68 Whiskey, thanks for your service!
Thank you, very much.
I am talking about quality vs quantity, if there had not been a kenpo explosion (or at least growth) do you think that the quality of the art (styles, teachers, etc.) would be higher?
Reminds me of Ninjitsu in the 1980's, it became so popular that there were a ton of unqualified people teaching it just to capitalize financially.
I am of the opinion that despite the quantity of instructors, there remain highly proficient and respected instructors who maintain an extremely high level of quality. I would assume you don't disagree with that. So long as that remains true, it seems to me that the quantity doesn't effect the quality of the art at the highest levels.
I believe that where problems occur is when instructors who aren't qualified, either technically, in their ability to teach, or even ethically, begin to give the art a bad name, and their students further dilute the quality of the art.
To me, while it may harm the reputation of the art in the larger community, it doesn't harm the overall quality of the art.
To use an analogy, I remember a professor in law school reminding me that somewhere in the U.S., the worst lawyer in the country was practicing law. Lawyer jokes aside, does this mean the overall quality of the legal practice is low? No, only for those clients of that lawyer. If it assists the analogy, one can use doctors and medicine, or what have you. Since we still have outstanding legal minds (and medical minds), hard at work challenging the limits of our knowledge and striving to keep the highest ideals intact, we continue to have a high quality, and expand our knowledge base.
Does USSD for example help the overall reputation of Kenpo
This is sort of along the lines of what I was discussing above. Certainly, organizations have the ability to enhance or detract from overall reputation, just as individual instructors do. Sadly, it is typically the bad that we hear that is remembered, and past along.
To sum up, I am glad there was an explosion of Kenpo, or I might not have been fortunate to have an instructor in my town whom I could study under. On the other hand, I don't like the thought of someone rolling their eyes or smirking when I say I am a Kenpo stylist, so I can see the logical concern inherent in your questions.
