Interesting posts all around. Here’s what I’ve thought about on this.
Pre-industrial CMAs/JMAs were frequently being tested, applied, and modified in military, police, and self-defense situations. Their historic reputations are well-deserved.
They also found a unique place in certain spiritual practices, with spiritual seekers using combat as a means to practice and develop awareness. Again, well deserved reputations.
CMAs did not, however, adapt to the post-industrial sports world as fast or as well as they could have. Perhaps the masters, traumatized by the cultural revolution, struggled too long to preserve the old ways. Or maybe the sports initiatives put forward by visionary Martial Artists were co-opted by a government with no interest/understanding in the market values of such sports. Or maybe the sports initiatives put forward by CMA proponents outside of Asia weren’t strong enough, since they had to compete with pre-existing combat sports ranging from boxing and fencing (old school,) to Judo, Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai (post-WWII Asian exports with US Army backing), to BJJ and MMA (contemporary combat sports.)
The two true CMA sports that we see today are Wu Shu and San Shou/Da. Both are valid, and both have wonderful, unpretentious athletes. Both are relative latecomers, though, and the market value of these sports is still very low. San Shou/Da in particular seems to have been surpassed by MMA, and I doubt that it will recover. Still, if someone trains at a school that focuses on at least Wu Shu or San Shou, the experience can and generally should be a positive, fulfilling one.
That leaves a load of CMA (and JMA) schools that have no connection to sports whatsoever. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that a portion of these schools are spiritually oriented, another portion are health oriented, a third are traditional, and the rest are, well, I’ll get to that in a moment.
The spiritually oriented schools may very well focus on the idea of warriorship. The difference between warriors and fighters is an often misunderstood one, and is probably deserving of its own thread. In brief, a school that trains warriors may not necessarily train competitors, yet still develop practitioners of firm character, grounded in realism and practicality.
The health oriented schools make no effort to even imply fighting skill. They exist in the same vein as Yoga or Aerobics. I’d say that a quality health-based CMA school is less deluded about fighting ability than your average tae-bo, boxercise or aerobic kickboxing class. Training with these people is like stretching or running with a group of friends. No real pretenses, just lots of fun. I admit, though, that this is probably the second smallest category of CMA school.
The traditional schools are dwindling quickly, and have been for a long time. I’d say that a travelling MA researcher would be lucky to find one true traditional instructor every 5-10 years. My definition of a true traditional instructor is one that trains in the old ways and is not afraid to demonstrate, test, or share his/her skills in the presence of an unbiased audience. In 10 years of training and travelling, I’ve met 2. One’s a Chen guy, the other’s a Wing Chun guy. Like I said, they’re few and far between.
This leaves us with a load of CMA/JMA schools that are not sports based, not spiritually based, not explicitly health based, and by the above definition, definitely not traditional. I’d go as far as to say that the MAJORITY of CMA/JMA schools fall into this McDojo/McKwoon category. The shenanigans found in these schools are amazingly varied, yet invariably related to the ideas of power, control, and money. They abuse traditions to attract a gullible public, and continue to rely on the historic reputations of their arts, without ever thinking they ought to add to them.
I’ve said nothing new in this post. I just think it’s important to remember that 95% of the problems with the Martial Arts are school related, not art related. As long as a school is honest with itself about what goes on there, I don’t think there’s any need to bash it.
CSP
