Quite recently I took part in a martial arts demo to help raise funds for the club were I train. The dojo floor badly needs replacing (I keep waiting for someone to get thrown and disappear into the floor!) so we decided to organize a fund-raising night and as part of that night we all put on a little show for the people who turned up. We were asking people to contribute their hard earned money to our cause so they obviously wanted to see what the club was all about and a martial arts display was the best way to show them.
We spent about three weeks preparing for the night, which as it turned out isn’t a lot of time to organize a full demonstration, especially when you are using all grades, beginners included. Some nights we would practice and I thought my sensei was going to pull his hair out in frustration. “No!” he would often shout. “Start again!”
And we did. Many times over. We got there in the end though and we eventually compiled a show that we thought would be entertaining and educational at the same time.
My sensei still had his doubts though. “It’s me this reflects on, not you guy’s,” he said to me nervously on the night. I laughed and told him not to worry.
“Come on,” I said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
He replied with a stern look that said it all.
Come the night, things went exceptionally well. Everyone remembered what they had to do and the crowd loved it. My sensei’s fears were put to rest by the sound of applause from the audience. The club was cast in a good light and we raised enough money to fix the floor. Success!
Martial arts demos are a great way to gain exposure for your club, attract new members and also raise money for whatever cause you want to attach to them.
So taking what I have learned from that experience and the experience of seeing other demos, here are five factors that will pretty much guarantee a successful martial arts demonstration.
1. Showmanship. Whether as a group or as an individual you have to exhibit a little bit of showmanship. Or to put it like my sensei put it: “You’re a martial artist, remember- look and act like one!” This means that you must show good focus and intent right from the moment you walk on to the mats in whatever venue you happen to be displaying at. Don’t just casually stroll out on to the floor, walk purposefully and look organized and disciplined as a group. Never forget that you are out to impress the audience and the audience doesn’t want to see casualness or half-heartedness. Be aggressive and as realistic as possible with your techniques and if you are break-falling, do so hard, even slightly exaggerate them. People love to see you flying through the air. It looks good, and that’s a lot of what a good martial arts demo is all about- looking good and representing your art well at the same time. Pretend your in a martial arts movie, this will put you in the right frame of mind so you give the audience what they expect and the audience expects to be entertained as much as educated on the ways of the martial arts. In previous demos that we have done my sensei has used a sword to cut a melon in half on the bare belly of a volunteer (not from the audience!), held stones in one hand and broke them in half with the other (after passing the stones around the audience to check they were real) and
2. Show-stopping techniques. It’s okay to start a demo of with some simple techniques that represent what you normally do in the dojo. In the demo that I did we started of with rolls and break-falls before showing some block and blow routines and some body conditioning. This sort of thing gives the audience a true idea of what the martial arts are all about. At some point though, usually sooner rather than later, you have to put in some show stopping techniques that are going to make the audience sit up and take notice. For most of them that’s what they came to see. They want to be wowed. It obviously depends on your style what techniques you do but try and be spectacular. I always find Aikido to be very well suited to this sort of thing because the techniques are very showy, with guys being flung around all over the place seemingly with no effort from the person throwing them. Techniques like flying arm bars, big throws, flying kicks and the like all work well in a demo. And the harder and faster you perform them the better they will be. Just make sure you are well practiced in them before you do them on the night. Miscalculations that result in bad technique or even an accident will not come across well to onlookers.
3. Self Defense Techniques. The average person, who knows little about martial arts, has only one question on their minds when they go to see a demo: can these guys kick ass? You have to show them that you can. Most people see self defense as a major part of martial arts and a watching audience will want you to demonstrate this aspect for them. So come up with some common self defense scenarios and show the effectiveness of your art in dealing with them. This can be as simple as being attacked by one person or many people at once. I think it is a good idea if your sensei takes centre stage at this point and expertly fends of multiple attackers with some cool and effective looking techniques. The audience will appreciate this as they generally want to view sensei as “The Man”, the martial arts master who is not to be messed with. And obviously, the more realistic looking you make the whole thing, the better. A nice way to round things of is for all the attackers to stay down after their last attack, feigning unconsciousness so that sensei is left in the middle of the floor surrounded by felled attackers. Then he really is The Man!
4. Weapons. Weapons look great in the hands of an expert and they look even better in the eyes of a watching audience. How you bring the weapons into your demo is up to you. In the last demo I took part in we had a couple of guys demonstrate some defenses against knife attacks and also some stick techniques which went down pretty well. You can just as easily do a weapons kata, it doesn’t really matter. Introduce the weapons into your self defense techniques or have two people fight with two different weapons, say a Bo against a sword or Sai against sword. Weapons give that added bit of extra interest to the audience and prevents the whole thing from becoming too monotonous.
5. Girls! I’m not suggesting you recruit a bunch of lap-dancers for the night (though some might not object!) but if you have girls in your club then make them a part of the demo, regardless of grade. Many people still consider martial arts to be a purely male pursuit so prove them wrong and give the women audience members something to smile at by bringing on the girls to kick the guy’s asses. We had two girls (one of whom was my daughter) act out a little scenario at our last demo. We basically had four guys attack them and the girls threw the guys and locked them up on the ground. The audience loved it and they got the biggest applause of the night. They were entertained and shown that martial arts are effective for everybody. Job done!
6. Free Fighting. For a bit of added excitement you can throw in some sparring to spice things up a bit and keep the pace moving. Before I even began our last demo I had people coming up to me saying, “I hope we are going to see some sparring- that’s why we came!” What can I say? People are easily amused sometimes. It comes from watching all those cage bouts on TV. You don’t have to go hard (though you probably will) but you do have to make it lively and show of plenty of techniques. Even if you prearrange something were you put a certain lock on your sparring partner when it goes to the ground or allow them to get in certain combination’s. Audience’s feel like they are watching a real bout and it’s a good way to round of the demo and finish on a high.
I recommend every club does a martial arts demo from time to time. Not only does it really bring the club together it also really helps with publicity if you need it. Plus it’s a lot of fun! Just incoroporate all the elements just mentioned and your demo is sure to be a success!
