There's at least one forum somewhere that has me pontificating about NGA's youth back almost that long ago, Tony. I hope never to come across those posts.
Con-Artist Martial Artists
- Thread starter jkdgenius
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JR 137
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That guy’s only saving grace was he didn’t give himself a belt.
How did he keep his trousers up then?
Don't go playing word games with me, brother. You warn the newcomers about fraud busting then you go fraud bust the entire Gracie lineage. Uh unh.
)
Not at all. I gave an example of why the typical standards people often use for designating “frauds” can be inadequate to tell the whole story.
Suppose someone were to come on this forum asking advice on a dojo they were considering attending. We did some digging and discovered that the head instructor had less than 2 years of training under a qualified teacher (and no rank) in the style they were teaching, didn’t know (or misrepresented) even the most basic history of the art, but were presenting themselves as a great champion and expert. Most of us would advise the student to give the school a pass.
And if we did so, we might be leading them to miss out on getting in on the formative years of BJJ.
Tweak the story a little bit and we might be advising them to miss out on training with Bruce Lee or some other great martial artist.
Helio and his brothers may have started out with minimal qualifications and making wildly exaggerated claims about their accomplishments. But they did the work that very few people have to make themselves into the real deal and to help forge a martial art which is as effective as any on the planet.
Someone who judges an instructor entirely on their paper qualifications or the legitimacy of their claimed lineage may filter out a bunch of chumps, but they may also dismiss some of the greats as well. This is why it’s a good idea to realize such heuristics don’t tell you everything important. That is the point I was trying to make. (I suppose I could have used some other art to make the point, but the fact that my primary martial arts lineage is the Gracie lineage should suggest that I had some goal other than just trashing that lineage.)
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Most aren’t. (Then again, most conventionally qualified instructors aren’t either.)
I do examine an instructor’s qualifications as a first pass on evaluating whether it’s worth giving them a try. It’s a useful heuristic. I just think it’s good to remember that heuristics aren’t infallible.
Tony's point is that the "how many" cuts both ways. How many people with "too little experience" are bad instructors? How many of the "greats" had too little experience?
I'm not doing an image search for "Bruce Lee in suspenders"...
hoshin1600
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hoshin1600
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think about this ..Choki Motobu was pretty much self taught. he was a hooligan who no teacher wanted as a student. one teacher took pitty on him and taught him Naihanchi and passai. the bulk of his martial art education was peeking through the fence at his older brother as he studied martial arts.
Kanbun Uechi and Kanryo Higaonna only trained for ten years before becoming "masters" and founders of karate styles. these same styles we consider the standard for what is legit.
heres a question ,,, we consider the old masters as great martial artists... we didnt train with them. what if in todays standard they actually sucked?
Kanbun Uechi and Kanryo Higaonna only trained for ten years before becoming "masters" and founders of karate styles. these same styles we consider the standard for what is legit.
heres a question ,,, we consider the old masters as great martial artists... we didnt train with them. what if in todays standard they actually sucked?
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Potentially all of them could be
