Sunday 12 June 2011
When considering training in the ancient Korean Martial Art of Hapkido Brisbane people need look no further than Factor10 Martial Arts. The Martial Arts are so unique in a modern society in that the age old “Master Teaches Apprentice” approach still, to this day, forms the foundation of how we learn the kicks, punches, blocks, strikes, weapons, grappling and falling techniques of this ancient sport and art.
The Korean Martial Arts is steeped in this tradition of Master teaches Student. It’s at the core of how we do it in this Martial Arts Brisbane school. The age old techniques not available to the every day person in society are handed down from Grand Master to Master, from Master to Instructor and from Instructor to student. This recipe for excellent to the ordinary person seems as fraught with danger as “Irish Whispers”, where the original message becomes corrupted in a matter of seconds as the message is passed from person to person. So what’s the difference with the Martial Arts? Why does the message stay the same? How are these techniques passed on from person to person in exactly the way it was intended from the Grand Master.
The answer to this lies in the fact that the true, traditional Martial Arts like those seen at Factor10 Martial Arts are built on a traditional Master System that dates back thousands of years on the Korean Peninsula. A system where there is a traditional Grand Master who teaches the Master and so on. Any Martial Arts Brisbane based school like Factor10 does not have a hybrid of a variety of Martial Arts moves taken from a range of styles but rather a carefully crafted system from one style. It’s sadly quite common to see Martial Arts schools in Brisbane that have their origins in a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Brazilian and Indian traditional styles, with no one “classic” style being the key feature of what is offered in the school. The Master System cannot exist in this environment.
At Factor10 Martial Arts the precision and excellence of technique comes from one Korean based philosophy of handing down the techniques in an orderly fashion, a system, that is modernised in terms of its application of moves whilst retaining the traditional philosophy of how the moves are passed on, and how the students of the Master system learn in a systematic, orderly manner that leads to excellence.
In order for this traditional Master system to happen, the Grand Master, Master, Instructors and students must interact at two levels. First, they must all be hands on in a technical and training sense. There must be a unique bond between all the parts of this system and this is achieved by the Grand Master, Master, Instructors and students interacting with each other on the mats in a technical way. The Grand Master much have the opportunity to train the students, just as the Master must train the Instructors and students, and not leave the responsibility for the training of the students wholly to the Instructor. These interactions enable students, Master and Instructors to get it as it was intended. To hear it from the “Horse’s Mouth” as the saying goes.
The second level of interaction must happen as part of the assessment system. The Master, for example, must have the opportunity to informally and formally assess students and Instructors just as the Grand Master must have the opportunity to do so with the Master. The informal assessment happens through informal observations and feedback that occurs on a regular basis whilst the formal assessment occurs at Gup or grade level gradings and Dan black belt gradings, generally presided over by the Master or Grand Master.
This system is not necessarily as smooth going all the time as it would seem. Whilst the system on paper looks fool proof, and indeed it has stood the test of time, one must understand that systems involving interactions with people can from time to time lead to some rough sailing. For example, the Instructor may not understand action being taken by a Master as the Master has a much greater overview, comprehension and understanding of what is happening across the Martial Arts organisation, just as in an even greater way a student has a more narrow perspective of what is happening. The difficulty can arise, for example, when more enthusiastic instructors seek to take a greater leadership role that they have been entrusted to take on by the Master, or assume that they are more of a “key player” than they really are. Only the Master has a full knowledge and understanding at a local level and the Grand Master has full knowledge across the many Martial Arts schools they support globally.
This “cross polination” of ideas through assessment and teaching between the participants in the Master System – the Grand Master, the Master, the Instructor and the student are essential in maintaining an authentic and orderly Martial system.
This may from time to time result in the Grand Master or Master making decisions that are not fully understood by Instructors or students. In the traditional Master System, they must not question to seek to change the decision of the Master. Within the Master system it is fine to question to seek to understand, as this leads to greater enlightenment on the part of all concerned. However Instructor and Students must be aware that Masters and Grand Masters are very experienced and have for many years taken questions. They are intuitive people who can identify quickly when the purpose of a question is to seek to change a decision. Instructors and students quickly learn not to underestimate the intuitive thinking skills of the Master and Grand Master.
The interactions between the participants of the Master System must be clearly understood by each group. If this is not understood at first, then it needs to be learned by each participant in order for the system to survive and flourish. One of the reasons the traditional Master System is so successful is that the participants know or learn to know where the line is drawn on so many fronts between each of the groups within the system. For example, an Instructor would never approach a Master and tell them they have done something wrong, or tell them they they should have done something a different way; a student would not speak while an Instructor is speaking, or talk over the top of them; an Instructor would not approach a Master who is otherwise busy doing something at that time but rather choose an opportunity when clearly the Master is free to talk. Likewise, the Instructor and student would address the Master as Master just as the Student would not address the Instructor by their first name. It would always be “Sir” or “Miss”. And finally, while this list of examples is far from exhaustive, the Master would never socialise with students or Instructors. If they were invited to an adult’s birthday party, for example, the Master would stay only a short while and then leave the group to party on.
Brisbane Martial Arts enthusiasts see great Martial Arts academies like Factor10 that treasure this Master System. Clearly the discipline, focus, and excellence is not just at the student level, but a culture that permeates every aspect of the Martial Arts organisation from the Grand Master to the student.
