thekuntawman
Purple Belt
"an expert is a man who is in his fighting career, and a master is a teacher who is fighting career is over."
what does this mean? you cannot become a teacher until you have been a few years into your fighting career. a fighting career is when you have achieved a "black belters" level in the martial art (4-5 years) and you begin to spar against other experts for three reasons, reputation, learning/fighting experience, and testing your ideas about fighting. so what, if its not the street or its sport. that is the talk of cowards. you are trying your skills against a moving man who is trying to kick your ***, like you are trying to do to him. the fighting career is when you put all that talk about developing basics and "attributes" in your pocket and prove to others and yourself that your talk can walk. say what you want about tournaments, wekaf, etc. these guys know what a full speed hit looks like, and they have a better chance to counter it than someone who spent all day doing sinawali. fighting experience, like i said gives the so called "expert" three things:
1. a reputation people can count on. so what you wrote books. so what you are well known. so what you have a lot of friends who call you the "real deal". your peers in the philippine martial arts want to know if you can fight. and so do your students. soon or later, one of them will try you out, even in a friendly way, and there is no worser reputation than the old student who says he whipped you up once. if your going to be a teacher, your reputation is your business card.
2. the true "advance level training". screw the drills and neat ways to disarm a stick. advance martial arts is, making your opponent mad because he cant hit you, and finding new ways to cause pain to him. advance learning is applying the technique. and you cant learn that in a video or seminar. look around your classroom. if you got beginners in class with you, and they are learning and practicing the same thing you are, your not in the advance class. advance training is where the big boys train. my own grandfather told me at this level he cant teach me more, my teachers are my opponents and my memory of the matches.
3. so you came up with your own style? its so popular here in the US to copy off the old manong and make your own style, since they did it to, (you know its not the same) but you forgot one thing. i dont know what culture it came from where you make your own style by writing down a new curriculum of all the neat stuff you got on those seminars, but its not how the FMA man does it. for your own style to have its own life, you need opponents you used it on. am i am not talking about friends and companion. dan inosanto is not the man to ask about bruce lees jeet kune do, wong jak man is.
your fighting career is going to last until you are late 40s or 50s. people who are on the east coast know people like billy bryant and furman marshall. they still fight in tournaments at 48 and 49 years old. i remember billy got mad at eberhard welch in 1992 or 93 because he made billy fight in the seniors. i am glad in a way, because billy would have beaten me in the young mens division. by the way, at the grandchampion matchs, he broke the nose of marty kokavas, the lightweight who beat me. marty finished the fight, and beat billy to win the money. only a true fighter can fight with a broken nose. if you want to be a master fighter, you keep fighting. but if you want to be a master teacher, you teach while you learn and develop yourself. when your fighting career is over, that is when you can really call yourself a "master of the art". notice i say CALL YOURSELF, not earn a paper. when your fighting career is over, you really have learned all you can learn from your own experiences of the fighting martial arts.
oh yeah, another saying,
"a master of the martial arts is promoted by his community." you earn the respect of a senior teacher from people, not from a organization. we are not japanese martial arts.
what does this mean? you cannot become a teacher until you have been a few years into your fighting career. a fighting career is when you have achieved a "black belters" level in the martial art (4-5 years) and you begin to spar against other experts for three reasons, reputation, learning/fighting experience, and testing your ideas about fighting. so what, if its not the street or its sport. that is the talk of cowards. you are trying your skills against a moving man who is trying to kick your ***, like you are trying to do to him. the fighting career is when you put all that talk about developing basics and "attributes" in your pocket and prove to others and yourself that your talk can walk. say what you want about tournaments, wekaf, etc. these guys know what a full speed hit looks like, and they have a better chance to counter it than someone who spent all day doing sinawali. fighting experience, like i said gives the so called "expert" three things:
1. a reputation people can count on. so what you wrote books. so what you are well known. so what you have a lot of friends who call you the "real deal". your peers in the philippine martial arts want to know if you can fight. and so do your students. soon or later, one of them will try you out, even in a friendly way, and there is no worser reputation than the old student who says he whipped you up once. if your going to be a teacher, your reputation is your business card.
2. the true "advance level training". screw the drills and neat ways to disarm a stick. advance martial arts is, making your opponent mad because he cant hit you, and finding new ways to cause pain to him. advance learning is applying the technique. and you cant learn that in a video or seminar. look around your classroom. if you got beginners in class with you, and they are learning and practicing the same thing you are, your not in the advance class. advance training is where the big boys train. my own grandfather told me at this level he cant teach me more, my teachers are my opponents and my memory of the matches.
3. so you came up with your own style? its so popular here in the US to copy off the old manong and make your own style, since they did it to, (you know its not the same) but you forgot one thing. i dont know what culture it came from where you make your own style by writing down a new curriculum of all the neat stuff you got on those seminars, but its not how the FMA man does it. for your own style to have its own life, you need opponents you used it on. am i am not talking about friends and companion. dan inosanto is not the man to ask about bruce lees jeet kune do, wong jak man is.
your fighting career is going to last until you are late 40s or 50s. people who are on the east coast know people like billy bryant and furman marshall. they still fight in tournaments at 48 and 49 years old. i remember billy got mad at eberhard welch in 1992 or 93 because he made billy fight in the seniors. i am glad in a way, because billy would have beaten me in the young mens division. by the way, at the grandchampion matchs, he broke the nose of marty kokavas, the lightweight who beat me. marty finished the fight, and beat billy to win the money. only a true fighter can fight with a broken nose. if you want to be a master fighter, you keep fighting. but if you want to be a master teacher, you teach while you learn and develop yourself. when your fighting career is over, that is when you can really call yourself a "master of the art". notice i say CALL YOURSELF, not earn a paper. when your fighting career is over, you really have learned all you can learn from your own experiences of the fighting martial arts.
oh yeah, another saying,
"a master of the martial arts is promoted by his community." you earn the respect of a senior teacher from people, not from a organization. we are not japanese martial arts.
