Why most martial arts programs are a big fat joke...

While Taekwondo is the most popular martial art in America, it is also the least effective (with the exception of shaolin kempo karate)...



OK, so I know folks will come out of the woodwork with my opening remarks, but it is vital to understand the difference between a sport and a martial art and no, a style cannot be both!

Independent of the style and its ability to be considered a complete fighting system, many schools themselves are really McDojos in disguise. On my side of town, I would most certainly classify Fred Villari and his chains in this category. Others can be considered of marginal quality but suitable for the soccer mom crowd such as Avon Kempo and Aikido.

Anyway, here is why/how martial arts in America is starting its rapid decline into being highly ineffective...

plane loads of Koreans came to the U.S. to open martial arts schools. This was because they saw an opportunity to make money. Again the public was lied to in many cases. Many of the so called masters that are now famous here were low ranks in Korea. The term Airplane Promotion was used often to describe the fact that many Koreans left Korea as low ranked black belt only to get off the plane as high ranked masters.

Many martial arts schools realized the it was very hard to keep the schools from going broke. To combat this they used the business model used by health clubs. This meant that they began to require contracts.

The contracts began to evolve into the black belt contracts seen often today.

NOTE: If someone can predict how long it takes to get a Black belt in advance, then you are most certainly attending the wrong school

Martial arts schools began to lower the minimum age for students to join.

NOTE: Some schools will take students as low as 3 to 4 years old under the guise of teaching principles at an early age when reality is more about revenue and structured babysitting.

Requirements were lowered because many people would drop out.

NOTE: This is especially true with Gracie Jiu-jitsu

9) As the requirements for age and testing were required more belts were added to allow schools to promote more often.

NOTE: Taekwondo has almost twice the belt colors of traditional Japanese Jujutsu. They also pile on stripes (up to seven) per belt

10) More belts and more promotions allowed the schools to charge more for testing.

11) Some schools began to have mandatory seminars between testing, which they could charge for.

NOTE: Royce Gracie and family are especially notorious for this but are probably running a strong second to Fred Villari

12) Black belt clubs became popular as another marketing method, as did leadership clubs, and competition teams.

NOTE: Fred Villari milks the soccer mom's with the leadership stuff

13) Martial arts schools began to start allowing all kinds of uniforms and colors to sell more items.

NOTE: Be fearful if you see the instructor with fancy colorful Gi's

These are just some of the problems. Less and less real self-defense is being taught. Now schools push the idea of having your child become a black belt. Such other things as fitness, weight loss, and flexibility have become more important than learning real self-defense...

Enterprise Architecture and Wall Street Bonuses

This will be the first year in which my bonus will be larger than my peers on Wall Street...



I remember two years ago, the folks over at Goldman Sachs got their largest bonus ever. The average employee bonus was $180,000. The equivalent role in Goldman to mines broke the $300K mark.

I remember so many Wall Street employees calling me up bragging about their bonuses and how I need to stop working for B-team firms. I received humorous insults such as acknowledging the fact that my bonus couldn't even pay the tax on their bonuses and how they are all going to fly down First Class to Trinidad to watch the World Cup where India played Pakistan and how they would be willing to pay for cable for me to watch it at home.

Its 2009 where folks that work at Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and UBS will all see their bonuses crash. Of course, I predict that mines will not be breaking any records, but at least this will be the year that I can rub it in their faces...

European Identity Conference 2009

I will be speaking/attending the European Identity Conference 2009 in Munich Germany in May and encourage those who have an interest in federated identity, cardspace, openID, saml, xacml or other concepts to consider attending.

I have always found conferences in Europe to be of higher quality than American ones as they focus more on the educational aspects and less on the hype of vendor product. Anyway, if you plan on attending, please trackback and make plans to hook up...