50 Fights

I'm not a blackbelt yet. I know I'm not a blackbelt yet. I help teach, but I still don't have shodan ranking.

I can fight pretty well already, and hey, I've overcome people with higher rank when I had less training. Besides, when I studied in a no-forms system, I did okay in streetfights. So, due to that bit of (over)confidence, and my menacing size, hey, I can relax, and I also don't need to learn any more forms. Shucks, I've even boxed before and knocked out a guy who was golden gloves.

That means I can do it all right?

Hell no, it doesn't. Far from it. Not unless I want to get in, say, a total of 50 real fights (arbitrary number) in order to prove to myself I know what I am doing.

I am writing an article that really doesn't need to be written. Because, basically, if you don't see the need to do forms anymore, and you don't think they are important, then please, shut up, get off the internet and take your non-form doing behind someplace else so that the rest of us can learn.

I know talented, experienced martial artists who doesn't do forms. They don't believe in forms. They meditate, and do the basics, and stay slim. Basic physical fitness and mindset are their thing. They have thrown me across the room with no effort. So, when I ask one of them about forms, I'm told me to keep doing them and learning them. "They're working for you, right? Your master told you to do them, so keep doing them. You'll know when it's time to give them up, so don't worry about it." Man, that made so much sense, I wondered why these guys aren't on the internet bashing forms in a newsgroup. "Besides," they said, "if you ever want to open up a SCHOOL, then you need to have them. Cridentials, you know." "Ah," I say, "kind of like having a college degree to teach an art, even though people can learn how to sing or dance or paint on their own--that's what the black belt is like, along with the katas, right?" "Exactly", they say, "and who knocks the value of a good education?"

Beating my dead horse yet again, I will relate karate/tangsoo/taekwon/ban/ju-do and all the various "fu"s to music. James Brown, Adam Derwitz (Counting Crows singer), Aretha Frankin (to my knowledge), and others all learned how to produce good music without earning a music degree. I know Charlie Parker didn't go to college. Neither have any of the Hot Boys. If Juvenile went to school, I am hoping that he did not major in English or Speech Communications. (I know some of you reading this don't know all of these artists, that's why I threw in Counting Crows for you. I like them and all, but Adam doesn't look like he speaks Ebonics as a first language.) They became very skilled in their craft without a piece of paper. Now ask yourself this: would any of them tell you, a non-famous artist, NOT to go to school and learn music? No. What they would probably tell you is to go to school, learn, but don't become a narrow-minded slave to your training. Don't become so rigid in your expression that you think anything that does not conform to a classical method is wrong. Don't lose your ability to appreciate and play folk music or popular music. Don't go off into a little music cage, and pick up expert technique in one type of music, yet lose the ability to function in another type of music if you have too. Study as many different types of music as you can after you have gotten a good facility in one type of music you admire and respect. Listen to your professors, they have wisdom, expertise, but they do not know EVERYTHING. While you may want to be a rapper, and they play a classical style, they do know about music itself, and can teach you proper fundamentals, hone your listening skills, sensitivity, and ability to create so that you can have the tools to learn and do whatever you want. Learn all the scales you can, get a good facility for them, play around with them, as they will help you learn how to control your instrument.

Now, re-read the above paragraph, substituting your martial art's name for the word "music" and/or "martial art" for music. Substitute "sabunim", "sensei" or "sifu" for professor. Substitute "kata" or "forms" for the word "scales", and subsitute "body" for "instrument". Well I'll be damned, it sounds just like the martial arts, doesn't it?

No one would tell a piano player not to learn how to play scales. Scales help them learn the keyboard. Kata/Drills/One-Steps help you learn your body. Even a boxer has a set regimen, people. They have bag work, partner work, combinations, footwork, etc. So why do we think that we are above practicing our rudiments?

I think the basic reason that people debate about learning forms is that they are lazy, yet feel a little insecure about their attitude, so they want some endorsement from the rest of us. They want us to say "yes, go ahead and slack", so that they can feel comfortable neglecting part of their training. Besides, the people who REALLY feel comfortable without forms training simply don't train them. They don't tell YOU not to train them, they go along and do what works for them. And they are happy. Personally, I am happy for them and get along with them just fine. I can learn from a forms practitioner or a non-forms practitioner because I know that I don't know everything.

So if you think forms are a waste, then don't do them! Go ahead and stop. Use Bruce Lee as an excuse, even though he practiced what Yip Man taught him religiously. The point is that no matter which path you chose, you are going to have to invest some time in your craft. It's been proven that forms help people who are short on time learn faster. Just like going to college can show one the fundamentals of a field faster than 4 years out there learning by trial and error.

Let me put it to you this way. Most systems have about 7 ranks to black belt. Some more or less, depending. So if you want to become a 1st dan level fighter by hard experience, that means you have to get in at LEAST seven real fights in order to get the experience of a 1st degree black belt. Now we all know that 7 fights really would not be enough, would it? So, let's say that for every significant rank increase, you need to be in 7 streetfights in order to learn. That's at least 49 street fights to black belt. Now hey, some gangbangers out there have been around the block that much, if not more. (I'm picking arbitrary numbers here, people.) I will round that number up to 50, so that it can be even. After all, we need that street fight that is the equivalent of your black-belt exam.

Now here is the kicker: in order for you to be a better fighter, you have to be fighting people who are progressively more difficult to beat. Either that, or you have to at some point fight more than one person out there. Given that most things in life are a 50-50 gamble, that means you will have gotten your ass kicked at least 25 times before you fight at a dan level. I'm talking a black eye, busted lip, and so on. In addition, you are going to have a rep in your area as being a bad ass, the cops are going to be on you, and if your family hasn't disowned you, they probably are wondering what jail they should send your next Xmas/Kwanza/Hannakah/Solstice card to. Damn, that's a lot of damage to your body and relationships with people.

Here is a better kicker: injuries occur in training that stop your progress. Pulled ligaments, bruised ribs, hey, accidents do happen. Now what kind of accidents happen on the street? If you go at it by "getting in the water" (to quote Bruce Lee completely out of context) that means in your 50 fights, you are bound to be stabbed or cut at least once. Or hit with a bat, stick, rock, etc. in or near the head. These days, you will probably have been shot or shot at a few times, or may have had to cut, shoot or kill some one to stay alive. At least once. I have been in 5 real fights that I will claim as real (not on the playground, but with mean teens and/or mean adults). I will tell you that even when I "won", damn, it hurt. That one punch, or tackle, or whatever; that one kick in the face from someone's brother or friend when I wasn't looking, and so on. And these days, I can't tell you what I did to anyone, because all I remember is the pain I was in when it was over. Mind you, what I've seen is NOTHING compared to what guys like Marc Animal MacYoung, Peyton Quinn, some people we know, and your average bouncer, cop, war vet or felon has seen. You don't see any of them telling you to run out there and take that bullet in the name of Budo do you? No, you see them, coming to us, showing us how to compliment what we are learning so that we don't have to learn the hard way.

To further complicate mattters, after your 50 fights, you are bound to start having some nightmares or post-traumatic stress disorder. Whenever you see any situation that remotely reminds you of a past difficult fight, your body will take over, release adrenaline, your mind will race, even if it is for a split second. Just imagine how your wife, kids, or husband (yes I said HUSBAND, for you fighting ladies) will feel watching you get "that look" for a second.

For those of you who think I am full of it because I haven't actually had 50 fights let share this email I got from a guy who as also has "5 fights"

"during an exam, due to the fact that I was tired, stress, and really being pushed, I looked at my opponent and I did not see HIM, I saw the face of a guy I fought before in high school, and for an instant, I was ready to try to brawl." Hey, that makes me think that the so-called "experience" that people on the internet would make you think is so valuable, can actually get in the way at times. Now imagine what someone would have done who had been through ten times as much stuff. Their autopilot could taken over and they could hurt someone because they lost their mind for a moment. Heck, I got choked before by a girl during a jujitsu drill because she had a flashback of a fight she'd been in during class and put me in the headlock FOR REAL. It's funny now, but when it happened, it took a lot of control for me to escape without hurting her. True, I know know the escape really works, but imagine if I'd had a flashback of my own because of her flashback. See my point? Read Marc Animal MacYoung's book "Knives, Knife Fighting, & Related Hassles" if you want to see what it is like to have the ghost of Combat Past floating around in your head from a guy who has really been through what I am sure is a lot more than 50 fights.

Now if a martial artist practiced meditation but no forms, he may well be able to counteract the downside of having been in 50 fights. But face it, most people who do karate do no type of mental training at all. The forms are a good meditation. A moving meditation. Done with the right breathing and so on, they can really help you to get your mind together. Also, they are a good way to get your skills up to an expert level without you having to go out there and come back with the side effects of combat. Also, when people teach themselves to do something physical on their own and in a vacuum, they tend to develop bad habits than can be detrimental over time. This is due to improper execution of their techniques.

Hmmmn; the ability to defend myself after years or training, or fight in the streets a year or two or five, in which, yeah, I could get in 50 fights, but I may get killed or get a life-changing injury. Or, I can read books, surf the net, and watch videos, but miss that little part that tells you not to snap your arm out completely when punching, and as a result, mess up my elbow in the process. I don't know about you, but I'm a sticking with the "fancy dance moves" and the uniform for now.