Principles like honour, respect, loyalty, perseverance and discipline have always been part of the martial journey. Whether it was kung fu, karate, judo or taekwondo, these virtues would be cornerstones for their practitioners. Nowadays, however, we seem to be forgetting the very root of our beloved martial arts. There is a growing demand for violence and blood that some martial artists embrace and a good part of their audience seems to enjoy it.
But what kind of message are we sending as martial artists with that sort of behaviour?
I was reading an article last night from the BJJ fanatics – a great website with tons of material and info for jiu-jitseros- about something the famous grappler Gordon Ryan said recently and it really got me thinking. It reminded me of all the different types of martial artists I’ve met so far and their varied understandings of the martial quest. It also reminded me that Lao Tzu’s words landed first on my personal martial journey, well ahead of any physical training.
“BJJ is built around savage Brazilians kicking the shit out of people just because they could (…) This sport is built around real men who took what they wanted”, Ryan said (see the article here). Deliberately ignoring the “real men” note -might be well worth it of another article…- let’s focus on the origins of the art. I honestly don’t think BJJ was “built around savage Brazilians” but rather around the need of an alternative way and the search for self-realization. In the same way I think Bruce Lee came up with his Jeet Kune Do. “A real jiu-jitsu fighter does not go around beating people down. Our defence is made to neutralise aggression” are words attributed to Helio Gracie himself. This kind of words make me think somehow that those traditional martial principles would have been of certain importance to him.
However, even if that wasn’t the case I don’t think we could just excuse ourselves by saying that “if the martial art’s foundation is savagery, then trash talking is certainly acceptable” as in if the origins of the art were dark that would give us the right to misbehave now. How does it work? Don’t we know better now?
The context we live in today is certainly different to the one Helio experienced, or Bruce, or Sun Tzu when he wrote “The Art of War”. Far from killing each other and embracing warfare, we live times in need of those traditional martial principles, in need of more compassion and understanding, in need of honour, discipline and perseverance.
In today’s world we need to teach our kids all those traditional virtues and give them direction and purpose through good paths like martial arts. I love when Carlson Gracie advises to “always be humble” or when Keenan Cornelius says that “talking trash sets a poor example to our young grapplers”. Unfortunately, these days it’s easier to watch or listen to some trash talking people rather than old school virtuous martial artists embracing the martial movement. So to those who like trash talking that much I would just remind them of Bruce Lee’s words, “showing off is the fool’s idea of glory”.
-Saray-
*BJJ fanatics article: https://bjjfanatics.com/blogs/news/ideas-on-trash-talking-in-jiu-jitsu
