 One of our early videos on this channel covered a topic of politics in the martial arts now when we cover topics Especially controversial ones. We try to present the material objectively and on neutral ground However in the year and a half since we've released this episode I've read many of your comments and I've talked to several human person about this topic and I have more to say on it And this time I'm not going to be neutral The first thing I'm going to say is I am absolutely disgusted Not by any of you, but by a lot of some of the stories you guys have told me and what you guys have been through I'm going to make a couple things right here First thing is when we wrote the episode at the beginning. I was based in a lot of just what I experienced myself So I had my particular viewpoint on politics and that's where I wrote the perspective from The second thing is and it was assumption of mine is I thought Kempo had the brunt of the politics I thought oh, you know this is I love my art But oh god, this is just a problem that we have and I kind of thought it was a little bit more unique But as I talked to many of you boy was I wrong Wing Chun, Taekwondo, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu All these arts had so many politics I mean it actually blew my mind and we're not even to get at the Bujinkan So I realized it's not unique to just Kempo or to just one art The politics are rampant and when I hear the stories and see what you guys are talking about and the experiences You're going through I see it's actually a really big problem through all branches of martial arts Every art has people with egos. There's always pride. There's loyalty and therefore there will be politics There's a few key things to understand first You have to understand where the politics are coming from they can come from many many many sources Is it just a matter of pride? Is it a matter of being an exclusive club? Is it people who are trying to claim that they have secret training? Is it regional because we do it differently than they do it sometimes it's business related Sometimes it's just one school trying to compete with another school and therefore Politics and conflicts arise between them also who's saying it Is it a student of one school that really doesn't have a lot of experience and they're just kind of talking out of the rear end Or is it a grandmaster that's really trying to interject his expertise onto a subject or maintain his pure lineage or whatever So where is it coming from and who's saying it and then the other thing is to understand is is this a real debate? Or is it someone trying to be a troll a debater versus a hater, you know Something is a debates can be worth talking about sometimes if it's a hater don't even bother because it's a waste of time I'm not going to reiterate the first episode, but I do encourage watching that if you haven't yet What I am going to do is address a lot of the points viewers have brought up as well as other interactions I have witnessed in our journey in producing this channel. Okay. Look, I consider myself lucky in this scenario My school was partially torn apart by politics now I'm not going to go into any details, but some of you out there who are watching know exactly what I'm referring to I Loved our training at the school. I loved my classmates. I loved the material we were learning We went through many many transitions But later and near the end of the school's run a major political rift emerged between our school and another Now I truthfully don't even know the source of what caused it and quite frankly I don't care what I do care about was the damage it did and the horrible distraction It was to our training so forgive me if I get a little bit heated on this topic There was mudslinging accusations insults and half the classes were just spent becoming rants on the issue and bitching out the other school look I'm sorry. I don't care what beefs anyone has with anyone or what pride or personal feelings are in play or political Stances when it comes to being an educated martial artist and getting the most out of your training that garbage needs to stay outside When you're on the floor, you're on the floor you respect the mat and everyone that's on that mat with you Again, I love all the people in that school. We were family The doors closed shortly after for a variety of reasons But politics did bring a lot of a bit of a dark cloud into it with the school's closure Everyone pretty much went their own separate ways and went on with life No one left to train with until I started to bounce around to other local schools Reconnecting with some other campus. I hadn't seen in some time now I'm gonna be honest I was a little nervous to start branching out again and training with the other circles because it kind of felt like that Cloud of the politics hung over my head. I Know how some martial arts circles can be sometimes school issues can brand you and make you a social leper of sorts But all that being said I was extremely fortunate to encounter a group of people that I did Most of the campus I train with today and spar with and talk shop with most of them fully know the situation And yet they still welcome me into their circle I was afraid that the stigma of the politics would follow me But they judge me on my own merits and how we worked out together So for those of you who might be watching and know exactly what I'm talking about I expressed my extreme gratitude and respect. I have come to love my new extended tempo family Unfortunately, not everybody is as lucky and that's kind of why I wanted to follow up on this topic I have heard so many stories from so many of you who said you lost your love of an art because of the politics Or you were banned from talking to people from another school or you weren't allowed to share your knowledge for fear of tainting the lineage bloodline it's it's Most people join a school for either self-defense self-confidence to get a workout or maybe just develop some sort of camaraderie with others People can fall out of those arts for various reasons as well, you know life challenges finances Maybe this particular art just wasn't what you're looking for. That's fine But when I hear that some of you lost your passion for training or you lost love of the art because of the politics you encountered at the school That was supposed to make you a better version of yourself. Well, that just burns my bicycle shorts So in the first video we talked about how politics could affect training and how to determine if you should engage in the debate or not And how to handle it if you should decide to do so However today I think it would be much more productive to address some of your comments and observations and how we can apply these ideas for our own Improvement one of our viewers Julian Davis left a rather insightful comment. They said it's the difference between belief truth and reality Politics happen because a belief is challenged. If you are seeking the truth You will always assume that you are wrong and if there is something to learn The reality is belief can lead one to develop a deep understanding of a topic that may or may not be universally applicable That doesn't mean it is completely wrong or invalid. It just means it's not universally applicable I think that covers a lot of the ground at least the source of some of the conflict As we've mentioned and covered many times before everyone chooses to join the martial arts Subsequently their specific art for a lot of different reasons Some people do their research and know what they want ahead of time and others just stumble across it I mean heck I wish I had some great insight that got me into Kempo I wish I could say I knew what I wanted of an art and I know what I wanted to grow into The truth is I told my parents I wanted to learn karate and they found an ad in the paper and they signed me up I was 14 and clueless and I couldn't tell you the difference between one art or the other I just wanted to kick high But there's no regrets I love Kempo and I love what's taking me and I absolutely love learning about other arts and seeing different ways of doing things Everyone has different goals and different things work for different people If you found something that fits your purpose then don't worry about it if applies universally to everybody There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to the martial arts Which brings me to another trend of comments that comes up from time to time on all video topics on all martial arts channels too crapping on other arts All too often the remark art XYZ sucks emerges I mean, what do you say to that? It's far too easy to embark on a debate and I will admit that sometimes I get sucked into them too But here's the thing to keep in mind if you receive the comment It's probably a best to just ignore it and not engage because they're not likely to provide you with an educated debate Back to identifying debaters versus haters Many people who leave this comment either had a bad experience with the school Most likely practice different art and are just projecting their bias or some just want to be a dick This is especially prevalent with the mixed martial arts versus traditional martial arts debate Now that's a topic to get into for another time But I really think that people debating which one is better is incredibly unproductive Traditional martial arts have been around for a very long time And what we refer to today as MMA is fairly new and it's not even an actual art But it's simply the practice of mixing arts The UFC is separate. The UFC is a sport It's a highly effective sport with real fighting skills that can be used in a real situation But it's a sport that features MMA MMA training can be fantastic And it's an effective way to learn how to fight well and fight quickly because you won't find any better pressure testing application However, most of the arts people mixed in there are primarily traditional arts to begin with If you really don't like an art and you have an honest and true concern for someone training in it A better approach would be to talk to them and ask them why they train in the art What they like about it and what their goals are Now if you feel there are better options then present them with these ideas Explain why you like what you do the benefits and maybe encourage them to check it out or try it You're much more likely to convince somebody By encouraging them to expand themselves or help them see other ways and give them other exposure Who knows maybe along the way they'll discover that they like what you're you're showing or maybe you'll learn something new yourself There's a real opportunity for a quality discussion But if you're just going to come out and just say your art sucks You really accomplish nothing and trust me you don't come across as insightful Another one of our viewers brought up a great point the cosmic burrito 2 which is a great username by the way said I think it should be also noted that there are people who earn a black belt in the style and then just jump to the conclusion That they are qualified to instruct They think that what they've been taught alongside of the personal experiences are enough now in some cases that's that's fine However, in much of today's martial arts there's strategy and instruction as well So when somebody opens up a school and has no understanding behind the curriculum structure Well, that could lead the students getting themselves and others hurt both inside and outside the school This is an excellent point And I think it kind of highlights some of the potential sources for politics to develop In addition to the students learning compromised material I'd like to expand on this and point out that this can often account for the deviation from some of the core materials The core teachings of the art Getting the black belt does not automatically prepare you to become a teacher In fact the word shodan literally means first level So when you first get your black belt there's that's supposed to mean that you've just gotten a grasp of all your basics And now you're ready to start learning deeper material This is also how a lot of schools can have differing material in the same art And I've seen this firsthand somebody gets their black belt and they run off and they open the school But they don't quite fully understand the material yet or how to teach it Therefore alterations and changes in the curriculum can occur without even knowing why Now this is a problem that can snowball and come back to haunt you later Again, this is a topic for another video, but before you open your own school Please understand it's more than just having been through a curriculum There are business and teaching skills that need to be in place first And also make sure you've logged in a ton of teaching hours before you open up your own school George Mason asks I would like to hear you address the topic of people who claim to have ranked that they really don't I would be curious to hear your opinions on that as I'm sure you've run into guys like this on your journey Well, George, I actually have touched on this before but in my opinion on the matter is honestly I don't care this It's just a piece of cloth. It's a marker of time put into an art And it's basically like at the diploma that says you've completed required material It says nothing of how good you really are or what you truly know or how well you apply these skills and teachings in your life I know people that I would see at yearly seminars that would jump from their degree each time Or people who promoted themselves to grandmaster after only being a black belt for a few years Or even those who just decided they wanted to wear a black belt and they just put it on to impress others Honestly that burden is on them and the truth will come today that they're held accountable for that rank You know how to know someone's true skill in the martial art Train with them let them try to teach you something spar or roll with them get some hands-on workout with them You should get a pretty quick idea of their abilities even on a subtle scale I've met higher ranking black belts than me that I feel I could compete with but I've also met second first third Degree black belt that I know could rock me. It's just cloth It says nothing about what you can actually do so honestly I wouldn't preoccupy myself with what belt another person is wearing. Just focus on best representing the one that you are Mountain adventures one of our regular viewers drop this wisdom Where some people see divisions and splits I see branches of a family tree if a federation or association dissolves That student could become abandoned This this right here. This is perspective. I like Instead of looking at other schools as a split from the pure bloodline Look at them as relatives of the same family instead I'm willing to bet that among the many differences there are that there's a fair amount of common ground too So instead of focusing on whose art is better Connect with each other on similarities and then just share and respect different viewpoints I mean, who knows you both could learn something new as for the student becoming abandoned That sucks. I've seen it all too many times before The arts are supposed to be making us better. You know, don't treat it as an exclusive cult or a club If you know someone whose school closed and they were part of another faction Be the bigger person and extend an invite to them to come join you You know that humanity and generosity can go a long way sometimes And if they accept it and they join your circle, they're not going to taint the bloodline But they're likely going to adjust and adopt to a lot of the ways of what you do and become part of the family If they don't and they insist on their way being the best Well, then again that burden falls on them and they'll be the cause of their own exclusion So in the end politics are everywhere and you're always going to encounter them in different aspects of life The key is recognizing when it becomes toxic and understanding the measures and actions you can take to circumvent the drama If you're calm, cool-headed and rational, then sometimes this could present the opportunity for productive discussions Otherwise leave that drama outside the school respect the mat Okay, everyone now it's your turn I love the insights that a lot of you share with us in the comments And honestly, you guys teach me a lot and I really appreciate that and I would like to keep this discussion going But please keep it civil Now go tell all your friends to subscribe to our channel join us on patreon because our channel is the best and everyone else sucks