myself. There are many plumbers, electricians, builders etc, etc, that in no way produce quality work and who have lost their licenses for cheating consumers. There are of course many who are great trades people but my point is that there are no guarantees with a license.
Although I agree that trades should be licensed as a way of proveing that they have (or at least did at one time) obtained a certain level of knowledge for their craft, in no way can that guarantee that they are a great teacher of their craft or if that they are not a scam artist.
A martial artist can only prove it by his own abilities and the number of students that they keep under their tutilidge. As a business person they can only sink or swim.
License regulation of the Martial Arts will only serve to create new govermental departments that we as tax payers must fund. Also the fees that would be imposed for licenseing will only serve to further line the pockets of the goverment.
Govermental oversite or licenseing of the Martial Arts industry will in no way guarantee the quality or professionalism of the school or teacher. This can only come from ones own self.
I have been in the construction industry for years and hold several licenses myself. There are many plumbers, electricians, builders etc, etc, that in no way produce quality work and who have lost their licenses for cheating consumers. There are of course many who are great trades people but my point is that there are no guarantees with a license.
Although I agree that trades should be licensed as a way of proveing that they have (or at least did at one time) obtained a certain level of knowledge for their craft, in no way can that guarantee that they are a great teacher of their craft or if that they are not a scam artist.
A martial artist can only prove it by his own abilities and the number of students that they keep under their tutilidge. As a business person they can only sink or swim.
Eternal Beginner
Brown Belt
I definitely think it should not be licensed...too much red tape in everyone's life already.
But if I am going to be honest, the thought had crossed my mind. Anyone who has been scammed by a supposed "expert" has been tempted to think that there has to be some sort of regulation. But practically it would never work, and I am not in favour of it. I figure most of those dudes get weeded out by their students walking anyway. To quote Kenpobldr:
But if I am going to be honest, the thought had crossed my mind. Anyone who has been scammed by a supposed "expert" has been tempted to think that there has to be some sort of regulation. But practically it would never work, and I am not in favour of it. I figure most of those dudes get weeded out by their students walking anyway. To quote Kenpobldr:
The other problem with the American government (we are talking about the U.S., right?) trying to regulate martial arts is that most all of them originate from other countries. Granted, setting a standard for a popular and widely practiced art (like Tae Kwon Do) may help a bit, especially considering how many of the schools have different testing standards. But even with a well-known martial art, how would one go about deciding what the licensing standard would be? Number of years in training? Dan ranking (which can very easily be "bought" or faked)? How would the government determine an instructor's competency, if they have zero idea about the art itself?
The other problem with licensing is that it would be totally ineffective with the lesser known arts, like many of the Japanese koryu - where the headmaster (soke) sets the standard and decides who is qualified to teach.
Not only that, but do we really need more bureacracy in the martial arts?
The other problem with licensing is that it would be totally ineffective with the lesser known arts, like many of the Japanese koryu - where the headmaster (soke) sets the standard and decides who is qualified to teach.
Not only that, but do we really need more bureacracy in the martial arts?
still learning
Senior Master
Hello, Thank-you for sharing your thoughts on this! .....Aloha
Here's my thought: who is going to determine who is and is not legitimate? I don't mean this as in, as more commonly, which arts or instructors are and aren't, but literally, who is going to make up the board that does the deciding? The nightmare scenario would be that one outlook of martial arts, be it neo-traditional, koryu nuts, MMA, XMA, JKD or whatever would become predominent and then go about declaring everything else illegal or restricted. We can just image too if some ignorant congressman put high profile people like Ashida Kim or George Dillman in charge of the regulation, on the basis of their fame in the martial arts community.
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