Here is an article written by an old friend Dave Degrouchie. I am posting it here for your enjoyment and thoughts. This essay was written some time ago. Sorry I don't have the dates.
The Effectiveness of Martial Arts Today
By Dave Degrouchie
Let us sit and ponder together the issue of effectiveness of the various styles of the martial arts in existence today.
We have the flashy ones. "Just a dance!," say some. This type of judgement and critique is placed on such great styles as Kung Fu, Wushu, Capoeira, Bando, and many others. Said judgement is also truly placed by some on Tae Kwon Do and some karate styles.
Then we have the modern ones. Military types, refined Japanese types, combat this or that, and great founders of these mentioned creations. It is the latter that most proclaim can save a life. We have a problem though. Whether you feel that the modern ones are best or that the classical ones are best, we all share a problem together. This problem is that we don't quite know what we are talking about.
Lets start with all styles and arts. All of them were created to be used as a means for saving yourself or an innocent other if and when needed. All of them. So you ask, " How could they? Have you seen how flashy those arts can be? You could never land something like that!!" This is where our misunderstanding begins.
We all know of the various occupations of certain Oriental countries that took place. As a result, as we know as well, many martial arts were outlawed. The masters of these fine effective arts did not quit however. Instead, they embarked on a preservation process—a process I call the "mason jar effect" theory. Let us all ensure that we are familiar with what a mason jar is first.
A mason jar is a glass jar with an air-tight sealable metal cover, used to preserve various foods. The purpose of the mason jar was to preserve what we can't eat now and save the food item for a later date. Now, if you look into the mason jar, you can only have a partial understanding of what is inside. You can get a good idea, but only once you get to taste and touch the contents within will you fully be able to understand and appreciate the food item.
The great masters of that time embarked on a mason jar type of preservation of their knowledge. They disguised a lot of it to look like merely a dance or art form. The goal was to make it look as unthreatening as possible, which was the goal in mind. The goal was to teach this preserved method, and one day, to a chosen few when safe, open the jar, and properly reveal the contents within.
The problem is that this did not quite get to happen. A lot of these masters died before the jar could be opened. Some students of the preserved method left the Orient and taught the preserved method to others, thinking and professing it to be the proper way of the art. Thus, we have the flashy styles of practice that exist today. We are all holding up the glass jar, looking inside, and claiming knowledge of the taste and feel of the contents. We are wrong.
Now, we have the combat styles that are being "founded" today. However, nothing is actually being founded at all, but re-discovered. Some of us, by intense study, have managed to drop the jar from fumbling with it so much, and are getting an idea of what is truly inside. But our lack of proper total understanding shows in that we think we are creating something new. We most certainly are not.
So how do the rest of us open the jar and get the opportunity to explore the contents inside in their entirety? Let me share with you a way which I call the five principles of technique development. With these principles, we can open and truly savor the contents of the mason jar, which has housed the real combative ability of the martial arts for so long.
PRINCIPLE #1: CREATE VARIATIONS
You must begin by creating variations to all knowledge that you have. Especially self-defense techniques. For example, if you think of one defense you know against a hair grab, build five variations to it that are totally your own. By doing this, you are giving yourself a deeper understanding of an attack from that area and are building techniques that are unique to your abilities and ways of movement, using the material from your chosen discipline.
PRINICIPLE #2: MINIMUM MOVEMENT, MAXIMUM EFFECT.
You must now examine this material that you have created. Could the defense have finished earlier? Were there too many movements to be effective? Could you have finished your opponent off much faster had you disregarded proper technique and form?
PRINCIPLE #3: OPEN MIND
You must have an open mind when defending yourself. Learn to see all parts of your opponent's body as targets and learn to accept that most of your body parts can be used as a weapon. Do you seriously think in the days of old that they were even the least bit concerned with "fighting dirty" (for example, pulling hair, biting, gouge, and so on)?
PRINCIPLE #4: EXPECT AND DISH OUT THE WORST
When someone lays a violent hand on you, they either want to take what is yours away from you, hurt you, or kill you. One of these three things for certain is on their mind. They are not thinking about loving you in any way. Be sure of that!! Take each threat as exactly that, a threat: a threat to your personal safety, a threat to your life. Do what you have to do to escape alive. And yes, this can usually be done without killing the assailant.
PRINCIPLE #5: MENTAL VISUALIZATION OF PERFECTION
It is true that even the fanciest movement in your art forms part of the foundation to any effective material you are going to create. Being so, we must be able to really have down our basic skills to the highest degree. Take 10 minutes at the end of each practice session. Close your eyes and relax as you would for Mokuso (meditation). Visualize the movements you have just practiced. See yourself performing these movements with the utmost speed, power, and perfection. The mind will take mental pictures of this and program the body to move this way, when those particular movements are practiced again.
By incorporating these five principles, you can re-discover the potency of the true combative intentions of your particular art or style of choice. Mind you, none of what has been written here has been written with the intent of degrading the artistic way of doing things. The artistic ways that we have grown used to must remain alive as well, for the masters of the day that created these ways of movement were masters and geniuses indeed, to build what they did. We do not have to disregard it; we only have to try and truly understand it.
About the author: Dave Degrouchie, founder of the World Budo Alliance, resides, trains, and teaches the martial arts in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. To contact him, email budo_4_all@yahoo.ca.
Yours in the Arts,
Master Art Mason
Founder: The Peaceful Warriors' Martial Arts Institute.
7th Dan Black Belt Hon Sang Mu Sa Hapkido
5th Dan Black Belt Tae Kwon Do
2nd Dan Black Belt Kyusho Jitsu
http://www.thepeacefulwarriors.org
" We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world." the Buddha.
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