I have been practicing traditional martial arts training in the same dojo now for over twenty-five years. The training hall itself has existed for many more years before that. When I first began training there it was quite run down; it was just a fair sized hall with wooden floor and a couple of changing rooms, that’s it. No heating existed, so the place was freezing in the winter. There were also no mats on the floor. The only mats we had back then were a couple of moldy green gym mats. Aside from bags and sparring equipment, that was the extent of our dojo. No one complained though. It was a place to train and that was all that mattered.
The club was pretty thriving back then. We had quite a lot of members; most of them dedicated martial artists who didn’t seem to mind the run down state of the training hall. It was all about the training after all. If anything, the state of the place added to the traditional feel of the training and a lack of comfort was part of that.
These days we have completely overhauled the place, adding mats to the floor, weight training equipment and a fully functional heating system for those cold winter nights. The only problem now is, we have fewer members than we once did. It now seems that despite the new and improved facilities, very few people want to know about traditional martial arts anymore.
To further illustrate this, there is another club who share the dojo with us. This club trains in MMA and there membership is pretty thriving. I have no doubt that this is due to the more commercial nature of MMA training in general.
My club teaches Kempo Ju Jitsu, a form of traditional Ju Jitsu that uses a lot of striking techniques to back up the locks and throws. Our training is based on traditional values and we don’t train for competition unless one of us wants to do so on the side (we occasionally enter kickboxing and sport Ju Jitsu competitions).
What we have found over the years with new members is that very few of them last any longer than a couple of months. They just stop showing up for training. Now I know this is the case for most clubs no matter what the style, but I believe traditional dojo’s have a harder time keeping students than non traditional ones, simply because the general nature of the training isn’t as immediate or appealing to people as say, MMA training is or kickboxing or judo.
Traditional training is hardcore training in the sense that you really have to be self motivated to keep at it. It takes a long time just learn the basic techniques and learning those basic techniques, repeating them over and over again, can be very boring for some people, but this is what you have to do if you want to learn a martial art. It takes dedication.
MMA and kickboxing etc. have what I call the glory factor to keep people interested. When people join these clubs they have the option of fighting in competitions and making a name for themselves. This appeals to people’s ego and can be reason enough to keep them training. MMA especially has this going for it. Cage fighting is splashed all over the media these days and is portrayed as being quite glamorous and enticing to people who get a kick out of fighting in front of crowd.
My point here is that commercial fighting systems will always appeal more to the general public than the more traditional arts. But does this mean that traditional dojo’s should take this into account and start commercializing themselves just to get more members? Should traditional dojo’s introduce the glory factor into their training?
Absolutely not, in my opinion. To compromise the art for the sake of getting a few new members is not an option to any self-respecting dojo. Should my club be reduced to only one or two members, I still would not go down that road. Why should you have to bow to commercial pressure? To do so would go against all the values that set your training apart from systems like MMA.
It is obviously up to the individual what type of training they wish to do at the end of the day. If someone wishes to train in MMA because they think they have a chance at glory then they should go right ahead and do so. But if someone joins a traditional martial arts club and leaves because they can’t hack the training or can’t see the deeper benefits to such training then why should that club change to fit the needs of shallow individuals? It shouldn’t obviously.
Traditional martial arts training and systems have remained unchanged for a reason. To start compromising the training methods to accommodate people who don’t understand them is to compromise the integrity of the whole system and after thousands of years this would be unforgivable in my view.
