What Makes a Master?

Friday Knight News

Do you measure up to your rank? There are many criteria involved in obtaining a degree in the martial arts or any trade that utilizes a master, journeyman, and apprentice type of evaluation. Mastery is a goal, not a destination, but some people try to collect new ranks in other systems and go from art to art to find the ultimate style on their journey. Other people stick to their main system and seek to find new uses for their old skills and techniques by examining element from other schools by attending seminars or taking private training with other masters with specialized skills. There are merits to both approaches. What I have found in the way of enriching my understanding of the arts is that my best development came from my failures. The mistakes and failures that I have made as a teacher and a student have brought the most growth. I have often under ranked students in the beginning of my teaching, but I have also found that I have often over ranked students because they understood the material. Knowing is not enough, people must learn how to walk the walk. It always simply comes down to; can you do the work? As more often than not, only by repetition of perfect technique are you able to ingrain the proper skills. This perfects polishing and refinement of movement.

“It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet” Miyamoto Musashi

I have seen students leave a dojo because they were not being taught anything new and I have seen others leave because they didn't want to change from their old format. They were not pliable and often times if the teacher was still growing and refining the art, the teacher would rewrite the syllabus or they might alter their techniques or both. Some students do not care if they wear a rank belt or not others seem as if their only reason to breath is to get to the next belt. These students often stop training after they either achieve the desired rank or give up if they encounter difficulty making it. Mastery is not about the accumulation of kata or techniques. Just as martial arts are not about merely dealing with unarmed hand-to-hand combat. It is, no matter what style or form, the practice armed or unarmed hand-to-hand combat skills tend to hone the perception. We learn how to focus on both the mental and physical hindrances that hold us back in life.

"It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential."  Bruce Lee

It also teaches us how to navigate through social situations as the evaluation of our peers is a portion of the criteria for gaining recognition of our status. I tend to look at it as a concept from management theory (called the Peter Principle), only applied to martial arts. This idea states that a person's promotion is based on their performance in their current rank rather than on their abilities for their intended rank. I had promoted people with this in mind in the hopes that they would step up their practice only to be sorely disappointed in this method. My sensei had always taught me that once the individual reached black belt level they should have all of the tools necessary to teach themselves. However, progress is always more rapid when you have an experienced master instructor available.



On the question of conflict resolution, sensei taught as a rule of thumb we should have a clearly defined standardized set of criteria for a person to achieve to reach a stated goal. This should include physical and mental goals. This applies even to schools that have a non-sport based systems. Sparring to test how much punishment you can take is a dangerous and an unnecessary component for achieving combat proficiency. If your goal is to see if you can reach or touch a living reactive target, you can do this without relying on force. If your goal is to test to see if you can hit with power (with any type of striking), this can be tested full force on hand held targets. Striking mitts are a perfect target as they can simultaneously test your speed, accuracy, and power. If you want to develop striking power, there are many specialized striking targets that you can train on. These range from the wooden man, the striking post, or various types of hanging bags.

If, of course, your desire is to test your ability to absorb punishment it is far safer to undertake specialized training. These drills go beyond conditioning your body to use as a weapon. This type of training is where your coach gradually increases the amount of force utilized as you learn how to roll with the punch. Often it begins with light strikes with a padded glove or it begins with push training that involves into strikes. In the arts of karate and kung fu they have specialized body hardening drills as well.



You have to go full circle to achieve mastery, and once you have you'll begin to notice the gaps and unfilled lines from when you began drawing your circle. This leaves us with the option of going over the circle again, or perhaps switching the medium that we began drawing our circle with and going from a tracing pencil into using a pen and ink or brush. Even after this is completed, we may retrace our progress as we try to refine our circle.  True mastery is when we realize training and practice is not something that is done once and is completed. Instead training and practice is something that is continually refined. This is how we know if we truly measure up to our rank.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle 

My stories are about martial arts adventures that are intertwined with paranormal or supernatural events. The following links are to the Kindle version books from the "Dream Walker” series. Our adventurers find themselves on a quest where they are confronted with both conspiracy and mystery. Their challenge is to unite their mind and body skills together utilizing what they have learned in the martial arts with the transcendental power of dream mediation. They attempt to do this while they are trying to make a life for themselves and elude those that seek to use and control them.

Conversations with a Sage (Book 1 of the Dream-Walker)

Conversations with a Sage: This explores Xander Davidson's early encounters with the mysterious fog like Dream Walking martial art sages. He ponders if they are real or if they are only remnants of his dreams. He mainly keeps this secret world to himself as he tries to copes with abuse, growing up without support or guidance and the mystery of his family's past. 

Xander and the Assassins Gift (Book 2 of the Dream-Walker)

The Assassins Gift: Xander Davidson struggles with the conspiracy of his family and the group that is actively trying to manipulate him to join them or die. The young Dream Walkers learns an early lesson to be careful about whom they let into their circle.


Warriors of Perception (Book 3 of the Dream-Walker)

Warriors of Perception: Xander Davidson and his band of friends embark on a mission to free themselves from their oppressors. They bravely face the challenge all the while vying for the right moment to turn the tables.

Jace Lee The Shift (Book 4 of the Dream-Walker)

Jace Lee The Shift: We find a new apprentice, Adam, that is fighting for his life. He is struggling to understand the amazing skills of his mentor, Jace Lee; a younger man that has trained under Xander Davidson. All the while his mentor attempts to reconcile the fact that his skills do not match up with the other Dream Walkers.


Jace Lee No Agenda (Dream Walker Book 5)

Jace Lee No Agenda: Jace Lee attempts to find himself on a self-imposed vision quest of sorts. Instead he finds himself being stalked by the same group that had previously sought after his teacher, (Xander Davidson). Instead of mastering his odd Dream Walking skills he finds love and the potential loss of his powers.

Jace Lee and the Tutelage of Ming Wu: Dream Walker 6 

Jace Lee The Tutelage of Ming Wu: Jace Lee rejoins his teacher Xander Davidson as they cope with a possible combined threat (the mysterious), Ming Wu and the Council that has continuously monitored the Dream Walkers.