What is the Big Lie in Martial Arts?

VIDEO: Find out what the big lie is about martial arts!

I’d like to inform you of something I’ve discovered after 25 years in the martial arts… Namely, that I think martial arts consulting is a farce. Now, don’t get me wrong – I think it’s actually advisable that you seek good solid business information from reliable and proven sources if you’re going to start a martial arts school. And, you should continue to educate yourself and expand your business knowledge and acumen for as long as you are trying to grow your dojo… However, that doesn’t mean you need to hire some hotshot “consultant” to show you how it’s done. In fact, that can be a huge mistake on your part. Allow me to illustrate with a just a few real-life stories regarding close calls with that most dangerous of species, “martialis bidness know notus”, a.k.a., the “martial arts business consultant”.

The style was from a different country of origin than his current one, had a totally different structure, different techniques and strategy but most importantly a completely new set of body mechanics. At that point, I cautioned him to take a step back and think it through.

I’ll tell you something else first to illustrate the point I want to make about this:

I practice and teach Chinese martial arts and started training 28 years ago. Those arts have a very distinct flavor. One that is radically different from let’s say Japanese or Indonesian arts. Granted, there are so many Chinese styles, some of them have many similarities with certain other styles from those countries. Sometimes they look almost exactly alike (Hi there, all you Goju Ryu people!) but even in those cases, when you dig deeper, the differences come to life. You don’t have to take my word on this, go train in a different art and you’ll notice this yourself.

– One of our members at Starting-a-Martial-Arts-School.com recently related to us how he hired a big-time martial arts business consultant for advice on starting a school. The advice he received?  “Finance your school on credit cards, and then come back and talk to me when you can afford my more expensive martial arts consulting package.” Seriously, that was the advice he was given.

A word of caution: there are no absolutes here. You might be the exception to this; maybe you can make it work for you. Or, you might be happy with the limited level of skill you acquire in an incompatible art. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It’s your life, your choice. That said, I think there is value in taking this issue into account before switching over to another art. Do you really want to put in all that time and effort for potentially nothing more than mediocre results? It’s OK if you say “Yes.” to this but at the very least you should ask yourself this question.