How many decades does it take for one to become a Martial Arts Master? This is a great question. The good news is that there is an easy answer to this question, and it will apply to any art you study, be it taekwondo, aikido, pa kua chang, or whatever.
To get to this simple answer, however, you have to be willing to examine a couple of factors. Really, you have to get rid of the incorrect ideas that people have about the fighting disciplines. If you can take out the trash, the answer is pretty obvious.
First, it depends on who you study with. You see, lineage doesn't matter. What matters is whether the sensei you study with knows anything.
Second, your teacher must have the ability to teach. It is important that he know something, but he must be able to get that data to you. A martial arts instructor must know how to teach.
Third, you must practice an art that includes all the information from other arts. Well, that messes things up just fine. With but few exceptions, there aren't any arts that includes the information from all other arts.
All martial arts have held themselves apart, believing that they are better than the next fellow. This is rather ludicrous, as the most important factor of the fighting disciplines is that a punch is coming, or a throw is about to happen, and everything is grown from those two datum. Using those two datums as your yin and yang, you can actually grow all martial arts, and even translate them into one martial arts system that includes everything.
Fourth you need a superior training concept. Drilling as a group is okay, but only for young children. Somewhere along the line you are going to have to actually learn what is actually occurring when you perform a martial arts technique.
Fifth, and this is the most important, and most neglected of all the factors I have listed, you must understand what you are doing. In most Martial Art Dojos, you see, the students do mindless drilling, and the belief is that if you drill long enough you will see the reason for what you are doing. Unfortunately, this is probably one of the core reasons why people drop out of such arts as Shaolin, Tai Chi Chuan, or even Ninjitsu.
People don't want to practice in the dark. Would you like to charge through an unlit room filled with smashing fists, thunderous kicks, body slamming throws, and other dangerous things? Nobody in their right mind would, and that is why so few students complete their training and actually learn Karate, or kung fu, or kenpo, or whatever.
To get to this simple answer, however, you have to be willing to examine a couple of factors. Really, you have to get rid of the incorrect ideas that people have about the fighting disciplines. If you can take out the trash, the answer is pretty obvious.
First, it depends on who you study with. You see, lineage doesn't matter. What matters is whether the sensei you study with knows anything.
Second, your teacher must have the ability to teach. It is important that he know something, but he must be able to get that data to you. A martial arts instructor must know how to teach.
Third, you must practice an art that includes all the information from other arts. Well, that messes things up just fine. With but few exceptions, there aren't any arts that includes the information from all other arts.
All martial arts have held themselves apart, believing that they are better than the next fellow. This is rather ludicrous, as the most important factor of the fighting disciplines is that a punch is coming, or a throw is about to happen, and everything is grown from those two datum. Using those two datums as your yin and yang, you can actually grow all martial arts, and even translate them into one martial arts system that includes everything.
Fourth you need a superior training concept. Drilling as a group is okay, but only for young children. Somewhere along the line you are going to have to actually learn what is actually occurring when you perform a martial arts technique.
Fifth, and this is the most important, and most neglected of all the factors I have listed, you must understand what you are doing. In most Martial Art Dojos, you see, the students do mindless drilling, and the belief is that if you drill long enough you will see the reason for what you are doing. Unfortunately, this is probably one of the core reasons why people drop out of such arts as Shaolin, Tai Chi Chuan, or even Ninjitsu.
People don't want to practice in the dark. Would you like to charge through an unlit room filled with smashing fists, thunderous kicks, body slamming throws, and other dangerous things? Nobody in their right mind would, and that is why so few students complete their training and actually learn Karate, or kung fu, or kenpo, or whatever.
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