Traditional Martial Arts – Filling in the Gaps
I was listening to a martial arts podcast last week while I was on the treadmill and I heard a line that really struck a chord in me. The line was essentially a statement by a traditional martial artist that said he trained in other traditional arts to fill in the gaps of his own personal training. While this maxim may not be a revelation to those of us that have been life-long martial artists and have had the pleasure to train with other arts outside of our own, the maxim is still a philosophy of traditional martial artists that may be completely foreign. However, I believe that traditional martial arts – as we know them – are an individual’s, or group’s, attempt at developing a system that they thought would answer the threats they faced in their contemporary operating environment.
The Arts and Their Relevance
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) have yelled, screamed, kicked, and rear-naked choked their way into the mainstream media and the martial arts world. However, the validity that an MMA gym will teach a student the traditional martial arts is wholly absurd with most dobok wearing martial artists of today. In fact, a prominent traditional martial artist, and one that I respect and admire completely, Grandmaster Jeff Speakman, has stated that participants in the current version of MMA are just mixed martial fighters (MMF) because there is no art in what they do. So, this question got me thinking about what an art truly is and whether traditional martial arts, as we know them, adheres to these principles.
My Opinion
In my extremely humble opinion, traditional martial arts are defined as the following: the art can trace it’s lineage of movement and philosophy back to – at least – Chinese martial arts; the art emphasizes mental and emotional development as well as physical development; the art identifies it’s movements and philosophies as being part of a complete system rather than a conglomeration. These three criteria are mine and mine alone. They are not meant to be academically or peer-reviewed in any way because they are opinions. However, in my 25 years of traditional martial arts training and experience, I believe I can distill traditional martial arts into these three criteria.
How Does MMA Stack Up?
If we were to measure a mixed martial arts organization against these three criteria, what would we find? Well, I will definitely take a stab at this question as I’ve also had the pleasure of being a guest at several mixed martial arts gyms in my years of training. I believe we would find a class of stand-up kickboxing, whether influenced from Muay Thai Kickboxing, American Kickboxing, or another style that emphasized the use of 8-9 weapons – the headbutt being the outlier in question. This gym would most likely have a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu professor teaching classes as well as some sort of strength and conditioning coach and/or capability. So, if we were to compare the assets of the mixed martial arts gym against the previously mentioned criteria, what would we come up with? I believe you would find elements of each different art practiced in the gym as meeting the criteria of traditional martial arts. However, I also believe that the gym is employing the capabilities of multiple traditional arts to fill the gaps in the fighter rather than the art employing different techniques and concepts to fill the gaps of the art.
Do Arts Have Gaps?
I was extremely fortunate to attend a weekend seminar that featured Grandmaster Jeff Speakman of film and Kenpo Karate fame. While the entire seminar was extremely enlightening and delightful to attend, I found Grandmaster Speakman was not only impactful in his philosophical views, he was extremely effective in conveying his martial arts views as well. The subject he spoke about that struck me the hardest was why he developed Kenpo 5.0. He articulated, through a raspy and warrior battled voice that had overcome cancer, that Kenpo 5.0 is entirely different from his Kenpo 4.0 and worlds different from other Kenpo arts. The reason, Grandmaster Speakman explains, is because he has incorporated “modern” fighting arts and philosophies from other systems, such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, into his Kenpo 5.0. The reason Grandmaster Speakman has made these breakthroughs in his own art is that he wanted to ensure his students would be able to meet any possible challenge with the confidence that he or she would be successful in the outcome.
I am fortunate enough to have traveled all over the world and experience training in multiple disciplines from extremely gifted and world-class martial artists. The most recent art I have had the privilege to train in is Shidokan. Shidokan is a Kyokushin variant Japanese Karate martial art that also incorporates Muay Thai techniques – such as the roundhouse knee and the clinch – Judo takedowns, and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu submissions. The Shihan that I train under is an all-Japan, full-contact, Karate champion that is recognized by both Mas Oyama – founder of Kyokushin Karate, and Katsuo Yamamoto – founder of Yoshukai Karate. I articulate the extensiveness of this traditional system of Japanese Karate because it fills in the gaps of other styles and incorporates them into one style. Thus, we have another instance of an art filling the gaps rather than an individual filling the gaps through multiple arts.
What is Right?
Traditional martial arts, despite their origins, have rooted themselves in the cultures of their origins and the societies of their origin countries. From Mexican boxing, Indonesian Silat, and Japanese Karate, traditional martial arts have provided societies with a sense of belonging and identification. However, with the evolution of communication technology, as well as the entertainment industry, traditional martial arts – despite the origin – have had to meet the times of the modern threat and the modern commercial expectation. The threat, I would argue, has not changed. However, the commercial expectation has dramatically changed. A new student can walk into any traditional martial arts school and probably find a wonderful environment to learn a foundation of philosophy and movement that will serve him or her for a lifetime. But, is that art right for him or her?
What do you think?
Should a traditional martial art adhere to a set doctrine of rules, rituals, and standards while making a practitioner train in multiple disciplines to fill in the gaps? Or, should a traditional martial art seek to evolve and fill in the gaps for the practitioner? Who is responsible for filling in the gaps? Let me know in the comments section below!
- Confessions of a Failed Martial Arts School Owner – Part 3 - July 13, 2023
- Confessions of a Failed Martial Arts School Owner – Part 2 - May 23, 2023
- Confessions of a Failed Martial Arts School Owner – Part 1 - May 12, 2023
Really great read, sir!
I must admit I strongly disagree about MMA not being an art (funnily enough I wrote about both MMA being and art, and defining art in previous MJ articles too!).
With regards to the art changing to meet the practitioner’s needs, that’s a really interesting point! I think it depends on what the system proclaims it gives the practitioners; if the system claims self defence and does not ‘fill gaps’, then it needs to evolve, or the practitioner need to cross-train. If the system is just an art, then there is no need to evolve. I think a good analogy would be that if you say you teach ‘arts’, then you would learn painting, dance, music, sculpting etc. But if you only teach music and don’t profess to anything else you will just attract musicians… does that make sense? It’s late 😛
Thanks for a great read.
Ron