Whenever anyone starts telling me what they are I wonder who they are trying to convince – me or themselves?

Social media in the Martial Arts is awash with “I’m really hard I am, really tough, you’d better not upset me because I’m a ‘hardnut’…. I am, I really am, honest to God I am, I’m so hard, I’d rip a tissue or stamp on a dolls house!  All you lot are useless, what you do is useless, your martial arts are crap, in a real fight I’d muller the lot of you.

There’s some mysterious place called a ‘McDojo’ where all these other weak, feeble people abide, where the Instructors with shiny teeth driving Porches have their hands in your pockets stripping you of all your assets and passing off country dancing as martial arts.

On social media it’s easy to ‘friend’ the real martial artists and pretend they’re like them by association. To go to the ever increasing events where they either don’t train or it’s a ‘media’ training event where they can collect certificates and have their photo taken with a real martial artist whilst holding up the fist they abuse themselves with when typing with the other hand. The term ‘selfie’ could never be more accurate.

We should know that words mean nothing, it’s easy to say anything and put up moody photos, certificates and memes to convince anyone but of course in the real world (and that’s not their ‘real’ world that still only exists on the internet but where people actually meet and physically do things) actions are what really count.

The questions I ask myself are –

Do I really know this person outside of the internet?

Have I ever heard of them from others?

Do I know anyone they’ve ever fought?

Do they teach and test their skills on international seminars with people from all backgrounds?

Have they ever competed in a proper World class competition?

Where did they get their grades from?

Who were their teachers?

…….and so the truth comes out.

It’s not up to us to tell everybody what we are, if we are it, others will do the job for us.

In the Martial Arts you don’t call yourself ‘Sensei’ or any other title, it’s up to others to give it to you.

Us ‘old timers’ all know and remember each other from real events so for us it’s no problem to sort the wheat from the chaff, but for any ‘newbie’ it can be a minefield.

But if you do your due diligence and use the code above to research – if they have to tell you what they are – they ain’t it!