Just some observations

1. Too many martial arts students have too many false assumptions about what violence is. Unfortunately those assumptions are only reinforced during practice.

2. Too many students too caught up with the form of the art rather than the doing, i.e. "Sensei! Should I be turning my left foot at a 45 degree angle or a 46 degree angle?".

3. White students telling me what is or what is not proper in a so-called "traditional" Japanese dojo that's located nowhere near that country makes me feel annoyed.

4. Realizing that I'm getting annoyed at those white students for telling a Japanese person like myself what is or what is not "traditional" when in fact I'm culturally Westernized makes me want to laugh...and then slap myself.

5. Too many students too caught up with the style rather than the principles.

7. Too many students falsely believing that what they're learning from their Tuesday/Thursday night one-hour martial arts class is going to help them "in the street" when the time comes.

8. Finding most dojo to be filled with hobbyists rather than serious martial artists.

9. It really is true that the Person makes the art, not the other way around.

10. Although most modern martial arts students will probably never have their skills be tested (and I don't mean for a belt promotion), it is still dangerous to be taking a martial arts class that does not at least give to the student the chance to experience a simulation of physical violence with non-compliant partners.

11. Too many students (and teachers!) too caught up in the tradition of the damn thing rather than being concerned about what informed that tradition in the first place.

12. I'm not joining your dojo for a lesson in Japanese culture (I can get that by going online or enrolling in a Japanese class at my local community college). I'm joining because I want to have confidence in civilian self-protection.

13. Too many damn students thinking they're being good students by always blindly following "tradition".

14. There are of course benefits to having a formalized/standardized way of training, but when the training becomes so formalized so as to dissuade you from thinking critically about it (or even changing it), that's called stupidity.

15. Recognizing that although I have all these concerns and critiques about training, my own training is lacking in many of these areas.That needs to change dammit!!!

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até