Fighting Belongs in the Ring

Fighting Belongs in the Ring

By tom callos

I have been grappling (no pun intended) with the brutality of fighting in the UFC and the other MMA fighting venues. I mean, on one hand, I love it. I love the technical aspects of the fighting, the diversity and no-nonsense realism. On the other hand, I am often repelled by the violence, by the crowd’s behavior, and the spectacle of it all. I attended a UFC event in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and before and in-between the bouts they broadcast –on giant screen TV’s in the stadium –these images of a Roman gladiator preparing for and then walking into the Coliseum. I had to look around me at the other spectators and wonder if anyone else saw the irony in it.

As I understand it, the gladiator games were used by the Roman government to appease the masses –they entertained the general population and kept them distracted from the harsh realities of their own lives – while allowing the Government to do, for the most part, as it pleased. With the “war” in Iraq and all the other shenanigans of our and other governments, I couldn’t help but think about the statement that “history repeats itself.”

Until recently this love-hate relationship with the spectacle of professional MMA fighting had been going on in my head –and then BOOM, one day I just got it. I realized that the ring is exactly where fighting belongs –and that it is a million-times more civil, more dignified, more acceptable, and more just than fighting that takes place outside of the ring.

Fighting belongs in the ring, not in the streets. Fighting between two consenting adults, trained and ready, is the way fighting should go; it should never involve innocent men, women, and children. Children should not become homeless or lose members of their family because one government has a beef with another. We shouldn’t force children to run, burned and naked, from their homes –or risk being blown up by land-mines or unexploded munitions because two political bodies are fighting over the control of resources. Fighting in the ring between MMA fighters is at the top of the fighting food chain –while fat politicians sending poor kids from Michigan to fight useless battles for nothing (but in the name of “freedom”), is at the bottom.

In professional fighting you don’t have to see the mutilated bodies of innocent children, you don’t have to tend to villages blown to bits; you don’t have to worry about car bombs blowing out the eyeballs of your loved ones. No, from now on, when someone asks me if I think MMA is too brutal, too violent, I’m going to tell them that fighting in the ring is the most civilized and non-violent form of fighting and that, in fact, fighting ONLY belongs in the ring.

I’ll teach my students, from here on out, that fighting in classes, on the mat, and in the ring is noble and that it serves a purpose. It is the only way fighting should manifest itself; that is, as a game or contest. When you fight in the ring, you face yourself, your fears, your strengths and weaknesses. There are spectators who enjoy the game you have prepared yourself to play –and there is a referee to keep the game on track and to keep the contestants from being permanently injured. Both participants willingly step into the ring; they’re not conscripted or coerced to be there. They go into the fight of their own free will. When it’s over, they’ll give each other a handshake or a hug, and there won’t be anybody’s life or lifestyle ruined because these two fighters got in the ring and fought each other.

So all of you professional martial arts teachers out there –encourage your students to fight, in the ring –and never, unless for self-defense, anywhere else. The next time you watch an MMA bout or any professional fight, enjoy the fact that the two athletes in the ring are playing a game –and while they may often be young, brash, and theatrical, their contest isn’t going to kill innocent people. Their fight isn’t going to make any mothers and fathers wail in sorrow –the victims of insane politics.

Instructions for members of the UBBT and the 100

Instructions for members of the UBBT and the 100 from Tom Callos

You probably know that my work isn't about your black belt test or simply having a martial arts "association." At first glance that is what the UBBT and the 100 might appear to be. No, my/our work is about re-crafting the mission, the purpose, and the intent of the martial arts "industry" –but wait, it isn't just about that either.

The work, from a big picture perspective, is about re-crafting the role of the "martial arts teacher" in the world. It is about making the martial arts school a place where education about peace, responsibility, sustainability, environmentalism, compassion, and activism are taught, encouraged, and practiced.

This work is about taking all of the things the martial arts claims to promote –and seeing those ideas manifest themselves in all sorts of new, relevant, powerful, useful, and quantifiable ways.

All of the martial arts organizations that currently exist, like NAPMA, MAIA, EFC, The WTF, The JKA, and you-name-it, are valuable to the martial arts world. Each serves some purpose, whether it is to promote competition, distribute business resources and information, or collect tuition. The UBBT and the 100 aren't in competition with these groups, as we are (currently) operating from a completely different place.

While business, competition, collecting money, and staying informed about trends and happenings within the martial arts industry are a part –and sometimes a big part –of our work, these things don't adequately represent the soul of our work. We are here to bring peace, compassion, understanding, and awareness to the world –which, some might argue, is the potential and obligation of every man and woman on the planet.

Speaking personally, I am not a student of the man or woman driving the Porsche, wearing the Rolex, living in the mansion, dressing in Prada and Armani, and living a life focused on hording, consuming, and personal pleasure. While all of these things aren't necessarily evil, I simply do not see them as outward signs of authentic achievement and success. But I am deeply moved, impressed, and inspired by men and women who hear a higher calling; people who take action to make the world a better place, people who act like you might expect Jesus or Buddha to act, if they walked the Earth today.

The point here is that I am calling on you, Mr. and Ms. Martial Arts Teacher, to be something more than a business-person, more than a self-defense instructor, more than a competitor, and more than a teacher of the art of __________ (fill in whatever you call your method). I'm asking you to be a role model for the modern and cognizant citizen. I am asking you and expecting you (if you're drawn to the work) to:

• Teach peace education, in all of its forms, to your students and community –and to do it alongside the things you currently teach. In the future, every school will teach as much about peace and with the same thoroughness and repetition that it teaches the intricacies of its various martial arts. I would think that it shouldn't be much longer that you, the Master Teacher of your school, would be the most vocal and proactive peace education advocate in your community.

• Teach Environmental Self-Defense. I am asking you, as a very first step, to require all of your green belt testers to perform and record 5 to 10 "acts of environmental self-defense" as a part of their testing curriculum. I think you should be a living example of someone who is fully aware of his or her impact on the environment –and as proactive about reducing their impact on the planet as possible. All it requires is self-discipline and awareness, which is something your training was supposed to give you –so use it for the good of mankind.

• Engage in Project Based Leadership Training (PBLT). Leadership training in the martial arts world is all too often a sham. Schools that sell leadership courses are often lacking in any real, quantifiable program. The idea is right, but the methods are lacking, haphazard, or non-existent. PBLT is about taking what you teach on the mat and seeing it used in the real world. I expect each of you to engage and record your own projects so that we may prove their value, prove our intent, and inspire the next generation of martial artists to follow suit.

• Be a part of this movement. I expect you to engage in the team effort –despite your schedule, your obligations, your troubles, and your opinions. If YOU can't reach out and connect, if YOU can't make time, if YOU can't do what most people can't find the wherewithal to do...then WHO WILL? WHO CAN? If not YOU, who has the inner-strength, the heightened awareness, the self-discipline, the focus, and the perseverance to do it? With this message today, you have the opportunity to either demote yourself to the rank of fitness teacher/business owner/self-defense instructor, or you can promote yourself to Martial Arts Master Teacher of the 21^st Century. We have a mission, a purpose, and calling to fulfill.

Note: I may be "the leader" of this "thing" at the present time, but I expect you to share the position in the near future. I expect you to take ownership of the ideas –and to stay connected in a way (a most difficult way for most people) that puts the work and the mission above business, above petty misunderstandings, above disagreements, above style and system. If YOU can't do this, if WE can't do it –then who can?

Specifically, I expect you to contribute, to be vocal, to help your fellow teammates, to support our activities, and to DO AND BE what it is we are working on. Start with our website, YOUR journals, and our activities. If you don't participate, it' could all go way --and you can then go back to the "conventions" to find your inspiration and team.

• Eat like a champion. What you consume makes a difference in your own health and for the planet. I fully expect you to eliminate 90% (minimum) of any and all processed junk from your diet. We've accepted dietary mediocrity, for a number of reasons, for most of our lives, but the time is now to change. You must serve as a role model for a generation of people who are eating themselves sick. It is the very least I would expect from a real master.

• Forget the current accepted business model in the martial arts world –as it is today. Our potential is so much greater than what we currently see. There are SO MANY tools we could be using, so much more we could be asking for, so much more we could be adding to the requirements of our various belt levels. We do what we do in the martial arts world at the moment because it was the best we could muster under the circumstances. We had no idea what the world was to become, what problems we would be faced with, what technologies would come to light. Our teachers didn't always have a way to make us wake up to what they were thinking, learning, and experiencing –and we weren't paying attention anyway, as there are some things that almost everyone tries to tell you –but that can't be understood until you have enough experience.

We are NOT breaking tradition –we are doing the very work that those old men and women, those old masters, would be proud to see us do. When the founder of modern karate said, "The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of the participant," wasn't he talking to us? When the founder of Aikido wrote, "Peace originates with the flow of things — its heart is like the movement of the wind and waves. The Way is like the veins that circulate blood through our bodies, following the natural flow of the life force. If you are separated in the slightest from that divine essence, you are far off the path," wasn't he speaking of something outside of the dojo, outside of the ring? Of course he was.

I am asking you to BE the ultimate black belt. To redefine what it is to be a master teacher, a martial artist, and a leader. The UBBT and the 100 must be made up of people who are willing to put their martial arts training to work –to the test. ARE THE MARTIAL ARTS only about war and war-related issues, or are the martial arts about life? Is the practice of the martial arts supposed to bring about any sort of clarity –or is the UFC the highest manifestation of skill for the martial arts teacher?

I charge for these programs because this is all I do –and I must support myself and my family. But for me, this work is not my "model for financial success." My "job" is to ask a whole bunch of martial arts people to take a small part of their time, energy, and resources and put them together to win the championship of a CAREER, A LIFE, WELL LIVED. In a big way, I am simply looking around the "classroom" and asking my classmates if we can tackle "this job" (whatever "this job" is). I think "this job" is making this martial arts journey of ours, this "thing" we have dedicated our lives to –something we can be proud of. I think it is about making this all mean something, something important, something that our most esteemed heroes would look at and say, "Hey, good work there, my friend."

When I was coming up the ranks as a martial arts competitor and performer, I was all about pushing my body to its limits. Now, with 37 years of marital arts study –and being "a senior teacher" of the martial arts, I am all about expanding my potential as a teacher, a citizen, a man, a husband, a father, a part of humanity, a student of Parks of Gandhi of Schweitzer of King of Carson of Mandela of Hahn and of so many other people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to do what it needed, what is right, what is within their/our potential.

This is what I am expecting of you, too.

You have it within you. This is our community –for support, for reminders, for help, and friendship. It's almost nothing –and yet, it is, potentially, so much.

Tom

Martial Arts and the World - a Letter from Tom Callos

Written to members of the UBBT and the 100:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I offer you a chance to be a more active part of something that is bigger than your school, your business, your commute, your personal habits, your training, your duties, your agenda, and your schedule.

I would like to extend to you an invitation to spend a small amount of your time in joining forces with 100 + teachers around the nation (and the world) to bring some needed ideas and practices to all the students, families, and communities that we represent.

Those "needed ideas" involve a unified and cooperative effort to bring such things as PEACE EDUCATION (in any or all of its forms), ANGER MANAGEMENT, DIABETES EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENTAL SELF-DEFENSE, DIETARY SELF-DEFENSE, and PROJECT BASED LEADERSHIP TRAINING to...Oh, about a 250,000 to a million people +.

Most importantly, however, is the conscious choice and effort --and realization --that you are or could be a part of a movement in the martial arts community to bring radical change to the what, where, why, and how of the martial arts. We can, if we combine forces, accomplish a number of things we might never be able to do alone.

You could, if you look carefully, recognize that I am reaching some kind of limit in what I can accomplish as an individual --and if you know me, you might appreciate that I am, rather consistently, chasing some big and fairly elusive objectives. I need help --and I would like to help you too --by engaging you in a revolution of thinking and action among a group of people who, I think, are perfectly suited to take on something of this nature.

We would do well to find ways to contribute more consistently, to stay on track with national and international objectives, to be more unified in our approach to what it is we are, in our "spare time" working on.

Honestly, I don't want to "run a program" --I want to make change in a way that allows us to look back on what we're doing and know that we REALLY, REALLY took it to "the next level." Why? Because we could...because when everyone else sat around and debated their gross incomes, their after school programs, their taxes, their latest holiday, who won the last UFC, and their what-ever ----we were pursuing an effort to bring social change thru education and action.

I'm proposing that you become a MASTER TEACHER in a new light --under a new definition of what a Master Teacher is -and what that title means. We could commit ourselves to fitness, to health education, to environmental education, and to all sorts of other easy-to-implement ideas...we could commit ourselves to implementing -in a unified and aggressive way -programs that were indicative of our potential. We could all come together in some way -in many different ways - and work on making history in a way that represents our life's work --our love for our chosen profession. We could, in doing this, leave a legacy for the future --for everyone who ever teaches the martial arts.

What I / we need is your participation. We can't make much happen if you allow yourself to become so busy, too busy, to recognize the limited amount of time we have left --and the opportunities which are presenting themselves. Truth be told, we might have a 10 to 20 year max "window of opportunity" to do something amazing. In 10 years I will almost be 60 years old --and every adult male in my family (except one) has died before the age of 65. Some of you are already in your 50's and 60's ---so, really, why wait?

Can you get involved? Can you contribute SOMETHING, some level of energy, of participation, of dialog, of resources? Can you recognize that these projects, the UBBT and The 100 might just represent the most forward thinking, progressive non-physical-based martial arts associations in the world? Can you appreciate how we are jockeying ourselves into a position, politically, to make the martial arts industry something worth being involved in?

Or are you going to "take the ubbt" --and then disappear back into your own circle of activities?

I'm out here hoping to engage you --I'm hoping to do something that allows you to contribute on a level worth contributing on. I'm not saying your work, as it is, isn't good or valuable...but let me tell you, I'm seeing a chance for us to Nobel Peace Prize this thing ---to bring something to the world that touches people --and that speaks of all the "stuff" we'd like to believe about "martial arts masters" --but that currently doesn't really exist.

I don't want to "kick people out of this program" ---but MY GOD you men and women, what is wrong with this picture? Are you content with NAPMA and MAIA and the "business approach?" Do you have something going on that's better than what we're working on? If so, tell me! I WANT TO HELP. I am compelled to help. Or are you going to be like every other Tom, Dick, and Sally out there ---and be too busy to engage?

I really wish I could reach you. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree? Maybe that's why I haven't been able to engage 100 powerful and proactive masters to unite as a team and bring some sanity to this trivial pursuit of ours. Maybe people are just better left to their "own thing" and I ought to quit trying to rally troops who don't really hear the call?

It's my heroes. It's those damned heroes. I look at them and I feel like they're looking at me --and expecting me to recognize the opportunity, the responsibility. They opened some kind of door --and I think I'm supposed to follow suit, I think I'm supposed to give a shit about the world, about one person's ability to make a difference -and some kind of obligation to something noble and right and beyond the scope of that which hypnotizes the masses to do nothing but the minimum to get by --and yet justify their inactivity.

Am I supposed to feel this sense of duty -or am I just an ego-maniac? Am I really out here working because there is a genuine opportunity -or am I just an opportunist? Is Thich Nhat Hahn calling me to action? Did Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and all those other amazing human beings try to compel me and others to DO SOMETHING, or am I just way, way, way out of my league?

Should I just shut up and appreciate the fact that I am just a martial arts teacher --and run my school?

Slide Show for the Ultimate Black Belt Test

Tom Callos on Courage, The Teacher, and Martial Arts Business

I have a view on what martial arts teachers should teach; that is, what they should teach beyond the physical aspects of the martial arts.

Perhaps you share this viewpoint with me?

I think a martial arts teacher needs to teach his or her students to use courage when it is needed. On a very base level, it takes courage to stand toe-to-toe with an opponent of equal or greater skill. However, summing up the courage it takes to fight or compete in a contest is just a drop in the bucket of what courage is really needed for in today's world.

If a martial arts teacher only manages to impart the idea of courage as it relates to kicking, punching, and grappling, well...what an injustice it is to the student! It takes courage to go against the flow of popular opinion. It takes courage to try a new business venture when most fail within their first five years. It takes courage to live with integrity, to be a good parent, to be a good mate, to accept our blunders, to open our hearts to other people.

It takes courage to do what is right, when the powers-that-be disagree.

The kind of courage we practice on the mat or in the ring is the drip coming from the kitchen faucet. The kind of courage we need to be fully aware and alive in the moment, in our lives, and in the lives of those around us, is the Colorado River in spring. How shallow is the thinking of a martial arts teacher whose lessons only involve the technical aspects of fighting?

To teach courage in a way that is powerful and lasting, one must take a look at courage on a global scale; as there is courage –and then there is Rosa Parks courage, Wangari Maathai courage, Martin Luther King courage, Aung San Suu Kyi courage.

Why is it that martial arts teachers embrace the most extreme forms of hand to hand combat without much thought, yet don't approach the idea of teaching courage from a big-picture (global) perspective? I think it's simply a matter of improper focus -and inadequate influences. We become so insulated in our schools that we begin to think the mat and the ring is the world –and out of the desire to teach people the skills of the martial arts, we have forgotten how unimportant they are, unless applied, courageously, to the world outside of the dojo.

It takes courage to look at injustice –and more courage to do something about it. The courage it takes to be a warrior is wasted, if the battles aren't worth fighting. In the Ultimate Black Belt Test, each participant is required to profile 10 living heroes. The reason for this is to expose the instructor to a level of courage-in-the-world that puts the subject of what courage is in proper perspective.

My 10 Living heroes are The Dalai Lama; Thich Nhat Hahn; Wangari Maathai; Aung San Suu Kyi; Julia Hill; Muhammad Yunus; Nelson Mandela; Shirin Ebadi; Pamela Dorr; and Sarah Chayes. These are (some of) the masters of courage --like Kano, Ueshiba, and Funakoshi were the masters of their respective disciplines. When you look at courage from their perspective, you get a much better grip on what courage is –and how it might be used in the world.

The kind of courage it takes to practice and compete in the martial arts is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 to $250 a month. The kind of courage it takes to make change in the world cannot be measured in dollars, but it is exactly the kind of teaching that a martial arts instructor has the opportunity to address --and, if he or she is wise enough, this is the kind of teaching that takes a martial arts school from a business --to an institution.

If you (Mr. and Ms. Martial Arts Teacher) want your lessons to hold a higher value, then get out of your school and get into the world --and then get the world to come onto your mat.