In any business or profession, there are good and bad. The Martial Arts are no different.
For every great martial arts instructor, there are terrible ones out there.
But how do you spot the great ones and avoid the others? Well, do not worry because World of Martial Arts Television is here to guide you.
1. They Have 10 Year Old Black Belts
Yes, so it happens, and we should be aware of the different levels of teaching, schools and students that are out there. Everything has a place.
I was out shopping the other day and I got stopped by an old friend who knows I am a martial artist. We got chatting and I asked about how their kids were.
“They’re doing great, Aaron is doing well at school and little Timmy is doing martial arts, he just got his black belt”
Timmy is 10 years of age!
I busted my adult backside to get my Dan grade (black belt). I fought twice to get into a line up and then fought 3 people one after the other, this is of course after I spent years getting to the point I could get my black belt.
When I was 10 or 11 I was happy watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Thundercats. I played football, video games and I even read a book or two.
However, I was not capable of earning an adult black belt in martial arts.
I could get into the debate about belts all day, but there is a big difference between a child’s black belt and an adult one.
It’s a great way to keep kids, and their parents, motivated, and inspired but that is generally all it is. It is a mark of progress and achievement, but not the same measure as an adult black belt.
Does it devalue the grade of the black belt for those that earn it after years of training, study and the acquisition of real skill. No, of course not, their martial journey is a different one, and yes it is an achievement for anyone to get some mark of their progress. You merely need to know what type of dojo you are joining and gear your expectations appropriately.
The martial arts can be studied for a lifetime and never mastered. Hopefully anyone, young or old, should welcome that, and not focus solely on the belt.
2. The Instructor Is Slimy:
A martial arts teacher should present the best image possible for his students. It is his or her job to teach professionally and the martial arts is a very personal experience. After all, we get into the personal space and even touch the bodies of students with most techniques.
Sleaze has no place within a martial arts class and an instructor who spends his time flirting with the students or looking for opportunities to go ‘hands on’ with every demonstration they make is not doing their job right.
Martial arts classes should not look like a scene from Dirty Dancing.
3. The Instructor Is Not Good At Martial Arts!
Ok we get it. You do not have to be a world class martial artist to be a great teacher. But……..
If you are noticing that your instructor doesn’t seem able to do the things that he is asking you to do, the alarm bells should be ringing.
I appreciate that an instructor who is not very good will try and hide their levels of knowledge, however if you see more and more epic fails when they show a technique then you might start to worry.
Look out for the excuses:
” You are naturally very good at escapes”
“Are you double jointed, no one has got out of that hold before”
“You must have really high pain tolerance”
“The board didn’t break because I wasn’t focused enough”
etc etc
4. They Teach No Touch Knock Outs
It doesn’t matter if they are a 16th Dan triple black belt with a purple stripe and wings attached to their back.
The fact remains that to actually cause injury to another person you need to be able to touch them with some degree of force!
If the instructor seems intent on sprinkling fairy dust on your class and when that instructor looks at someone they fall to the floor, get your coat and leave!
5. If They Ever Utter The Words “Finish Him”
I love the karate Kid. The film is just awesome. Partly because they depict the type of instructor that we all hate.
Poor Martin Kove plays the head of the Cobra kai martial arts school and he does it brilliantly, turning young lads into first class idiots.
You can spot this type of coach at events. I have heard some tell their student’s to break arms when an armlock is on and I heard one idiot shout “f##k up his face” to his student who was about to fight.
The martial arts should be about respect, this includes all others, even your opponents. The opponent is a human being with a family, job, pride and feelings. If you are better than them or beat them you should be respectful to them because they had the ‘minerals’ to actually get up and try!
Any instructor that teaches with the mentality that their opponents should be injured is a danger to others, so steer clear of this type.
Now to finish off we have a great video that shows some epic martial arts fails, trust me this will cheer you up or inspire you to train harder!!