If you’ve been involved in the martial arts for any length of time, you’d understand the amount of politics involved.
Infact, a well known Thai Boxer once told me, “there’s more politics in the martial arts than there is in the Whitehouse”.
It’s TRUE! And I couldn’t agree more.
I try and stay away from politics at all cost but sometimes no matter which way you turn, you somehow tend to get involved, either by design or as a coincidence
But I have to tell you, the one thing that I hate more so than politics, and really gets under my skin, is the blatant disrespect of former students. You know the ones I’m talking about…the ones that think they know everything there is to know about the martial arts and go out on own to teach there own school and somehow seem to forget how they got there in the first place. They seem to forget that if it wasn’t for you, they’d probably still be breaking boards and working forms up and down the hall.
Their egos run rampant and out of control and they have absolutely no respect or conscience as to their actions. They think that because they’ve dabbled in the martial arts for a few years, that they’ve automatically earned the right, of calling themselves the leading martial arts school of a particular brand of martial arts, in one of the major cities in their state, when clearly they lack the experience, maturity and knowledge of far more senior instructors. Furthermore, even more disrespectful when they decide to open up a school literally 13 minutes away from where you are, when they’ve clearly signed a non compete agreement, stating that they need to be a minimum of 16 kilometres away.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m neither jealous nor vindictive, its one thing to promote your school in an ethical way, meaning you actually are the leading martial arts school in your city, and on the other hand completely unethical to use the term leading martial arts school of a major city, when clearly there are two other instructors in the same city, far more senior to him and with greater depth of knowledge and experience than he’ll ever have. Two instructors with a combined cumulative knowledge spanning over 50 years experience under their belts, and having earned the respect of their peers through many years of hard work and dedication, not through blowing their own trumpets on social media sites and free listings.
If he would have said that he was “one of” the leading martial arts school as opposed to “the leading martial arts school”, that wouldn’t have been an issue. But to make out that you’re the authority, knowing very well that you’re not s just a disgrace.
The one thing that this person doesn’t understand yet is it that life has a way or sorting things out. I could have easily taken the legal approach but life has a way of issuing them with a metaphorical bitch slap that suddenly knocks them off their perch. It forces them to grow up and realise that they’re very small part of the echo system and insignificant in the bigger scheme of things.
Just because he wears an instructor’s shirt, doesn’t necessarily make him an instructor. With the shirt comes respect, humility, integrity, dignity, compassion, ethics, morals and responsibility. These are the qualities that I look for, and unfortunately for this individual, these are the qualities that he’s lacking. Furthermore, this individual has been rewarded for his poor behaviour in the past, when what he really needed, was a size 8 shoe up the rear end.
Let me leave you with this, If you knew there were roughly 4 million people in your city. Would you really have a need to open a school 13 minutes away from your former instructor?
Do you really think that by wearing an instructor’s shirt, that it makes you the best instructor in your city? And furthermore, should we reward individuals for their poor behaviour?
I look forward to you responses, Until Next Time Stay Cool.
