Blog Posts

Not Always What It Seems

4/26/2020

Author: Bret Gordon

There is an excellent book by Ellis Amdur, called "Hidden in Plain Sight: Esoteric Power Training Within Japanese Martial Traditions" (to order it, click here). I feel it's absolutely required reading for anyone serious about developing internal power or aiki. In a nutshell, it describes how mundane conditioning exercises and warm-ups taught to beginners at the start of class are actually the deep secrets everyone is searching for in order to develop these very advanced skill sets.

Now, the title of the book is what got me thinking. Hiding things in plain sight is all too common in the world of traditional martial arts and it is up to the student to uncover them. This journey of discovery is a crucial element of one's martial arts progress, and to this day I still find myself having lightbulb moments that I can't wait to call my instructor about. This article is actually one of those lightbulb moments that I had awhile back, and maybe it'll help cut down on the time it takes for you to understand the connection of what I'll be discussing.

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Forget Your Lineage - A Shout Out To Ryan Hoover

4/16/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon

I want to give a shout-out to Ryan Hoover from Fit to Fight® for one of the realist things that has ever been said in the martial arts community. In his video below, he sheds light on the unnecessary obsession with lineage and credentials that seems to permeate through the martial arts and is the source of countless internet trolls rushing to their keyboards to prove their piece of paper is more important than your piece of paper. The truth is that rank, titles or licenses never saved someone's life. The only thing that truly matters as a martial artist and instructor are your physical skills and knowledge, and your ability to impart that skill and knowledge to your students so they can protect themselves and their families. The rest is immaterial...

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The Myth Of Cross Certification

4/15/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon

As you progress as a martial artist, it is inevitable that your circle of affiliation will grow. You will develop a network of training partners and associates. You will grow strong bonds and friendships. You may even be asked to serve in an official capacity on the board of someone's organization. All of these are normal parts of being a martial artist, especially as the world continues to grow smaller thanks to high-speed internet.

Now as these connections grow, we begin to see another phenomenon: cross certification. What most people consider as cross certification is simply trading rank. Johnny has master rank in one style, Bobby has master rank in another style, and the two award each other black belt rank in their various styles to pad their resume. I think we can all agree this is simply bullshit. Rank itself serves only as recognition of one's progress according to the requirements of the system/organization, so receiving rank in something you have never studied is beyond pointless, not to mention outright fraudulent.

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Spotlight: Tanemura Shoto

4/11/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon

It is amazing what you can accomplish when you start young, meet the right people at the right time, and have an extraordinary level of dedication and personal drive, often going above and beyond what most believe to even be possible. Tanemura Shoto of Genbukan fame is one of the most well-known and respected martial artists of his time. To date, he has either fully inherited or been awarded Menkyo Kaiden (highest level attainable) in no less than 23 different martial arts styles and serves as the President of the Genbukan World Ninpo Bugei Renmei, Kokusai Jujutsu Renmei and the Nihon Kobudo World Federation. On behalf of the US Association of Martial Arts, I would like to extend an overdue congratulations to Tanemura sensei for setting the bar so high, and I hope one day to have half of his credentials.

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There Will Be A Reckoning

4/2/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon

What interesting times we're living in! Nothing brings out people's true nature like a crisis, and we are seeing the beginning of a revolution. The world as we knew it will be forever changed by COVID-19, but the subject of this article is a slightly narrower scale.

As a Budoka, it is fascinating to watch the shift in dynamic of the martial arts industry as it faces collapse and frankly, I'm not too upset over it. For centuries, martial arts have been handed down through families and clans as life-saving skills of war meant to protect the ones you love. It is in this spirit that I run my dojo. We are purposely small and intimate, allowing us the opportunity to develop bonds that transcend the four walls of our commercial space. I don't just accept everyone with a credit card, but rather only those who will benefit the school as much as we'll benefit them. These bonds allow us the foundation of trust and mutual respect to push the limits of our training and experience with one another, the benefits of which are exponential. All of this is in stark contrast to the cultural norm we see today...

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No Standards In The Martial Arts

4/1/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon

For the better part of human history, martial arts prowess and authority has been determined by one's skill and knowledge. I mean, how else can you judge someone's legitimacy in skills of war except by their execution of those skills? It is only in the relative peace of the modern world that people began to even care about certifications, because we're so civilized.

Over the last few years, I have been blessed with numerous opportunities to travel the country and share my art. I've been able to network with some of the biggest names in the martial arts community, and have been asked to share my reviews and critiques as a "subject matter expert" on several projects by published authors. I'm truly grateful for every opportunity afforded to me, and I'd like to think the respect that I've earned is due to how I carry myself both on and off the mat.

It's been awhile since someone even insinuated that I or my instructor may be less than legitimate, so I'll admit the recent charade mentioned in my previous article (read here) caught me off guard. What's even more shocking is this "determination" was based solely on my age! In the martial arts community, there is a common sentiment regarding age and time restrictions when it comes to issuing rank and licensing, but as I've said before, there simply is no universal standard. Issuance of credentials are at the discretion of the headmaster or the governing body of that particular style, and their authority in such cannot be disputed simply because you disagree with their requirements.

But here's the kicker. Those same people wouldn't blink an eye at an Asian instructor with half of the experience claiming the same or even more. If my last name was Nakamura, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. For whatever reason, Westerners have this self-inflicted inferiority complex towards our Asian counterparts in what is considered possible and legitimate. We have a mystique about the Asian culture that clouds our judgement and leads us to revere those who really aren't that different from us.

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No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed

3/25/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon

Every now and then, some prosimian with a keyboard tries to hide behind a fake name on the internet to call someone else a fraud. Irony of this aside, this particular lesser ape has actually succeeded in making a pseudo-name for himself. Now, I don't normally use such derogatory remarks in my articles but this individual has chosen to self-identify as "The Monkey" and in today's politically correct climate, the safest thing is to just address people how they want to be. Far be it from me to assume he's a man.

For years, "The Monkey" has used the internet to write a blog about those he considers to be martial arts "frauds and fakes." Going through the list of everyone featured, some definitely are dubious and some definitely aren't. I won't go into detail on each individual featured on his site, but instead will focus on my own personal experience with him.

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Japanese Ki Centers and Christianity

2/10/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon

As both a Christian and a Reiki practitioner, I often encounter confusion of how I can intertwine the principles and practice of both. Surely Eastern practices of healing and energy cannot be Biblical, except that they are. Reiki* is the Japanese practice of energy healing. It consists of Gassho (meditation), Reiji Ho (invocation) and Chiryo (treatment). Chiryo invovles the use of various hand positions used to interact with the receiver at various points on their body, commonly known as chakras. In this article, I won't get into the scientific validity of Reiki and want to focus on justifying the practice and use of chakras from a Christian perspective as there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding.

Let's put aside the fact that Dr. Usui was a Christian preacher or that he discovered Reiki specifically while looking for an answer regarding how Christ healed through the laying-on of hands, which is mentioned numerous times in the Bible and exists in nearly all cultures globally, and instead discuss the chakras themselves.

The chakras, also called Ki Centers (this term will be important later), are located at various physical points on the body. There are minor chakras in addition to the main ones shown in the image but I am not going to discuss them here. Any scholar of theology will understand the importance of numerology. There are 7 main chakras, seven being the number for God Himself as it symbolizes completion and perfection.

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Real Vs. Practical

3/29/2019

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Author: Bret Gordon

With the explosion of the internet, social media is flooded with videos of martial artists from around the world demonstrating their art. This has also coincided with the rise of MMA, which has challenged the validity and practicality of many styles and their training methods (rightfully so). There are now entire websites and pages dedicated to exposing "frauds" in the martial arts. Unfortunately, because of the prevalence of MMA they don't always get it right. A common sentiment is that if you're not training BJJ, what you study is garbage. I get it, we're all partial to the arts we study. If we didn't think it was advantageous to do it, why would we? But the terms "real" and "practical" get thrown around a lot, and in this article I want to clarify the two because they are not the same thing.

For something to be real, it means that it is genuine. What you just saw really happened, and it was not faked or contrived. That said, not everything that is real is practical. For something to be practical, in a martial sense, it must be viable for self defense or survival in a live, violent encounter against another human being with malicious intent. Therefore, it is entirely possible for something to be real but not practical. That said, practicality is determined by the context something is being practiced for. You would not judge the practicality of archery by whether or not you can fire an arrow inside the Octagon. No one denies the efficiency of a side kick to the xiphoid process, except when there's a gun pointed to your head. Context is everything.

In order to demonstrate the difference between real and practical, let's look at everyone's favorite subject: "No Touch" techniques. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you've probably been living under a rock but to summarize, there are countless videos of martial artists using "chi" to move or throw another person without actually touching them. Now, there have been videos done where independent third parties have come in with medical equipment and detected measurable effects on the recipients of these techniques that otherwise have no explanation. That said, it was not able to be replicated on someone from the outside. Does this mean it was fake? No. Something happened. There was a physical, biological response to the stimuli offered by the person executing the technique. Because of its inability to be replicated with those who have not been initiated into the school, we can conclude that the response was triggered psychologically. The power of the human mind is something we still struggle to fully grasp, and if one believes they will be affected by something, they usually are.

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It's All About Balance: A Deeper Study Of The Arts

1/13/2019

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Author: Bret Gordon

One can hardly engage in any physical endeavor without hearing the term "balance." Depending on the context, this could mean anything from the way your bodyweight is distributed to making sure you're addressing all of your needs on a physical, mental, emotional, psychological and spiritual level. As martial artists, we tend to focus so heavily on the physical aspects of training that we neglect everything else. But as my last article addressed the spiritual refinement in Budo (click here to read), I want to get even deeper.

Historically, many of the most prominent martial artists were also healers. They were doctors, bone setters, massage therapists and energy workers. The truth is that these endeavors are not separate from martial arts. Rather they are an extension of them, so much so that to practice martial arts without delving into the healing arts is to never reach mastery. Unfortunately, the Chinese internal martial arts (Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and Baguazhang) seem to be the only arts that prominently feature the healing arts as a staple of their training, to the point that most people ignorantly believe that the classification of an internal martial arts signifies that it is meant solely for healing and not for combative purposes. This couldn't be farther from the truth. In this article, I want to highlight both what it truly means to be an internal martial art, what the healing arts are, and the necessity for studying them as part of your journey of Budo.

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USAMA BLOG

Not Always What It Seems

Forget Your Lineage - A Shout Out To Ryan Hoover

The Myth Of Cross Certification

Spotlight: Tanemura Shoto

There Will Be A Reckoning

No Standards In The Martial Arts

No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed

Japanese Ki Centers and Christianity

Real Vs. Practical

It's All About Balance: A Deeper Study Of The Arts

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