The disciple eventually learns the
first lesson: He must submit to the
teachings of the master if he’s ever to
amount to anything.
It’s dramatic — but mostly fictional
nonsense. First, good teachers have
never been plentiful. A good teacher,
in the old days as today, was more
likely concerned with turning away
hopeful students than he was with
“proving” his worthiness to a pro-
spective disciple. Also, if a student
needs or demands some kind of
demonstration as to his prospective
teacher’s skill, he is unlikely to make
much of a disciple.SECOND — and this is far more impor-
tant for us to consider — the idea
that there’s a level of skill or even an
art that will allow one to engage in
combat without breaking a sweat or
even wrinkling one’s shirt is foolish.
Yes, there are many stories of great
swordsmen in old Japan who engaged
in duels and managed to defeat oppo-
nents seemingly without exerting any
effort at all. That is largely because a
sword, like a gun, has the potential to
kill easily. One cut could have decided
the outcome. (Not incidentally, many
of those tales of sword combat are
exaggerated. We know of several
duels that ended when one participant
lost his nerve and fled, only to be cut
down from behind.) That kind of “one
strike, one kill” does not translate into
unarmed combat of the sort many of
us train in today.
The reality is that nearly all encoun-
ters of the kind for which we train, no
matter how skilled we are, are likely
to be brutal and nasty and require a
willingness to absorb some kind of
pain or injury in order to do worse to
an opponent.
“You can get out of any joint lock or
pin,” one teacher of the Chinese grap-
pling arts noted, “as long as you’re
willing to allow the joint or bone
to be broken in the process.” That
sounds extreme, but it illustrates the
danger faced in serious combat. Yes,
there are some awesomely talented
practitioners out there, and some of
them are excellent teachers. But they
are not magic. And in many cases, a
part of their skill is the willingness to
endure pain, to take hits in order to
deliver their own weapons on target.IT CANNOT BE REPEATED often
enough, particularly to young people
who are just beginning their training,that if there was an easy, effortless way
to fight, to succeed in a violent situ-
ation, people would not be spending
thousands of hours learning and then
practicing how to do it. There’s no
point at which one transcends physics
or the limitations of the human body.
Against even a very unskilled oppo-
nent — no matter how good you are
— you have to put everything into the
encounter and expect to absorb your
own injuries in the process of inflict-
ing some. This is not an attractive
picture, I know. It is in cruel contrast
to the fantasies of hundreds of mov-
ies. But it is reality.IT’S ALSO FOOLISH to believe that a
serious contest of any kind, whether
it is the old master besting the pro-
spective young disciple or a duel or
challenge, will not result in injury.
Notice how in these movies, the
disciple is conclusively humiliated
in his defeat — but he’s never signifi-
cantly injured. He “learns a lesson”
in the encounter. Somehow, though,
the extraordinary skills of the master
teach this lesson without doing any
lasting damage.
Can you imagine how this would
work in real life? A stranger comes
to the dojo and requests a fight with
the teacher. The teacher obliges —
and breaks the challenger’s jaw. Or
accidentally blinds him. How soon
do you think it would be before the
police and lawyers — lots of lawyers
— were involved?
Encounters between old masters
and young disciples are entertaining
on the screen. Whether you’re either
one, however, or you wish to be, it
might be best to tell yourself this: It’s
only a movie.Dave Lowry has written Karate Way
since 1986. For more information
about his articles and books, visit
blackbeltmag.com and type his name
into the search box.That kind of “one strike, one kill” does
not translate into unarmed combat of
the sort many of us train in today.
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 BLACKBELTMAG.COM 23