Legitimacy in the Martial Arts

Over the years, I have joined a few martial art forums (online communities) and lurked (read without contributing) on quite a few more. The topic of “legitimacy” seems to rear its ugly head every now and again and I'd like to discuss it a bit now.

For some it is something to be desired, to others it is to be expected. A common thread in all of the discussions is often that a person is somehow less of a martial artist if they fail to have a “legitimate link” to a master in the art’s home of origin, and by the same logic is less of a teacher to their students as they pass their bastardization on to another “illegitimate” generation.

Don’t get me wrong…I am not talking about someone who is willfully lying to prospective students regarding their lineage. Such a person should be exposed in a civil manner and the students given the truth. But, what’s next? It is the students that I am concerned about. What about the dedicated student, who through years of hard practice and study have developed skills on their own, regardless of their “illegitimate” nature. The instructor merely passed along the erroneous lineage information that he was given.

In this example, we have a good teacher with a strong foundation and excellent ability to transmit ideas and concepts. To me, it is the teacher’s lineage that is in question…not their abilities. Does the teacher have strong fundamentals and more advanced knowledge? Yes. Does he pass those fundamentals, principles and concepts to the next generation? Yes. Does he have a “legitimate” black belt lineage through the art’s founder? That is the part that is in question.

Oftentimes there are jokes, asides and snide remarks regarding a person who learned from any source other than a “legitimate” inheritor of a system or instructor with direct ties to the art’s country of origin. The reality is that there are those people who are excellent martial artists without the trappings of a long family tree; people who have never had the good fortune of studying with an “accredited” high ranking instructor from their chosen art.

If a musician teaches himself how to play the piano (or better yet, learns from a book), does it mean that he is not really a piano player because he didn’t go to Julliard School of Music? Should he stop telling people he is an accomplished piano player? If he then teaches his grandson how to play piano and read music, does that mean that his son isn’t a real musician? Is he, somehow, a fraud? I agree that if he claims to have played at Carnegie Hall and never did, and is making money from a false reputation, then that is fraud and a crime. If his grandson, on the other hand, realizes that “Pappy” wasn’t telling the truth and teaches his students under no such pretense, then I see it as a name redeemed and an art passed on to the next generation.

On one particular forum, I have found some accomplished martial artists who have devoted their lives to their chosen art, only to find that they have been duped in regards to the “legitimacy” of their instructors. People say “they can still practice martial arts, just don’t call it ***jutsu.” What would they call it, then? It isn’t one thing and it isn’t the other. Does their teacher’s lies somehow detract from their own abilities? Should they be kept from teaching students because their skills came from training with a fraud? I say “no” on both accounts.

I submit that the martial arts, specifically one of my chosen arts - Karate - are folk arts. They are designed to be passed from person to person, generation to generation, changed and adapted. That which is strong will remain and those changes that aren’t will go to the wayside. Sometimes information is passed by books (such as the Bubishi or Tao of Jeet Kun Do). As technology improves, the number of methods that information can be transmitted increases. People don’t change. There will always be those who are drawn to teach what they know to others, regardless of the method that they learned it. Knowledge is knowledge, skills are skills, regardless of their source. True skills can come only from hard work. Solid knowledge comes through study, analysis and application. “Who is your teacher?” is a more important question than “who was his teacher?”

Ultimately, we will not ask about your teacher or his teacher, but we will ask to see your students, for they are your resume and your qualifications.