McDojo

Recently I have been watching more videos on You tube that are titled McDojo. Some of theme are funny skits, others are videos of schools etc. The first time I heard the term McDojo, I was already a Sifu teaching classes. The person using the term was a prospective student and was talking about a school they had gone to and was saying how what they learned was fake.

My response was that if you take that term, which is referencing McDonald's it sort of doesn't work. I mean there is almost no such thing. McDonalds serves food. That food is bad for you. But it isn't fake. I mean you can talk about genetically modified foods. But if someone had created genetically modified martial arts techniques..... that actually sounds pretty bad ass. And the only real world analogy to that would be steroid use. Again, bad for you, but does that mean your punch is fake? No.

You can say someone throws a bad punch or has bad form. But I was watching another video of a Shaolin monk. While throwing his punch his tsance wasn't really connected with the ground. His head went back sticking his throat out. Immediately as a martial artist you would recognize that doing a punch like that doesn't help the power of the punch. It also leaves you open. It isn't just "his system" because that is just a classic punch in northern and southern Shaolin, the type where you don't really turn the waist an the body is somewhat rigid. That punch is about power and structure. So if you don't have good structure, you could say that it is poor form.

But this wasn't a student. He was the master and a champion in Wushu competitions. He's famous. And he can do other amazing kicks, flips, feats of strength and Mai Moh type of stuff I cannot do and have never even practiced. In  a street fight, just like any trained martial artist, he would have an extreme advantage, because even his punch with "bad form" would still knock somewhat out if placed right. The only thing is that his throat is open and he is not as connected with the ground so the punch isn't as powerful as it could be.

But everyone is always open. If you throw a professional boxing punch, your legs and groin are open. If you throw a traditional Kung Fu punch from the South, chances are your legs are in a good structure and you can take punishment, but it's still open. And everyone is open to guns and arrows.

"What if you have a shield?" is a question my son might ask. Well Bombs of som sort or another have been around for a long time. And boulders have been around before humans. The point is there are many factors to winning a battle, and winning at life.

When I was a teenager I probably wouldn't want to study with some of these Champions with imperfect forms, because I was looking for someone who could without a doubt, kick my ass.

But as an adult I am more impressed by determination to continue practicing, business sense and just whether I get a long with a person. I am learning Kung Fu everyday from people that don't even know Kung Fu. Because everything I see is through that Kung Fu lens.

And in terms of business and a lot of just common sense stuff, I am so beginner it's not even funny.

So who am I to "expose" someone that is successful. What exactly am I exposing? The fact that even with less Kung Fu they can achieve more?

Now there are people who are unethical etc. But you can have real Kung Fu and be unethical. You can practice and teach real Kung Fu and make most of your money selling Heroin. In fact many Kung Fu groups have history in gangs and terrorism. You just have to go back a few decades or centuries. Arguably the Southern Shaolin temple (if you believe the stories) had great Kung Fu, morality, ethics... but from a modern perspective was kind of a terrorist training camp.

If you look at other groups, say the Catholic Church, their scandal wasn't that they were offering instant enlightenment from a cookie and grape juice (which they do, because you attain that enlightenment through Christ's enlightenment, if you believe that.) Their scandal was priests raping children.

So.... McDojo.

Who cares?


Anyway. maybe why I care is because my goal is to have a three month basic course for adults that makes you good, fast. Good enough to practice on your own and be a master of a sort. The idea came from training Noah. Because I was able to get him to make his own form up, with some guidance it still looked like a traditional village kung fu form, and he could do stick and sword and lion dance. My goal is just to get adults to be able to do the hands in three months. But I think Noah did it all in three months. Did he reach his peak? of course not. Soon after that I started teaching him traditional forms. But there was some pretty cool stuff about his training back then. It was like the Picasso of Kung Fu. You just did what you feel like and it came out looking like a masterpiece as long as you got down and put power.

I wouldn't consider my dream to be a McDojo or watered down Kung Fu. It would be simpler. It wouldn't be bad for you. It would be more like picking wild fruit and nuts or foraging as opposed to going to a restaurant. You need some guidance so you don't eat something poisonous (or try to do a technique in a way that you hurt yourself.) But it isn't fake. It isn't watered down.

But it will be commercial, because I plan to make a small amount of money.

It would be what McDonald's could be if it focused on making their food healthy.

So I wonder. Will people call my class some sort of McDojo?