Men versus Women

As the late James Brown sang, "It's a man's, man's, man's world. But it won't be nothing, without a woman, or a girl."

Despite claims of unalienable rights, constitutional rights, and rights bestowed by God, the only rights anyone has are those granted by the people in power. And the only reason those in power grant any rights is to help ensure that those in power remain in power. Power comes from physical force or the treat of physical force. Money itself has no power, but it allows people with weak physical force to hire powerful physical forces to protect them. The power to bestow material things, such as jobs or gifts, and the power to bestow abstract things, such as prestige and notoriety, also allows those with weak physical force to get people with a strong physical force to protect them. But this is fine line, since these mercenaries hired to protect may turn on you and take all you have rather than let you bestow some of it on them.

People say that constitutions grant rights. Constitutions are only pieces of paper; they cannot do anything. The rights listed in then are those that society believes should be granted to its citizens and society grants those rights through using its physical powers: the police and military. Elected officials have no physical powers. The courts have no physical powers. Their only power comes from a willing police force and a willing military.

A constitution may grant rights to all citizens regardless of sex, but those rights only exist because the citizens support them. They do not exist by themselves. There is not some right that will stand in front of a woman to protect her; however, society has stated that the woman should be protected.

Women are only safe, because our society protects them. The only thing that allows a woman activist stand and to demand her rights is society as a whole. Otherwise, men would just eliminate her. All the talk about women’s rights is just that, talk. The only rights women have are those allowed by the physically powerful, the men. No matter what your think or feel, men are genetically stronger and more powerful than women. The only way women survive is because society protects them from men.
In martial arts classes, women train to protect themselves. Some are proficient at self-defense and may deter or stop an attack by a weaker man or a man not so intent on harming her. But, the best female fighter in the world is no match against any untrained male who is intent on harming her.

Women have physical and mental endurance and they have a high tolerance of pain, but that does not make them physically able to defend themselves successfully against a determined male. A male who is expecting a defenseless woman make be deterred by a woman who fights back, but if the male is determined to kill her, she will die, no matter how much she resists. The same is true of a male who is attacked by multiple male attackers.

In martial arts classes, women train to fight back and they gain confidence from the training. Fighting back is preferable to letting someone harm you, but, make no mistake about it, when a man wants to kill or seriously harm a woman he will do it. The woman may do enough to make the man back off and leave her alone or she may delay the end until help arrives, but, if neither occurs, she will die, no matter how many black belts she has.

Like anything else, there are exceptions to the rule. In the case where the woman is much larger than the male, the male is incapacitated in some way, or the male is disabled in some way, the woman may win. If the woman has a weapon, such as a firearm or a fighting knife, and knows how to use it, the woman may win.

So what it all boils down to is that women only exist because men protect them from other men and men only exist because women give birth to them and raise them. Like everything else in nature, there is something to be gained by each side, so they work together. The men protect the women from other men and return the women bear and raise the children,

Men are physically more powerful than women, but women have emotional control over men. Although the two forces are not equal, the emotion control is enough to protect women from men most of the time. So a woman’s most powerful weapon against a man is her emotional influence.

When a woman is sparring with a man, she may think she is just as good as the man (and she may be, at least technique wise) but the woman must realize that, if at any point the male opponent decides she must die, then she will die, unless she gets others to protect her. That is neither a male chauvinist viewpoint nor a politically correct viewpoint; it is just the way nature determined it will be.

Show Me the Money

While surfing the web recently, I came across a Kenpo site that explained why the author did not furnish any useful information about Kenpo on the web site. He said it was because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks; that he did not want to reveal the deadly techniques of Kenpo to any terrorists who may visit the site. What a bunch of bull!
This reasoning posits that a terrorist who is willing to blow himself up and kill hundreds of people and go straight to heaven, with no prior training except for how to push a button, will be searching the Internet for some secret Kenpo technique he could practice using for years so he could kill one person, and then have to wait even longer to get to heaven.
Can you picture bands of radical Muslum terrorists roaming the streets of America secretly killing unsuspecting shoppers using secret Kenpo techniques they learned from a web site? The real reason for not putting free information on the web is that the author wants the public, which could also include terrorists, to pay for the information, either through the purchase of classes, books, or videos. There is nothing wrong with wanting people to pay for your expertise, just don't be afraid to admit it.

Combat-Ki

Have you seen the demonstrations of Combat -Ki on television. Combat-Ki is supposed to be a way of absorbing punches and kicks so that they are rendered harmless.
As you watch Combat-Ki in action, watch the way the practitioners are struck. First, they are always stuck by another Combat-Ki practitioner. Second, most of the techniques are slaps and pushes. If that is the way Combat-Ki practitioners attack, then I see why they need the ability to absorb punches because they will receive a lot of them. If that is the way Combat-Ki practitioners spar each other, then don't see the reason they need the ability to absorb blows because slaps and pushes are not going to injury anyone.

Watch how the Combat-Ki person who is kicked is knocked backwards. If a person struck by a kick is knocked backwards, it is because the kick was a push, not a strike. A proper kick only penetrates the target 1 or 2 inches, and then is retracted. This means the force of the kick is a strike, not a push.

I have held a body shield for Taekwondo masters who were demonstrating a proper kick. I was not pushed backwards, I was jarred from head to toe by a shocking, shuddering blow that made me think my teeth filings had fallen out or that my eye balls were bulging. One time, I was sweating from a workout when I held a body shield for my instructor's side thrust kick. When the kick stuck, I was suddenly blinded; all the sweat on my whole head had suddenly rushed to my face and into my eyes.

When using a proper kick, the force of the kick is not expended in moving the opponent backward, it is expended within the opponent's body. Just as you see in the punches of professional boxer, the punch does not knock the opponent backward into the ropes, the opponent just suddenly drops to the floor. If a Combat-Ki practitioner tried to absorb a Taekwondo side thrust kick or a karate reverse punch, he or she would be injured, guaranteed.

Slow Students

Instructors shouldn't hold a class back so a slow student may catch up; the class should move along at a steady pace. The slow student should be encouraged to keep up and may need extra instruction, but you do not punish the many for the imitations of a few.

Commercialism

Ever notice how the people who put down commercialism in the martial arts usually have the least profitable schools. Once again, it is the "have nots" criticizing the success of the "haves." To rationalize their failures, they consider themselves the martyrs of the martial art world. They think they are the only ones who are "true" to arts and thus will not lower themselves to be profitable.

Olympic Taekwondo

I watched the Olympic Taekwondo coverage on television and it was a major disappointment. Why do the WTF patterns have hand techniques in them if competitors never use them when sparring? Why do the WTF rules permit hand techniques in sparring if they are never used in competition, especially when there are so many opportunities to use them? The reason appears to be because you will not receive a point from the Korean influenced judges if you use a hand technique in international competition. Therefore, WTF instructors do not stress them and they have gradually disappeared.

Tae-kwon-do is the way of kicking and punching. The WTF should change the name of its martial art to Tae-do, the way of kicking. In their effort to remove the influence that Japanese karate had on traditional Taekwondo and to create a uniquely Korean martial art, the Koreans in the WTF have indeed created a new art, but one that is totally useless as a martial art. WTF Taekwondo is now a totally different entity from traditional Taekwondo. It is now a pure sport, such as is Greco-Roman Wrestling, and as such, it is now totally useless as martial art. There is no guard, there is no blocking, and there are no hand techniques. All the fighters just bounce around with their arms hanging at their sides and throw kick, after kick, after kick. It reminds me of a production of Irish Riverdance. There are no defensive techniques, only offensive kicks. An armless person could win an Olympic gold medal in Taekwondo.

I have been neutral in the WTF vs. ITF battle in the past, viewing the two arts as merely two different ways of accomplishing the same thing. However, that view has now changed. WTF Taekwondo is now purely a sport and does not deserve the title of martial art; it should be called leg fencing.

A martial art is defined as a method of self-defense. WTF Taekwondo is useless for self-defense. A WTF fighter would be slaughtered by any street thug, not an experienced street fighter, just an ordinary neighborhood thug. In a real fight, you cannot drop your guard, ignore hand attacks, and ignore kicks just because they will not score. Nothing can be ignored in a real fight, since the purpose of every attack is to hurt you.

You fight as you train. If you train in the WTF style, then, in stressful self-defense situation, you will fight that way. Likewise, if you train in the ITF style, you will fight that way. As explained in TKDTutor, the only difference between ITF sparring and a real fight is range. In a fight, the overall range is merely decreased by one or two inches so techniques are delivered with full-contact instead of a light touch. In a fight, a WTF practitioner that fights as he or she spars would be slaughtered. A street attacker is used to getting hit and getting kicked, so after blocking or absorbing a kick, the street fighter would be all over the defenseless WTF practitioner.

All this would not be a problem except that the two styles share the same name. If WTF Taekwondo had a different name, it could be considered a separate sport and be treated as such. But, because of the Olympic exposure, the world now thinks that the Taekwondo they witnessed in the Olympics is what Taekwondo really is all about. That is sad.

Update
In the the spring of 2005, the WTF rules changed so that hand attacks to the head are now permitted. Time will tell how this will affect the course of sport Taekwondo.

Ego

Egotism is the anesthetic given by a kindly nature to relieve the pain of being a damned fool -Bellamy Brooks

Taekwondo, as well as most other martial arts, is overrun by people with egos that are larger than their intelligence or abilities can support. Since most martial artists, and thus most senior black belts, are male, this egotistical behavior is expressed by machismo. You find instructors who say they support the tenets of Taekwondo and they tell their students to be humble and gracious, but then they act as if they are Taekwondo royalty. An example that comes to mind is Eternal Grand Master H.U. Lee, the founder of the American Taekwondo Association. Lee is only one example, there are many, many more grandiose Taekwondo masters. Being a high ranked black belt or being considered a master of the occupation of Taekwondo is not enough for some; they feel the need to be called grand master, supreme grand master, or eternal grand master. What is next, "Supreme Grand Master of Taekwondo in the Milky Way and Other Galaxies Far, Far Away."

What is a master of an occupation? He or she is merely an expert in the occupation. There are master electricians, master craftsman, master masons, etc. but there are no grandmaster electricians or supreme grandmaster carpenters. In an occupational, master is a description of the skill level of a person who is a expert in that occupation; it is not the person's name. A brick mason may tell people his boss is a master mason but you will not hear the mason calling the boss "master." If a mason did, he or she would probably be looking up at the boss from the ground.

All martial art masters are instructors, since one who has not been an active teacher of a martial arts for many years cannot become a master. A mere practitioner of a martial art cannot become a master in the art. Therefore, a more appropriate title for a senior instructor should be Teacher, Sabum (Korean), Sensei (Japanese), or Sifu (Chinese). Actually, a more appropriate title should be merely Sir or Ma'am or Mr. or Ms. Donald Trump is called Mr. Trump, not Grandmaster of Real Estate Trump.

Having an ego is not a bad thing. Everyone has some degree of an ego; it is what makes us feel unique in a world full of people. An big ego is valid if it is backed up by a lot of talent and ability, but many people maintain a large ego in an effort to hide their lack of talent and feelings of inadequacy. People who know they have an ego are usually not a problem because they try to suppress it, since they consider it a weakness. It is the people who deny having an ego who are a problem. They tend to have large, out of control egos that make the lives of those around them miserable.

Some psychologists believe that individual self-interest is the motive of all conscious action. They call this trait egoism. But this should not be confused with egotism (an exaggerated sense of self-importance).

Egocentric masters look for ways to make themselves appear better than everyone else regardless of the consequences. They wear gaudy uniforms. They make the simplest techniques seem complicated and then proclaim themselves the ultimate experts in the techniques. They seize on every martial arts myth and exploit it to the hilt. They portray traditional arts as the enemy and consider any student that consorts with the enemy a traitor to their art. They tend to hangout with egotistical masters of other arts and, as a group, they consider themselves the true leaders of the martial arts world. They have no authority or power in any other aspect of their lives, so they make themselves the supreme authority in their schools and make students "worship" them.

If you meet any of the "old" masters of martial arts, they wear a basic uniform, they are humble and unassuming, and they offer assistance instead of commanding respect. A true master has a modest ego. Like the true hero who does not think he or she is a hero, a true master does not think of him or herself as a master. A true master thinks of him or herself as merely an experienced teacher who has seen and learned a lot in his or her lifetime and is willing to share this knowledge with others.

If you want to be a great martial artist and maybe even be a master in your chosen art someday, maintain a healthy ego. All masters have egos, but the great ones never show it.