WHAT IS A TRADITIONAL MARTIAL ART SCHOOL?                                                            February 24, 2023

By Ray Hughes

(I wrote this article many decades ago and felt it needed to be dusted off and re-released.)

The Scottsdale Martial Arts Center and our other schools are traditional schools.   The karate program and other arts offered at our facilities are all traditional.   The question is, what is traditional?  

A traditional program encompasses two components.   One, a lineage back to ancient times with unique protocols and training systems in place, and second, a philosophy on how it views and handles experiences.  Some martial art schools today say they have combined the best techniques from all schools into a super system.  They market themselves as contemporary schools that teach only the best “techniques” while eliminating what seems to be unimportant training.  Unfortunately, these nontraditional schools don’t understand that a theme runs through the traditional school that goes back to when these techniques were necessary to survive.  Training systems were developed based on success.  There are important reasons for those seemingly unimportant and uninteresting drills that are part of the traditional curriculum.  But this is not enough to be traditional.  Traditional schools possess a unique philosophy and culture.    

Many philosophies are part of a traditional school.   One is the way money is viewed.  If money has become the primary focus, the school has lost its way. These nontraditional and contemporary schools use contracts to maximize profits.  They are more concerned with the bottom line than their students’ development.  I am not saying they don’t care for their students or that there isn’t a place for tuition agreements.  I’m saying they operate under a different set of values and priorities.  

Second, instead of trying to teach the philosophical discipline of sticking with decisions that are known to be in the student’s best interest, they use contracts to motivate students to continue training.  It takes skillful and experienced instructors with a passion for accomplishing such a challenging task of teaching sound philosophy compared to the threat of breaking a financial agreement.  In addition, less experienced and passionate instructors naturally gravitate to entertainment as a teaching tool. It’s easier.

Nontraditional schools use entertainment as a teaching tool.   There are two reasons for this.  One, many instructors at nontraditional schools lack experience in teaching discipline. It takes skill to teach disciple in a way that keeps the student motivated.  Second, they do not want to deal with the strained situations that come from teaching discipline. They do not want to risk losing a student.   It is easier to entertain with programs that give rapid rewards and allow students to do what they want than to teach them about the complex realities of life and learning.  So, these schools motivate their students with fast rank advancement.  This keeps the student happy, and the school owner does not have to deal with the problem of telling a student (and possibly the parent) he or she is not ready for the next rank.  You can see why there are six-year-old black belts at these schools.  In addition to rapid rank advancement, they allow their students to wear different colored uniforms, wear a thousand patches on their uniforms, make up their own kata (forms), do their katas to music, and so on. All examples of entertainment. These schools succumb to the emotional wants of human beings.  Discipline is not taught.  This is not the situation in a traditional school.  Discipline is the focus of the school.  How can someone defend themselves without it?  How can a person deal with the unfair world without it?  Teaching discipline to a student, especially a child, requires a lot of expertise and experience.  It takes decades to learn how to read a student, know what words to use, and deliver them in a manner that motivates the student to do something they generally don’t want to do.  In addition, an instructor needs experience and courage to work with uncomfortable situations while developing student discipline.  Such as telling a student they are not ready for the next belt promotion test or working with a parent who may think you are a little hard on their child. Traditional schools teach students to deal with setbacks and work with life’s ups and downs. The student learns to understand that the world is unjust but develops the fortitude to overcome it. This takes time and hard work, along with disappointment.  It cannot be accomplished with entertaining systems of training.  This is not to say there is no fun in a traditional school.  I am saying that this is not how discipline is taught. 

Finally, there comes a sense of accomplishment when training in the ways of the old ones.  Respect is developed with this understanding of the old ways.  This is very hard to describe, but it is accurate.  Rank is based on time and age.  Nothing in life is learned quickly except a false sense of reality.  If standards are high and techniques are complex, it will take time and effort.  In a traditional school, it takes much time to reach a high rank. The student is taught skills and philosophy to help develop the ability to work hard and long to achieve their goals. This education helps one become an excellent martial artist and enhances the practitioner’s skills to succeed in our complicated world.  Life is not easy or fair.  Students need fundamental skills, not fictitious ones.

In closing, not all traditional schools are good, but I have not seen a contemporary school with long-term success.  We have been operating in Scottsdale for nearly 40 years. We are the oldest martial art school in Scottsdale and one of the oldest in the state.  We don’t require contracts and have no 6-year-old black belts.  We do use humor in our teaching.  (Humor is the secret to learning discipline. Please keep this secret a secret 😊.) The traditional way works.