Over this past summer Branden had to balance his work life, his ensuing wedding, and his black belt test all at the same time. Needless to say every day was smooth sailing with little to no stress. Despite how easy all of that must have been, Branden successfully got his black belt in Okinawa Kenpo Karate/Kobudo…and now in commitment as well.

Here are two additional photos, one of a group of Branden’s dojo mates and one of me and the big man himself.

Big congrats again to Branden and Laura. I dispense small thoughts about karate and the martial way here on this blog, but I am certainly not capable of giving advice in the marriage realm. Perhaps some of the more experienced readers out there can step in for me and give Branden a few cents worth of wisdom!

So what’s wrong with imagination and exploration? Nothing – I wholeheartedly encourage it. What I do want to warn you about though is technique overload.

The Age Old Battle: Quality vs Quantity

How many prearranged self defense techniques do you really need to learn? 20? 100? 200? Certainly having some available is desirable because it helps program the body during times of stress (much in the same way kata can). Unfortunately it can be extremely easy to go off the deep end and over plan. If 5 prearranged knife self defense techniques are good, certainly 50 would be better right?

In my experience (both personally and having interacted with people of other styles and arts), an abundance of prearranged techniques or series of techniques can actually hinder a person’s real ability to defend themselves. This occurs for two main reasons:

#1 Tons of techniques are learned in a shallow fashion. This is the same problem with too many kata. There is no time to acquire muscle memory through rote repetition. As fancy as some prearranged tactics can seem, they are useless if the body can’t conjure them up when it counts.

#2 Too many options create a mental roadblock. Take for example a punch to the face. If the mind must choose between 60 techniques regarding how to handle that punch, it wastes valuable milliseconds processing that decision. If, on the other hand, you’ve trained yourself to naturally shift out of the way using 1 out of 5-6 mastered block/strikes, your body can simply proceed naturally and move on to dispatching the opponent.

Fear and adrenaline should never be underestimated when it comes to compromising the wonderful things we are able to do in the dojo. A beautiful 4 point kyusho knockout technique that looks astounding on a compliant opponent becomes a jumbled mess when your heart rate is jumping and your hands are shaking.

If you study your art for long enough, you’ll begin to understand the core concepts that make so many different techniques work. Things like timing, distance, weight distribution, balance, and generation of power. It is then that a scant few techniques can take on a wide variety of personas.

Keep Exploring…Just Be Warned!

Explore your style with my blessing and encouragement. Just be sure to give as much attention to naturalness. Let yourself be attacked in unexpected ways. Give yourself opportunities to fail and find out where your weaknesses are. Don’t be too quick to cast aside basic, simple techniques (those are the very techniques that could save your life).

Most of all, whether we are talking about technique, or rank, or titles, or whatever, remember – quality outweighs quantity!

My inspiration, oddly enough, came from a random viewing of Kill Bill Vol. II on TV. When I tuned in it was at the part where Beatrix Kiddo was getting dropped off to study with the notorious Pei Mei. For those who might not be familiar the movies, Pei Mei is one of Bill’s primary martial arts instructors, and is renowned for being both cruel and unusual in his training methods. Despite the virtually guaranteed unpleasantness, Kiddo decides to train under him anyway in hopes of achieving some of the same skills Bill possesses.

I’ve always loved this part of the movie, and was inspired to do my best to dress up as Pei Mei this year!

Do I strike fear in your heart? Does your blood run cold at the thought of crossing me? There’s no shame in it.

Also, yes – that IS the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique I am about to perform. shortly after this photo was taken I laid waste to all in attendance.

Getting the wig and facial hair on was pretty annoying…but well worth it. This costume also gave me a great excuse to buy kung fu shoes; something I’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t find a proper excuse. They are terribly comfortable!

For your continued amusement (and mine), here is a clip of the real Pei Mei being awesome:

Happy Halloween and feel free to include links to your costume in the comments below!

The tips below are not all inclusive, and I’m sure you could come up with some advice of your own (use the comments section to shout it out!). My hope here is to give you some ideas to take with you as you continue to train.

Kata/Forms

The tricky thing about kata and other forms is how long they can be. It’s no mean feat memorizing 40-50 movements in a row, especially to the degree of accuracy that is required of martial artists. here are some ideas that might help:

* Decide how you like to learn. I wrote a more extension examination on learning kata here, so take a look at that if kata is a priority in your training. For our purposes in this post, learning can be summarized in one of two ways: all-together, or bits at a time. Some people learn kata best by doing the whole routine over and over again, slowly integrating parts into their memory in no particular order. Other people need to learn pieces at a time in proper order, so that their mind can construct the kata ‘chronologically’, if you will. You need to mentally decide which way works for you (or if you’re not sure, try both and find out).

* Avoid leader dependence. When an instructor is narrating a kata and keeping a watchful eye on things, you can improve your technique and pay attention to detail. Unfortunately, it can also develop a dependency on being led. On many occasions I’ve talked to students about their kata, and they’ve seemed quite confident in their knowledge and reps. However as soon as it was their turn to get up and try it on their own, the tension of the spotlight combined with a lack of immediate guidance caused them to freeze up and ‘draw a blank’.

Don’t fall into that trap – take time to practice your form on your own.

* Change directions. It’s common to always start your form facing the same direction (which is something people don’t consciously decide to do, they just always face the ‘front’). By doing this you give yourself the same visual landscape and cues every time you do the kata. For example, if you always turn left and face the door of your dojo, your brain will start to associate the door with that aspect of the kata. To break out of this habit, start your kata in different directions. In fact, don’t always start it directly facing a wall. Use weird off-angles. If you find yourself having to really think about where to turn next, you know your brain was starting to attach to visual cues.

* Utilize the same night / next day approach. There’s a lot of activity that goes on in a normal martial arts class. That being the case, the brain has a lot of gears to switch and a lot to think about. If you were to practice a kata at the beginning of the evening, by the time your training is through your kata could be nothing but a distant memory. That is why I recommend practicing the form while it is still fresh – either directly after class while the instructor is still hanging around to answer questions, or that same night after you get home. Don’t stop there though. Try it again the next day after you’ve had a night to let it sit. These reps can often turn something that is on the outer edges of your understanding into something that has really found a home in your memory.

Self Defense Techniques

Self defense is a critically important part of any martial arts regiment. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of practitioners get bogged down in how many techniques they can learn, or how elaborate they can design fight skits. I personally find some inherent risk in that mindset, and am much more keen to develop naturalness over impressiveness. These tips are designed to lead to retention of ability, rather than specific technique.

* Start off slow, then gain speed. Sometimes ego can grab ahold of you and make you think “well I should practice at full speed all the time because the street happens at full speed!”. That’s true, but it’s extremely difficult to develop good technique and control of balance without taking time to analyze all the little bits and pieces of yourself and your art. When first learning self defense techniques, keep your practice safe and slow. Analyze the right way to do it without relying purely on force and luck. As you gain confidence build the speed of the routine until you are doing it at full clip.

* Break out of the box. Once you are comfortable with your techniques, be sure to break out of the repetition habit. As valuable as drills like ippon/sanbon kumite are, they are too restrictive and predictable to properly represent full self defense training.

I’m a big fan of these drills, and I included this video because I think it is really well done (and happens to features Hirokazu Kanazawa Sensei!). But as impressive as it is, it still relies on a long series of cues and expanded distances that are only good as basic training. In order to break out of this habit, you must allow attacks to come randomly and without exaggeration. The attacker must be in a natural position rather than the formal stepping back/block down setup (or something equivalent). Control is still vital of course, as we don’t want to knock each other out…good training partners are not something to be wasted.

Traditional training almost always involves boxes because they help beginners learn and program our bodies with muscle memory. Boxes are good and valuable. It’s just important to remember that they aren’t the only thing worth doing. (Aikido Box, Judo Box, Kung Fu Box, etc).

* Let it be ugly and chaotic. Martial arts provide a great sensation of bringing order to chaos. With good technique we can seemingly take something fearsome like physical combat and put it under glass for our examination and control. Unfortunately, this tends to be an illusion of the dojo. When practicing self defense, it is important to give yourself the opportunity to fail. Allow you and your partner to move around, to grip at each other, and to resist technique. However, it is also important to know the limits of resistance so that we don’t actually have to hurt each other in order to get the technique to work. It’s a fine balance.

* Don’t ignore things you don’t practice. Aikidoka should not ignore the value of punching someone in the face. Karateka should not ignore the opportunity to clinch and sweep an opponent. Judoka should not underestimate the efficacy of vital point compressions. Be sure not to ignore things you don’t work on frequently.

Concepts and Ideas

Your understanding of the arts will not come cleanly or neatly. Sure, it would be nice if brilliant bunkai ideas flooded into your brain the moment you need them in the dojo. Sadly, it probably won’t happen that way. As you’re driving home, however, something awesome might occur to you. Too little too late.

Ah ha! moments are few and far between and should never be wasted.

Great concepts and ideas will occur to you at inopportune times, and it is your responsibility to remember them and practice them asap. I recommend getting into the habit of jotting down anything you think might be worthwhile. Make a note of applications, self defense techniques, or sparring strategies that might hold water. That way, the next time you get to the dojo, you’ll remember to actually put those ideas into practice.

There are a few different ways to keep track of your ideas. The first is a voice recorder. They make small, digital ones these days that are very convenient. The second is your cell phone. leave yourself text messages or voice messages with the general gist of your concept. The third is the most primitive…but also the one I love to use. Cut up slips of paper and try to have them nearby when you need them.

The benefit of the slips of paper is that I can sort through them if I am feeling at a loss for ideas. I can use them for inspiration, or to get me thinking in a different direction. I never know what i’ll feel like writing about (or training on) from one day to the next, so having these physically on hand is valuable to me.

No matter how you decide to do it, make sure you follow up an idea with real practice. A lot of techniques will wind up being duds, and that will make you sad. But a few of them are going to be great and you’ll be glad you integrated them into your art.

* * * *

This post was supposed to be short…don’t know what happened. Ohh well, hopefully something in there will be useful for you!

Kata repetition is often stressed as important, and indeed it is in a myriad of ways. One of the most obvious benefits is the rote muscle memory used in techniques during times of stress and peril. Sadly, as years of training grind on and the mind becomes accustomed to the same movements, it’s extremely easy to start “phoning it in” and still look good.

You probably know what I mean. Have you ever been in class one night and simply didn’t have your best focus? You run kata, snap techniques, and work up a sweat, but afterward don’t feel particularly enriched by the experience?

This happens inevitably and is a source of struggle not just for karateka, but for artists of all endeavors. There’s one thing that you can do to refresh yourself and invigorate a lulling routine – kata ichi go.

Kata Ichi Go

Kata is the term for a martial arts form (even though generally it just means a procedure for doing something). Ichi Go is a way to express “one moment” or “one time”. As such, kata ichi go means “one time to perform kata”.

The idea behind kata ichi go is to forego the normal repetition and routine of training. On a given day of your choosing, you do not practice kata at all…except once. A single kata, one time, with no do-overs, repeats, or mulligans. You have one chance to do it as best you can, and if you freeze or fail – tough luck.

The point of this exercise is to instill a sense of urgency in your performance. If you walk through your kata and give a blah performance, you get to think about how poorly you did until your next workout. There is no room to mentally escape a subpar performance. This anxiety will cause emotions to spike as you know there is no room for error.

Anxiety, tension, and a single-opportunity-mindset are all trademarks of real self defense situations. No matter how well trained you are, you will experience a certain amount of fear and adrenaline during a physical encounter. By utilizing kata ichi go and not giving yourself an outlet for mistake, you subtlely bring your kata training closer to practical application. Eventually, through imagination and visualization, you may be able to conjur up those same sensations during traditional repetitive kata during class.

Imagination During Kata Ichi Go

Once you have decided which kata you will perform once, you have to assess how well you know it. If you know it quite well, you can start to visualize during your performance. Imagine real attackers making aggressive motions toward you, and use the kata with speed, power, and precision to fend off the attackers. This will help you to induce appropriate emotions, and subsequently learn how to fight through them.

Reflection

By isolating a single performance of the kata, you will be able to reflect on it. You will be able to see where you lost your balance, which techniques felt good, and what emotions clouded your performance. This self analysis can deepen your understanding of the form and help make it ‘yours’, as opposed to a copied exercise. It will also help you in your understanding of how your body handles stress, which makes fear and anxiety more manageable (remember: we can’t train ourselves to be robots, we can only temper and hone our own tendencies).

As a final note – try kata ichi go when you’re alone, and even at home in street clothes. See how the experience differs from dojo training.

A perfect example is the term “karate”. Back in the really old days…well karate was called “ti”. But AFTER that it was called karate, and that meant “China Hand”. Later a fella named Gichin Funakoshi came along and went about changing it to “Empty Hand”. He did this for philosophical and political reasons that you can investigate when the mood strikes you.

When placed side by side the two karates look like this -

Despite the difference they are spoken essentially the same.

This brings me to an interesting concept that I encountered on the blog of Charles Goodin Sensei (An extremely reputable martial arts historian and writer). In it he asked his karate friend and senior Pat Nakata about saying “I understand” in Japanese.

Goodin Sensei was under the impression that there was one way to convey the concept of understanding, and that was with “wakarimasu”. Nakata Sensei informed him (and us) that there are actually two main methods instead of one.

The term “shirimasu” indicates a level of understanding that is shallow, or surface level. For example, if someone explains a series of directions to you and asks you if you understand, you might say “shirimasu”, because you do understand what they have said, but have done nothing in particular to internalize that information.

Goodin Sensei’s “wakarimasu” also conveys understanding, but on a deeper level. If someone gave you directions and you spent years following those directions, exploring every facet of them, you might be able to say “wakarimasu”.

What a strong concept this is! There is no natural terminology in the English language that can express these ideas as succinctly. And therein lies the strength of the Japanese language along with all of its mind tangling complexities – it can convey critical subtleties of feeling and intent with a single word or short phrase. That’s also why grasping a small amount of the Japanese or Okinawan (Hogen) language is so critical to improving your study of karate (this is true of any culture and language your art happens to come from).

In a Karate Context

In my style of Okinawa Kenpo Karate there are 20 open hand kata and 29 kobudo kata, making for 49 total forms (Seikichi Odo Sensei was a bit of a collector, to say the least). Of those kata I “know” about 42. As many of you have noticed through this blog and facebook, I am not an extremely old man. What this means is that I understand most of those kata in a “shirimasu” sense. There are very few kata in which I would use “wakarimasu”…in fact, there may only be a scant few moments in those few kata that I would consider using “wakarimasu”.

These two different terms make a world of impact when describing progress in your art, both to yourself and others. When analyzing your technique, kata, sparring, and self defense, how is your understanding? Shirimasu? Wakarimasu?

Goodin Sensei contends that most of our understanding is indeed shirimasu, and I couldn’t agree more. In fact, it’s one of those martial art subtleties wherein the more we believe we only have a shirimasu understanding, the quicker we progress to wakarimasu (even though, of course, that goal is always just a little further away).

As the old saying goes: a good karateka, when asked if he/she has attained mastery, always replies: “perhaps with one more year of training.”

This week a different video was sent to me, and I think you are going to enjoy it.

This clip comes from a TV Show somewhere in Belgium. It is a candid camera program that annoys people in obnoxious ways (standard affair really). One fateful evening the show decided to visit a mall and harass local shoppers. The ‘host’ proceeded to throw a net on a man, taunt him, and then run away. Unfortunately, to bystanders, it looked as if he was either robbing or accosting the local shopper. One bystander in particular didn’t take kindly to that kind of criminal activity.

Check it out -

That kick was huge. I don’t like to glorify violence, but I do appreciate good technique.

From a martial arts perspective, it is clear that the individual in the striped shirt studies a form of Savate, Tae Kwon Do, or other such style. Clearly his training has not been for waste because he hit a moving target right on the money. Of course…that target didn’t see it coming…which brings us to the moral catch-22 of this video.

The Civil Assistance Conundrum

The big, $50 question to come out of this video is: Was that man right in using violence to defuse the situation?

Let’s look at it first from the kicker’s perspective. Somewhere behind him he hears a tussle. When he glances back he sees a shady looking individual sprinting away and another man chasing him angrily. From the context clues he assesses that the man trying to escape is some sort of robber (a scene all too familiar with many people that live in cities) or vandal.  With a grand total of 2-3 seconds to consider his actions, he decides not to let the criminal get away with it. He then proceeds to utilize a non-lethal yet damaging technique to floor the ‘bad guy’.

Part of me applauds him for his quick thinking and desire to help make the world a little more scum-free. It takes courage and conviction to step in and aid your fellow man. Furthermore, his technique selection was probably a good one – if he tried to tackle the guy, he ran the risk of getting stabbed or shot while tussling. If he tried to stand in the bad guy’s way non-violently he would have gotten bowled over or pushed aside.

Unfortunately, as we see in this video, quick acts of effective violence are sometimes misplaced. As it turns out, there was no theft occurring, and the man in the leather jacket was angry and loud because he was annoyed at the childish prank pulled on him. The striped-shirt-kicker made a big leap in judgment assuming that the man trying to escape was both a.) a perpetrator of crime, and b.) the actual bad guy in the situation (he might have been trying to escape a bad situation himself).

Furthermore, the kicker took the law into his own hands and introduced violence into a non-violent situation. In a crowded mall like that, it is very possible to grab the attention of nearby security and alert the authorities to a crime in progress. In most large shopping centers there is both mall security and real law enforcement officials nearby.

Conclusions

It’s amazing how one well-placed kick to the face can really put a modern day issue into perspective. In times past the kicker’s actions would have been unquestionably justified and celebrated, as law enforcement could not possibly have arrived in time. However we live in a legislative, hands-off world where we have to weigh our role as citizens with that of the moral obligation to help others.

Where do you stand on this situation? Would have stepped in to help (and do you think you would have had the quick-response-instinct to do so?)

* * *

Q&A:

MA: Do you see any conflict in civilians seeing themselves as warriors yet having no combat or military experience?

FM: None whatsoever.  That was the purpose of my book, to help those practicing combative sports or budo systems enrich their training by putting it in the context of living a warrior lifestyle.  It was written for everyone, regardless of occupation.

MA: What advice could you give people who eventually discover that they are in a non-warrior dojo or style? Can they become warriors too?

FM: Absolutely.  That was my situation, precisely.  With “Living the Martial Way” I sought to help people enrich their training by filling in some of the holes left behind in sport or budo training.

I suspect, however, that truly serious aspiring warriors in non-warrior dojos will eventually seek additional training elsewhere, just as I did, to fill the technical and tactical holes you can’t fill with a book.  Remember – all systems are artificial, so no one system can fill all of a warrior’s needs.

MA: Could you talk a bit about kata training and if you still pursue it?

FM: In short, kata is both the curriculum and principal training method used in traditional systems.  It involves doing the techniques in series over and over again until they can be executed flawlessly and without conscious thought.  Although we take it to a higher level in martial arts than is done in most other activities (we strive for mushin), there is nothing particularly mysterious about the method in itself.  It is used in many modern activities outside of Asian martial arts, from CPR training to small unit infantry tactics.  Relentless rote practice and drill, with an instructor correcting every flaw, is the way to train people to perform critical actions under stress.

As for my pursuit of kata, like I already said, I am no longer in active training (degenerative arthritis), but when I was, I practiced kata several times a week.

MA: Do you think the focus of martial arts has changed over generations? In feudal Japan the arts were used by Samurai on the battlefield, but now we have some arts that are never used in military combat. Is there a sense that martial arts are now about life preservation and self defense over the killing of enemies?

FM: In the broadest sense martial arts are no more or less focused on preserving life today than they were in feudal Japan.  Now, as then, martial arts are about training to defeat adversaries in order to protect a designated individual, group, or institution.  In feudal Japan it was the daimyo and his family.  Today it is your own family and friends if you are a private individual, your community if you are a police officer, and the nation if you serve in the military, intelligence community, or a federal police agency.

That said, the late martial arts historian Donn Draeger argued that true martial arts are not about self defense because a samurai’s duty was not to defend himself, it was to protect his feudal lord.  Well, as much as I respect Draeger, I think his position on this point was a bit overly restrictive.  Although the samurai were expected to die in the service of their lords if necessary, even they needed to preserve their own lives to the extent possible to fulfill their duties. Similarly, although modern soldiers must sometimes die for their country, they are not expected to do so needlessly.  They must defend themselves to the extent possible in order to accomplish their missions today and live to fight again tomorrow.

In sum, true martial arts incorporate both objectives: preserving life and taking life.

MA: Do you have any tips for taking a dance or sport art and enhancing it to put it more inline with warrior training?

FM: That’s a hard one to answer in brief.  The short answer is read “Living the Martial Way”, but I know that is a bit of a cop-out.  So allow me to offer an answer only slightly longer.  First, recognize from the start that you aren’t going to get all you need from a sport art and certainly not from dance.  You will need to broaden your training.  Second, once you come to that conclusion, ask yourself why you are practicing the sport or dance.  If you get pleasure from that activity separate from any expectations of warrior training, fine, carry on.  But if you’ve been deluding yourself in thinking you are practicing a martial art when you’re dancing or playing a sport, it’s time to face facts and assess your tactical training needs more objectively.  Dance is dance.  Sport is sport.  Neither are martial arts.

MA: How have you balanced the demands of the warrior training lifestyle with your military duties, professional duties, and home life?

Well, my wife’s answer to that question would be, “Not very well.”  Between a demanding fulltime job and teaching at Pitt, I work six-to-seven days a week.  I am in the gym four-to-five days a week, averaging two hours per workout.  I have a never ending list of things I want to get done in my “spare time”, something I never seem to have.  My wife and I tend to have different priorities for the items on that list, and she frequently asks why I haven’t gotten things done that I haven’t even thought to add to the list.  Need I say more?

Seriously, though, we are a warrior family on the go.  My two youngest daughters train in Chito-Ryu karate-do (I also have grown children).  The older one, a shodan, is in college. The younger one is a high school honor student active in multiple extra-curricular school activities. My wife (a sandan in jujutsu, by the way) does a lot of volunteer work, maintains her own workout schedule, and takes care of the rest of us.  We do our best to juggle life’s demands and keep our priorities straight: family first, obligations to employers (and school) second, fitness an important third, lots of other stuff next, and personal entertainment a distant last.  My daughters would not necessarily agree with that order, but they’re learning.

MA: As you’ve continued your study, have you found more and more connections between applied psychology and martial arts mysticism? Is there anything in the martial world that still simply baffles you?

If there is an area in which my thinking has evolved since writing the book, it is on the issue of mysticism.  Maybe it’s a function of age or maybe it’s a byproduct of extended education in a field which insists that conclusions be based on evidence, but I have grown increasingly skeptical about the mystical aspects of the martial arts.  Applied psychology is another matter.  That will always be a facet of combat between human beings.  And I don’t discount the possibility that martial training can create internal phenomena that can’t be objectively measured.  But when warriors convince themselves that such phenomena will give them an edge in deadly combat, they risk deluding themselves in the tradition of the Chinese secret societies who, believing their chi would protect them from modern weapons, rose up against the Western Powers in the 1900 Boxer Rebellion.  In sum, if you believe your training has enhanced your chi (or ki), that’s great, but when the bullets start flying, I’ll take Kevlar.

MA: How has your pursuit of the martial way enriched your life on the whole?

FM: Well, that’s another question that would take a book to answer.  To avoid trotting out my accomplishments more than I already have, I’ll just say that, to a great extent, I owe the ambition and discipline that has helped me to achieve whatever I have managed to achieve to the martial way.

MA: Where would you like to see the martial arts taken by the next few generations?

FM: I would like to see future generations get more objective about their martial training, neither mistaking it for, nor pretending it to be, something it is not.  I would like to see professional warriors take a more analytical approach to assessing their tactical requirements and tailor their training accordingly.

The Readers Ask…

Reader: Should traditional martial artists be more concerned about putting modern knife and gun self defense and tactics into their training?

FM: The answer to the question above, which I directed to professional warriors, goes equally for serious practitioners outside the warrior professions.  If you are a warrior, you should objectively assess the threats you are likely to face in the environment in which you live and work.  If those threats include the possibility of armed assailants, then you should be training for that, whether the system you study includes it or not.

Reader: Should female traditional artists be concerned about changing techniques to fit their body and capabilities (it seems as if traditional arts were developed and designed for men)?

FM: That is an excellent question, one that speaks to a warrior’s tactical mindset.  The answer is yes.

Most traditional arts were indeed developed by men, for men (and right-handed men, at that).  That said, a few women warriors have developed their own martial arts.  For instance, according to legend, Wing Chun Gung Fu was developed by a Buddhist nun with a woman’s body in mind.

Samurai women also developed certain arts to defend their households (naginata-jutsu, for example).  But the overwhelming majority of martial arts are designed for men fighting other men of approximately equal size.  So yes, women need to assess the kinds of threats they are most likely to face, objectively appraise their own physical capabilities, and tailor their techniques and tactics accordingly.  Instructors should help their female students do this.  If they don’t, women should seek training elsewhere.

By the way, this answer also applies to men of small stature.  But women face additional threats that most men do not.

Reader: Have you changed your mindset or approach to training since the publication of your book? Has the exposure from the book itself changed anything about your mindset?

FM: Well, as I mentioned above, my attitude about the mystical claims of some martial arts has grown more skeptical over the years.  However, the only area of the book I truly regret writing, because I’ve since learned I was wrong, was where I offered dietary advice.

In “Living the Martial Way” I advised readers to adhere to an extremely low-fat, hi-carb diet.  I based that advice on the writings of Robert Haas, author of Eat to Win and several subsequent books, and my own experience with that kind of diet.  I’ve since observed that the hi-carb diet was just one of a long history of fad diets, and there are aspects of it that may not be healthy.  My lesson in this is twofold: first, I should stay in my own lane.  That is, I should not try to advise people in a field in which I have little expertise.  Second, if I do venture into scientific areas, I should do my research in the published results of credible scientific studies, not popular writers.

As for whether exposure from the book has changed anything about my mindset, I am happy to report that it has opened my eyes to just how many good, traditional martial arts instructors there are in this country, striving to provide their students high-quality training.  When I wrote the book, I felt as if I was the proverbial lone voice in the wilderness.  While I had come to believe that martial arts instruction should be about realistic combat training and the pursuit of excellence in a warrior lifestyle, all I could see around me was a bunch of dancers, prancers, and players.  After the book was published, however, serious martial artists began contacting me, and I discovered I was not alone in the values I hold dear.

There really are a lot of people out there who take this stuff as seriously as I do and are striving to maintain warrior traditions.  Folks like Bruce and Ann-Marie Heilman, and my daughters’ sensei, Terry Valentino.  We are still a small minority to be sure, but to quote an old X-Files cliché, “we are not alone.”

************

I’d like to extend a big thank you to Mr. Forrest Morgan for his excellent insight! He is a strong voice in the martial arts community and has a rare talent for putting things into perspective. I’d also like to thank the readers for coming up with some great questions that I am sure I wouldn’t have thought to ask.

Author Forrest Morgan doesn’t boast epically high ranks in multiple styles, nor does he stand to inherit any deep dark martial arts secrets from hidden masters. Despite that, he has managed to pierce the heart of the matter and create a manual for the ways in which modern day soldiers and citizens can apply the martial way and warrior mindset in their every day lives.

I had a chance to ask Mr. Morgan some questions regarding his background, mindset, and opinions on how he sees the martial arts. I hope you enjoy this interview and gain something valuable out of it!

Q&A:

MA: Thank you very much for participating in this interview Mr. Morgan. First off, could you give a little background about yourself for anyone who may not be familiar with your martial arts or military experience?

FM: Certainly.  Put simply, I am a man who has chosen to serve his country and live a warrior lifestyle.  That said, I do not claim to be particularly accomplished in either of those pursuits.  I spent 27 years in the U.S. Air Force, but was never decorated for valor or even saw combat. I actively trained in martial arts for 30 years, but was never a tournament champion.  The highest grade I reached in any system was 3rd dan.  However, over the years in which I served and trained I gained some insights—or at least I believe I gained some insights, readers can decide for themselves—about warrior culture and how martial arts training relates to that culture.  I chose to share those insights with other martial artists.

To provide you a short synopsis of my life and career, I began formal training in Taekwondo Chung Do Kwan in 1972.  Four years later, then a newly promoted 1st dan, I enlisted in the Air Force.  I spent the first three years in the Air Force (after basic training and tech school, of course) as a communications analyst at Misawa Air Base, Japan, where I completed my bachelors degree in night school.  On urging from my flight commander, I applied for Officer Training School, and, to my surprise, was accepted.

After commissioning, I became a space operations officer and worked at various levels in that field for most of the rest of my Air Force career.  About 18 years in, however, my career took a turn, and Living the Martial Way played a part in making that happen.

That was about a year after the book came out, and I was a student at the Air Force’s highly-selective strategy school, the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS).  Back then the school chose one student a year to send to a civilian university for a doctoral degree, with the expectation that the student would eventually return to the SAASS as a member of the faculty.  It was a competitive selection.  As I had written a successful book, I had an edge on the other applicants and was chosen.

As a result, I spent the next several years at the University of Maryland studying under a future Nobel laureate (he received the prize in 2006).  From there I spent a couple of years in the Pentagon on the HQ Air Force staff in the long-range strategic planning division.  Then it was back to SAASS where I finished the last three years of my career as a professor of comparative military studies.

With the education and experience the Air Force was so generous in providing me, I managed to get a post-retirement job at the RAND Corporation doing strategy research and analysis for the Air Force, the Army, and other defense clients.  I’ve been doing that for nearly seven years now.  For the last three years I have also been an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. I teach in the security and intelligence studies major.

MA: Could you dive a bit more into your martial arts education?

Sure.  As I said, I was a 1st degree when I joined the Air Force.  I spent the next seven years away from my instructor.  I trained whenever and wherever I could and also taught on a couple of Air Force bases, but back then, I believed in loyalty to style and remained a Chung Do Kwan 1st degree.  In the early 1980s, however, I was assigned to a base near my instructor and returned to formal training, earning 2nd and 3rd degree over the next several years.

However, by then I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with taekwondo as a martial art.  The rich, combat-oriented system I had learned in the early 70s was being watered down, converted to a pure sport, and repackaged for mass consumption.

Example of Chung do Kwan Sport Sparring:

Beyond that, I had become skeptical of proponents’ claims that it could be effective in all tactical situations.  I could see that even the fuller system I had been taught was deficient in close-quarters combat (where most personal attacks occur) and ineffective on the ground. Therefore, on my next military assignment, I set out to find training to “fill the holes” so to speak.  Over the next 15 years or so I studies several different jujutsu systems, earning a 2nd degree in Hakkoryu and a 1st degree in Akayama Ryu.  It was several years into this period that I wrote “Living the Martial Way”.

I continued active training until my retirement from the Air Force.  About that time degenerative arthritis forced me off the mat and hardwood.  I still maintain my physical fitness with low-impact cardio and weight training, but martial arts training is now more than my eroded joints will tolerate.

MA: That is a shame that your joints will no longer tolerate full training! But I suppose the mental lessons learned never go away.

What was it that first got you interested in the arts (self defense, hobby, etc)?

FM: I started martial arts training for self defense and to build my self esteem.  I grew up in a suburb of Detroit.  It wasn’t the inner city by any means, but it was a rough, blue collar neighborhood nonetheless.  I was a tall and gawky teenager—tall enough to get the bullies’ attention, mouthy enough to piss them off, and too skinny to back it up.  As a result, I was pushed around on a pretty regular basis.

By my mid-teen years I was fed up with it and determined to study martial arts.  My parents refused to pay for it, so I read books and kicked and punched a homemade heavy bag until after my first year of college when I could pay for my own training.  I visited a number of schools and chose the one that looked the toughest.  Fortunately, it was also one of the few I could afford.

MA: You are the author of Living the Martial Way, a very popular book among traditional artists. What was your original impetus for writing this book?

As I said above, by the mid eighties I had become dissatisfied with what taekwondo had to offer.  As a military member, I had met a lot of martial artists from other systems and trained with some of them. I had lived in Japan a couple of years, studied the language and culture, watched the local police demonstrate their empty-hand combative measures, and watched the Japanese military train in their unarmed combat system.  I had studied various Asian philosophies in college.  As a result of all of this, when I returned to my home organization, I soon realized I was much more informed about martial arts, Asian history and philosophy, and… well, personal combat in general than any of my peers or superiors in the taekwondo association, people who had grown up in a single style, swallowing the pabulum about the supposed superiority of that style that the organization fed them.  Consequently, as I explained in the introduction of “Living the Martial Way”, I set out to deliberately learn what my organization was failing to teach me, technically, tactically, philosophically, and spiritually.

Over the next few years, as I researched and learned, I enriched the training I was giving my own students, bringing in techniques from other systems, developing scenario-oriented street tactics, assigning the senior students outside readings, and holding discussion sessions with them (often over pitchers of beer).  My senior students and I became a tight-knit group, something of an elite squad, envied by students at other locations in our organization (and resented by some other instructors).  It was an invigorating period in my life, but as my assignment at that base approached an end, several of my students became concerned.  “You’ve got to write a book,” one of them said.  “We can’t get this stuff anyplace else.”  I laughed.  We had learned a lot, but certainly I didn’t have enough material for a book—or so I thought.

A few years later, while winnowing away the hours on midnight shifts manning a command post at HQ Air Force Space Command, I began outlining my ideas just to see if there was enough there to call it a book.  What I discovered was not only did I have enough material for a book, but I had too much for a single book.  I had to cut it in half.

MA: Do you feel as if martial sport is growing at a faster rate than traditional martial arts? Are you concerned that sport may push art into extinction or extreme obscurity?

Yes, martial sport is certainly growing faster than traditional martial arts.  Indeed, it has been since kumite and randori were first introduced in karate-do, judo, and kendo training in the 19th century.  Will it push “art” into extinction or extreme obscurity?  Well, it depends on what you mean by “art” and, beyond that, what you mean by “traditional martial arts.”

You may be surprised to hear that I am probably not the “traditionalist” some people think I am.  Rather, I am a warrior in the true tradition.  That tradition is not slavish adherence to a particular martial organization, style, or set of katas in the name of tradition.  Rather, it is to seek out and master whatever combat methods are needed to assure victory in the specific strategic context in which you expect to find yourself.  That does not mean, if you’re a police officer, that you practice sport karate in the belief that it will prepare you for the tactical demands of your job, and neither does it mean that you practice “traditional” 17th century sword techniques with the same expectation.

Few professional warriors who truly need unarmed combat proficiency for their jobs—elite military forces, police officers, intelligence operatives, etc.—spend much time practicing what most people consider “traditional martial arts,” especially the ultra-traditional kodo or “classical” arts, such as kenjutsu, kyujutsu, yarijutsu, etc.  And you wouldn’t want them to.

Would you want the U.S. Army trying to defend the nation with swords and spears? What would you think if the U.S. Navy refused to equip itself with state-of-the-art warships because wooden sailing vessels are more “traditional”?  Even the less archaic, non-classical, traditionally-oriented martial arts, such as karate-do, aikido, jujutsu, etc., systems that strive to maintain their customs, training methods, and techniques unchanged from the late 19th or early 20th century, are usually not directly applicable to most 21st century threats without some amount of modification.  These systems are not true bugei (martial arts), which are purely utilitarian in nature, they are budo (martial ways), systems practiced for self improvement.

There is nothing wrong with that.  Budo training is valuable in itself.  I have enjoyed it and gotten great benefit from it, physically and spiritually.  Many of the techniques and some of the tactics taught in budo systems are, with modification, suitable for real combat, but they are not martial arts, strictly speaking.  They are martial ways.

Whether these systems die out in favor of martial sport remains to be seen.  No doubt some of them will.  However, true martial arts will never die out.  As long as human beings are in physical conflict with one another, they will develop and practice methods to restrain, defeat, and kill their enemies.  The methods will evolve in response to changing tactical requirements, or they will (and should) be discarded.

* * *

Continued in Part 2

This catch-22 is all too familiar for most civilian martial artists, and has helped charlatans stay in business for years without ever having to prove anything.

Modern day artists have one luxury that previous generations never had – the prevalence of video. It’s true that there is no substitute for the feeling of uncontrolled violence, but at least we can see what it looks like and ask ourselves the tough questions regarding our own preparedness.

Today I found an excellent video that demonstrates an all too classic scenario – a muscley street thug causing trouble with a person he thinks might be an easy target. The cause of the confrontation is unknown, but the thug can be found confronting the man aggressively on his own doorstep. Watch as the situation escalates, and what happens when the thug finds out the hard way that he picked a martial artist for a target:

Anaylsis:

I like this video because it is very ‘real’. The martial artist wasn’t outside of a bar, or at a ruckus sporting event; he was simply at his home when trouble came his way. This is the kind of thing that could happen to anyone, even individuals who make good decisions to stay away from questionable areas.

One thing that impressed me about the martial artist was his patience. He sustained significant verbal abuse, and got screamed at right in his face. That experience causes the hair on the back of the neck to stand straight up and puts a person in a very aggressive mood instantly. Nevertheless he maintained himself and didn’t show any signs of agitation.

Secondly, when the thug went so far as to put hands on him, he didn’t react with an immediate death blow, or ground and pound pummelation. He pushed him away to try and create distance and give the thug yet another opportunity to go away. The martial artist also kept his hands in front of him in a ready-to-use position (not quite as good as Geoff Thompson’s fence, but still good and unaggressive).

Eventually, as the thug noticed he wasn’t getting anywhere, he began to escalate the situation by throwing a trash can around and pushing the martial artist persistently. It was soon after that that the martial artist made the personal decision that he no longer felt safe, and made an attack. Once he made that aggressive motion, he didn’t go back to trying to be passive. He controlled distance and kept his hands up. He waited, still patiently, until the energetic thug, bounding around with unchecked adrenaline, tried to close the gap. At that time the martial artist punched him square in the face with a well executed straight punch.

As the thug limped away the martial artist maintained distance and control, but did not follow up with further punishment. He used enough violence to eliminate the threat, and then allowed the situation to dissolve.

At no point did the martial artist try anything fancy. He kept a natural stance and hand position. He made small movements and kept control at all times.

This martial artist may not win 1,000 tournaments with style and panache, but he had ‘it’ when ‘it’ really counted.

Video and the Law

One very important take-away from this video is that the martial artist behaved well in accordance to the law. He tried his best to de-escalate the situation, and did nothing to provoke the thug. He defended himself once the thug began showing signs of  persistent physical aggression. In fact, the martial artist would probably have been justified punching the thug out the first time he went to push or grab him. (Indeed, the one thing that makes me nervous in this video is the possibility of the thug having a knife and being so close inside the martial artist’s personal space).

This video also shows the abundance of video these days. Flip cams and cam phones are all over the place, which means if trouble starts (especially in a crowded area like in the video), there is a very decent chance it will be on video. We as martial artists can use that to our advantage. We can make obvious signs of non-aggression so that later in court we can use that video as evidence of our control and focus on self defense.