Too much chocolate, as good as it can taste, will make you sick.

Too much training, as much as people say “more is better,” can cause you some serious joint damage, like it did me. The picture above is one of my two artificial hip joints, now more than a decade old.

Many of my peers are enjoying their new hips too, although let me tell you, there’s NO PLEASURE in what leads up to a hip replacement. It’s all discomfort and pain, back, leg, and hip pain, loss of movement, and a slow and agonizing realization that you’re dreading the walk to the car, to the store, through the airport, and/or anywhere (forget running to catch a ball, backpacking, or performing martial arts at a high level).

But the great news about hip pain is it’s your hips! It’s not your neck! Or lower back. This is a joint that can be replaced and, literally, give you your life back. 

Now let me ask you, what’s the equivalent of the worn out hip joint to too much focus on “business?” What wears out when you do things, over and over, that have the potential to wear out parts of you that are both hard to find and costly to repair? I see it all the time in martial arts school owners. 

They wear out their passion. When school owners get caught up in the trap of sales, sales, sales —they wear out their sense of mission and intent and purpose. So my organization, The 100. —is fast becoming the repair shop for career-inspiration-replacements. The work can’t be seen in an x-ray, but it can be found in the bounce of the step in people formally hobbled by a focus on endless sales and membership campaigns, giving pizza parties and ice cream socials, looking at every student as just another pay-day, and losing their focus on the here and now. 

Running a martial arts school business is both simple and painfully complex. Raising children is both simple and painfully complex. Maintaining healthy relationships is both simple and painfully complex. Living is both simple and painfully complex.
 
Simple
I rise every morning (so far), I show love and respect to everyone around me, I eat sparsely, simply, and for health, I practice good hygiene, I exercise my body with physical work and with the practice of the martial arts, I exercise my mind through reading, listening, discussing, and contemplating that which inspires me to think/learn, I exercise my spirit by turning what I consider to be spiritual practice into tangible action (compassionate thinking, words, and acts), I seek to do good for others; SIMPLE.
 
Complex
What am I here to do? Who can I help? What is the greatest thing (or things) I can tackle and/or engage in? How can I contribute to the work of others in a way that is the perfect use of whatever it is that I have inside of me —and/or within my reach —that could connect with the Divine?

What do I need to learn, do, and put into action that will cause me to transcend the limitations I carry in my own mind? How do I become a Master in the true sense of the word —and what is that supposed to mean for the people in my sphere of influence —and for the world? Am I living in the moment? Complex.

What I Think this Means for the Martial Arts Teacher (as I Exercise / Practice my self-appointed role as Teacher)

Understand that your school’s success (how that is measured is contingent upon your maturity / ambitions / experience / consciousness) is built upon very simple practices —and at exactly the same time, matching perfectly each simple issue —is a vastly (and perhaps “painfully”) complex counter-issue. This isn’t, in my opinion, a “problem,” but a wonderful crayon-box of potential for mental / spiritual / emotional growth and play-time.

And depending on where you choose (and ideally, we “choose” instead of being hooked into) to put your focus, “things” can look and be as simple as Steps 1, 2, and 3, and/or so beautifully complex, rich, and deep that you have to stop and stand still, while the tears roll down your face, in awe, in wonder, and connected to something that you just can’t find the words to express.

Martial arts school management is what it is. It is what you want to make it. It’s a “business” separate from “the martial arts,” or it isn’t. It is a place you make money or magic or both or none-of-the-above. It is your school (as in where YOU learn) —or it isn’t.

In my work, my only real job is to stay awake and aware of the simplicity and complexity of what I am doing and the potential of what I might/can do —AND, my intent is to cultivate the same kind of awareness / action in my students (my teachers).

A Letter to a Martial Arts School Owner: An Introduction to the work of The 100.
 
You own a martial arts school, a club, teach a class, or plan on doing something along this line in the future. I’m here to introduce you to my work, as it relates to your work.
 
My name is Tom Callos; I took my first martial arts lesson in 1969, when a judo teacher invited me on the mat. I started studying Taekwondo at age 11 —and for the last 40 years I’ve made it a point to try and find the best ideas, the best methods, and associate myself (learn from) the smartest people I could find.
 
I have failed miserably. I’ve succeeded wonderfully. I’ve failed to inspire, to profit, to lead, to succeed, and to pay attention when I should have —on more occasions than I can possibly remember. I have also managed to succeed at a healthy number of things —and the losing and winning, failing and succeeding, being arrogant, abrasive, and downright stupid, as well as being open-minded, willing to change, and coming from a place where I was truly “thinking clearly,” make my advice and council something that you might find worthwhile.
 
That being said, I can’t teach you. I can’t teach you if you don’t respect me. I can’t teach you if you’re so full of what you already know that there isn’t room for something new. I can’t teach you if you’re full of fear or suffer from some kind of crippling ego issue or if you have a belief system that says you’re too busy, too old, too young, or that you come from a “traditional” style that doesn’t make room for things learned from people outside of your “system.”

 
I call my group The 100. —and the idea comes from a letter that Ms. Rosa Parks once sent me (in 1993). The short story is that her letter made me wonder if 100 martial arts MASTERS could, collectively, equal the power to influence, serve justice, and to make change in the world like the diminutive 42-year-old seamstress who, that historic day, simply refused to give up her seat on the bus in order to perpetuate racial discrimination.

The 100. is like a college, in that it provides general education to the beginner —and then gradually asks the student to narrow his or her focus based on personal interests and passions. As a 100. member moves through his/her career, the idea is to begin to work on advanced concepts, like a master, that allows a martial arts teacher/leader to do the work that speaks to her sense of purpose and mission-in-the-world.

My personal mission (in-the-world) is to use my skills, experience, and chutzpah to re-define the role of the martial arts teacher and the martial arts school in today’s world. To do that we must redefine the meaning and definition of “self-defense.” We must design non-partisan educational programs that enhance our understanding of issues such as healthy eating, dietary health issues (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.), hyper-masculine behavior, gender discrimination, violence, non-violent conflict resolution, leadership, bullying, and a number of other topics that would make us smarter, more relevant, better leaders and teachers, and more important members of “the village” it takes to make better, higher-functioning, more participative citizens.

I’m looking for very smart, very proactive people, preferably martial arts teachers who have trained hard enough and smart enough to distinguish what’s dysfunctional in the martial arts community —and what we have the potential to create (and do) in the world. However, I often accept people into The 100. who are not “masters” of any particular art, but who just don’t subscribe to the paradigm supported by the “martial arts industry.”

Here’s what you get if and when you join The 100. You get to be around someone who doesn’t believe you’ve reached even 1/10th of your potential. You get to be around someone (a group of us really) that believes we’re here for something more than the limited definition currently promoted in the martial arts world.

You get to be around a group of people who are looking to elevate the work, the sense of mission, purpose, and intent of it all. We’re here to change the way the general public looks at the “Sensei” (or whatever you choose to call yourself) —and the actual way the martial arts teacher works in, contributes to, and influences his or her community.

We call this “good business” —and “our business.”

I help school owners with their schools and careers. I help school owners recognize what is bullshit and what is genius, what’s worth perpetuating and what should probably be discarded, and what works and what is probably not healthy. I connect smart people. I invent programs designed to scream “WE ARE WHO WE SAY WE ARE.” I’m here to subvert the dominant paradigm of the “martial arts industry,” as it’s failing, miserably, to organize itself in a way that is indicative of the “mastery” we claim the study of the martial arts instills.



If you can’t see why you would ever be involved in something like this —or to put yourself in a place where you might listen to someone like me —don’t worry, I understand. There are a 1000 people in my world I should listen to, but don’t. I recognize that I can’t hear much from people I don’t know and respect, that I don’t learn much when my head isn’t in the right place, and that sometimes, no matter how smart someone is, they simply are not, ever, going to be “your teacher.”

I blame all of the above on my teacher, Master Ernie Reyes, Sr., who, when I was young and in exactly the right place to learn some life-lessons, taught me about what it takes to be a champion, a father, a leader, an athlete, a student, a teacher, and a centered, participative human being.

The 100. represents the things I’ve learned, the things I hope to learn, and the kind of association and community I’d like to be a part of.

Tom Callos

Every year I invite a group of martial arts school owners and teachers on a 4-day “eco-adventure” where we put our belongings in backpacks and head out to explore life outside of our normal daily routines. It’s a 4-day business meeting really, but instead of flying into some smoky, noisy hotel in Las Vegas or some other carpeted, blacktopped circus of consumer un-consciousness, we head to a place where the sidewalks are dirt and wildflowers, where the water runs cold over the rocks, and where even a cup of instant coffee tastes like the best brew Starbucks has to offer.
 
This year we are heading to Lake Tahoe and the Pacific Crest Trail. We’ll strike out from Echo Lake and make our way to Carson Pass and back, which is just a stone’s throw from the area known as Desolation Wilderness. We go to spend time together, to turn off our electronics and disconnect from some of what keeps us so very disconnected.
 


My motive for the trip is to reacquaint my friends to the simple pleasures of time spent outdoors; you see, I believe that each of my guests have an opportunity to do the same for their own students —and it’s my long term goal to help start a “movement” in the international martial arts community that ends up taking thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of “karate kids” out into nature. I’m a big fan of the book, Last Child in the Woods, and so this trip is meant to be the catalyst for a lot of other trips to make sure that young people who study the martial arts connect time in nature to mental, emotional, and spiritual self-defense (as that’s exactly what it is).
 
There are, currently, only a handful of martial arts schools in the world that have any kind of curriculum component that requires (or encourages) students to spend time outdoors. These eco-adventures are my way of saying time in nature, unstructured playtime especially, is as important to self-defense as anything else we do.
 
When you spend time with your feet on the ground, when you sleep under the stars, and when you move only as fast through your surroundings as your legs can manage, you have some time to slow down, to contemplate, and to experience life without the latest celebrity updates, your Twitter feed, and the never-ending shock-and-awe assault of advertising. You get some time to talk and listen, to look and see, to hear and appreciate.
 


We need self-defense from wall-to-wall carpet, from ads for adult diapers and Viagra, from the latest news about self-indulgent celebrities, from the horrors of far too many wars and “conflict zones,” and from the want, want, want of a thousand things that we don’t genuinely want or need. While 4-days on the trail hardly stands as a counter-balance to the hundreds of days each year we all spend living and working in so many artificially illuminated boxes, it’s a start; it’s a statement; it’s a request; and it’s a part of the on-going training that every master teacher of the martial arts should not only go through, but introduce to students as a way to find some clarity and simplicity in a world that is both so far —and so close —to nature.

I’d like to suggest that readers visit www.treehugger.com

Here’s a link to Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods.

Here’s a link to my martial arts association for school owners, The 100.

Here’s a link to a book by Andreas Cohrs about a friend of mine, Colin Fletcher, who inspired me to explore life with everything you really need to own…on my back. Colin walked the very trail we’ll be on this weekend. 

Teaching People The Martial Arts: Two Pieces of Advice
 
I’ve been studying and practicing the martial arts for 40 years and helping to teach and/or leading my own classes for more than 30 of those. At 51 years of age, I believe I still have much to learn, about life, about teaching, and about how to make the time I have invested in the martial arts something more than just a narcissistic fascination with the subject.
 
While I acknowledge that I still have a long way to go, the following thoughts / observations represent some things I have learned about the martial arts (practicing, teaching) thus far. I reserve the right to change my opinion about anything I write, but as of today, I believe these things to be true (and if not “true” then simply the version of truth that I operate from at the present):
 
 

Fitness 
When designing a martial arts school’s curriculum (and a school’s curriculum should, always, be in a state of perpetual redesign, as it must evolve as the teacher’s awareness evolves — or, in other words, the curriculum grows up as the teacher grows up), fitness should be the primary goal of the first year’s worth of training.

But I’m not referring to just physical fitness, but to dietary habits, the understanding and execution of how and why to set long term goals, attitudinal fitness (will anything else hurt us as much as our attitude about things, circumstances, people, etc.?), fitness of relationships, the health of one’s role as a member of the community, and mental health.
 
In addressing “fitness,” we are actually addressing self-defense at the highest level, as habits and attitudes about food, wealth, health, anger, simplicity, family, relationships, tolerance, contribution, and the habit of regular exercise (of the body, mind, and spirit), are more relevant to self-defense in today’s world than are any set of techniques, blocks, arm-bars, or kicks.



Instructor Education
Every instructor worth his/her weight in gold comes from a background of long-term and intense physical training and practice. Of course, “intense practice” is a relative term, as the standards for training, fitness, and practice in the martial arts community are all over the board. Some people earn their black belts showing up for 1-hour classes 2 or 3 times a week, while others prepare for their tests like they were getting ready to compete in the Olympics.

So let’s acknowledge that intense physical training —and an immersion in all things physical with regard to the practice of the martial arts —is a given for the teacher. But, if we are to elevate the martial arts to something more than just “good exercise” and the execution of techniques, we need a kind of instructor education that far exceeds what is currently available —and/or emphasized in the martial arts community.

We need teacher training that deals with anger, gender and racial discrimination, all forms of violence, food and the production of food, and health issues like those represented by the top killers of adults in today’s world (like heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [lung diseases], diabetes, and kidney disease).

Well, we don’t HAVE to have —or emphasize —this kind of instructor training in the martial arts community, as we can very easily define our role as teachers of hand-to-hand combat, vigorous exercise, sport fighting, and “traditional” arts, but if we did embrace higher education as teachers, we could, quite literally, change our role in today’s world.

By changing our role, we would change our value to our communities and the world.

Instructors, I don’t think we should allow “the martial arts industry,” as it is today, to define our role and the services we can or will provide. As it in now, if you open the trade magazines for the martial arts, it’s a mix of hucksterism and commerce that for me —and a lot of other martial artists (not to mention the general public) —is simply a reflection of some real base thinking. We could and should be aiming a LOT higher.

In much the same way as we have learned the intricacies of our various arts, we could educate ourselves in any number of relevant-to-self-defense topics, like those mentioned above.

Your/our curriculum, in the future, should (must) include a more comprehensive approach to “self-defense,” than that which is offered in most schools today. The Internet makes this idea much easier to implement, but it’s our attitude and beliefs about what the role of the martial arts teacher is —and/or should be —in today’s world, that will most dramatically affect our value in the future.

About The Author

Tom Callos oversees www.The100.us, the “alternative radio station” of martial arts associations and teacher training programs in today’s international martial arts community.

Fast Overview of Our Benefits:
 
1. Veteran martial arts teacher Tom Callos runs this association —and what that means is 100. members get an overwhelmingly honest, creative, and intelligent approach to business and marketing.  Tom doesn’t distribute, endorse, or encourage stupid marketing or management tricks. He’s known and well respected for producing material and curriculum that makes careers, makes money, and makes sense.
 
2. The Smartest Work in the Martial Arts Industry. While the martial arts industry repeatedly promotes marketing concepts such as birthday parties, VIP passes, sleep-overs, text message spamming, and standing in the lobby of theaters to solicit patrons before and after martial arts films, Tom Callos teaches 100 members about anger management and environmental self-defense programs, community activism and film-making, and on-line digital campuses to enhance curriculum.
 
The martial arts industry is stuck in the freshman year of school owner development, endlessly repeating the same ideas. The 100. is a school and a classroom for masters who have moved beyond the basics and are tackling advanced concepts for dominating their markets and building programs of value.
 
3. Get Help With Your Work and Your School. You’re not like everyone else, are you? You have a certain overhead, specific goals, experiences, and skills (weaknesses too) that make you and your situation unique.

Maybe your specialty is MMA? Maybe it’s self-defense? Capoeira or Taekwondo or traditional Karate or Aikido? You might have 3 children or own your own building or have a rent of $1000 a month or live in a town of 50,000 people, whatever your situation is, it needs to be considered when developing a plan.
 
The 100. doesn’t force you to embrace the status quo, The 100. is about developing your strengths, analyzing and overcoming your weaknesses, and working on your own unique vision of your career —even as you change.

There is no better form of help for the school owner and/or master teacher.

4. The 100. is a think tank —and the best ideas, hands down, in school marketing, management, and curriculum design are coming from this organization, period.

5. The 100. is a networking center, a community of like minded people who aren’t going to follow the pack that has already lead the martial arts industry into its most embarrassing and impotent period in history.

To see where the talk turns into action, visit The 100.s revolutionary on-line campus. School owners and managers may have a one week trial, click here to begin.

This post and the following ideas are completely and totally brought to you on behalf of The 100. I am actively looking for martial arts school owners and instructors who are ready to shed the nonsense and trivial pursuits of the status quo in the “martial arts industry” (birthday parties, VIP passes, sleep-overs, self-defense courses that don’t teach self-defense, and the endless pursuit of more, more, more, while creating less value than ever before, etc.). 

Someone has to step up for change —and a change of direction for the martial arts. If the following piece speaks to you, you are invited to a 1 week trial of our on-line campus, think tank, and center for change and improvement in the international martial arts community; click here: http://thenewwaynetwork.ning.com/?xgi=1NL7sCCyS8aka0

—Tom Callos

In 1 Year’s Time

In 1 year’s time you could:

• Get in the best shape of your life —-and bring 100 people with you.

• Learn enough about food and the food industry to add a legitimate “dietary self-defense” component to your curriculum.

• Produce 365 (minimum) videos depicting why you are a teacher / person worth studying with.

• Write 365 blog posts explaining what it is that makes you and yours any different from them and theirs.

• Teach 10 others how to blog and film about their own martial arts journeys —and in doing so produce 10-times the content on the web, explaining to people what it is that makes you and yours worth the time and energy.

• Completely ingratiate yourself with your local public school system.

• Produce THE most comprehensive bully-prevention website in your community’s history.

• Record 100 “Bully Stories” to accompany the site.

• Increase your student count by at least 100 students.

• Design and implement a system for listening to —and communicating with —your students and the people in their sphere of influence, in a way that decreased your student drop-outs by at least 50%.

• You and 40 others could log 100,000 acts of kindness, which would represent a community PR and promotion campaign worth $100,000.

• Create and populate an on-line campus that supports and enhances what you teach on the floor (and in a way that NOBODY in your community has ever done —or will do for some years to come).

• Create a full and realistic plan for financial freedom and any sort of retirement you dream of (more of less).

• Save 1 child’s life.

• Learn about and embrace domestic violence education, rape issues, gender discrimination, environmental self-defense, diabetes awareness, hyper-masculinity and violence education, and 10 or so other subjects that would make you a teacher who has taken his/her self-defense study to a new and relevant level.

• Own “Self-Defense (Your Community)” —and teach real self-defense, relevant to today’s world, better than anyone has or does within a 100 mile radius of you.

• Be almost exactly where you are today, 12 months from now. Same amount of students, nothing new learned or implemented, and searching the martial arts billing services and “consulting” firms for “new” ideas about how to get and keep new students.

Forget your karate, your taekwondo, your aikido, your gung fu, your jiu-jitsu, your kenpo; mixed martial arts (MMA) is the ultimate martial art.

Mixed Martial Arts –In Perspective

By Tom Callos (originally published, July 20, 2007)

Mixed martial arts is the perfect art for the space it occupies. I mean, why not use what works when it’s needed? Why not forget a style’s country of origin, its founder, history, and lineage? Who really cares what art a technique is from? Hey, if the kick works, if the choke chokes, if the punch lands, who could ask for more? When you’re in the Octagon or any fighting ring, you’re on the spot -there’s no time for history or philosophy, there’s only time to do what you’ve come to do.

I love mixed martial arts for its efficiency, for its no-nonsense approach, for its adaptability, and for its lack of baggage. It is the ultimate martial art for the 625-square-feet of space that makes up a 25’ x 25’ ring.

The only thing is, and it’s worthy to note: Life does not take place in the octagon. The rules of MMA practice and fighting, the whole UFC fight thing, well…it’s made for the ring. And, of course, the point here is that life is, unlike the ring, BIG. 

Life is REALLY BIG!

The rules that work so well in any ring, don’t apply to the big, big world. No, for the world, to live here in peace, to let our children grow up and love, live, reach, enjoy, and prosper, there are lots of other things they need to know.

This then, all you “karate teachers” (replace “karate with your style, system, method, etc.), is a wake up call (if you need one).

If you’re going to define your art with “fighting” in the first paragraph of th description of what you do, then it’s my opinion that you have limited your overall value to the tune of about 625 square feet.

If you realize YOUR playing field is the world (read: large!) –and teach accordingly, then your style gets big too, and it has value, and a greater ability to make a difference (in a much larger and, dare I say, more relevant way).

If your primary focus is kicking, punching, grappling, etc. -well, it’s your choice isn’t it? It doesn’t make you bad or weak or anything, that is except less valuable to the world.

Teach more than fighting, teach things that are important for the world, not just for the ring.

Fighting Belongs in the Ring

By tom callos

(Originally published March 31, 2008)

I have been grappling (pun intended) with the brutality of fighting in the UFC and the other MMA fighting venues. I mean, on one hand, I love it. I love the technical aspects of the fighting, the diversity and no-nonsense realism. On the other hand, I am often repelled by the violence, by the crowd’s behavior, and the spectacle of it all. I attended a UFC event in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and before and in-between the bouts they broadcast –on giant screen TV’s in the stadium –these images of a Roman gladiator preparing for and then walking into the Coliseum. I had to look around me at the other spectators and wonder if anyone else saw the irony in it.

As I understand it, the gladiator games were used by the Roman government to appease the masses –they entertained the general population and kept them distracted from the harsh realities of their own lives – while allowing the Government to do, for the most part, as it pleased. With the “war” in Iraq and all the other shenanigans of our and other governments, I couldn’t help but think about the statement that “history repeats itself.”

Until recently this love-hate relationship with the spectacle of professional MMA fighting had been going on in my head –and then BOOM, one day I just got it. I realized that the ring is exactly where fighting belongs –and that it is a million-times more civil, more dignified, more acceptable, and more just than fighting that takes place outside of the ring.

Fighting belongs in the ring, not in the streets. Fighting between two consenting adults, trained and ready, is the way fighting should go; it should never involve innocent men, women, and children. Children should not become homeless or lose members of their family because one government has a beef with another. We shouldn’t force children to run, burned and naked, from their homes –or risk being blown up by land-mines or unexploded munitions because two political bodies are fighting over the control of resources. Fighting in the ring between MMA fighters is at the top of the fighting food chain –while fat politicians sending poor kids fromMichigan to fight useless battles for nothing (but in the name of “freedom”), is at the bottom.

In professional fighting you don’t have to see the mutilated bodies of innocent children, you don’t have to tend to villages blown to bits; you don’t have to worry about car bombs blowing out the eyeballs of your loved ones. No, from now on, when someone asks me if I think MMA is too brutal, too violent, I’m going to tell them that fighting in the ring is the most civilized and non-violent form of fighting and that, in fact, fighting ONLY belongs in the ring.

I’ll teach my students, from here on out, that fighting in classes, on the mat, and in the ring isnoble and that it serves a purpose. It is the only way fighting should manifest itself; that is, as a game or contest. When you fight in the ring, you face yourself, your fears, your strengths and weaknesses. There are spectators who enjoy the game you have prepared yourself to play –and there is a referee to keep the game on track and to keep the contestants from being permanently injured. Both participants willingly step into the ring; they’re not conscripted or coerced to be there. They go into the fight of their own free will. When it’s over, they’ll give each other a handshake or a hug, and there won’t be anybody’s life or lifestyle ruined because these two fighters got in the ring and fought each other.

So all of you professional martial arts teachers out there –encourage your students to fight, in the ring –and never, unless for self-defense, anywhere else. The next time you watch an MMA bout or any professional fight, enjoy the fact that the two athletes in the ring are playing a game –and while they may often be young, brash, and theatrical, their contest isn’t going to kill innocent people. Their fight isn’t going to make any mothers and fathers wail in sorrow –the victims of insane politics.

MMA is Saving the Martial Arts, Not Hurting It
 
By Tom Callos
 
Some, but of course not all, of the “traditional” martial arts world is up in arms about the destructive forces of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). MMA is characterized, incorrectly I might add, as the tattooed fighter, the guy with more biceps than good manners, and represented by wonderful role models like the clean cut boys from Tapout (I missed meeting Tapout’s part owner “Punkass” at the “Martial Arts Industry’s Supershow,” when I decided I would take at least a 10 year vacation from any event related to “The Martial Arts Industry”).  

Bruce Lee was MMA, as was a lot of the martial arts visionaries that came from Japan, Korea, Okinawa, Malaysia, India, and China. The fact that the UFC is the violent, hyper-masculine, sexist frontman of what works in the “cage,” and what doesn’t —and that its spectacles capture a bigger audience than Obama’s speeches, Al Jazeera, and NPR together, doesn’t mean that MMA isn’t also a healthy wake-up call to the martial arts world.
 
In the 1970’s there were just as many punks, proportionately, in the traditional karate point-fighting world as there are today in MMA. My friends and I had long hair, we cussed like sailors, we drank —and more —when we could get away with it, and we talked smack about almost everything we experienced.

If we had been unfortunate enough to have cameras and microphones shoved into our faces back then, like a lot of the young toughs do today, we’d have said just as many stupid things as they do. Albeit, they would have been stupid 1970 and 1980 things, which were, as I recollect, kinder, gentler stupid things, but they would have been almost exactly as dumb and derelict as what you can hear today on any show where young men who like to fight congregate.
 
What MMA is doing is deeply upsetting the brand names of the traditional martial arts world.

 
Karate? Taekwondo? Hello 8-track tape player and Pong.

MMA takes all the borders and barriers of style and system and blends them, on high speed, into something that the old school knows, on some level, is good for the martial arts, but that really upsets all the work they did to differentiate themselves from the other cans on the shelf.

 
MMA is good because it doesn’t necessarily respect the part of the martial arts world that has grown safe, crusty, and non-threatening. MMA is good because it helps us define the difference between art and function —and for awhile there, we had lost our perspective on it all. And the truth be told, MMA was traditional martial arts before traditional martial arts was traditional.
 
No, what’s REALLY bad for the martial arts world is the blatant commercialization of the martial arts school “industry.”

 
It’s having people prioritize business systems, meant to create maximum profit with the least amount of effort and investment, over genuine education and martial arts ideas.

What’s really bad for the martial arts is that we haven’t in all of these years, created a real, industry-wide, comprehensive self-defense training program for teachers. What’s really bad is that the powers-that-be in the school business industry don’t think very far beyond the bottom line of their profit and loss statement (there are, of course, exceptions).

It’s sad that self-defense has changed so much, but the “industry” is so full of pizza party manuals, birthday party promotions, strategies for selling $10,000 black belt programs to 9-year-olds, and the iconic and telling statements like the one uttered to me at what was probably my last “industry” event: “How do we monetize that?”
 
Of course, all of this could turn on a dime. The martial arts industry could, in a year’s time, embrace education over the marketing of more questionably useful products. The industry could bring self-defense training into the 21st Century and we might develop real training programs that address today’s self-defense issues.

Imagine classes dealing with domestic abuse, self-image issues, teen-dating issues, health concerns, drug abuse, dietary training, and peace education. The billing companies and consulting firms could quit dumping  their toxic waste of cheap and easy tactics for creating “floods of new students,” and we could all learn to sell the martial arts by what we do in our communities, over sending out text-message spam (a recent industry-consultant recommendation).
 
MMA is saving the martial arts as it’s raw and unpolished. It’s not easy to package in a fancy silk uniform. It’s about what works -and not necessarily where it came from. It’s saving the martial arts because its challenging  school owners to get real, to quit hiding behind any artifice or blown up rank. It’s bringing fresh new (old) ideas into the arts. And I know for a fact, as I’m in one of the premier MMA schools in the world, BJ Penn’s Academy in Hilo, Hawaii, there are just as many manners and traditions taught in the school I’m in, as in the strip-mall taekwondo/karate school down the street.

MMA is, for sure, a lot better for the martial arts than an industry that worships the Ferrari, the big cigar, the Armani suit, the Rolex, and a measurement of success contingent upon who has the highest gross —or net —income. Long live MMA —long live the martial arts!

Some martial arts schools subscribe to business practices that are either flat-out dishonest, near dishonest, or at the very best, what you might call a “win-lose” proposition.

 
What I’m warning you about has to do with membership contracts and pricing.
 
If a school (like a person) you’ve just met asks you to drop a significant amount of cash into a long term relationship with them, well, unless you have it to lose, look for an acceptable alternative.

It’s like this:

If I know and trust you, I might be more apt to invest in you. But in that we’ve just met, I think I’m going to take some time to evaluate your credibility.  

If a martial arts school owner or his/her representative can’t get their head around that idea, then put your hand on the exit door, quickly. Martial arts schools often have a 90% drop out rate, which, contrary to what some might say, is NOT a sign that they teach “real” martial arts.  

On the contrary, it usually means they are self-absorbed, arrogant, and provide sub-standard service.

Schools that charge a lot of money up-front ($500 or more) are doing that because they’re stacking the deck in their favor. If you don’t like the service they provide, they’re not as concerned about your opinions as they might be if they hadn’t already been paid for a good deal of their time —in advance.

If you know the school and trust the school owner, then helping the school financially is not an issue. But beware the unscrupulous school owner who’s all about cash up front.

There is a martial arts teacher who works as a national consumer advocate for transparent and sustainable pricing in martial arts schools. His name is Tom Callos (me!) and he actually offers his cell phone number for any parent or potential student of a martial arts school who need information or help in deciding if the school they are in —or thinking about being in —is operating with a fair and equitable pricing policy.

Tom Callos may be reached at 530-903-0286. His website is www.tomcallos.com.

As we all know, men and women sometimes walk through huge sections of their lives like the living dead, oblivious to the beauty, the mystery, and the wonder around them.

Likewise,  the martial arts teacher, who has at his or her disposal a multitude of ways to wake up, to contribute, to transcend the mundane, and to live the promise of clarity-in-life through the practice, can walk through the training, the lessons, and the brilliance of it all without being awake —-and without tapping into or realizing what is beyond the obvious.

 
The obvious is the quest for recognition, usually in rank and awards, or in the brand of the car and the watch and the suit. The obvious is the distinction of the color of our uniforms, their cut, the patches we wear, and the titles we give ourselves.

The obvious is that we can, indeed, block the punch, execute the arm bar, and teach hand-to-hand survival skills that can serve people when put in situations where they might be needed. The obvious is the business acumen we must acquire to operate our schools in a way that supports what it takes to run them. The obvious is that the martial arts can deliver a vigorous exercise program.
 

Beyond the obvious is martial arts training as a tool for deepening spirituality, connection, and a sense of involvement, mission, and purpose in the world.

What better use of the idea of self-defense than to apply it not only to the physical protection of the body, but to the mind (As doesn’t the mind get soft and out of shape or even twisted without challenge, focus, and purpose!), to the emotions, to the family, to the community, to environmental issues, to the food we eat, to the way we deal with conflict, with stress, with joy, and with kindness?

Is not self-defense found in the values we pass onto the young? To the example we set for them? To how we demonstrate, through our own practice,  what is wonderful and meaningful and valuable in the world?

If you’re thinking about starting the martial arts, may I suggest that you look for a teacher who is struggling (as it is always a struggle) to move beyond the obvious, beyond the superficial aspects of what the practice of martial arts training brings to the table.

NOTE: The great teacher isn’t necessarily driving the latest model Mercedes, sitting in the most stylish school, wearing the most ornate uniform, or teaching 5000 students in 25 locations. The great teacher is, ideally, living a kind of practice that is beyond the obvious and most probably beyond the ordinary.

If you can find that kind of practitioner/teacher, then you have a chance to practice with someone who can talk about and show examples of what the martial arts does for a person, for their family, and for their community, when it is taken out of the “dojo” and put to work in the world.

While many men and women walk through huge sections of their lives like the living dead, oblivious to the beauty, the mystery, and the wonder around them, there are also many people who are awake and engaged.

I work with martial arts instructors around the world who are vigorously working to move beyond the obvious. To see what these teachers are engaged in, what we’re working on, and how it’s affecting our practice of the martial arts, visit www.The100.us.

Tom Callos

Any martial arts teacher who happens to stumble / tumble across this blog, my latest —-should know that the coolest, most functional, least dysfunctional, most progressive school management, curriculum, and —well, EVERYTHING that’s now and valuable and fresh, is happening on the Member’s Only section of The One Hundred. 

Here is a link that will give you 7 days to check out what’s happening there (have to be a school owner —or one in the works). http://thenewwaynetwork.ning.com/?xgi=04sroNy9FR08jV

Say a big fat goodbye to the box, to the franchise, to the GD billing services, to the consultants, the useless sales meetings and seminars, to wasting money, time, and your mental energy. 

Say hello to smart, to at your fingertips, to “we’re not trying to up-sell you,” to NO, we don’t have a contract. Say hello to service, innovation, creativity, and a group of instructors who can, indeed, think on their own (and who don’t care for the crass commercialization of the martial arts). 

Tom Callos

Ultimate Black Belt Test