S
stanley neptune
Guest
Sifu, Sigung, Soke, Shifu, Sensei, Sempai, Professor, Great & Glorious Grandmaster, Grand Poohbah.....
All I can say is you Kenpo guys really are in to the fancy titles. (I am a kenpo guy too by the way.) I don't get it. All that should matter is ability and wisdom.
Take some of the discussion on the "Who is Fred Villari?" thread. You guys spend so much time worrying about when did Great and Glorious Grand Master Parker give Nick Cerio the title of Sigung (Sifu, Shifu Sensei....I don't know!!)
WHO CARES!!!!
A 20 year old kid with a year in Muay Thai or Mixed Martial Arts could hand a beat down to some chubby old sigung. A college age golden glove boxer could open up a can of whoopass on old Professor Sensei Sempai Soke.
Titles don't mean anything. It is the wisdom and knowledge coupled with ability that serve as the delivery system that imparts these qualities to the next generation. That is all that matters.
Unless you are more interested in developing some phoney baloney oriental mystique to go along with the lime green temple dogs and the phony oriental scrolls in your kwoon (studio, dojo, dojang) just drop the names. Or at least deemphasize them in favor of conveying the right message. Kenpo is an american system despite Demasco and Mattera's best efforts to link it to Shaolin. (It's funny Communist China takes a page from the capitalist west by prostituting one of it's most sacred traditions. Any clown can go and train at Shaolin as if it is Disney World for martial artists.)
I will take ability over title any day.
Stanley Neptune
All I can say is you Kenpo guys really are in to the fancy titles. (I am a kenpo guy too by the way.) I don't get it. All that should matter is ability and wisdom.
Take some of the discussion on the "Who is Fred Villari?" thread. You guys spend so much time worrying about when did Great and Glorious Grand Master Parker give Nick Cerio the title of Sigung (Sifu, Shifu Sensei....I don't know!!)
WHO CARES!!!!
A 20 year old kid with a year in Muay Thai or Mixed Martial Arts could hand a beat down to some chubby old sigung. A college age golden glove boxer could open up a can of whoopass on old Professor Sensei Sempai Soke.
Titles don't mean anything. It is the wisdom and knowledge coupled with ability that serve as the delivery system that imparts these qualities to the next generation. That is all that matters.
Unless you are more interested in developing some phoney baloney oriental mystique to go along with the lime green temple dogs and the phony oriental scrolls in your kwoon (studio, dojo, dojang) just drop the names. Or at least deemphasize them in favor of conveying the right message. Kenpo is an american system despite Demasco and Mattera's best efforts to link it to Shaolin. (It's funny Communist China takes a page from the capitalist west by prostituting one of it's most sacred traditions. Any clown can go and train at Shaolin as if it is Disney World for martial artists.)
I will take ability over title any day.
Stanley Neptune