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Whose Tradition?
By: Master M. Ochs

What is "Tradition"? We constantly hear the term "tradition" thrown around in our martial arts training environment. Where do these traditions come from and who says what's a tradition and what's not? These are just a couple of the questions I would like to explore in this short essay in order to shed some light on how we all behave and seem to think that our way is "THE WAY".

"Tradition" is a learned behavior that is part of a culture that is engrained in to a certain group of people by location, or affiliation. Traditions are taught to us by our parents, teachers, mentors, and by even our social groups. Traditions are handed down from generation to generation, and group to group. Traditions are the sometimes simple, or very complicated rituals that we do over and over again until it seems that things were just always done that certain way.

In the martial arts we tend to look at traditions from more of a teaching, training, and sort of a hazing aspect for our under belts. The funny thing about tradition is that it can change from group to group, or generation to generation, and certainly from club to club and region to region. Things that we were taught to us as a "tradition" may not necessarily still be so. For example, when I started my training in the martial arts we didn't wear any sparring gear. When we fought, it was with bare knuckle and foot, and it almost always ended with someone getting bloodied, bruised, or just plain injured. It was much more brutal! Now, I know some of you're thoughts are: "If you had been taught control, those injuries wouldn't happen." However, we were taught control, our "tradition" on control was to make light contact. If you didn't knock them out, or permanently maime someone, then you were demonstrating good control. In other schools, I know that there was no contact aloud at all. But, that was there "tradition". Does that mean our "tradition" was wrong, or not really "traditional"? People are all different and so are the tolerances, ideas, and preferences. If our tradition didn't fit their beliefs, or tolerances then they could go find a martial arts school that did fit them. Our "tradition" since then has certainly changed out of necessity. Insurance companies and the litigious society we now live in have certainly forced a drastic change in that "tradition". Now, our "tradition" is that every student must wear very specific protective gear and must never touch each other while sparring. This "tradition" changed for the good of the student's health and is a positive change in our "traditions".

Now there are some "traditions" I didn't necessarily agree with and have chosen to make changes to in order to make things better, at least what I believe to be better. One of the long standing "traditions" in our schools was the belief that the martial arts were not for the meek and weak, it was where the strong survived. At that time in my life, I felt I was indestructible and thrived on that attitude, so that "tradition" actually fit my personality at that time. I was told at my first class that only a very small percentage of us would survive the first month of classes, and even fewer of us would make it far enough to become a coveted Black Belt. My Master Instructor said that he didn't want 100 students, but he wanted 10 "good" students. As I learned over the many years of training with him, what he meant was he wanted the toughest, meanest, and most brutal people out there to be his students. And, that became my "tradition" as well. I took what I was taught and repeated the cycle. The shame of it was that I lost many excellent students over the years and became a very demanding Master Instructor myself. I produced some excellent students and black belts. I thought I was doing very well until I opened a professional school and my Master Instructor retired which forced me to find a new mentor, and a new martial arts home.

When I started a professional martial arts school I learned very quickly that if I continued to "weed out" these students that were not so tough, then I couldn't pay the bills from month to month. Another mentor of mine since I was a youngster in the martial arts had a different point of view when it came to teaching his students, which I was able to learn a great deal from. His vision was to share Tang Soo Do with as many people as possible. He also liked to have fun and laugh during class! I thought that was really neat as a kid, but when I grew up and became an instructor I wondered where the discipline was? Well, that was his "tradition" of teaching. Of course, initially I fought it. I didn't want to become too soft, I wanted rough and tumble, "good" students. But, through many long debating discussions with this Master Instructor and other senior Masters I discovered the key to longevity in the martial arts and the key to running a successful school. That is gently, compassionately teaching your students through positive reinforcement. Sure, some of you are saying "gently, compassionately," Master Ochs, huh! I came to a couple of conclusions: one being, that typically the strong survive whether they train in martial arts, or not. Two, martial arts is really needed by the meek and the weak. I'm not saying that if you train in martial arts you need it, or are weak obviously. But, my final conclusion was that the longer I can hold on to a student, even the not so "good" ones, the more positive influence I may be able to impress upon their lives. If I "weed out" the meek, weak and troubled students I'm weeding out those who need it most. That was a profoundly life changing thought process for me. When those thoughts finally sunk in to my head it made it easy to make a change in our "tradition" for the better. I decided that I am not in the business of tearing people down, I'm in the business of building them up! So, from that time forward, "traditions" changed.

Which caused some more dilemmas in my life and thought process. Is it wrong to change "tradition"? After a lot of thought, contemplation, and consulting with other Masters I came to the conclusion that it is okay to change "tradition". After all, a tradition is just one way of doing things. There's not a right and a wrong way of doing things for the most part. Life isn't always so black and white, which I had so conveniently wanted to believe previously. Change is a naturally occurring event whether we like it, or not. Change is inevitable, everything around us is constantly changing and adapting, even our bodies are constantly changing and adjusting to the environment. One Master told me it's like being a young bamboo tree, green and supple and able to bend in the strong winds. If you're too stiff you will break in the strong winds rather than flex and stay around to grow and mature.

Change is hard and it makes you question things in your life you may have thought would always be there, and be the same. One of the toughest changes I have ever made in my life was when our clubs came back to the World Tang Soo Do Association in 1996. We had to make many changes in some of the movements in the hyungs, the terminology we were using, and commit to memory things that I had never been taught. I was upset, to say the least, with my original Master Instructor, whom I had been with my entire martial arts life. I thought he had taught me incorrectly. How could he mislead me like that? Not only did I have to re-learn what I had been taught over 15 years at that time, but also had to disseminate the techniques to all of our schools, instructors, and students. It was like having to admit you were wrong all those years and now you were learning the correct way of doing things. That was wrong. We weren't doing things wrong, and I wasn't taught incorrectly. We just had to adapt to the, now local culture and traditions. It was a set of standards that we had not yet been exposed to. It certainly was tough, however, I believe we're all stronger now because of it. We knew just one way of executing techniques and one set of "traditions", now we are more diversified and therefore stronger because of the depth of our knowledge and "traditions".

In conclusion I would like to make some suggestions to all of you reading this paper. First and most importantly, always keep an open mind. Don't ever limit yourself, or your students, by thinking your way is superior to others. Take the time to listen to others points of view, even if in the end you don't agree with their views and explanations, you still will benefit from knowing the thought processes of other points of view. Secondly, it is okay to change your "traditions" if it will make a more positive impact on people or events. Of course, you should always follow the "traditions" of your instructor, or Master Instructor. I do have one exception to changing "traditions", and that is never attempt to change our hyungs. Hyungs are our culture and should be taught and executed as exact as humanly possible to the standard set by the Grandmaster and The World Tang Soo Do Association. Our hyungs are our history and "tradition" to the Tang Soo Do culture and we should never make changes in their execution keeping in mind that every body has a different body type and therefore, they may find it necessary to adapt certain techniques to their abilities and physical limitations when actually putting these techniques in to action. Third, and lastly, consistently teach and enforce these "traditions". If your not consistent and passionate about your way of doing things and executing techniques all will b lost eventually because it will get more and more watered down as it gets handed down from generation to generation. That is why I believe our Association is so wise in documenting our "traditions" through the books written by Grandmaster Shin outlining exactly how to execute all techniques, philosophies, and hyungs. Use these books as guides in you schools daily to ensure that nothing gets watered down and lost. You are all keepers of the culture! Tang Soo!

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