If you are a martial artist, and you follow or have a following of martial artists in your social network, you no doubt have seen countless memes about the art and have read a plethora of different martial arts motivation posts.
The sheer amount of toxicity that gets passed around as "a good post" in some of my network's mind has me absolutely staggered. Although initial drafts of this post were written in a much more terse voice, I have scaled it back the best I can, because I remember a time when I didn't see the forest for the trees like I do now. I took a class in college a long time ago, that really explored the messaging in pop culture and how it speaks to us. It was an eye opening class, one that allowed me to see a lot of subtle messages in the media we consume that sometimes we don't even realize we're receiving.
What I'd like people to take away from this post, especially school owners, is that your students are very likely going to hang (sometimes unhealthily) on everything you say and post. My hope is that by pointing out some of the toxic messaging in this, I can get you thinking a little bit more about what you post.
Let's take this example, a favorite among black belt instructors and school owners as a start:
First off, we attach a picture of the patron saint of all martial arts, the one and only Bruce Lee. So of course, as martial artists, it must not only be true, but it must be some nugget of wisdom that came from the legend himself right? No, google "should you be practicing" and you'll find the image of Bruce replaced with any number of other objects and graphics. That's only one small problem with this piece, another is the messaging itself.
First off, as a working adult, with two kids and a wife that expect me to spend time with them, I can't follow this picture. Yet, I can't help but feel just a tiny bit of inadequacy when I see peers or worse, instructors post this. It makes me want to reach out to any instructor and ask them if this is what they really expect from their students. Having the expectation that your students practice every waking hour of their life is not healthy. It's not healthy to consider, and it is even more unhealthy to push on your students. I'm glad as a teenager I didn't train in the social media era, because if my instructor had posted this, I might have quit all of my other activities and my job and tried this. Hyperbole? Maybe, but I hung on everything my instructors said - and had they said something like this, you better believe I would have tried. There is nothing like unsupervised practice to bring out the absolute hardest to break bad habits for most people though - is this really what you want to deal with?
Looking specifically at this picture, the first branch starts a major problem with the message here. "Are you the student - yes or no". Well, according to a lot of the other propaganda I see passed in the martial arts, I thought we were all life long students - so how can you even have a no answer?! This is a paradox isn't it? Let's ignore that glaring detail, and look at what happens when we say no which leads to the real problem with this piece.
"Find the most difficult technique - practice it". How does this not infuriate you and immediately show you the invalidity of this piece if you know anything about instruction? You don't get better by practicing the "most difficult technique" at anything. You accomplish the most difficult technique of anything by being really, really good at what makes up that difficult thing - the basics. If you don't understand the problem with suggesting that someone practice the most difficult technique as a proper course of action, you should maybe not be teaching. Do you teach Moon-Moo to white belts? No, you teach them Chon-ji, but by this picture's logic, we should be teaching white belts the most difficult form in the entire 24 form set. I have seen with my own two eyes people who can do complex aerial techniques but couldn't front kick out of a wet paper bag. It's toxic messaging at this point.
Let's look at another aspect of this that is totally wrong - and sends a contradictory message at best and a hypocritical message at worst to your audience. "Is there someone better than you?".
You, school owner or instructor or person of influence who posted, or is thinking of posting this meme; is that what the martial arts are you to? A way to be better than someone else? What happened to all the other memes about the only person we are competing with is ourselves? What happened to humility? You didn't think about that? You didn't think...but you consider yourself a person of high quality or influence...hmmm.
Look, I get it, I'm not trying to be the fun police, and I get the lighter gist of this is that we could all practice more. I'm telling you all, that there are better ways to get that message out there. For instance, instead of a post like this, how about you take a picture of yourself practicing at some strange hour, or while on vacation, and making your own meme? I have told my students on numerous occasions that when I was a serious competitor, I would watch TV, but get up and hold a stance for the entire run of a commercial break.
Here's another pair I can't stand:
Ok, these messages are true, but only by default. Of course the master has failed more than the beginner has tried, he's been doing it for years. Same with a black belt who "never gave up". Is this what you want your experienced students to see - that you are equating their only difference to a beginner being the number of times they have failed or the lack of "quit"?
You want to know the real difference between a beginner and a master? How about X number of years of dedication to the arts? What about precision, and technique mastery, of hours sweating, and missed family events for testings, tournaments, seminars? How about years of self study, of networking and self motivation to be the best martial artist you can be because you surpassed the title of beginner about 6 months into your training? Did we suddenly forget all of them in an attempt to create a saccharine message for potential new students?
There are no similarities between a beginner and a master, and there is a heck of a lot more to a proper black belt than just a no quit attitude. Do you really want your new students to read this and think "all I have to do is survive in class a long time and I'll be gifted a black belt"? Because, when I read this, that's what I see. If you are going to bemoan the "participation award generation" for being too soft, perhaps make sure you haven't posted messaging to advance that mentality no?
Here is by far the worst example of this meme:
With respect, to GM JR West, this is just a completely illogical statement spawned from the pools of over-romanticized nonsense. Let's spin this another way - if your doctor walked in to your hospital room on the day of a surgery and said to you that he still considered himself a beginner - would that fill you with confidence? If my hip doctor had said "Well DK, I have done over a thousand of these surgeries, but I still consider myself a beginner at it" I would have walked out. Beginners are supposed to make mistakes, and that is ok. If you aren't holding your black belts and masters to a higher quality level than a beginner, you are doing it wrong!
Again, I get it, martial artists like to believe they are humble and like to teach the message that there is always something to learn. Here's the problem - if you don't just inherently know that there is always going to be more things to learn by the time you get to black belt, then you haven't been paying proper attention. If you have to remind your student body of this over and over with memes on social media, you are not teaching properly. Also, and again, way to belittle your advanced rank. Why even differentiate with rank if this is the way you feel - just go back to the myth that there never were any colored belts and that a black belt was just a white belt that got dirtier and dirtier over time practiced.
I'm not a person to not offer better alternatives, here's a few I do like that get the same messages across in a better way:
This sums up being a black belt kind of perfectly. This speaks so much more to what makes a good foundation for an excellent black belt and eventual master - way more so than the previous examples. It does this without minimizing the work or the accomplishments of your existing body.
Here's another one, aimed at beginners that I love - because it really makes a great solid point, again, without looking at established ranks:
A simple message, that gets the point across. Hell, I'd rather be a bad black belt than a dude sitting on the couch. So this message even motivates me, a sixth degree black belt!
These two messages are some of the examples of a messaging type that gets the proper points across. You're not preaching a lifestyle of unchecked physical conditioning, or bringing down your existing group of students in the hopes of attracting new students by minimizing the amount of work that goes into martial arts accolades - you are using actual positive motivation.
Memes and messages are powerful, and as school owners, instructors or even people of influence, we need to be aware of what we are really saying when we post things.
First off, as a working adult, with two kids and a wife that expect me to spend time with them, I can't follow this picture. Yet, I can't help but feel just a tiny bit of inadequacy when I see peers or worse, instructors post this. It makes me want to reach out to any instructor and ask them if this is what they really expect from their students. Having the expectation that your students practice every waking hour of their life is not healthy. It's not healthy to consider, and it is even more unhealthy to push on your students. I'm glad as a teenager I didn't train in the social media era, because if my instructor had posted this, I might have quit all of my other activities and my job and tried this. Hyperbole? Maybe, but I hung on everything my instructors said - and had they said something like this, you better believe I would have tried. There is nothing like unsupervised practice to bring out the absolute hardest to break bad habits for most people though - is this really what you want to deal with?
Looking specifically at this picture, the first branch starts a major problem with the message here. "Are you the student - yes or no". Well, according to a lot of the other propaganda I see passed in the martial arts, I thought we were all life long students - so how can you even have a no answer?! This is a paradox isn't it? Let's ignore that glaring detail, and look at what happens when we say no which leads to the real problem with this piece.
"Find the most difficult technique - practice it". How does this not infuriate you and immediately show you the invalidity of this piece if you know anything about instruction? You don't get better by practicing the "most difficult technique" at anything. You accomplish the most difficult technique of anything by being really, really good at what makes up that difficult thing - the basics. If you don't understand the problem with suggesting that someone practice the most difficult technique as a proper course of action, you should maybe not be teaching. Do you teach Moon-Moo to white belts? No, you teach them Chon-ji, but by this picture's logic, we should be teaching white belts the most difficult form in the entire 24 form set. I have seen with my own two eyes people who can do complex aerial techniques but couldn't front kick out of a wet paper bag. It's toxic messaging at this point.
Let's look at another aspect of this that is totally wrong - and sends a contradictory message at best and a hypocritical message at worst to your audience. "Is there someone better than you?".
You, school owner or instructor or person of influence who posted, or is thinking of posting this meme; is that what the martial arts are you to? A way to be better than someone else? What happened to all the other memes about the only person we are competing with is ourselves? What happened to humility? You didn't think about that? You didn't think...but you consider yourself a person of high quality or influence...hmmm.
Look, I get it, I'm not trying to be the fun police, and I get the lighter gist of this is that we could all practice more. I'm telling you all, that there are better ways to get that message out there. For instance, instead of a post like this, how about you take a picture of yourself practicing at some strange hour, or while on vacation, and making your own meme? I have told my students on numerous occasions that when I was a serious competitor, I would watch TV, but get up and hold a stance for the entire run of a commercial break.
Here's another pair I can't stand:
Ok, these messages are true, but only by default. Of course the master has failed more than the beginner has tried, he's been doing it for years. Same with a black belt who "never gave up". Is this what you want your experienced students to see - that you are equating their only difference to a beginner being the number of times they have failed or the lack of "quit"?
You want to know the real difference between a beginner and a master? How about X number of years of dedication to the arts? What about precision, and technique mastery, of hours sweating, and missed family events for testings, tournaments, seminars? How about years of self study, of networking and self motivation to be the best martial artist you can be because you surpassed the title of beginner about 6 months into your training? Did we suddenly forget all of them in an attempt to create a saccharine message for potential new students?
There are no similarities between a beginner and a master, and there is a heck of a lot more to a proper black belt than just a no quit attitude. Do you really want your new students to read this and think "all I have to do is survive in class a long time and I'll be gifted a black belt"? Because, when I read this, that's what I see. If you are going to bemoan the "participation award generation" for being too soft, perhaps make sure you haven't posted messaging to advance that mentality no?
Here is by far the worst example of this meme:
With respect, to GM JR West, this is just a completely illogical statement spawned from the pools of over-romanticized nonsense. Let's spin this another way - if your doctor walked in to your hospital room on the day of a surgery and said to you that he still considered himself a beginner - would that fill you with confidence? If my hip doctor had said "Well DK, I have done over a thousand of these surgeries, but I still consider myself a beginner at it" I would have walked out. Beginners are supposed to make mistakes, and that is ok. If you aren't holding your black belts and masters to a higher quality level than a beginner, you are doing it wrong!
Again, I get it, martial artists like to believe they are humble and like to teach the message that there is always something to learn. Here's the problem - if you don't just inherently know that there is always going to be more things to learn by the time you get to black belt, then you haven't been paying proper attention. If you have to remind your student body of this over and over with memes on social media, you are not teaching properly. Also, and again, way to belittle your advanced rank. Why even differentiate with rank if this is the way you feel - just go back to the myth that there never were any colored belts and that a black belt was just a white belt that got dirtier and dirtier over time practiced.
I'm not a person to not offer better alternatives, here's a few I do like that get the same messages across in a better way:
This sums up being a black belt kind of perfectly. This speaks so much more to what makes a good foundation for an excellent black belt and eventual master - way more so than the previous examples. It does this without minimizing the work or the accomplishments of your existing body.
Here's another one, aimed at beginners that I love - because it really makes a great solid point, again, without looking at established ranks:
A simple message, that gets the point across. Hell, I'd rather be a bad black belt than a dude sitting on the couch. So this message even motivates me, a sixth degree black belt!
These two messages are some of the examples of a messaging type that gets the proper points across. You're not preaching a lifestyle of unchecked physical conditioning, or bringing down your existing group of students in the hopes of attracting new students by minimizing the amount of work that goes into martial arts accolades - you are using actual positive motivation.
Memes and messages are powerful, and as school owners, instructors or even people of influence, we need to be aware of what we are really saying when we post things.
