To Fight or Not?

As a young man I believed martial arts was a way of building good character, developing physically and mentally, building self confidence/self esteem and learning to live a more peaceful life. The last was the most disconcerting element to come to terms with as you had to do it through FIGHTING.!!

Was I naive, and am I still, to hold on to these ideals. The students in our association invariably put the qualities above as their goals when applying to join.

Assuming I am not alone in these desires why do we have to listen to so called martial artists who come across as no more than thugs and braggarts who use their skills and physical prowess to intimidate the public and other martial artists?

One such man made a name for himself by fighting a 'Master' and acting as if this was some sort of achievement. The Master was an old man, and was advertising himself as the world's greatest street fighter, which was surely nothing but hot air and hype and, he hoped, good for his business. There was a personal animosity between different Wing Chun camps and it spilled over very publicly.

Now let's bring some common sense. An old man approaching 50 was saying he is the Worlds Greatest Street fighter, and telling wonderful stories, and travelling the world giving seminars. A young man meanwhile was being trained solely to beat this older man and was in excellent physical condition. When the confrontation happened the old man was beaten. Is this really a surprise to anybody?

If you claim to be the world's greatest street fighter, who are you beating? Drunks from pubs, a loudmouth who shouts or upsets you? They are not the world's other great street fighter’s. Every city in every country has many great fighters, and most are not martial artists. They are tough, they can take pain, and through experience have learnt to get better at fighting. They do not need martial arts, some may easily defeat many martial artists. A great fighter does not have be a martial artist, but a good martial artist can fight. And depending on his aptitude and preparation could be a great fighter.

As a teacher I teach the public. I teach virtually anyone who wants to learn and as such have done my small part to spread martial arts. I teach and train only in Wing Chun Kung Fu but have respect for any other artist who loves what they do. It is obvious that most students want to learn for enjoyment, fitness and to acquire wonderful new skills. They want to defeat the person who tries to assault them in some way. They want to learn SELF DEFENCE but would rather not have to use it. The average aggressor would not expect his victim to be capable, and will not knowingly attack a person they feel will beat them, and if they did fear this then a weapon of some description would be used.

I had my fair share of challenge fights and street fights. The street fights were meaningless as I fought someone who had no idea I had any ability. The challenge fights were mistakenly fought for ego and for someone else's misplaced ego/honour. I have never at any time been the instigator of a fight. Most of them just happened when someone who had been training hard decided to simply turn up and have a go. This is surely a form of cowardice, a bully trying to put someone down, knowing full well that you were neither courting or expecting a fight. A martial artist should always be prepared, but it is impossible to always stay in the kind of shape possible when training to peak for a known challenge.

Ticky Donovan, Kevin Brewerton, Alfie Lewis, Bill Wallace etc. have proven themselves time and time again against opponents who prepared for them and for whom they equally prepared. I admire great fighters. I love Wing Chun even after so many years. However, martial artist should not fight martial artist in the manner which is being reported. Their reason to fight is simply to fight, like animals. Boxers fight to improve their lifestyle, for money. The fight is contained in a ring with a referee and judges and some semblance of humanity. They have the pre fight hype but the whole thing is controlled, the two fighter are both willing participants who have due notice to prepare and will often cancel if they pull a muscle, bruise a knuckle or have flu.

I know that I have the capability to take someone's life, I know that other martial artists have the capability to do the same. Why flirt with such danger when you are not gaining money to feed your family and you are not in a surprise situation where you have no choice but to fight. If you fight for ego, then surely that ego is misplaced. Every martial artist wants to know how good he is but most are intelligent enough not let that feeling rule them.

As a teacher I have to teach my students with a sense of responsibility and impart into them some values and respect and hope to build good character. They are told not to fight, but are taught how to if the need arises. Where is the need with these thugs who claim to be martial artists. I once sat with a well known Wing Chun stylist who told me he loved the sound of a leg breaking when he had kicked it, he then asked me if I loved to fight. I was passive and it came to pass that we had to spar, I took him apart. I was pleased I could, but worry for the poor members of the public who are drunk or abusive and proceed to upset his ego and he proceeds to attempt to break their leg. Some other questions also come to mind. Was I just better than him on that day and was I better than all those people he had claimed to have beaten, or did I just have an awkward style for him.

A teacher sets goals for his students and his wish is for the pupil to outgrow the teacher. What example do you set by going out and fighting others and putting them down?. The student must not be encouraged to follow such an example. And the teacher who does fight and argue in this way does not necessarily ensure that he is producing better fighters. It is obvious to any teacher that some people have more innate qualities than others and that this will be a large factor in their improvement alongside good coaching. I have taught boxing champions, world class wrestlers, martial artists of high calibre, and many had not had street fights. They contained their ability. But you could not deny that they could fight, certainly well enough to beat most people most of the time. Surely that is what a student wants. In classes throughout the world many students are young, some are slight, weak, older, in these circumstances the teacher who acts from ego is not acting for them but for himself.

My role as a Sifu is to protect students, and possibly to have the audacity to ask, or wish, more of them than I am capable of myself. I now firmly believe that a person can not lose his/her self respect or have their ego damaged by someone they have no respect for. If your family thought you were a fool it would hurt, but if some lout called you a fool, why care for his opinion? It's certainly not worth fighting over. But you will fight to defend your family and those set upon who are less able to look after themselves. I am well capable of defending myself but many of the people I love and teach are not.

I had the humbling experience of training a 21 year old man dying of cancer. He loved martial arts, he wanted to train with the best and mistakenly believed publicity equalled ability and authenticity. His love was Wing Chun and he joined a 'famous' Wing Chun school in London. His cancer was of the sinuses and later brain. Surgery had removed his top pallet and his sinuses had been severely damaged and he, therefore, had a speech problem. The instructor took his money happily but ignored him, and the students beat him to 'toughen' him up. He eventually came to our Association because we had a branch locally to his home. He trained with my students and fought bravely every day, to beat his cancer. He had terrible pain, dizziness, shortness of breath. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy took their toll. My students helped him when he was tired. He never asked why me? He died a horrible death, but took precious moments to thank us for the love and support. There are much greater fights and challenges, for much greater causes that remain to be faced. This is what I would hope to impart into any student willing to listen. My students eventually helped carry him proudly to his grave.

A person who does not wish to fight is no coward, some of the challenges we have seen in our lives puts these meaningless ego fights for publicity in perspective. We all have our own personal fights, struggles and worries to live with.

I became a teacher to help others enjoy the style I love and to help them with fitness, self defence and develop a martial art spirit. I hope I am right in stating that the vast majority of martial art teachers do in fact feel this way.

Let's keep the positive face of martial art in full view. Thank you for taking the time to read the ramblings of another martial artist 'with attitude'..............

Learn to walk away from trouble...........

James Sinclair

Achieve, but do glory in the results.

Achieve but do not boast of the results.

Achieve results, but not through violence.

Force is followed by loss of strength

Only do what needs to be done.

Do not take advantage of power.

Counsel others not to use force to conquer the universe.

This only brings resistance.

And thorn bushes spring up

When the army has passed