A Rant, because I can‘t…take this bullshit anymore

This is something that many might’ve noticed, it’s the fact that whatever becomes popular in a way that’s trendy or whatever that makes an individual stand out as some unique thing is usually what’s taught.

There was a time when Martial Arts were this “mystical” and “new” and “cool” thing. So people wanted to know more about that and train in it, then came the RBSD and again people wanted to go for that because that was something that wasn‘t too mainstream, then those same RBSD people wanted to switch to the so-called “Military Martial Arts” and “Systems Taught to Navy SEALs”, Why? You guessed it, it was something that was rare and exclusive and new and not too mainstream.

Of course, now people just create different versions of these above things and re-package it as something new and edgy and sell it to people who want to stay “current” with all the trending stuff.

So, what provoked this post? Well firstly, if I don‘t get this out, I will lose it and punch through someone‘s face, but since I don‘t want to go to jail, I thought, I‘d write an angry frustrated post! Also, I was watching this video today, made by a local individual who I had an “experience” with…no, not that kind of “experience“! Jeez! Anyway, in that video, I saw that the same guy who advocated MA’s for self-defense a few yeas ago, was now calling them obsolete and ineffective for it. Not only that, but was also just repeating what you hear a typical “RBSD” Instructor say in a typical you tube video. The irony? While “debunking” the so-called misconceptions, that individual was actually doing the same thing that the video was meant to debunk. It was the same b.s. stuff, same crap about focusing on the physical, same stiff open palm strike to the nose b.s. and same over head block b.s. while teaching all of this to not only men, but women as well.

Now I don’t want to say their name out loud, especially because this individual is quite famous here and has a lot of contacts and followers, which someone like me cannot and does not want to contend with. But it boils my blood to see that whatever will bring in the clients is what will be taught, even though it’s not understood by the “instructors” in it’s entirety and in depth and this is especially done by those who are popular and have enough contacts to make them even more popular. Networking over quality.

My question here is, How can you teach something when you don’t freaking understand it?!! Huh?!!

It’s like now Martial Arts here, are only for housewives and children. Kickboxing is only for people who want to sweat and just feel like they “did something“. Mixed Martial Arts is something that only “badass guys and gals” do and “RBSD” is something that only “super god-like Instructors” and “Military guys” do. There is zero mention of Conflict Management or even it’s aspect of Self Protection, which is not self-defense, nor there’s any kind of discussion on avoidance and preventative methods. “Instructors” mention self-defense and immediately go to these cliched “moves”. Not accounting for anything else, then call it “self-defense training”.

There’s often not even a passing mention of verbal factors or psychological factors or legal or societal factors or anything of such sort at all! Some barely sometimes would just say something like “Don‘t fight outside, because this is very lethal, don’t use it unless you cannot escape” No shit Sherlock! That’s not even the half of it! I mean what the actual fuck, man? This is what’s happening now? Really?…and the sad fact is that only a rare few understand that these things are not fixed for one type of individual, and when I say ‘rare’, I mean RARE, they‘re like unicorns here!

You know, I still get calls where people just want to “learn how to fight“, how to kick ass and take names and take on a billion guys at once! They’re not amateur or pro fighters btw, not that an amateur or pro can do that anyway, but still.. and when I hear these demands, I’m thinking “Why the hell do you want to fight? Are you insane?” So I just turn them away. I’d rather not have someone stupid like that train with me, it would be a nightmare just to handle their stupid giant ego and their mountain of misconceptions in their warped minds, honestly..

Here’s an interesting story about one instructor’s ego and their self-aggrandizing behavior though. This was about three or four years ago and today it brought back that disturbing memory. So it started when I contacted that individual, I messaged them greeting them, telling them how much their videos are a refreshing thing so see, and asked if I can meet them and talk in person and maybe even train together.

Apparently this individual is a “JKD instructor”… Who knows… Anyway, about these videos and why I complimented them, the thing is, they weren’t bad, compared to many others here, they did have these exact same cliched things though, out of context as well, but still, they were about how you should be careful of multiple opponents and the knife will cut you no matter what, etc. etc. usual basic stuff like that, good fundamental pointers in a way, no doubt, which is exactly why I thought, maybe this individual might be different than other ego-based instructors who don‘t care about anything but running a business, so why not ask them if they wanted to train with me and exchange ideas and stuff? It would be a great thing to have a like-minded individual so close by. It seemed like a great idea!…It wasn’t. That was my mistake though, wasn’t it? Thinking that exact thing. Yes it was! I’m a dumbass! You see, it turned out that, that individual was so freaking egomaniacal and so self-absorbed that they didn‘t know where their head began and their ass ended. It was so cringe worthy, that it was painful, it physically hurt my head.

So, the event; I messaged them, and at first they were quite indifferent and aloof and I mean, not in a “I don‘t know you yet, so I‘m not gonna open up” way, no, I’m talking about not even having the basic courtesy, I could look past that though, and I did, but the thing that was difficult to look past was that, it was more in the sense of a “I‘m better than you, I’m a celebrity and you, a nobody, is wasting my time” kind of way, you know the type? If you do, you’ll know what I’m talking about here. I mean I have spoken, and even still do, to people who actually are truly up there in the levels of skill, knowledge and experience and are extremely well-known for what they do, good people, great to talk to.

One example of that being, Rory Miller, and he is the most polite and educated and an extremely fun guy to talk to, he never once showed any kind of attitude when we spoke, he was down to earth like any average friendly individual, even though I was kinda nervous and was like a babbling idiot, he not only tolerated me, but actually spoke to me nicely and he‘s an extremely busy guy! I was a stranger! To whom he had never before spoken! My god! The difference here is immeasurable! Of course, I had to stop, so I wouldn‘t make a complete fool of myself, it was embarrassing in a way, but compared to the other individual mentioned here, it was awesome! BTW, I know I‘m fan-girling out right now. Shut up! I’m just proving a point here!

In fact, now that I think about it, it was around a couple years after I spoke to the ego guy. One of the reasons why I was nervous, I thought I might have another similar experience here as well (I was wrong). So, my point, even though Rory Miller, is an extremely busy guy who‘s way above in skills, knowledge and experience than myself, he still treated me with common courtesy and genuine basic human respect. But this individual had the audacity to behave in such a rude, “holier than thou” manner? What kind of mindset must that individual have? The comparison is disturbing. I feel sorry for the students that train with that ego-maniac. It must be like living in a dictatorship, but they must love it, due to developing a cult-like mindset in a cult-like environment.

Anyway, moving forward from my little inception tangent rant within rant. So I asked to meet them and exchange some ideas and train with them, and their response? “I have been teaching for more than six years and I don‘t meet with individuals who are not at my training level, I will let you play with one of my junior students, if you want playtime. Okay I‘m busy now”. That was a word to word reply btw, I copy pasted it. As soon as I read that, well, I just refrained from messaging them any further. What do you even say to someone like that? Later, I saw some of his students training, and honestly, it just looked like a scene from a typical dojo. Even though they weren’t wearing a Keikogi and Obi, it wasn’t a training session, it was a typical freaking worshiping session in a money dojo.

I swear, even though I have washed my hands of this stupid “RBSD” industry now, I’m still haunted by its stupidity in one way or other and still come across people like that even today, it’s just that now I know better and avoid them altogether. When I come across someone like that, I somehow instinctively know what kind of an instructor that individual is, just by the way they conduct themselves and talk to other people, it‘s weird, their behavior is weird, it appears as an abnormality to me. Just as the observational skills to spot “off” individuals and potential threats. It’s like having “Neo vision“ for idiots.

The thing that’s frustrating beyond belief to me though, is that people still wanna learn from these a-holes instead of the truly good ones, and not just that, they want to learn whatever new thing comes along without questioning its effectiveness for the purpose they want to train in it, and it‘s the ego-based instructors who “know everything” and the ones who just run a business, not an educational training facility, who capitalize on that new trend, get people in and brain-wash them and just create more mindless drones! No one questions these things! They‘re just like, “I want to learn kickboxing because I want to learn self-defense” and I’m here thinking…“How the hell does that even connect?” Can anyone help me here? Is no one else going through this? Is it just me? Am I an idiot-magnet here? Or am I just a crazy whack job who’s over-reacting due to all the built up frustration about this bullshit? Either way… I really wanna be done with this now…

Rant over and so is my patience for this idiocratic system and its mindless followers!

Thanks for reading though…If you did, even I didn‘t read it back. I just wanted to get it out.