 If you have spent any time in the martial arts, then you may already be familiar about the opinions and debates that often come up. If you have not yet experienced this, then I hope this video can be a warning as well as a preparation to experience martial arts politics. Martial arts politics are an unfortunate reality, and in many cases can spoil someone's desire to train or cause a rift between schools. Those of you in the American Kemplow community can definitely understand what I'm talking about. So the goal for this video is to understand what to expect if you have not encountered it yet, and how to handle it if you do. Before you engage or even talk about the politics themselves, it's important to identify whether it's serious debate or if it's a hater you're dealing with, okay? Some people out there just like making fun of what others do. Other people are in their own martial art and they think everything else is crap, so they're going to hate on everything. Don't engage with people like that. There's no point. It's a waste of time. You cannot win. And what do you gain if you do? So you can usually tell if somebody has something real to say, they usually state their opinions, they give reasons, they back up their claims. But if it's somebody who's just trying to hate and says, oh, that's crap, or no, this is better, why are you doing that, that probably isn't worth your time to engage. So we see it all the time in Kemplow and I thought it was unique to our art. In recent years, as I've explored and researched, I'm finding it appears to be in every art. So any of you watching this can probably already tell me a list of things that you've encountered or different arguments that pop up in your art. So it's everywhere. A common hot topic of debate is the origin of the art, especially if you've got an art that doesn't necessarily have a clear beginning. It might have been something that started in one form of style and it kind of branched off. A lot of times people will argue which is the true origin or which is the better origin. In some arts, like in Wing Chung, they branch off. So you've got different schools of thought. And that happens often. There's a lot of conflict that sometimes students will branch off or if a grandmaster passes away and doesn't leave a proper lineage hierarchy, it can fraction. And when that happens, a lot of people will start to debate what is the true version of the art? What is the origin? What is the best version? That is something I see all the time. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard, well, I've trained in the real version. Well, what's the real version? You know, there's a version that someone so teaches and there's this version that they teach, which one's the real one? So that's kind of a walk on eggshell's argument because how do you define who's got the real version? It really depends on the origin. So playing off the origin, I want to talk about lineage. Lineage is often a major source of conflict because everyone feels they've got the better instructor or they're learning on the right path or their instructor's part of the true line, whatever, okay? I see this a lot, especially in systems and Kempo is one of them when you have a grandmaster that passes away and students taking upon themselves to continue the art, but they go off in multiple branches. Now I'm going to take Kempo for example. In American Kempo, Ed Parker combined a bunch of other martial arts together and he made his own system with his own set of principles. So from there, one thing he always preached was the evolution of the art, the ever-changing of the art. He even said that if people are practicing in my Kempo the same way as I'm doing it now in 30 years, something's wrong. Arts need to adapt to the times, new styles of fighting, new trends occur. So what happened was with Mr. Parker is he trained his first generation of students. He trained them ABC, you know, this version. But the problem though comes into his next generation of students because he changed, he altered, he updated. So his next generation of blackbells got a slightly different curriculum. And the next generation is slightly different. And you repeat that for years and now you've got multiple tiers of people with the same material, but you've got version A, version B, version C, version D, and so on. And then you've got a lot of them saying, well, mine's real, well, mine's not. Well, how do you determine that? Oh, well I learned it first. Yeah, but I learned the newest and I got the most updated information. It's common. It's out there. Even more so is when you have students branch off and create their own version of the system, like the Tracy brothers in Kempo, they were Ed Parker students, they branched off and they did their own version. You see that a lot. So once you have multiple levels or multiple tiers of versions of the art and you've got spin-offs, then you really have a conflict of, well, who is this better? In reality, it really shouldn't matter. You know, train your hardest. Find the one that makes sense to you. Become proficient in it. Make it work for you. Does it really matter what Bob over there is doing or what Linda over there is doing? As long as it works for you, that's what's important, okay? So you have to find something that's applicable in your life and follows a set of principles that you believe in and that you can proceed in and become proficient with. And a lot of times you just get people who feel they're better than everyone else, okay? They might put in 10 hours a day and laugh at anyone else, say, oh, that looks like junk or I could do it better. You're going to come across that. Some people and some people are really good and they know it, but they act like it. They know it. And that could be a sense of conflict as well. So basically, just like any other politics, it comes down to my way is better and you're going to encounter that, especially in a world where it's very competitive and it's physically active and it's about fighting competition and form and style and technique. It's going to be there. So prepare yourself for those kinds of debates and then ask yourself, is it a serious debate or is this person just trying to troll and cause trouble? How should I win you engage in this? Because you need to understand where the other person's coming from. And before you jump into an argument, especially online, because everybody can hide behind the computer and say what they want with little consequence sometimes, ask yourself, should I engage in this topic? Do I have something I can contribute productively? Are they going to respond negatively? Be prepared because not every argument is worth doing. You've got to choose your battles. So in the event that someone challenges you or makes a statement that you don't agree with and you choose to engage, be prepared to state your case. Now when you do this, state your case, but don't insult them. If you really have something useful to say, you should be able to back it up. Back it up with facts, examples, reasons. If you make a claim or if you say one way is better, tell them why. Don't just say it's better because, oh, because I learned from this master, tell me why it's better. And don't attack the person. Once you start going down that path, you kind of devaluate your own position. Don't start calling them names or saying their stuff is crap. If you don't like what they're saying or what they're doing, ask them to justify it. Ask them for resources. So if you think someone makes a claim that you don't agree with, ask them to back it up. Don't call them names. Don't say they're stupid and they're an idiot and their stuff is total garbage. Say, okay, well, tell me why you feel that. Show me where do you get this information from? Because once you start going down the mud slinging path, you lose your own argument. And at that point, what's the point? Also there is a time and place for it. It's not always appropriate to engage in a debate. Politics, governmental politics, religious politics, martial arts politics, pop up various times and places. You have to decide, is this the appropriate time to engage? Are you at home on the computer on a message board and somebody says something you don't agree with? Sure. By all means, go for it. Talk to them. Are you at a seminar with one of your grandmasters or senior instructor and someone starts challenging them? Is that the time for you to jump in or is that time for you to challenge the instructor if you don't agree with it? No. That's very disrespectful. And just think about who you're working with, where you are, and if it is the proper time to debate. Because a lot of times debates end poorly, especially if it's personal. You could have a fallen out with classmates, instructors, okay, other schools. You don't want that. But if you do want that, then maybe it's time for you to look for another school or reevaluate your own position. So there's a time and a place for it. Part of it is understanding when that is. Also, especially in the martial arts, your reputation is at stake. If you start challenging everybody and you're not able to back it up, that's going to get around. Well, how do you want people to view you? Because martial arts is a community. And almost every school and every style has their own tight-knit group with their own community. So if you start behaving a certain way, that will get around. Just keep in mind, this is you, okay? These are your views. Like any politics, you're stating your views, your practices, your principles. Do it respectfully because it reflects on you. Now, if you get to this point where the debate comes to a head and you can no longer answer, instead of getting mad at the other person, ask yourself, why can't I answer? So if they're posing a claim and you can't dispute it, or if you're making a claim and they're asking you to back it up and you quite can't, don't get mad at them. That's your opportunity to say to yourself, all right, maybe I don't know this as well as I thought, let me confirm this before I push this because again, it gets around. So if you find yourself having difficulty backing up a statement or if you don't know an answer, it might be time to withdraw and revisit this later and go do some homework. Now on the long run, people might be asking, well, what's the point? Why debate? Does it benefit training? Well, it might not. I mean, especially if you're doing it just to argue, if your whole purpose is to fight and push your own way and improve yourself better than everyone else, then no, of course, it's not useful. It's going to only take away from your training. But a lot of times, and going back on my previous point is a healthy debate could actually improve your training because if you do engage and someone makes a very good point, it might be enough for you to question and rethink something. And sometimes that leads to learning something new or another frame of thought you had not considered previously. So debating can be beneficial to your training and your education as long as it's respectful and it's productive. You're not attacking each other on a personal level and you're trying to come from a place of educated responses and knowing your research. Then, yes, the debate can be a very healthy part of your overall martial arts training. Thanks for watching. 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