It is human nature to be competitive and to have an EGO and an ATTITUDE. The Internet is full of people criticizing every martial art that is different than what they think is good even if they have never personally experienced any martial art.
In martial art land it is dangerous and non-productive to come in with a full slate or a full cup. There is some martial arts advice that says: when you come to learn something, empty your cup first.
In many clubs, whether Wing Chun or Karate there is sometimes a problem of students being bullied by senior students. The stronger student beats up the weaker student. The faster student beats up the slower student. The experienced student beats up the novice. That’s the lowest form of martial art.
Whenever you visit another club or go to a seminar from another teacher then humility is a virtue. Nobody likes a smart ass who thinks they know it all. You come to a seminar or go to another school to learn something. Even if there is nothing to learn, you still should respect the teacher’s efforts.
Other clubs have their egos to protect. If you are better than the teacher at that club or at that seminar, just close your mouth and try what they teach anyway. Martial art is a serious business. If someone shows up the teacher, then that teacher may very well lose all of his students. This results in the teacher losing his livelihood. In Asia the consequences could be very serious where they would have no choice but to exact revenge and make sure you never can do tat again.
Several cases in point involved some of our past students and some cases were told to me by varuous teachers of other martial arts.
Case1: One of my female students went to Japan in the 1980’s. She thought to look up a Wing Chun club there. When there she did Chi sau with everyone and managed to best them at this, perhaps she had more experience, I don’t know. But one tall American when practicing with her got more and more annoyed and finally had enough. Unfortunately she sensed his anger too late and secondly she made the mistake of just stopping without moving away. Within a split second, he punched her in the stomach and followed up quickly with an elbow to her nose. Everyone laughed until they saw her bleeding on the floor. They realized this was no longer a joke and quickly brought her to emergency. Of course the American was very sorry for losing his cool. She required surgery for a broken nose.
In movies everyone likes when someone pushes a bully to the ground. The bully deserved what he got. But what if you did that and the bully hits his head on the concrete and dies? Think how you will feel. Think how you might enjoy your time in jail. There you can think a long time if it was worth it.
Actually several times in my teaching career someone out of the blue decided to just sweep me to the ground. It was totally unexpected. The first time I ended up with a broken wrist. The next time I was OK but learned to always be cautious with people that you just don’t know. The third time was with one of my students who was very nice guy but he didn’t think what the consequence of his action was going to be. I fell to the ground and hit my head on the concrete. Fortunately I was OK. Two more times I was unexpectedly pushed wile teaching and received some permanent elbow damage from landing on my elbow on the floor. I concluded that teaching could be a dangerous profession to be in. A safety tip is to make sure everyone is aware of safety rules and always to practice at a controllable speed.
Case2: I went to a seminar given by an Indonesian Silat Master. He told me that his father who was also Master informed him that a Chinese Kung Fu guy with a superiority attitude was coming to check out Silat. He told his son “Make sure he doesn’t leave without a broken arm.” So that’s what happened. In Asian culture it’s all about saving face.
Case3: A Filipino Grandmaster told me that at one seminar some student really tried to stab him with a wooden knife when he used the student for a demonstration. After a few tried by the student to test the Master, the Master “accidentally” broke his arm to teach him a lesson that he might not forget.
Case4: One of our students was actually being a smart ass in the 1990’s at a seminar given by Emin Boztepe. A simple kick to the groin easily solved my student’s problem such that he never did that kind of thing again.
Case5: One Wing Chun martial arts friend told me that he and an MMA type of fighter had argued for years about which art was better. Both were very adept at their respective arts. So one day they decided to test out their theories for real. The MMA guy said he could take any wing Chun guy to the ground. The Wing Chun guy said he didn’t think so. They both were right. During the fight the MMA guy almost threw the Wing Chun guy down but during the process the very fast Wing Chun guy, on his way down, managed to slip in a punch to the MMA guy’s throat. My friend had to call 911 to save the MMA guys life. After that they both learned a serious lesson about EGO problems.
Recommendations
My Hung style teacher never recommended free style sparring but all MMA guys recommend because he had seen so many injuries from friendly sparring matches quickly getting out of hand. He believed that with proper drills, you can simulate enough reality with no EGOS getting in the way. When this teacher was young he fought a lot.
I always tell people that don’t know each other that first they should come to an agreement as to how much force should be used. Second only one person should attack and one should only defend. In that way the learning session is not likely to escalate with more and more force and speed being used until finally someone is injured. Martial arts are practiced by many for health and fitness reasons or for self defense so you don’t get hurt on the street. So if you get hurt while learning martial arts, that doesn’t make good sense.
