Thoughts on global bullshido.......

**Pablo_shoto** · Posted On: 12/04/2006 12:09am

Hello everyone, I was wandering If I could get your thoughts on a question I have been thinking about latley. Here is the question: Do you think bullshido, mcdojos, and belt factories are A)......pureley a western phenomenon? B).....purley an American phenomenon? C)......a global phenomenon? And If you think its a global phenomenon do you think its worse in certain places? I mean, in practically every city in America you can find an eight year old who has black belt in tae kwon do. Do you think you would find many eight year old black belts in Korea? Do you think If you asked someone in Japan how long it took them to get to black belt in karate they would reply "It took me two years by practing two hours a week." For some reason I think mcdojos and belt factories are purley a western thing, but who knows it might be a global thing. I would really appreciate your thoughts on this.

**MBG** · Posted On: 12/04/2006 12:23am

They are global, but it's much worse in America because of our lazy, misguided by hollywood, skinny nerd wanting an upper hand, soccer mom attitude.

**MacWombat** · Posted On: 12/04/2006 12:26am

To be fair, from everything I've seen (which is only from the internet I admit) I think England may have a higher Bullshido per capita than America. At least there is a higher those who train in bullshido and are vocal about it in England than America.

**Matsufubu** · Posted On: 12/04/2006 1:20am

Originally Posted by MacWombat

To be fair, from everything I've seen (which is only from the internet I admit) I think England may have a higher Bullshido per capita than America. At least there is a higher those who train in bullshido and are vocal about it in England than America.

Really? How so?

**MacWombat** · Posted On: 12/04/2006 1:29am

Originally Posted by Matsufubu

Really? How so?

Systema guys mostly. I've never even heard of systema in the US while Systema from the UK runs rampant on the internet. England still has TKD and other 'high bullshido percentage' systems. Then again, I haven't seen a lot of kiblasters from the UK.

**GoldenJonas** · Posted On: 12/04/2006 10:59am

Bullshido is everywhere. Bullshido is the mistaken belief that your MA is effective even though it has not been tested on a fully resistant, non-compliant opponent; or worse, knowing your art is bullshit and marketing it, and yourself, as an authority on the subject and inflating or making up credentials . This is done in an attempt to give yourself the guise of credibility and dupe the unknowing consumer out of his money.

Any place that practices any MA that operates in theoretical application of their trade and techniques in "r34l life" without actually testing them AND who believes that those techniques are foolproof without such testing is practicing bullshido. Thus, bullshido can happen any place where there are gullible people and/or people who want to make a profit off of those gullible people, i.e., anywhere.

McDojo'ism is rampant in the US. However, a McDojo is not necessarily bullshido. McDojo is a business model used by some martial artists and organizations to help their their company realize a profit.

I would imagine there are McDojo's the world over but I am not sure.

Mysticism with regard to how a particular MA should be taught or trained only serves to propagate the disillusioned martial LARPers of the world. You can have a 10-year old black belt, that's a product of a McDojo. However, a 10-year old black belt that believes he can throw chi balls and can defend himself from and attacker who outweighs him by 150lbs is bullshido.

Thus, you get people who say that an ATA TKD McDojo is bullshido because they have 8 year old black belts. However, the reality is that if the school is telling the students that their jump-spinning-half gannor-side blade crescent kick, can kill someone so long as the proper amount of chi has been harnessed, that school is bullshido. But, so long as the instructors are realistic in their explanation as to the utility of what they are teaching, and they explain this to their students, they are not bullshido. They are just a business that is trying to capitalize on the remnants of the Ralph Machio era; thus, McDojo, but not bullshido.

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 12/04/2006 11:19am

Originally Posted by Pablo_shoto

Hello everyone, I was wandering If I could get your thoughts on a question I have been thinking about latley. Here is the question: Do you think bullshido, mcdojos, and belt factories are A)......pureley a western phenomenon? B).....purley an American phenomenon? C)......a global phenomenon? And If you think its a global phenomenon do you think its worse in certain places? I mean, in practically every city in America you can find an eight year old who has black belt in tae kwon do. Do you think you would find many eight year old black belts in Korea? Do you think If you asked someone in Japan how long it took them to get to black belt in karate they would reply "It took me two years by practing two hours a week." For some reason I think mcdojos and belt factories are purley a western thing, but who knows it might be a global thing. I would really appreciate your thoughts on this.

To answer your question regarding 8 year old BB in Korea, yes they also exist there. But there is a difference. The kids there are awarded what would be considered a junior BB and have to retest at 15 or 16 for an adult BB. The children there attend classes for about an hour and a half 5 nights a week and sometimes Saturdays. The classes contain very little emphasis on forms or one step self defense drills and spend most of their time on kicking drills and conditioning.

So yes technically there are 8 year old BB in Korea, but the training they receive and their criteria for advancing seem to be different than in the U.S.