Brandon's letter to [I]Black Belt[/I]

[exile]

I just noticed that our own Brandon Fisher has a letter published in the current issue of Black Belt, in which he says some very nice (and right, IMO ) things about the excellent article by Iain Abernethy on kata analysis and application in the previous issue. I'm very happy to see BB getting this kind of feedback, because it encourages them to look favorably on future submissions devoted to realistic bunkai and training for kata and related formal patterns containing effective combat applications that can be revealed by a bit of careful analysis. Well done, Brandon!

 

[arnisador]

I'll look for it at the bookstore!

 

[crushing]

I read the letter and was at first sorry that I missed the previous issue with the Iain Abernethy article, then I thought the name Brandon Fisher was familiar, not making the connection to MT.

That's pretty cool. Now to find that previous issue. . .

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Nice!

 

[cubankenpo]

very nice

 

[Flying Crane]

That's cool.

A few years ago I wrote a letter to Black Belt, deriding them for the depths to which they have generally sunk in the majority of the garbage that they print. They wrote me back a terse letter insinuating that I was a fool, and declined to print my letter.

Brandon must have been more polite than I was. Congratulations, cool stuff.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

That's cool.

A few years ago I wrote a letter to Black Belt, deriding them for the depths to which they have generally sunk in the majority of the garbage that they print. They wrote me back a terse letter insinuating that I was a fool, and declined to print my letter.

That doesn't really surprise me. I have had four letters printed in the mag and one printed on their website and the more you praise them, the higher your chances of getting printed. One of my letters said they did a good job on some coverage and that was printed in the next issue, but if you notice, they will print letters that refer to articles from as far back as 7 and 8 months. They have never printed a letter saying they are doing a bad job (that I can remember), yet my local newspaper prints letters almost every day saying that they are not very good or could do better.

AoG

 

[exile]

That's cool.

A few years ago I wrote a letter to Black Belt, deriding them for the depths to which they have generally sunk in the majority of the garbage that they print. They wrote me back a terse letter insinuating that I was a fool, and declined to print my letter.

Brandon must have been more polite than I was. Congratulations, cool stuff.

The problem is that you were right, FC. They have a pretty rotten batting average. I've noticed that their cover stories are non-randomly related to how much advertising space the subjects of those stories purchase in the issue in question, and I've also noticed that some of their columnists seem to spend a good deal of their column space touting their own books/systems/combat-designed tactical folders (to pull a purely hypothetical example out of thin air, lol)/etc. And they're not alone: TKD Times does this too, and I suspect an awful lot of MA magazines do as well—it's a pattern with specialist magazines in general, I gather (it's grotesquely obvious in skiing mags and many wine mags as well, for example). There's a very good, relatively recent thread somewhere in our archives on magazines, and this was one of the things that kept coming up.

But every so often you strike gold. TKD Times published Simon O'Neil's groundbreaking article on the appropriate role of kicking techniques in combat-oriented TKD (basically a very sharp application of Abernethy's analytic methods to TKD hyungs) without, so far as I can tell, him having bought even an inch of advertising space. And the article by Abernethy in BB was also unaccompanied by any evident merchandising in the rest of the issue. So to the extent that one can influence them by positive reinforcement, it's really good to do that. Negative reinforcement, I suspect, can only take the form of withholding advertising $$; as long as they're moving product, they don't give a rodent's posterior about quality...

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

The problem is that you were right, FC. They have a pretty rotten batting average. I've noticed that their cover stories are non-randomly related to how much advertising space the subjects of those stories purchase in the issue in question, and I've also noticed that some of their columnists seem to spend a good deal of their column space touting their own books/systems/combat-designed tactical folders (to pull a purely hypothetical example out of thin air, lol)/etc. And they're not alone: TKD Times does this too, and I suspect an awful lot of MA magazines do as well—it's a pattern with specialist magazines in general, I gather (it's grotesquely obvious in skiing mags and many wine mags as well, for example). There's a very good, relatively recent thread somewhere in our archives on magazines, and this was one of the things that kept coming up.

But every so often you strike gold. TKD Times published Simon O'Neil's groundbreaking article on the appropriate role of kicking techniques in combat-oriented TKD (basically a very sharp application of Abernethy's analytic methods to TKD hyungs) without, so far as I can tell, him having bought even an inch of advertising space. And the article by Abernethy in BB was also unaccompanied by any evident merchandising in the rest of the issue. So to the extent that one can influence them by positive reinforcement, it's really good to do that. Negative reinforcement, I suspect, can only take the form of withholding advertising $$; as long as they're moving product, they don't give a rodent's posterior about quality...

Exile and Flying Crane you are both very right on in critically looking at a magazine and seeing if there is something going on behind the pages regarding who is on the cover, whose article is in print and if they just happen to be advertising massively during that month. All of this is one reason why lately I have lost some serious interest in several magazine's that I had subscription to for nearly a couple of decades. (that is a lot of magazines

) It is very nice to see an article that did not require the writer to shell out thousands of dollars in advertising. It is also good when a letter like Brandon's get's through and is also recognized.

 

[exile]

lately I have lost some serious interest in several magazine's that I had subscription to for nearly a couple of decades. (that is a lot of magazines

)

I'm doing the same thing, Brian. I've had this subscription to TKD Times that I'm not going to renew, just can't stand the dismal fluff-to-content ratio... am seriously considering trying some of the British MA magazines; Tez has recommended some of them, and I trust her judgment!

 

[Flying Crane]

Yeah, there was just this one thing that I found so completely rediculous that I couldn't keep from writing to them.

This was probably 10 or more years ago. At the time, Royce Gracie had a monthly collumn. In this particular month, he spent his entire collumn talking about how completely badass he is, and he issued a challenge to Mike Tyson. He then basically belittled Tyson and talked about how Tyson isn't the best fighter, but rather Royce is the best fighter, and when/if Tyson ever got brave enough to get into the ring with Royce, Royce would choke him out and put him to sleep, like he did to everyone else. The whole thing was just so sickeningly pathetic and stupid, a waste of collumn space, and I told them so and pointed out the stupidity of using the MMA as the one and only yardstick against which to measure all martial arts.

First off, Royce really came off looking like a complete moron in that collumn. The wheel's a-turnin' but that hamster's dead, ya know.

Second, I placed blame on the shoulders of the publishers, for allowing that kind of imbecility to ever see the light of day in their rag.

I also reminded them that many years prior, they were doing a better job, and challenged them to improve their product.

They didn't respond favorably to my thoughts.

Funny thing was, a few months later they printed an editorial comment, and many of the points that I raised in my letter were presented as if they were the brainchild of the enlightened editors. Bunch of mental midgets. Real class act, those guys.

 

[Flying Crane]

Exile and Flying Crane you are both very right on in critically looking at a magazine and seeing if there is something going on behind the pages regarding who is on the cover, whose article is in print and if they just happen to be advertising massively during that month. All of this is one reason why lately I have lost some serious interest in several magazine's that I had subscription to for nearly a couple of decades. (that is a lot of magazines

) It is very nice to see an article that did not require the writer to shell out thousands of dollars in advertising. It is also good when a letter like Brandon's get's through and is also recognized.

Yeah, there is another magazine, I can't remember the name, but I see it on the stands at Borders. It is worse than Black Belt in this regard, just shameless. Just about every article or story will be followed by pages of advertisements for that author's books and video series. It's just so blatant, like it jumps out and gives you a snuggie! Just about as pleasant too.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Yeah, there was just this one thing that I found so completely rediculous that I couldn't keep from writing to them.

This was probably 10 or more years ago. At the time, Royce Gracie had a monthly collumn. In this particular month, he spent his entire collumn talking about how completely badass he is, and he issued a challenge to Mike Tyson. He then basically belittled Tyson and talked about how Tyson isn't the best fighter, but rather Royce is the best fighter, and when/if Tyson ever got brave enough to get into the ring with Royce, Royce would choke him out and put him to sleep, like he did to everyone else. The whole thing was just so sickeningly pathetic and stupid, a waste of collumn space, and I told them so and pointed out the stupidity of using the MMA as the one and only yardstick against which to measure all martial arts.

First off, Royce really came off looking like a complete moron in that collumn. The wheel's a-turnin' but that hamster's dead, ya know.

Second, I placed blame on the shoulders of the publishers, for allowing that kind of imbecility to ever see the light of day in their rag.

I also reminded them that many years prior, they were doing a better job, and challenged them to improve their product.

They didn't respond favorably to my thoughts.

Funny thing was, a few months later they printed an editorial comment, and many of the points that I raised in my letter were presented as if they were the brainchild of the enlightened editors. Bunch of mental midgets. Real class act, those guys.

You know I remember that exact article and the editorial comment. Probably have that magazine somewhere in my basement all boxed up. Your comments regarding that were absolutely spot on. I have also met Royce in person several times (always seems like an absolute great guy) and my impression is that was all fluff and self promotion to the extreme. Now that he has made it he know longer needs to do that kind of stuff.
Still having said that the magazine crop that is out there right now needs to get their act together or I will not be giving them my money.

 

[exile]

Yeah, there was just this one thing that I found so completely rediculous that I couldn't keep from writing to them.

This was probably 10 or more years ago. At the time, Royce Gracie had a monthly collumn. In this particular month, he spent his entire collumn talking about how completely badass he is, and he issued a challenge to Mike Tyson. He then basically belittled Tyson and talked about how Tyson isn't the best fighter, but rather Royce is the best fighter, and when/if Tyson ever got brave enough to get into the ring with Royce, Royce would choke him out and put him to sleep, like he did to everyone else. The whole thing was just so sickeningly pathetic and stupid, a waste of collumn space, and I told them so and pointed out the stupidity of using the MMA as the one and only yardstick against which to measure all martial arts.

First off, Royce really came off looking like a complete moron in that collumn. The wheel's a-turnin' but that hamster's dead, ya know.

Second, I placed blame on the shoulders of the publishers, for allowing that kind of imbecility to ever see the light of day in their rag.

I also reminded them that many years prior, they were doing a better job, and challenged them to improve their product.

They didn't respond favorably to my thoughts.

Funny thing was, a few months later they printed an editorial comment, and many of the points that I raised in my letter were presented as if they were the brainchild of the enlightened editors. Bunch of mental midgets. Real class act, those guys.

The whole episode you describe has so much the ring of truth that it sounds like Sunday morning in Canterbury! The way many of the columnists in these magazines ram their egos down your throat is... well, it's beyond outrageous—I would have once thought megalamania was a personality disorder, not a job description for a MA magazine writer, but not lately. And you're right also about BB once having been a better magazine... I don't know what happened to them along the way. Maybe the explosive growth of the MAs, and the cash-cow aspect of the MMAs in particular, with all that TV coverage and pro-circuit prize money, wound up gradually pushing them in that direction. In any case, the results aren't pretty...

 

[tshadowchaser]

I no longer read BB or any of the mags but will pick up the copy to read
Brandon Fisher's comments

 

[Flying Crane]

You know I remember that exact article and the editorial comment. Probably have that magazine somewhere in my basement all boxed up. Your comments regarding that were absolutely spot on. I have also met Royce in person several times (always seems like an absolute great guy) and my impression is that was all fluff and self promotion to the extreme. Now that he has made it he know longer needs to do that kind of stuff.
Still having said that the magazine crop that is out there right now needs to get their act together or I will not be giving them my money.

Ya know, it's entirely possible that Royce is a great guy, I've never met him. But I really felt like it was an abuse of the monthly collumn to write and publish crap like that. It was pure arrogant self-promotion, and it made absolutely no positive contribution to martial arts literature. In fact, it makes martial artists look like fools.

But that's the side of themselves that these guys project to the public. It's all that people like me have, on which to base an opinion of someone.

 

[exile]

Ya know, it's entirely possible that Royce is a great guy, I've never met him. But I really felt like it was an abuse of the monthly collumn to write and publish crap like that. It was pure arrogant self-promotion, and it made absolutely no positive contribution to martial arts literature. In fact, it makes martial artists look like fools.

But that's the side of themselves that these guys project to the public. It's all that people like me have, on which to base an opinion of someone.

And the contrast with the few good ones, like David Lowry, who seems to have very little in the way of ego-sickness (based on what I've seen of his columns) highlights the negative personalities all the more.

It's what we've said and read in other threads—the MAs have increasingly become more part of the sportotainment/spectacle aspect of popular culture; and as this goes on, MAists wind up doing the kind of trash-talking that other people in that domain have been doing increasingly for the past couple of decades... longer, maybe, but now it's extremely common and high-volume...

 

[kidswarrior]

I just noticed that our own Brandon Fisher has a letter published in the current issue of Black Belt

Congratulations, Brandon! artyon:

....he says some very nice (and right, IMO ) things about the excellent article by Iain Abernethy on kata analysis and application in the previous issue. I'm very happy to see BB getting this kind of feedback, because it encourages them to look favorably on future submissions devoted to realistic bunkai and training for kata and related formal patterns containing effective combat applications that can be revealed by a bit of careful analysis.

Absolutely right about Abernethy's work, IMHO, and the need for less pre-adolescent oriented fluff/more realism and meat.

Well done, Brandon!

And well done Exile, for making the find!

 

[exile]

...well done Exile, for making the find!

Thanks, kdswrrr, but it was sheer luck—picked up a copy of BB (I browse through it from time to time but rarely actually buy a copy—the fluff problem!) and something about the author of one of the letters rang a bell—Brandon has contributed a number of very good posts to MT, so his name stuck in my mind, and the Ohio location in the letter checked out with the data in his profile. I was impressed that he'd taken the trouble to sit down and write a letter to the mag (as FC's experience shows, often when you go out of your way to provide thoughtful feedback you get kicked in the teeth for your trouble)...

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Ya know, it's entirely possible that Royce is a great guy, I've never met him. But I really felt like it was an abuse of the monthly collumn to write and publish crap like that. It was pure arrogant self-promotion, and it made absolutely no positive contribution to martial arts literature. In fact, it makes martial artists look like fools.

But that's the side of themselves that these guys project to the public. It's all that people like me have, on which to base an opinion of someone.

Hey I cannot disagree with you as I felt the same way when I read it as well. I personally feel that self agrandizement and self promotion like that is not the way to be or to conduct yourself.