Cultish behavior in Martial Arts

A student of mine recently asked me the following question:

Why tell stories a lot of martial artist do this it hurts the art.

Stories in terms of ki or chi powers and the ability to make a spleen bleed without barely touching the person.

Here’s my answer:

It’s a weird phenomenon. The theory of why this happens is because there is so much you can do when you strike someone. Unlike grappling where you have a mechanism to stop the fight, in striking you don’t.

Many of these arts get into the “I do not do this because I can hurt/kill you”. To some extent, it’s true. There is no light way to strike someone in the joints, throat or even the eyes without actually hurting the other person.

So, you can’t really demonstrate dangerous techniques.

This leads to a strange phenomenon, cultist behavior where students starts idolizing their teacher and at some point, these teachers start believing their own hype.

Sad but it happens a lot more than it should.

How to prevent such behavior

It is my firm belief that the most important way to prevent this cultish behavior to occurr is for the teacher to continue training and sparring.

If you are that good, then actuallly prove it. You do not need to poke eyes and cause injury, put some gloves on and get on the mat. As a teacher, you’ll have to deal with younger and fitter students than you. You’ll have to use your knowledge and experience to “survive” the bout.

It’s not about proving you are “the master” but prove that you have the guts to put yourself on the line and even chance it that you might even lose to a younger and less experienced opponent.

This bring me to the second point: humility. Admitting that you are on this journey like anyone else. You are learning like anyone else. You have knowledge but you are not all knowing. To really and truly maintain a beginner’s mindset.

Remember that hubris was the downfall of the jedi and it can be yours too.