State of the Arts I’m sitting here embarking on a new communication when I should be working on the sermon for this coming Sunday morning. It’s what happens when you wear two hats. Actually most of us do. Very few of us make our living exclusively through the martial arts. Personally I never did nor did I ever want to. I’ve always had a vocation with which I supported my family and myself. The martial arts have been a lifelong passion but even when I had commercial schools they seldom made a large profit. I never charged much for lessons and some disadvantaged youths paid little or nothing at all. You can’t run a financially successful school like that. Most of us are good at some aspect of the martial arts or another. Those are our areas of expertise. I’m a true believer that we should offer insight in our strong suits. Being a decent competitor doesn’t necessarily translate into being a good teacher. By the same token being a good teacher doesn’t particularly make us tournament champions. It is important that we put emphasis in the areas that we have proficiency in. You could do better than learning to run a business from someone like me. That isn’t my area of expertise. I can however direct you to someone who has experience in that area. That’s the strength of an organization. Within its confines you should have access to whatever knowledge or information you need to make you successful in various areas of your martial art career. We are one of those instances where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We are stronger because together we cover all bases. Where one of us is weak another is strong. Together we present a strength that makes us as powerful a force as we care to be. If we work together we are unstoppable and there’s nothing that we can’t do. The key to that is ‘working together’. Our success involves mutual cooperation, support and a common goal. We are strong because we focus our efforts. On the other hand despite our numbers we will have no strength if we all pull in different directions. Numbers only count if we consolidate our efforts. The Black Dragons offer membership on many various levels. We welcome those who want to join with us and bring their years of experience into the organization. Those are the sensei, masters and grandmasters of the various arts that make up the rank and file of our core membership. On the other hand we embrace those who are learning the arts or who want to learn from us. Teachers need students. Without them there are no dojos, dojangs or kwoons. A large segment of our membership want no more than an affiliation with an old, time honored, organization. They want nothing more than a certificate, an i.d. card, a patch for their gi and perhaps inclusion on the membership list of organization. I don’t expect a lot from them. The ones that I look to for innovation and change are the ones that came into the Black Dragons to make a difference. Bench members are fine but they don’t get the work done. I have stated before that an organization is no better than what it accomplishes. Having your name on a list does little. I want us to be more than just a bunch of people that band together for mutual recognition. I want the Black Dragons to make a difference in the martial art community and the world we live in. Otherwise we’re little more than all of the other organizations out there that exist only on paper or on a website. We are in a unique position to shape the future of the martial arts and the direction that it takes in the future. Within our ranks there is a place for the traditional martial arts, the eclectic and the reality based or combative martial arts. There is also a place for instructors and practitioners of those aspects of the martial arts. There are some good traditional people out there but the arts are evolving in other directions here in the United States. Americans are innovators and in the arts they have shaped and recreated them to address the challenges that they face in this modern day. Learning to fight a sword wielding opponent may have some merit within the confines of the traditional sector but practitioners today are more concerned about how to deal with a mugger or a gun wielding terrorist. The challenges of a society describes its martial arts. A traditional system may or may not fulfill those needs. If a martial art system has to be twisted too far from its original form to address those challenges perhaps a new approach is needed. There are those who study the martial arts for spiritual reasons. I can respect that but the martial arts were developed as combative systems. If they don’t work in those areas they become more esoteric than practical. Again, there is nothing wrong with that as long as an individual realizes the limitations of the art he teaches or studies. We need to live in the real world. Personally I lean toward both aspects of the martial arts. What I teach depend on who I teach. I don’t offer myself up as the perfect example of a martial art practitioner or teacher. I know my limitations. As an aside let me say that notoriety brings its own challenges. As the Head of Family of the BDFS I have been cursed out, threatened and challenged. I have had to make decisions that I haven’t found pleasant. My credibility, my motives and my character has been put in question by those that I’ve had to deal with in various disciplinary areas. There are those who feel that they can do what I do better than me. They may be right though they won’t know unless they find themselves in the place where I am. I put in more hours and more efforts than most people put into a forty hour work week and I don’t get a penny for my efforts. When I travel to an event or to visit one of our schools I foot the bill. No-one pays my way. I don’t hold this position for the dubious recognition that it brings me. I do it because of honor and kiri (duty). I may not be the best man for the job but I am the one in the position and I will continue to do the best job that I can in this position. I need the knowledge, wisdom and support of the constituency to make up for my shortcomings. What we accomplish we will accomplish together. Ending this treatise I would like to hear from all of those that have schools. I would especially like to hear from those who teach gyu kumite (freestyle sparring). I would like to see your schools represented in the kumite that we plan to host next year during our Homecoming Conference in Chicago. Dr. Donald Miskel, Head of Family, IFAA BDFS
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 19:00:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015