How long does it take to become a martial arts Master? What an interesting question. There is a simple answer, and it will apply to any art you study, be it taekwondo, aikido, tai chi chuan, or whatever.
To get to this simple answer, however, you have to be willing to look at a couple of things. Really, you have to toss out the wrong notions that people have about the fighting disciplines. If you can toss out the trash, the answer is quite easily arrived at.
First, it really matters who you study with. You see, your teacher's history doesn't matter. What matters is whether the sensei you study with actually has the hard core data.
Second, the fellow who instructs you must be able to impart the data. It is important that he know the real reasons for the forms and the bunkai and all that, but he must be able to get that data to you. A martial arts teacher must actually be able to get the concepts across to you.
Third, you must study an art that includes all arts. Well, there goes the ballgame. You see, with very few exceptions, no art includes all arts.
All martial arts have held themselves apart, believing that they are superior, and the other fellow is inferior. This is rather ludicrous, as the most important factor of the eastern disciplines is that a fist is coming, or a throw is coming, and everything is grown from those two facts. Using those two facts as your yin and yang, you can actually figure out all martial arts, and even make them into one martial arts system that includes all the others.
Fourth you need a superior training concept. Drilling as a group is okay, but only for young children. Somewhere along the line you are going to have to actually learn what is actually occurring when you perform a martial arts technique.
Fifth, and this is the most important, and most neglected of all the factors I have listed, you must understand what you are doing. In most Martial Art Dojos, you see, the students do mindless drilling, and the belief is that if you drill long enough you will see the reason for what you are doing. Unfortunately, this is probably one of the core reasons why people drop out of such arts as Shaolin, Tai Chi Chuan, or even Ninjitsu.
People don't want to do what they don't understand, you see. Would you like to run in a dark room filled with thrusting fists, lightening kicks, body slamming throws, and that sort of thing? Nobody would, and that is why so few people run the course and actually learn Karate, or kung fu, or kenpo, or whatever.
To get to this simple answer, however, you have to be willing to look at a couple of things. Really, you have to toss out the wrong notions that people have about the fighting disciplines. If you can toss out the trash, the answer is quite easily arrived at.
First, it really matters who you study with. You see, your teacher's history doesn't matter. What matters is whether the sensei you study with actually has the hard core data.
Second, the fellow who instructs you must be able to impart the data. It is important that he know the real reasons for the forms and the bunkai and all that, but he must be able to get that data to you. A martial arts teacher must actually be able to get the concepts across to you.
Third, you must study an art that includes all arts. Well, there goes the ballgame. You see, with very few exceptions, no art includes all arts.
All martial arts have held themselves apart, believing that they are superior, and the other fellow is inferior. This is rather ludicrous, as the most important factor of the eastern disciplines is that a fist is coming, or a throw is coming, and everything is grown from those two facts. Using those two facts as your yin and yang, you can actually figure out all martial arts, and even make them into one martial arts system that includes all the others.
Fourth you need a superior training concept. Drilling as a group is okay, but only for young children. Somewhere along the line you are going to have to actually learn what is actually occurring when you perform a martial arts technique.
Fifth, and this is the most important, and most neglected of all the factors I have listed, you must understand what you are doing. In most Martial Art Dojos, you see, the students do mindless drilling, and the belief is that if you drill long enough you will see the reason for what you are doing. Unfortunately, this is probably one of the core reasons why people drop out of such arts as Shaolin, Tai Chi Chuan, or even Ninjitsu.
People don't want to do what they don't understand, you see. Would you like to run in a dark room filled with thrusting fists, lightening kicks, body slamming throws, and that sort of thing? Nobody would, and that is why so few people run the course and actually learn Karate, or kung fu, or kenpo, or whatever.
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