Mankind has walked the Earth for thousands of years and for that same amount of time, we have been doing harm to one another, killing and maiming one sometimes out of malice, pride and ego: blind ambition fueled by a lust for power.

And then there were those who despite what was going on around them, chose instead to live in peace while completely understanding the necessity to defend oneself should the situation arise. It is my belief-with history being my witness- that this basically would describe the genesis of what we would consider martial-arts. A form of self-defense used only when needed to protect the life, limb and property of you and yours with according force.

There is nothing new under the Sun and if this old adage is true, then that would mean that the majority of humanity has roughly the same anatomical features. The same amount of limbs, digits, eyes and the like baring of course the exceptions. So if that’s true then what does it matter what style I practice; a ridge hand to the throat is a ridge hand to the throat. It doesn’t matter if you learned it in Thailand or in California, an effective martial-art will have that in common with other styles because they understand that the body only works so many ways.

That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be proud of our lineages and those who came before us. I am very proud, honored and humbled to be a student and teacher of the Tracy’s system of Kenpo. I was taught the right way however, to respect other students and other styles. Let the art stand for itself. There is no need for me to say anything because the tools you have been given by your instructor and the amount of time you have put into practicing will be your own judge, jury and in some cases executioner if (and hopefully that never happens) your fate comes down to your training

A real martial-artist doesn’t need to talk about they know this and they know that. It’s not about name dropping. Who you trained with on a weekend in Vegas doesn’t make you a student. Likewise bouncing from dojo to dojo “move collecting” doesn’t make you all the wiser. I’ve seen many a multi-discipline black belt that had no idea what they were doing. But they were quick to put you in your place, seeing as how they are much more qualified then I to speak on such matters. How dare they be questioned when the amount of black belts they have is so astounding.

Delusions of grandeur, nothing more, nothing less.

At this point I think it is important to separate and define the difference between combat sports and self-defense.

Combat sports is a sport and as such you have to be mentally and physically prepared to engage your opponent in a different manner. People that fall under this category that are serious about their training, are constantly working out, training, eating right, getting in mat time; all the things they need to do to win. It takes a lot of really hard work and dedication and it’s not something that everyone can do. It’s just like any other sport; you have to have talent but you also have to put in massive amounts of hard work to be successful if you want to compete. I love the world of combat sports and along with my Kenpo training, I practice Shootfighting. I don’t compete or anything like that but just the little I do train in is labor intensive. Again, the goal is different.

Self-defense has no rules; in your favor or against. The only goal is survival. While it is true that not every situation is a life and death one, if one is intent on self-defense then they must constantly be ready to escalate to the next level if need occurs. You don’t get that ability by talking about what you know or with whom you have trained, it comes from putting in time. Hands on training and constant repetition. I’m not saying that mma won’t work in street fight. However, I’m not going to arm bar someone or shoot in on them for the take down on concrete with crowds around and other environmental obstacles/concerns. Something is better than nothing but I’d rather be equipped with the appropriate tools for the job. Just like I wouldn’t do Kenpo in the ring, I wouldn’t do mma in a real situation. At 34 and having a family of my own I need something designed to protect me and my family if need be (they practice as well). MMA is highly entertaining and I have nothing but respect for those who go out there and do it but for me and my family I need something that I can use no matter what.

Immediately some of you are probably groaning as you recount some awful experience that you’ve had in the past at what would be considered a traditional martial-arts school. For that I would like to apologize on behalf of martial-artists the world over.

Some people don’t know how to teach. They may be great at physically performing the movements but teaching it is something completely different. Not only that but frankly, some people (they usually fall into the move collector class) don’t have anything worth teaching to begin with. The unfortunate part is that because of those types of experiences people get the wrong idea about traditional martial-arts. That and/or they learned things that they found out too late don’t work.

One of the complaints against traditional martial-arts is that it takes too long to learn, thus making it useless if something went down. To this I would say that it depends on who is teaching you and what they are teaching you. When a new student comes to me I make sure that first lesson they learn something that they could walk out that door with and use if the need occurs. You don’t have to practice snap kicking someone in the groin or eye gouging for too long to get the point but ultimately; if like the MMA student the goal is to be the best, then you have to put in as much time in hands on practice as you can. When I was in the Army I knew how to operate my rifle but we practiced everyday. Police officers, firefighters, anything that relies on split second accurate timing MUST be practiced, hands on to be effective.

You may have noticed that I keep putting an emphasis on hands on. DVD’s, books and the like are great training aids but you must train hands on. If you are training somewhere and they aren’t doing hands on training then I would strongly suggest you find somewhere else to go.

Don’t however allow yourself to be a punching bag. Hands on means hands on, controlled one-on-one (unless doing multiple opponent techniques) practice that allows you and your partner to understand the necessary movements and why they work. This not only enhances your knowledge as an instructor but it enhances the knowledge of your students, making them better because they know why it works, not because you said so. Hands on should never be an excuse to get dumped on by some energy drink freak with an attitude. Other things to watch out for are places that charge you for tests/promotions or even the belt you’re receiving. If I’m the one who taught you the required material for promotion, then why charge you to test on it? I have been paid once for my time, that is all that is required-nothing more nothing less. In fact promoting your students is just as much about you and what you’ve been taught as it is your students. Your students are a reflection of you.

I’ve rambled long enough and my apologies if I may have digressed. I pay attention to these things and I see all these people claiming they have some new way that no one else has learned before or that they have some hidden knowledge or how traditional martial-arts doesn’t work and are garbage…it goes on and on. A good quarter of my time teaching is spent on demystifying some of the lies, rumors and speculation that has infected the minds of would be students who by no fault of their own have been drug down a path that does them a disservice.

You can say you know this style and that style, and I know this person and that person but what really counts is if you can look yourself in the mirror when no one else is around and tell yourself truthfully that you have done right by your students in teaching them everything and in the correct fashion, or are you just running your mouth.

It’s like Phonte said: “Do you really want to win or just look good losing, there’s no illusion.”