Origins of our street orientation

THE bitter truth that there are more fake gurus in martial art than in the guru business hit me. I was 11 years old. Bullied beyond a snapping point, I wanted to draw some blood real bad.

Many gurus begin to believe their own lies. If you repeat a story long enough you begin to open yourself to the possibility that it may be true, and everyone believes in something. Beliefs are keepers of our reality and sanity.

However if your beliefs are harmful then you harm people who trust you and eventually harm yourself.

I trusted every teacher I went to, because in martial arts students have no option. And teachers need to respect the student’s trust or all hell breaks loose.

In the eighties martial arts in india was at it’s infancy. There was a choice between bad karate and worse karate. So I got my brown belt in bad karate but declined the black belt exam, because I didn’t want to grow an attitude of superiority like most black belts I knew,  also, it was bloody expensive to get a black belt.

However my teacher knew I could teach, that was my first job, a job I never stopped doing. I began to teach karate for the street, incorporating lessons I had learned from the best teachers, bare knuckle fists, shoe heels and knives. The classes were very successful. I used to get Rs 1000 as my payment, considering the fees for karate was Rs 30 that was a lot of students.

The street orientation is something I believe in and keep even in Shootfighters today.

Does martial art lead to spiritual development? Sure. But first learn to receive the first promise of martial arts, self defence. Spiritual growth is a slow thing.

Does martial arts help you lose weight. Except sumo wrestling yes!

Real fighting, not competition

So many reasons to learn martial arts. So its not surprising that the primary reason gets buried. That’s self defence in case you’re wondering

Keep self defence in focus and every other benefit will follow. Make it a low priority and every other benefit suffers! so keep it real, know why you’re here!

Ashwin

THE bitter truth that there are more fake gurus in martial art than in the guru business hit me. I was 11 years old. Bullied beyond a snapping point, I wanted to draw some blood real bad.

Many gurus begin to believe their own lies. If you repeat a story long enough you begin to open yourself to the possibility that it may be true, and everyone believes in something. Beliefs are keepers of our reality and sanity.

However if your beliefs are harmful then you harm people who trust you and eventually harm yourself.

I trusted every teacher I went to, because in martial arts students have no option. And teachers need to respect the student’s trust or all hell breaks loose.

In the eighties martial arts in india was at it’s infancy. There was a choice between bad karate and worse karate. So I got my brown belt in bad karate but declined the black belt exam, because I didn’t want to grow an attitude of superiority like most black belts I knew,  also, it was bloody expensive to get a black belt.

However my teacher knew I could teach, that was my first job, a job I couldn’t stop doing for long. I began to teach karate for the street, incorporating lessons I had learned from the best teachers, bare knuckle fists, shoe heels and a knife. The classes were very successful. I used to get Rs 1000 as my payment, considering the fees for karate was Rs 30 that was a lot of students.

The street orientation is something I believe in and keep even in Shootfighters today.

Does martial art lead to spiritual development? Sure. But first learn to receive the first promise of martial arts, self defence. Spiritual growth is a slow thing.

Does martial arts help you lose weight. Except sumo wrestling yes!

So many reasons to learn martial arts. So its not surprising that the primary reason gets buried. That’s self defence in case you’re wondering

keep self defence in focus and every other benefit will follow. make it a low priority and every other benefit suffers! so keep it real, know why you’re here!

Ashwin