HOT TOPIC # 6: Purpose of testing

I attended a Taekwondo America national testing last Saturday with my nephew and his son, who has recently started training in Taekwondo. I thought it would be inspiring for him to see some high-ranking black belts performing at their best. I was wrong! I don’t know how much of what he saw will affect his young mind, but I was embarrassed at what I saw.

The national testing had over 150 black belts from all over the United States testing for 3^rd degree and above, this included those testing for 3^rd, 3^rd decided, 3^rd senior,  4^th, 4^th decided, 4^th senior, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th. Instead of seeing senior black belts demonstrating the highest standards of Taekwondo, I saw, not just fat, but obese people lumbering around the floor going through the motions of Taekwondo, not having clue as to what a martial art is supposed to be. It was similar to going to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to see a NASCAR Sprint Cup race and instead having to watch a group ordinary people drive their minivans around the track. There were a few real martial artists in the group; however, for the most part, it was just people pretending to be black belts.

In the pattern part of the testing, where you are fighting an imaginary opponent while performing perfect techniques and stances, I saw people just performing the movements. There was no power, no focus, and no perfection of technique. If they had not been wearing black belts, I would have thought I was watching group of low-ranked color belts. As usual, as long as they paid the testing fee and performed all the required movements, they passed the pattern part of the testing regardless of how they performed the pattern.

In the sparring part of the testing you demonstrate all you have learned about defending and attacking against another person. This is where you would expect to see high-ranking black belts excel; instead, I saw people slowly moving around, taking turns attacking while trying to catch their breath. No combination attacks, no power and focus, no effective hand attacks, and, no effective kicks (jumping or otherwise);  just people using as little effort as possible so they could make to the end of all the sparring rounds. Any fighter who showed any expertise at all looked like a world champion in comparison to the rest of the fighters. As usual, as long as you did not quit, you passed the sparring.

The final part of the testing was breaking. Breaking is the toughest part of the testing since, if you do not break the boards at only one station, you fail the entire testing. Although breaking the board is necessary for the testing, that is not the primary purpose of breaking. The primary purpose is to demonstrate power, focus, and proper technique against a resisting target, in this case—a board. I saw little of this; all I saw was people just banging boards as hard as they could in hopes they would break.These high ranks had to break using some jump, spinning, and jump-spinning kicks. A hop is not a jump. A turn is not a spin, and turning around and hopping is not a jump-spin. It was pitiful to watch. For hand breaking, most used elbow strikes. This is fine for color belts but these were black belts. Where were the punches? Women, regardless of size, only had to break ONE board, with one station having two boards. The large women simply had to push on a board to break it. The smaller women at least had to use some proper technique to break their boards. The men had to break two boards, with one station having three boards. There was somewhat better proper technique used, but it was still pitiful. Whether it was large men just going through the motions or smaller men using sloppy, simple techniques, it was pitiful to watch.

There were black belts testing for 5^th degree that looked more suited to be at a bowling alley holding  a beer and cigarette. There were people with physical and mental challenges testing for high ranks. Kudos to them for the effort, but where are the standards that used to make earning a black belt something special. Lowering the standards to accommodate people with challenges may make the people, and the people who love them, feel good, but it demeans the meaning a black belt for everyone else and for the martial art itself. Marines or Navy Seals do not lower their standards for anyone. As a result, Marines and Seals are held in high esteem throughout the world and they are expected to perform at the highest standard.

What have the martial arts become? There is no martial, and there is no art. The martial arts have become just another thing for people to do, such as play soccer or train in the latest exercise fad. The primary purpose of modern martial art schools is to obtain and retain as many students as possible and to suck as much money from them as possible. One way to do this is to have many belt levels, which means many testings with a high fee for each test, and to have a high pass rate to keep the students in the school and thus bringing in more money. There are a few traditional Taekwondo schools around, but they are in the minority and are becoming rarer each year. I offer my condolences for the passing of traditional Taekwondo, you served us well and will be sorely missed.

Hopefully, I will be able to help guide my young grandnephew to become a Taekwondo martial artist instead of a Taekwondo player.

HOT TOPIC # 7: Are MMA techniques useful for self-defense?

Are MMA techniques useful in self-defense or do they only work in the ring because the rules limit what a person may do to defend against them?

Check out TKDTutor.com for information about the martial arts.

HOT TOPIC # 6: Vertical vs. Horizonatal Fist Punching

Some think that vertical fist punching is superior to horizontal fist punching, and vice versa. What do you think?

HOT TOPIC #5: Glove Touching

Another one of my pet peeves is—touching gloves. The non martial art sport of boxing use glove touching as a sign of respect toward the opponent, and it was probably the modern times originator of the gesture. The sport of MMA use glove touching, but then, since the only thing in MMA related to the martial arts is its name, it is appropriate. However, in the martial arts, we bow toward our opponents as a sign of respect. The glove touch is nontraditional, not needed, and repetitious. Bowing to an opponent and then touching gloves is similar to meeting someone and saying “Hello! How are you?” “Hello! How are you?”

I have seen the use of glove touching increasing in the martial arts since the popularity of MMA on television. It appears that, because of seeing the gesture used so much on television, new students think it is the way things are supposed to be done. As martial artists, it is our responsibility to correct the behavior.

What do you think about the use of glove touching in the martial arts?

HOT TOPIC #4: Leads

To be a good fighter, should you train to fight from both a right and left side leading position, or should you concentrate on being the best you can be from your natural lead side? Most people have limited time in which to train, so is it not more advantageous to only train using you natural side in the lead? You can train to fight against both right and left side lead fighters from just this one side without have to switch your lead side. Is not it better to be very good at a lot of techniques on one side than it is to be just good at only a few techniques on both sides?

HOT TOPIC #3: Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

In the United States, the term “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” is a legal metaphor used to describe evidence gathered with the aid of information that was itself obtained illegally. The reasoning being, if the source of the evidence (the "tree") is tainted, then anything gained from it (the "fruit") would also be tainted.

We could also apply the “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” doctrine to bogus martial artists. If a grandmaster of a martial art is found to be bogus, the every rank awarded by the master is bogus, and every rank awarded by these people is also bogus, etc. Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, and regardless of whether it is fair or not, any rank that stems from a bogus linage is tainted and is also bogus. You may not have been aware of the fraud being perpetrated against you and you may have had the most honorable of intentions when obtaining the rank, but the rank is still bogus. When you buy what you legitimately thought was a Rolex watch, and it turns out to be a fake, the fact that you were scammed does not make the watch real—it is still a fake.

HOT TOPIC #2: Mixed Martial Arts is neither mixed nor a martial art, it is a spectator sport

The mixed martial arts (MMA) style of fighting is the latest martial arts fad; following on the heels of other fads, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Taebo, and Aerobic Kick Boxing. The original concept was based upon the martial arts, but it has become just another contrived moneymaking sport.

At the beginning of MMA development, fighters were trained martial artists who fought no-holds-barred fights (actually there were rules to prevent life-threatening techniques, maiming, broken bones, etc.) to see which martial art was the best for fighting. Mixed martial arts meant that these were fighters who were trained in different martial arts who fought each other to see how their different martial arts faired against each other in actual combat. Many times what was at stake was the reputation of the martial art more than the ability of the fighters; they were fighting for their martial arts more than for themselves.

Some matches were very short (not enough action for spectators) and some were very long and boring for spectators (such as with the Gracie hour-long hold-downs). Some matches were brutal and gory; so many states banned the matches, which led to changes in the rules to make the matches more palatable to the public. However, most of the rules changes came from a desire to make the fights more profitable, to both the promoters and the fighters. As the sport becomes more popular, the rules are becoming even more limiting; MMA is fast becoming a version of professional wrestling with contact allowed.

With limitations on which techniques can be used, limits on periods of inaction, use of gloves, time limits, etc., fighters are less susceptible to career altering injures so they can fight more often. Fighting more often allows fighters to develop a base of fans, allows promoters to hold more fights, and allows fighters and promoters to make more money. Nowadays, most mixed martial artists have no formal martial arts training; they have only trained in MMA, which has now become a sport, such as Olympic style Taekwondo.

In the beginning, most of the MMA fighters had martial arts training and were testing their arts against each other; this is where the term “mixed” originated—different arts fighting against each other using some common rules for safety. Now the term supposedly means each fighter is using a mixture of different martial arts (nothing original here, everyday a new martial art is “founded” that uses the “best” techniques from other arts). However, these “mixed” techniques are pretty much limited to wide swinging punches, some grappling, kicks to the thighs, and very few locks and strangles (these are strangles, not chokes; chokes cutoff the air supply to the lungs, strangles cutoff the blood supply to the brain).

Martial arts by definition have a “martial” component (the fighting), and an “art” component (the way or the artistic). The martial component is composed of numerous, often intricate, difficult to use, techniques that take months, if not years, of training to perfect. The art component is where the fighting component takes on an almost spiritual aura in the quest for perfection of form. A martial art transforms fighting into an art form where artistic expression is paramount and perfection of human character is the goal. The goal is not to just win the fight, but to win it majestically.

While boxing is called the “the art of boxing,” by definition, boxing is not a martial art. It has the martial component where fighting skill is pursued but its only goal is to punch the opponent harder and more often than he or she can punch you; how well the punching is performed is of no concern as long as the result is the defeat of the opponent (how much can you give and how much can you take). When they are fighting, this is also the goal of MMA and of any martial art. However, boxing and the MMA have no art component. Perfection of technique is of no concern and is not trained. You will never see boxers or mixed martial artists compete against each other in artistic expression.

Therefore, the term mixed martial arts is deceiving. While the fighting makes it martial, there is no mixed and there is no arts. Using the term “martial arts” in the name degrades the martial arts.