Martial Arts in an Anti-Viral World

Greetings to all! Peace and Safety to you and yours!

So, as we are all aware, the Covid-19 virus has taken the world by storm. There is much information online and off, so I will not pretend to inform you more about it. Of course, there is also just as much misinformation to be found, but the simplest response you can find is in an old adage: An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure.

That said, let me offer some perspective that should not really surprise you (coming from me, that is) at a time when you may be distracted by all the hype and panic that surrounds the situation. That perspective, I should warn you, comes from my own view of humanity and our tendency toward the sensational. Still, I will try to keep it plain.

As a child, I (and many people I know who grew up to be productive members of society) grew up in an environment lacking of opportunity to really impact the world in a positive manner. We had to muster the fortitude that would allow us to keep striving for what we could only imagine was possible for people like us who were surrounded by the constant reminders of a society that was ready to write us off. Still, we persisted, all the while reaching into that void that was our own yearning for a better life.

Sure, we might have imagined having the unfettered wealth generation that could grant our greatest wishes in a material world. We may have also posited that certain resources would never be afforded us, no matter how well we behaved just because of our skin color or our societal class. That spurred some of us to dig deeper and force life to acknowledge us, in one way or another. Either way, we played against the odds, as it were.

Today, the world panics in the face of yet another threat to humanity (I may be dramatizing a tad, here), and people seem to be grasping for things that they think will be instrumental in the post-apocalyptic world that our media, movies and imagination have proffered us. The preponderance of marketplace disarray and greed may lead us to think that all could be close to lost. But we all agree that the science is real enough that we understand that we are at risk, no matter what any outlet tells us about this latest viral threat.

Now, to my point:

What are you doing to keep your peace? This is important.

Of course, you are doing what you can to keep yourself a little more distant from your neighbors and stranger, as they rightfully suggested we do to minimize transmission of viruses or infection. Also, we are all finally becoming (at least) a little more aware of the need to behave more responsibly, especially in terms of hygiene (i.e WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP, which is even more effective than Purell, etc.) and becoming more aware of the natural habit of face-touching. But what about internally?

Anyone who has been involved in martial arts for a period of time understands the value of the mental aspects of training. That leads to a certain amount of self-awareness, to say the least. The other side of that is that we, ideally, become more conscientious about our surroundings and other people with whom we must exist (hopefully in peace.) That, in turn, builds a sort of responsibility towards others in our sphere of existence.

For those who are not actively training, it is easy to avoid the crowded space according to the recommended protocols (avoid crowded scenarios, etc.) It may even be an easier transition when you factor in our current leanings (as a world society) toward virtual- and augmented reality granted us by modern technologies, the world over. Still, many of us require a certain level of actual interaction with others, which is very human.

Whatever your position or your leaning, it is important for us all that we maintain some method of peace-keeping. That applies both to the external and the internal. So my question is key to the very survival of us all.

Whether you are actively going to work, school, the gym, the dojo or the yoga center, things are changing. We are being asked to stay at home or alter our scheduling to avoid excessive interactions with others, since that might further put us at risk. That change has a certain cost, and we must be mentally prepared to pay it to remain on the safe side.

Flowing Bronze Martial Arts Society has been offering a live class via online video chatting as a test pilot, over the past year. It happens to fit in line with our mission to help take martial arts training into the future, given the technological advancements of our world. If you are attending classes at other schools, studios and scenarios, do not give up on your training (and thus your peacekeeping skills) for fear of contraction. That would be like tossing the baby out with the bath water! Instead, ask your teacher, your guru or whoever you are studying with, to take your training to the next level using technology.

If you have been considering training, and this situation has caused you to put it further into delay, stop defeating yourself before you start. Seek a venue (school, teacher, etc.) who can offer you the training you need. Great martial arts teachers have (for centuries, I am sure) always found a way to teach students, even in the worst of times and scenarios. Perhaps this is just another opportunity for both you AND a teacher to show what stuff humanity is made of.

Peace.

www.kungju.info

The Future of Martial Arts - Part 4

Up until the 1970's, martial arts were largely taught in closed door schools. It received a bump (in the U.S.) from veterans returning from deployments, then more so when the video age came about in the 1980's. I am oversimplifying, but stay with me. Once the movies could be made and taken home to practice by, the possibilities grew exponentially. Such tools made correspondence lessons more viable.

During the 1990's the internet burst forth as a way to interact and learn, so a few industrious schools took the previous correspondence model to the next level by offering online courses. There are very few that do this with live interaction, which is probably due, in part, to the challenge of bandwidth and scheduling madness. The bulk of their revenue, I'd imagine, came from those sales of physical video or subscription to their downloads and streaming video content.

Even so, the amount of content across the world exploded onto YouTube, making the model almost obsolete. That was especially so in the case of virtual schools which did not have a live interactive element. There are a few that survived, including a couple that seem to have a good operational model in place. 

While we are a few technological bounds from Matrix-level education, I think the realistic flow of technological growth would be more about the biological pre-dispositioning side than the plug-in type. After all, we are now awake to the idea of smart drugs that allow us to learn faster. By the time we get to the place where the brain can be force-fed information that the body can readily adapt and assimilate, we will probably have run through the gamut of apps and software that telecom companies and marketing companies can impose on us. In fact, the governments will have already taken the model to a place where we probably should NOT go to, but what are you going to do? We just have to wait for it to filter down to consumer level use.

As for martial arts lessons, I don't see it staying in the standard modus operandi where we go out to the brick and mortar on the school's weekly schedule. Life is too fluid, and each new generation seems less likely to want to adhere to a schedule set by someone else. Likewise, I don't see it being perpetuated in the realm of video playback in any format, in and of itself. It just loses the mentorship angle, which is too important to any real martial artist who can call himself such.

Let's address those before we go on:

Discipline is one of the key elements to learning martial arts or any other art. Keeping a schedule helps to build that discipline, of course. And it fosters the student's ability to create positive habits on his or her own time building the SELF discipline part of the equation. Time invested has the benefit of successful outcome. Life may be fluid, but even wildflowers keep a schedule. Somehow, this has to be ingrained in the mind of the student, even with the systematic resistance to the limitation. The future training model has to address that.

Video playback may seem like a way to further the mission, but while it provides a way of review or even explanation of technique concept, it pales in comparison to face-to-face interaction with a capable teacher. It does solve the problem of proximity (teacher may be too far away, or you may not be able to travel to the local school with regularity), and it works perfectly as a librarian tool and catalog, and beats the heck out of hieroglyphics, to be sure. Still, the limitations are in the lack of interactivity.

We have all seen the Sci-fi movies where the interactive Artificial Intelligence fails in the face of certain existential questions that were not or could not be programmed into it. Makes me laugh, every time, because I get it. Imagine going to a mentor who gets a critical error because of a question not foreseen during programming.

Onward: So the future (just my humble opinion) of martial arts training is not to be locked into either of those two variations, based on those factors. Where CAN it be heading to, in the near future? What model(s) might there be that would maintain the heart of the martial arts while addressing the changing times?

Who knows tech may come about in the next 100 years or so? Who can say if the world going into another war or governmental change won't effect how we are trying to perpetuate the martial arts, now? Will we be allowed to teach or share information online with students across the world in certain countries, let alone travel to them (war changes geography) to share or further knowledge?

I don't know that, but I do know this: Having gone the route of an autodidact, without a teacher for many years; and having trained substantially in the presence of teachers in Japanese, Chinese and Korean disciplines, I understand the difference in how I have been able to appreciate the information I have received. Add to this the time spent in the company of a multitude of other people's masters and students near my own level (some below and many above), and my perspective is broad. Couple that with time spent teaching students at different levels and of different mindsets, and I would say I am just a little more open minded about how we might proceed in the mission of proliferating martial arts.

That is not saying I am more or less awake than any other martial artist. It is simply saying that I know change is afoot. I think I can wrap up this topic in the next entry. For now, I think I have gone into near novel status with this post, so I will bid you a fond see ya' later until then.

The Future of Martial Arts - Part 3

Alright, then. (In my Carl de Billy Bob Thornton voice)

So we have explored the issue of age and of character as they relate to martial arts training. Now, let's jump into the universe of technology. After all, it changes the training, the thinking behind the application of techniques, and even creates opportunities to get ahead of impending or potential dangers.

Primitive implementations such as sticks, blades and fisticuffs vary per culture. The mindsets are different, and the advancement of their applications came about as times changed. They gained in effectiveness until they gave way to tools that negated their impact on warfare. Yet, the limbs that wield them are global. The minds that fashioned them and fine-tuned them continue to grow.

The idea of exponential effect increased our reach and power, bringing about faster and more devastating weaponry. This could take our discussion so far as to include weapons of mass destruction, but we will stay on topic by limiting ourselves to that of armed combat on a one-to-one basis. That is not saying that one man cannot destroy or absolutely defend himself against multiple opponents. It does, however, speak to the fact that only one person can only truly battle one person at a time, even as he faces multiples.

Anyway, in this day and age, we learn martial arts in a school that teaches us the basics by drilling in the techniques. We learn to string them together in the form of step-sparring or forms, which leads us deeper into understanding of the concepts that make them effective. Then we stretch that understanding so that we can use our tools or weapons while applying those concepts and techniques even more efficiently.

Here, we see that the technology is closely aligned with the concept to extend the martial artist's abilities into the realm of mastery. But technology gets a bit more complex as we look at the various styles and arts that are available to the average person. Therefore, it stands to reason that one of the things that changes (as far as technology goes) is the method of teaching and learning.

Since the advent of video technology, we have seen a magnitude of instructional videos come onto the market. Of course, there is validity to it as a reference source, and just as there are many who have studied them to improve on skills and understanding, there are those who proclaim themselves to be learned based on the gleaned knowledge. I am not here to judge, one way or the other. In fact, as a young man, it was my desire to have a library of instructional martial arts books that would rival the Smithsonian collection. When video came along, I expanded my library (imaginary, though it was) to include them all.

When I matured, I realized that I would not have been able to study them all well enough to master much of it, at all. Even more importantly, I could not HOPE to afford all the videos that caught my attention as I planned for martial arts supremacy. I have videos that I collected much later in my life, and at a much higher level in my training that I still have not viewed. The fact is that I may never get around to it.

I bear this all in mind whenever I come across a younger martial artist who thinks they need to have all such knowledge that is available. It comes from the older me and the elders who spoke it into my understanding when I tell them it is better to study what you are learning, instead of digging higher. Did you catch that? Digging higher..  That's like taking your shovel and just shoveling the dirt that has already been displaced from the ground, hoping to get deeper. Not going to happen.

Again, there is a place for it. Knowledge is out there to be gained. But the right approach to learning information is to avoid the temptation to gain it all, yet understand very little of what you aspire to learn. The term the older masters often used to describe this is "Mile Wide, Inch Deep."

With this as the basis of my discussion of this subject, let us prepare go more into the speculative side of the matter. In my next entry, we will get to what I hope is the point of this discussion. After all, when we look at where we have been and where it is, currently, some things are evident about the future of martial arts. Right?

The Future of Your Martial Arts - Part 1

The subject has always been a relevant source of discussion, especially since mankind has always had to find ways of defending life, limb and love. Technology creates the method for change. Change allows for technologies to advance. People continue to grow and learn, and so change occurs and technologies adapt for relevance. It holds true in martial arts and in life, in general.

When it comes to fighting, we are either starting it or hoping to end it. No matter the ebbs or even the rhythms of battle, we all aim to come away with as much life as we can hold onto. The wiser of us aim to interact with as little sustained violence as possible. There are several factors, but the most obvious factors include the nature of life being to mature. We get older, in other words. Wisdom should accompany that, but it does not always do so at a pace we can appreciate (in others, most often.) Either way, we all want to finish such interactions, intact.

As we mature, our understanding of the process of fighting changes. As we mature in the arts, in particular, our understanding changes according to what we are able to do. If we are suffering from a life of heavy burdens with the reciprocal badges that come of it (backaches, arthritis, etc.), we quickly begin to understand what adaptation means, internally.

I am privileged to have spent some time conversing with elderly martial artists, over the years, and prior to my own actual progression into becoming a more mature martial artist. I am not quite an elder, yet (to the children, I am probably considered ancient), but I took the wisdom I was given to heart.

The seniors I speak of all had certain things in common. Namely: 1. they all had been practicing and/or teaching martial arts for many years, 2. They had all reached a certain level in their training and understanding of the validity of martial arts, 3. They all appreciated that at some point the physicality would no longer be an advantage they could count on, and 4. They all understood that wisdom would be the best weapon in a fight.

This in mind, I wanted to discuss where we are and where our arts should be heading to. In my next blog (as part of this subject entry), I will go a little further with my thoughts on how I think the martial arts will be proliferated in the near future.