“How come black belts get beaten up?” This was the question posed to me by a young university student who mentioned that he might be interested in studying martial arts. I understand his question because you would think that someone who practices martial arts would easily win a physical confrontation. However, that is not always the case. While I’ve written extensively about why this happens, I’ll give a brief answer here.
The first answer is that studying martial arts in most parts of the world is a hobby. Maybe you go to your local karate class once or twice a week for a few hours, maybe you practice on your own, and maybe you’re serious about it. This leads people to think that they have honed skills because they “study” karate, but this can be compared to someone who thinks he is an expert on the Bible just because he goes to church on Sundays. You get out of it what you put into it.
Second, while there are some great instructors out there, a lot of them suck and/or aren’t really qualified to teach. Many instructors teach martial arts as sports because they can be more profitable and attractive, but they never reveal to their students that they are learning a sport rather than a method of self-defense.
Thirdly, there is the difference between a “Do” and a “Jutsu”. Martial arts were first developed during feudal times and were strictly combat methods, or “Jutsu”, which means science or method. Many experiments were conducted on both prisoners and captured enemy soldiers to identify how the body worked and how it could be damaged and healed. During more violent times, martial arts became more aggressive and brutal, and during more peaceful times some of the brutality was removed and sometimes philosophical elements were added. Thus, martial arts have existed in a constant cycle, becoming more brutal and effective in more violent times and less violent and flashier in more peaceful times.
A martial arts education was not cheap, so often only the upper class could afford expert instruction. Therefore, most of the skilled martial artists were also very well educated in general, and sometimes held various medical occupations or other professional occupations as day jobs. The more educated they were, the more philosophical teachings they received and the more they added it to martial arts to moderate their violence. Therefore, at certain times, in certain circles, it was not enough to be skilled in martial arts, but you were also expected to be a “scholarly warrior” and it was not uncommon for skilled martial artists to also be poets, painters, or artists. accomplished. artisans
In the 1800s, Japan ended its feudal era and entered the modern era by embracing Western culture. When this happened, the brutally effective fighting techniques of martial arts were seen by some as unnecessary and even barbaric. Some Japanese feared that martial arts could fade away due to the changing attitude of cultures.
Then, in 1860, a rich kid is born who later has trouble being bullied. He learns Jujutsu, which is a Japanese martial art consisting of various joint locks, throws, and neck-breaking techniques. Thinking that the art is too violent for the new Japan, but also seeing the physical, mental, and cultural benefits that training provides, he decides to rework the art and invents judo. Both arts emphasize the same key principles (“Ju” means gentleness, or going with force instead of against it), however, Jujutsu was the practice of “Ju” as a fighting technique, while Judo is the practice of “Ju”. “for the purpose of personal. development.
“Do” (pronounced “Dough”) means “the way.” Jujutsu is the “fighting technique of using minimal physical force to kill or incapacitate” and Judo is “the way of using minimal physical force to defeat an opponent during a sporting event and using that as a vehicle to develop character and mental and physical strength.” Judo is a sports version of Jujutsu and, being a non-violent sport, people embraced it.
The government also adopted it because they were developing their military and saw the practice of judo as a way to prepare people for military service. By the way, the “character” Judo was meant to develop is not our Judeo-Christian character we think of, but the traditional Japanese character of being a good Japanese citizen and doing what you’re told without asking questions.
Turning martial arts into “doing” became popular. From Jujutsu came Judo, from Aikijutsu (a branch of Jujutsu) came Aikido, from Kenjutsu (sword fighting) came Kendo (“the way of the sword”), and from the weapon arts of Bojutsu (fighting with a bo staff). , Saijutsu (fighting with a sai), and many others came from Kobudo (“the way of traditional weapons”).
The same thing happened with Karate. Karate developed on the island of Okinawa (now part of Japan) and dates back to at least 1372 AD, when official trade relations were established between Okinawa and China. Soldiers from Japan invaded Okinawa in 1608 and it remained occupied by Japanese soldiers until 1879, when it became an official part of Japan.
From 1608 to 1901 it was illegal to practice any native fighting art and therefore Karate was practiced in secret and remained largely a “jutsu”. The purpose of karate, which Okinawans drew heavily on the martial arts of China, was to allow one person to render another unconscious or dead as quickly as possible, by any means possible, though it favored punches over takedowns and punches. joint braces unlike Jiujitsu. After it was legalized in 1901, many people opened schools to teach it publicly and it even began to be taught in the public school system (which, again, the Japanese government saw as a great way to prepare people for military service). Okinawan karate grandmaster Itosu, who taught both in his private school and in the public school system, of course did not want to teach the fighting apps to school children, so he watered it down a lot and made it in a “do” thus founding “Karate-Do”.
The purpose of Karate-Do was not to teach the student how to maim, kill, or even actually fight, but rather to use the practice of Karate as a vehicle for physically strengthening the student, training their “warrior spirit” and teaching them the desired values and character.
During the same time periods, one of Itosu’s students, Gichen Funakoshi, was in Japan doing the same thing. He was credited with introducing the Okinawan art of karate to mainland Japan and felt the same way that his teacher made karate a “do” and even used the term Karate-Do.
Another Okinawan karate master named Choki Motobu came to Japan around the same time and was the complete opposite. Motobu believed that Karate was for self defense, so he taught Karate-Jutsu. Both Masters Funakoshi and Motobu were trained by some of the same people, but the former taught Karate primarily as an activity, while the latter taught Karate primarily as an effective form of self-defense. It turned out that Funakoshi would become much more popular even being called “The Father of Karate”.
Most of what we know about karate today can be traced back to Funakoshi. His system, “Shotokan Karate”, as well as the systems created by his students, are among the most popular systems practiced today. The most popular martial art in the world today is the Korean art of Taekwondo. Many are surprised to learn that the founders of the five major Taekwondo schools studied Funakoshi’s Shotokan Karate in Japan; therefore, the art of Taekwondo (“the way of hand and foot”) is more or less the Korean version of Funakoshi’s Shotokan Karate.
What this all means is that most martial arts, especially in the US, go back to Itosu and/or Funakoshi and are really Karate-Do, which is meant to “build character” not to teach you effective self defense. While there are many styles of Karate-Jutsu in the US, they are the exception.
This can be very confusing because most wear the same uniforms, issue the same belts, and very few have “Do” or “Jutsu” in their name. I’ve seen people do “Do” systems for years without realizing it and you can see them standing there thinking, “Okay, I’ve been here for 2 years and any day now they’re going to teach me how to stand up for myself.”
If you want to learn how to defend yourself, stay away from arts that end in “Do”, make it clear to the instructor that you want to learn an art designed to teach you how to defend yourself (you can even ask if their art is more of a “Jutsu” or “Do”) .
So if your brother’s uncle’s cousin has a black belt and he gets beat up, he didn’t take his training seriously, he has a poor instructor, he trains in Karate-Do and not Karate-Jutsu, so his black belt doesn’t it’s in an art to protect him, or he just took a legitimate beating from someone better than him.