In the working world, OJT is the acronym for “On the Job Training”. Just about every industry has a version of it: construction, clerical, service etc. The problem with OJT in the martial arts world is that it means that you are figuring out what do to in what could be a life-threatening situation.
How Americans improved martial arts:
Firms and certain groups in Southeast Asia are notorious for, taking an American idea, improving it, and making it uniquely theirs: the car, the computer, the television, washing machines, etc. Martial arts is the reverse. It is an industry that was invented by Asians and was dramatically improved by Americans. Sparring, tournaments, academic excellence, discipline all of these are American creations that improved martial arts.
When martial arts were invented in was taught as a form of exercise to monks that lived in the Shaolin Monastery. There was no militaristic discipline at the time. Over time the Monastery was burned down and the Monks scattered to places like the Japanese mainland, Korea, and the Island of Okinawa. At first, martial arts were taught to individuals in secret at night, then over a period of time groups started being trained. In the 1800s Gichin Funakoshi created the first martial arts school; a style of martial arts he named “Shotokan Karate which is still practiced today. Though there were other formidable originators of their own form of martial arts: Mas Oyama, Gogen Yamagugi (Who’s style I was originally trained in by one of his disciples in the 60”s.) Funakoshi ‘s system was the first to reach international fame so he is credited as the first school for profit originator.
After World War II with the reconstruction of Japan underway, American soldiers began to study and practice martial arts. It was the American soldier that put the “martial” in martial arts. The term “Martial Art” literally means military way. After the infusion of “Martial” influence “Martial Artist” in general became a lot more dangerous because discipline, which is the cornerstone of the military, is the thing that allows a person to override emotions like fear and stand fast in the face of danger; before its induction into training ordinary farmers and villagers would simply run away when faced with a life-threatening situation as in the case of the Monks of the Shaolin Temple.
The Revolutionaries:
Robert Trias - (The man who put the “Martial” in “Martial Arts”)
In the 50’s“Martial Arts” pioneer Robert Tria opened the first professionally run “Martial Arts” school in America; it taught a karate based style known as “Shuri – Ryu, an eclectic style with roots in Chinese Kung-fu. Trias served in the United States Naval Reserves in World WarII and is credited as being the first one to teach civilians self - defense techniques with high levels of military discipline, in effect putting the “Martial” in “Martial Arts”. Trias understood that all the self – defense skills in the world were useless if one did not have the discipline to control one's emotions.
Ed Parker – (The creator of tournaments)
Soon after Trias opened his school, Hawaiian born Edmund Parker open his studio in Honolulu. Parker created a style of “Martial Arts” known as American Kenpo another eclectic style based on Chinese Kung fu. Though Parker incorporated Trias ideology of teaching self – defense with military discipline he promoted the notion that “Martial Arts” was flawed because it based too much of its teaching on theory and conjecture. He began to invite open-minded owners of schools to get together and compete against one another to get an idea of how “Martial Arts” would really work in as close to a real-life situation as was possible; thus tournaments were born. His events were named “The Long Beach Internationals” and were some of the most successful tournaments of their time. Most of his events had thousands of competitors.
Jhoon Rhee - (The Father of American Tae Kwon Do)
Jhoon Rhee, a Korean born practitioner of Tae Kwon Do who immigrated to America took Parker’s idea further and invented foot and hand pads made out of foam rubber that allowed sparring participants to make contact while fighting. Once students were allowed to make contact they began to modify the use of techniques so that they landed with maximum effectiveness. Gone when the days of theoretical hyperbole, in came the days of facts based application. These three individuals revolutionized the “Martial Arts” profoundly by making its use in a real-life situation guaranteed to be a success.
It took a very long time for ”Martial Arts” to get where we are today, in fact, centuries. If not for the hard work and determination of a few forward-thinking individuals martial artists might still have to wait until they were confronted with situations that could have catastrophic endings if something when wrong before they knew if what they were taught really works.
A TRUE STORY, AND LEARNING LESSON
I received my first black belt in Japanese Goju in 1969. It was a system of karate that proclaimed that the teachings were too dangerous for students to spar one another and that it should only be used in real life. When I joined the Army I was studying Northern Style Kung Fu, a style that also prohibited sparring. Both systems because of their “ inherent danger” prohibited the association with other systems and discouraged tournament participation.
In 1970, as a private in the United States Army, I was sent to Fort Leonard wood Missouri for Advanced Individual Training. Within a month I had had several racially charged verbal assaults hurled at me but never a fistfight. One night my friend and I (a Hispanic American) went to the base night club to have some fun. We were sitting listening to the band when the bartender came over and handed me a free glass of beer (a practice that he did eight times). I remember saying to my friend that things were not that bad here and that maybe I had gotten people wrong. Most of the beer was drank by my friend; though I was keeping my own steady pace I drank a lot less than him. (I always had a fear of getting drunk in public because, where I grew up people who were drunk walking the street usually got beaten and robbed.)
After about, the eighth beer was consumed the bartender came back, but this time he wasn’t carrying a glass of beer he was carrying a club. He began shouting at me that I was being drunk and unruly and that he wasn’t going to tolerate that kind of behavior in his place. Slightly bewildered because all that I was doing was sitting there, in a second or two I realized what was happening. (His game was to get me drunk, accuse me of being disorderly, and the beat me up.) I stepped away from him and calmly stated that I was not drunk and that I was definitely not being disorderly. He would have none of it and moved in and began to physically attack me, pushing me and threatening to hit me with the club. The other soldiers around me began to shout at him that he was wrong and that I did not do what he was saying. Suddenly, and quite without thinking, I shouted, “this is a setup, you purposely tried to get me drunk so that you could beat me with that club. If you’re so F- - king tough drop the club and let’s go outside.
He took me up on my offer. Outside, in front of the bar, we squared off (my friend was holding my coat, and a crowd surrounded us). After a moment of sizing each other up the beefy bartender took a swing at me, (it was a wild haymaker right). As I leaned back to avoid getting hit I felt the concussion that the wind makes when the fist whistled by. (It was like being in a Volkswagen in the left lane as a tractor-trailer passes you in the fast lane.) I remember thinking to myself,” this guy is dangerous, I better finish him quick”. I Stepped back, got into a “Cat Stance”, as he came in I launched a foot kick. (It bounced off of his huge torso and hardly affected him). Disheartened, I did a “Nippon Da Ki ”(a kind of circular punch with a wrist snap at the end of it). He stood back and laughed at me. Enraged and totally pissed, (not at him but at all the time that I had lost learning BS) I flew into him and reverted to the street fighting tactics that kept me safe when I was a child. I want to take a moment to elaborate on my feelings at the time because it is extremely important to get this message across; before I got pissed I experienced a sensation of extreme helplessness and profound vulnerability. I had spent years preparing myself for a moment like what was happening and was supremely confident in what would be my chosen response. In fact, I had even rehearsed various scenarios in my mind in the likelihood of such an event happening. There truly are no words that can describe the helplessness you feel when your safety mechanisms do not work. Imagine putting on a parachute and jumping from a burning aircraft, when you pull the ripcord only ropes come out because somebody forgot to pack the parachute.
That’s the kind of sinking desperate feeling that I had; a feeling that nothing that I could do could change things at this point, and that I was doomed. You don’t want your child to have to go through that.
Because of my natural gifts of pugilistic skill, I was able to beat the bartender easily, but the lesson that I had learned about theory vs realism would stick with me for the rest of my life.
The first chance that I had I quite the theoretically based school that I was attending and joined “Roberts Karate” (a Tae Kwon Do based system of “Martial Arts” that promoted tournament participation). Not only was I good at Tournament fighting, but I also became the East Coast Champion, transitioned into full contact and the rest is history.
Today there isn’t a professionally run ”Martial Arts” facility in existence that does not promote the participation in tournaments as a form of prevention from and adjustment to the disorienting and paralyzing fear that can come with some of life’s most stressful situations: public speaking, defending one's self, applying for a new position, and group leadership. Savvy instructors know that On the Job Training in any of those situations can result in disaster and take steps to ensure their student's survivability by insisting on their participation in a friendly tournament.
Shouldn’t you do the same?