In This Issue:

Over the years there have been many great influences on the martial arts. Both those renouned and virtually unknown, contributed greatly to the martial arts as a whole. However, as with almost anything over the years the Martial Arts have become commercialized. This is mainly due to the western worlds way of thinking. Martial Arts may have a great influence on some but the almightly dollar has a greater influence on others.

With the commercialization of anything come illegitimate operators and fads. Over the years many of the Illegitimate/Fake martial artists have given the arts and those who do practice legitimately bad reputations. In Explaining this we mean persons who may or may not have had any training, who either open fly by night schools or proclaim to teach somthing they are not skilled in or sometimes both.

Schools have many times appeared overnight from nowhere promising training in arts, and be gone suddenly with all the advanced dues of students in their pockets never to be heard from again. Others offer training in arts that are popular at the time, when they themselves have never had any formal training in such arts. Many unsuspecting students who join, do do from sales pitches about the skills and arts the instructors boast and promise teaching. Usually this caliber of instructor will use fads to lure the students in when in fact the claims the instructors make are entirely false. The unsuspecting new student having no prior knowledge usually takes the word of the instructor because of the symbol he wears; the blackbelt. The blackbelt is viewed as a symbol, of achievement, however it also symbolizes the attitude martial artists are supposed to have. Humbleness, good character, willingness to help others are just a few, but the sacred black belt has been dishonored by these con artists.

Martial Arts movies have been partial to the casue , and I am not slandering MA Movies because I like a good flick as well as anyone. To better explain this lets look at it in this context; In the mid 1980's the martial arts world was hit by "ninjamania". This craze about "Ninja's" and "Ninjutsu" quickly swept the country. Suddenly there were Ninjutsu Grandmasters everywhere and schools appearing everywhere. The martial arts magazines had leading authorities on ninjutsu writing articles, that they published. Martial arts supply companies also took advantage of this and make a lot of profit selling ninja items. Soon the Ninja craze died out and gave way to "Kickboxing Mania". With the release of such movies as Bloodsport, and Kumite which almost every American martial artist has seen. Again the same things happened the routine never changed. Kickboxing schools started appearing, there were video tape instruction courses for sale. Articles on Kickboxing competition were the hits in the magazines. This finally gave way to the Traditional Mania, with the exploiting of traditional martial arts from movies such as "The Karate Kid" and Steven Segals movies which naturally portrayed "Aikido". Nonetheless it happened again, schools started popping up, grandmasters began coming out of the woodwork wearing the traditional red obi (belt) of Okinawan/Japanese styles, and the "Hakama" became popular to wear. Now it seems the latest fad to hit the martial arts is No Holds Barred Competitions.Brazillian Jujutsu has overnight become a sensation as well as other eclectic arts. There are now hundreds of instructors teaching these arts, and how? It's beyond me, how they became so proficient in such a short time. It has been argued back and forth about these events as to if they are logical, real , or even close to an actual fight. In some senses they are and in some they are not. The matter could be debated for hours either way. Although I don't approve of such events, I do not condemn others for watching or participating in such events. I do feel they are another misrepresentation of the martial arts especially in the eyes of legislators. Remember these are the people that make the laws that govern us, and they will use such events as a scapegoat for the nations violence problem.