The Effectiveness of Martial Arts Today

Let us sit and ponder together the issue of effectiveness of the various styles of the martial arts in existence today.

We have the flashy ones. "Just a dance!," say some. This type of judgement and critique is placed on such great styles as Kung Fu, Wushu, Capoeira, Bando, and many others. Said judgement is also truly placed by some on Tae Kwon Do and some karate styles.

Then we have the modern ones. Military types, refined Japanese types, combat this or that, and great founders of these mentioned creations. It is the latter that most proclaim can save a life. We have a problem though. Whether you feel that the modern ones are best or that the classical ones are best, we all share a problem together. This problem is that we don't quite know what we are talking about.

Lets start with all styles and arts. All of them were created to be used as a means for saving yourself or an innocent other if and when needed. All of them. So you ask, " How could they? Have you seen how flashy those arts can be? You could never land something like that!!" This is where our misunderstanding begins.

We all know of the various occupations of certain Oriental countries that took place. As a result, as we know as well, many martial arts were outlawed. The masters of these fine effective arts did not quit however. Instead, they embarked on a preservation process—a process I call the "mason jar effect" theory. Let us all ensure that we are familiar with what a mason jar is first.

A mason jar is a glass jar with an air-tight sealable metal cover, used to preserve various foods. The purpose of the mason jar was to preserve what we can't eat now and save the food item for a later date. Now, if you look into the mason jar, you can only have a partial understanding of what is inside. You can get a good idea, but only once you get to taste and touch the contents within will you fully be able to understand and appreciate the food item.

The great masters of that time embarked on a mason jar type of preservation of their knowledge. They disguised a lot of it to look like merely a dance or art form. The goal was to make it look as unthreatening as possible, which was the goal in mind. The goal was to teach this preserved method, and one day, to a chosen few when safe, open the jar, and properly reveal the contents within.

The problem is that this did not quite get to happen. A lot of these masters died before the jar could be opened. Some students of the preserved method left the Orient and taught the preserved method to others, thinking and professing it to be the proper way of the art. Thus, we have the flashy styles of practice that exist today. We are all holding up the glass jar, looking inside, and claiming knowledge of the taste and feel of the contents. We are wrong.

Now, we have the combat styles that are being "founded" today. However, nothing is actually being founded at all, but re-discovered. Some of us, by intense study, have managed to drop the jar from fumbling with it so much, and are getting an idea of what is truly inside. But our lack of proper total understanding shows in that we think we are creating something new. We most certainly are not.