sqi

[Essentially A White Paper for SQI] Some problems are both insidious and unnoticed. They eat away in the background. Eventually weakening or even destroying the host. When all crumbles they are still not noticed. The collapse is then attributed to other causes. We need a story. Stories make us feel safe and control. So we make up a story. Yet the story is untrue. The cause goes undetected. It infects another host. Wash, rinse, repeat. Some of the reasons for the slow death of many martial arts have to do with these hidden diseases that infest quans and dojos alike. Slowly, and without anyone noticing, degrading the quality of the knowledge taught. Until one day, a once-great art is nothing more than a shadow of its former self.  I ran a quan for 20 years and a month. I fought these problems daily. I insisted that there was a way to eliminate them. But in the end, all I could do was constantly battle them. I could not banish them as much as I tried. They are intrinsic factors in a commercial quan. So we no longer operate a commercial quan. Instead, we teach. And reformulate the entire structure of the community into something new. And hopefully something far superior. This art needs to persist. It is an ancient artifact of human culture and possibly of human biology. It improves lives in incredible ways. It is worthy of preservation. Factor 1 – The More Sophisticated the Art the Less Commercially Viable There is nearly always a downward pressure on sophistication in the arts. This is because students favor extrinsic rewards rather than intrinsic rewards. In quans and dojos this equates to belts and trophies. These can easily be seen. Holders are constantly praised for these symbols. And because they are rewarded they keep doing the activities to acquire more status. In theory these activities equate to building more skill. But the question has to be asked. Skill in what? The answer is often not fighting skill. Yet most look the other way and equate the skill in (fill in the blank) with fighting skill. I’ve attended a few Wushu tournaments as a spectator. I was baffled by what I saw. Acrobatic flips through the air landing in full splits. Twirling of flimsy foil swords. Flamboyant poses. I sat perplexed. Thinking, “What does this have to do with fighting skill?” I wondered if I could be missing something. Was there something hidden that I was not seeing. I had enough training that I really didn’t think so but I wanted to be sure. I had the good fortune to be sitting just in front of one of the champions. So, as politely as I could, I asked. My thoughts were confirmed. He told me that the requirements were that each form had to have at minimum 10% display of actual fighting skill. Then he said, “but no one really pays attention to that rule”. What I thought I saw was confirmed. Lately there has been a popularity in light saber “skills”. A new product on the market enabled fast twirling. It doesn’t fall apart when spun. Tik Tok is flooded with these demonstrations. The practitioners talk about skills and wisdoms. Obviously equating it to fighting ability. But it is just twirling. More akin to a baton twirler. More useful leading a parade that entering a battlefield. Yet the cognitive disconnect persists. They call it fighting skills. I point this out only to elucidate the degree of cognitive dissonance possible in this realm. People want these trophies. Parents especially want their children to have them. They want the bragging rights. Even if the trophy is meaningless. It doesn’t matter. They still get to brag and no one is going to go into the deep discussion of why that trophy means very little. So parents will pay for them. And pay they do. This fact is why schools have gone to teaching kids. Its a much easier sell. Its lucrative. That’s not to say that there are no benefits to the children. There are. They just have little to do with defensive skills This puts even more downward pressure on the sophistication taught. Schools that primarily teach children are more prone to it. Then these children grow up and start schools of their own. Throughout the course of running a school I did consult with business experts in the field. There are numerous  professional martial artists associations. The one piece of advice I was constantly given was “dumb down the curriculum”. They suggested moving the black belt requirements down several notches. Make green the new black. Every single consultation I got this same advice. No matter which organization I got my consulting from. I just thanked the and went on doing what I had already been doing. To enhance profits curriculum must be watered down. Profits and skill are diametrically opposed. I’ll get a lot of hate on that statement. So be it.   Factor 2 – The Best Instructors Always Teach the Worst Students Brown belts don’t often quit. They have too much invested. They will tolerate much. They rationalize the bad and look for reasons to stay. White belts quite at the drop of a hat. Training is new and difficult. So they are constantly looking for reasons to quit. For this reason, a school manager must always assign the best instructor to the lowliest of students. He needs to to ensure retention. Retention pays the bills. The best instructors teach beginners all day. The advanced classes usually being scheduled late in the evening because low ranks would not tolerate that inconvenience. High ranks will. The beginners get the best training. The advanced students get the scraps. This inverts the pyramid. The pyramid is the only efficient structure for transferring sophisticated knowledge to a large number of people. The top experts teach the upcoming experts. They then teach the mid level practitioners. And mid level teach the beginners. Each level above also oversees