You guys are wrong. I can say that because I’ve done both. I’ve trained in dojos, clubs and in sports – and I’ve self-trained by myself and with partners. In all honesty, I will always value my self-training more because it wasn’t handed to me – I had to learn things the hard way and experiment until I got it right. I wasn’t spoon fed. I made myself work harder than most people that I saw in dojos even knew how. I made outlines, kept logs, did my own research, and I put in a lot of hours and sweat. I also wasn’t limited by the curriculum of some high school teacher who wanted to wear white pajamas and force children to bow to him as his night job.
I didn’t decide to self-train because I “didn’t have the athleticism or toughness” required to be a fat-ass pimply black belt like the ones everybody made fun of at school and in the neighborhood. I did it because I visited every dojo in town back then and found them all to be … kind of lame. There weren’t any kids at those schools who I couldn’t beat. They had nothing to offer me there. There are a few good gyms here nowadays and I know the people who teach there. I visit. One of them is even a guy I self-trained with as a kid in the neighborhood. Imagine that. I also went to his school and taught there while I was in college.
I’m finally joining the new BJJ/JKD gym this spring to learn formally. I’m kind of glad I’ll finally have rank but that’s not why I am doing it. I love the martial arts for the skills involved – not the rank or the stupid bullshit superiority complex that guys who have been training six months to a year tend to have. You know, older guys don’t pick on newbs that much – it’s the guys looking for someone newer than them to take the heat off of themselves (because they were the newb before you came along) who do that. Anyway, I train because I love it. If I sucked at it then I’d have quit long ago. I’d be a bowler or something.
Most standard dojo kids just half-ass it in the back of some 20-30 people class and get a belt for doing a couple of kata they cram for that weekend. Their sparring consists of strapping on so many pads they can barely stand up and tapping another skinny dude with their foot ten times before that skinny dude can tap them ten times. We didn’t have BJJ gyms here when I was a kid. I had to train myself if I was going to get anything good out of it. Maybe I am an anamoly … I’ve honestly never met anyone else who trained on their own so I don’t know. All the guys I trained with were going to one dojo or another. I was the only one who wasn’t. Anyway, some guy thinking he’s a badass because he spent five years “point sparring” and/or hitting focus pads and yelling “Kia!” in some black belt factory is not someone I think is superior to an untrained fighter – let alone someone with the initiative and discipline to train on their own. I feel the same way about guys hitting focus pads in a Muay Thai gym – same McDojo, new name. You guys are wrong to say that self-training is never worth anything. In fact, anyone who doesn’t self-train outside of class most likely sucks.
I say you put your theory to the test instead of whining about it on here. Go find a guy about your size who has spent a lot of time self-training and ask him to a match with rules that don’t favor your style. See if you are really that much better. Then come here and write about that instead of posting a bunch of baby talk.
There are some self-trained guys who have done pretty well for themselves: Evan Tanner (29-3-0) was self-trained when he competed in the UFC. Jack Dempsey, Jake LaMotta, Bob Fitzsimmons (first triple world champ), Alan Bosworth (Olympics), and Henry Collins (Olympics) are/were all self-trained boxers.
Miyamoto Musashi said this about self-training:
“When I had passed the age of thirty and reflected on my experiences, I realized that I had not been victorious because of consummate attainment of martial arts. Perhaps it was because I had an inherent skill for the science and never deviated from natural principles. It may also have been due to the shortcomings in the martial arts of other schools. In any case, I subsequently practiced day and night in order to attain an even deeper principle, and spontaneously came upon the science of martial arts. I was about fifty years old at that time. Since then I have passed the time with no science into which to inquire. Trusting in the advantage of military science, as I turn it into the sciences of all arts and skills, I have no teacher in anything.”
Musashi credited his natural ability for hs victories. He says, maybe the other guys just trained in crappy McDojos. He says he trained day and night (after any standard dojo was closed) and figured out the right way to do things on his own. Interesting. He, like me, is saying that you guys are wrong. Hmh. Maybe it’s just because I was a natural, agile and fast, and had an IQ of 135 by the 10th grade … maybe I’m not the norm … but there are plenty of other people who figured this stuff out on their own. The concepts aren’t really all that hard if you can THINK FOR YOURSELF. If people can learn to play guitar on their own (they do) then people can learn to box on their own (they do). It’s dedication that makes the difference.
Evan Tanner is self-trained and he can kick your ass. Go tell him he’s no better than an untrained fighter. Go tell the guys who invented the martial arts that you study that they suck – because they came up with that stuff on their own. You guys are wrong. Sorry.
p.s. Your entire mom. All of it.
