 The Art of One Dojo is funded in part by Patreon. Help keep the channel running and gain access to exclusive content, including behind-the-scenes looks, training tips, outtakes, throwback videos, ebooks, free video workshops, store discounts, episode early access, and more. Join the Dojo today! So I know what you're thinking. Multicolored uniform, taekwondo, dobok style, plastic exhibition weapons, and an unearned sense of misplaced badassery. You're thinking that if you were to play the Mortal Kombat theme song right now, that I'd break out into a rockin' cotta. And you'd be right. That's right. I'm talking about Karate Demoteams, a permanent entry on most McDogel lists. Now, I'm either getting dumber or I'm trusting my viewers with a merciful sense of civility, but I will fully admit that I was part of a Karate Demoteam at one time. I told y'all I had a colorful past. Literally. But I will say that I am just as proud of the experiences I am embarrassed, and even though they are considered a joke in most martial arts series circles, I wanted to share the experience and take a fair look at just what is good and bad about them. Okay, let's straight up get this out of the way. What are the five primary purposes of a Karate Demoteam? One, to advertise the school. Two, to bring more customers to the school. Three, to get the school noticed in the market. Four, you guessed it, bring a sense of unity and teamwork amongst young aspiring students. And five, market the hell out of the school. Demoteams are straight commercial marketing tools for Dojo, especially in the West. You're not likely to find many serious traditional arts using them, but that doesn't mean that their mere presence is the bane of existence, or a surefire sign that the school hosts them is total garbage. Now, having had the experience of being part of a Demoteam, I wanted to share an inside perspective of the process, and addressing what's wrong with them, while also pointing out some good they can do. So first, I want to make a couple of distinctions. I am not referring to tournaments or national team competitions. Those are sports and should be separated as such. You can find some really impressive Wushu weapons and a host of other incredible arts showcased in these competitions, so I'm not going to put those down. They are in a different discussion altogether. But when it comes to Demoteams for a school, there are primarily two types and they have some different dynamics. There is the one that most of us are familiar with, the flash uniforms, large groups, typically kids and teenagers, a team captain, sparkly light weapons, and performances set to music. These are designed to incite a wow factor from the mass public at fairs, malls, or other public events which could attract new customers. Then there is the more discrete type, smaller groups, mostly adults, standard uniforms, and more emphasis on self-defense application and effectiveness. These are usually smaller demonstrations at seminars, tournaments, or lower profile events. They still promote the school, but the emphasis is on more the training than the razzle-dazzle of glittery weapons and acrobatics. I've been a part of both. Now, I will show some clips of actual footage of our Demoteam. Now, this was over 20 years ago, so please forgive me if it looks like it was filmed with a potato. But by all means, feel free to make fun of me. The presentation model of a karate Demoteam is pretty standard. The group lines up on stage while the head instructor or team captain introduces us. We bow in and typically recite some sort of a school creed, then close out, bow, go to tension stance. The crowd cheers and we all run back to our corner. Then, we would go into the segmented presentations. Paras or small groups would be announced, usually starting with some sort of short synchronized kata. Then individual performances, typically with weapons. The both staff swords, nunchucks, kama, and sai were popular choices. Then we would do self-defense and simulated fighting sets, maybe another group kata or two, and we would close out. Crowd cheers, we bow, then we enjoy pizza for the rest of the festival. My partner and I had a choreographed fight. I had previously seen another Demoteam do one and decided, hey, that looked like a lot of fun, so we put one together ourselves. We constantly added and modified it and we probably did maybe a dozen events or so. We even had a really killer name for it. We called it lethal clash. Don't think I don't see those eyes rolling. Overall, it was a positive experience and it actually helped me in a lot of ways. So, let's first talk about what's good and bad about them. I know many of you feel that a dojo should not be commercialized or that it shouldn't be run for profit. I fully understand that point of view and I even agree on a lot of points, but for now, let's put that aside for the sake of this analysis. The number one good thing about karate demo teams is they can be really, really good at what they're meant for, promoting the school. It brings public awareness to the art and it often piques enough interest and curiosity for at least a few people to try it out. From a business model, they can be quite effective. They are also fantastic at teamwork building. It encourages everyone to bring their A game, work together, sharpen their skills and really put themselves out there in a collective effort. I feel they are particularly beneficial for younger students. It includes them in the team, placing them on an equal level and they can help encourage other young students to find the arts easily and early. Now, there's also a sense of pride that develops and I don't mean ego, but something to be proud of. There's a little bit of an emotional roller coaster involved. You know, the slight anxiety of getting on the stage, butterflies in your stomach, the fear of messing something up and looking like an idiot, then the excitement and the adrenaline of when you're pumping through the technique and finally that moment, that final moment when you finish up and you settle in your last stance, everything immediately culminates in this massive knot in your stomach and it instantly releases in your overcome with a sense of relief and pride that you got through it all in one piece. And if the crowd was with you cheering you on, it was just that much more energy to feed off of and I went home feeling fantastic every single time. When I was in my early 20s, we did some small Kemple demonstrations at other schools and smaller events. We did the famous Kemple technique line in which everyone lines up and takes turn doing a technique on each other. When we did it for demonstration, we made some serious contact. We were conditioned for it, but it sounded horrible. It was really fun hearing spectators going, Oh, whoa, and holy s***. We'd walk away feeling great as in, yeah, we did that. And finally, you're carrying a torch for your school and your art. And even though it's meant to be a marketing business tool, you can still really inspire people to go try the martial arts. Even if they don't go to your school, if they're inspired by you to go find out another art and train in it, then you've done some good and possibly helped change someone's life for the better. It's when they develop into the primary focus of the school is when they start to become a problem. They're a great marketing tool, but they should not be the main thing taught. When your sole training is to be an advertisement for the school, that's a problem. They also require a lot of work. This isn't coming up with a skit. Practice it once or twice and call it done. To do a performance well, you need to spend hours and upon hours working on it, polishing, coordinating with a partner and fine tuning your skills. It should not replace your training time. It should not take away from your curriculum. You should also not be forced to do it. Encouragement is one thing, but if you are being pushed or forced to performing and this school might not have your best interest in mind. And you should absolutely not be charged to be a part of the team. When I did it, thankfully, it was totally voluntary. We had the team, I watched it perform and I thought it would be a fun experience. We didn't practice during class times. We would get together Friday nights or weekends and we'd work on our own time and work on routines. You should also not be forced to do anything that's unsafe to you or anyone you're working with or something that you're really not comfortable doing. Now, a big part of demo team presentations are weapons. I personally never really found my way into doing a lot of weapon training. I dabbled here and there with the nunchucks and I really liked the sigh, but I'm not well versed in either one of them. But I always enjoyed watching people who are. We had some killer kids in our team that were very skilled and they were very impressive to watch. And I personally saw the sweat that they put into practicing their performances. You know, we were training out together and they were in the corner really working their hearts out. So whether you like demo teams or not, you can't deny that there's at least some skill and effort that goes into it. I don't regret being part of the team at all. Even though I look back now and see some of my early days of training were Adam McDougal sorts, this was a really positive experience for me. When I was younger, I was extremely shy. As a little kid, I was so shy that every day when I went to school, I wouldn't say anything to anyone for an hour because I had to warm up the talk to people. You couldn't tell that about me now with the wagon ramble on and on and on and on, but I had issues with attention. In my teen and college years, I did not like being in the spotlight or performing in front of people. But I knew I had to break out of that and I saw the demo team as an opportunity for me to grow and become more comfortable with putting myself out there in front of a large audience. A lot of people frown on the commercialization of the arts and I get it. I personally think that karate demo teams are okay as long as they are kept within respectable bounds. They can build a great sense of school pride and awareness, but yes, they are a marketing tool. Now, even if it's a little cringe-worthy to look back on now, I certainly have no regrets doing it. And it took a lot of talking myself into showing some of these clips and I accept any digs that I get for it. Now, if you really want to roast me, I will be posting three different versions of my performances in full for our Patreon subscribers. I have no problems embarrassing myself for our supporters. Oh, and by the way, I lied earlier. Our song wasn't Mortal Kombat. It was Kung Fu Fighting. So yeah, that happened. I'm ready for the heat. So bring it on. So I please invite you to tell me any of your stories about karate demo teams. Anything that you might have been a part of or maybe something you've seen, please share, subscribe, and ding that little bell. Thanks.