Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Bowing in the Martial Arts

One of my students asked me the purpose behind bowing in the martial arts. Although I could give many answers to this, I would like to give my own slant on the purpose and meaning behind bowing. Please note that there are some traditions that I choose to follow, and others not; many of the traditions that I do not follow (or ask my students to follow) have to do with my Christian faith.

One of the most common traditions in martial arts training is to bow before entering and leaving the dojo (training area). By bowing, we are not worshipping the area, but rather are showing respect to the area in which we are to train, and are showing that we don’t take our training lightly. In some schools, thousands upon thousands of classes have been taught in that particular training area, and some highly skilled black belts have been produced in that very setting. By bowing, we show respect to the instructor(s) of the school, to fellow classmates, and to the knowledge that one is about to or has already acquired.

Another common tradition in martial arts is bowing to your opponent when engaging in sparring, or when practicing techniques. By bowing, we are demonstrating that we value the person that we are working with, and that the purpose of the fight or technique is to mutually improve one another’s skills. We often will bow to the referee as well, to acknowledge that the referee is in charge of conducting the fight and ensuring fairness, and that the referee may see things that we did not when engaged in our fight. A similar tradition is followed when being evaluated by several judges in a tournament forms/kata competition.

We also bow when commencing and finishing each class. The bow shows mutual respect in that students are thankful for the knowledge they have acquired (or are about to acquire) from the instructor, they honor the martial art that they are learning, and the instructor is thankful to have students committed to his/her teaching methods.

All of these traditions are beneficial in my opinion because they instill discipline, humility, courtesy, and respect for the system of American Kenpo, as well as for teachers and fellow students. There are times, however, where I believe that bowing can be misused. For example, at some schools students must find the head instructor before doing anything else and immediately bow to him (even if he is in his own office). Often, the bow is not reciprocated from instructor to student. That’s called pride, and it makes the head instructor out to be almost godlike.

Some Japanese/Okinawan martial art schools even have students shout out at the beginning of class “Onegaishimasu” which translated means, “Teach me, I beg of you.” Beg? Really? Tell me that won’t inflate an instructor’s ego. Don’t get me wrong; it’s important to respect and honor one’s instructor. But we need to be careful not to put the individual on a pedestal. It’s very possible for an instructor to be espousing perseverance and self-control, for example, while also having a very difficult time with anger management and fidelity. The reality is that the instructor may not be practicing what he preaches.

As a third example, some instructors insist that their students call them “Master.” Again, I am all for “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” “Mam,” and “Sir.” Those words are ones we should all use more. But insisting or better yet correcting a student for calling him “Mr. Smith” versus “Master Smith” is called pride. Interestingly, in the Chinese Karate Federation (CKF), one is not even considered a “Master” until one has obtained the rank of 9th Degree Black Belt (an “Associate Master” is an 8th Degree Black Belt). Today, I see all kinds of “Masters” with lower-ranked black belts, or who have high-ranking black belts with amateur skills at best. For the record, my students refer to me as “Mr. Seabrook” and always will. My master died a brutal death on a Cross for me 2000 years ago.