You know, I've always wanted to write a "Forward" to something.
I remember growing up and reading BBMag as a teenager. I diligently "tried out" the techniques and absorbed every bit of the pearls of wisdom contained between its covers.
It took me entirely too long to realize that a "Black Belt", in most cases, didn't mean much and often meant very little. It took even longer to arrive at the understanding that people who place importance on the color of a belt to such a degree, often do so because they're unwilling to measure the actual fighting skill it supposedly represents.
Too few black belts represent one's fighting ability. Most these days either serve as indicators of how long a parent has dutifully sent their child and check to the local McDojo, or a last line of defense for keeping closed a gi belonging to an aging "martial artist" against the force of his ever-growing gut.
Regardless, this isn't about the concept of a belt ranking system as much as it is about the magazine that puts such importance on that concept, it's reflected in its name. The Internet has given rise to a new media, and this one doesn't put up with half-truth, obfuscation, and outright self aggrandizing BS.
Written By Sam Browning, esq.
Growing up we believed many stupid things. Santa Claus is real, the government is here to help us, and that Black Belt Magazine provides an objective and valuable chronicle of the American Martial Arts community. LOL :)
Yes, our BS detectors were often forged from noticing that this rag never said anything negative about any martial artist. (Or at least not since Count Dante was still trashing other people's dojos, think early 1970s)
Similarly we noticed that the grand senseis who bought the most flashy full page ads always got the most enthusiastic coverage, that certain topics of great consumer importance were studiously avoided. (For example, why the beginning student should avoid NAPMA-style sales pitches and long term contracts). information that hurt their patrons/sponsors was swept under the rug. (Such as why Jerry Peterson lost his SCARS contract with the SEALS only a couple years after the Navy hired him.)
And what really pisses us off is the hero worship they dump on any martial artist who can appear in a movie, while being able to walk and chew gum, or sexually harass multiple women at the same time. (Take your bow, Steven Seagal:)
With the exception of an occasional good article by David Lowry, and a couple of pithy comments by Bill Wallace, this magazine has been dreck, and unfortunately this dreck has been the primary source of information for new martial artists between the early 1960s, and the invention of internet bulletin boards like this one.
We're not happy that Black Belt Magazine left us about 40 years of fertilizer to clean up. It all could have been avoided had they run an occasional investigation piece, or even renounced their grammatical fellatio-like endorsement of Frank Dux's Kumite claims in 1980. (They haven't even retracted that article yet)
Since Black Belt's in-house Commando in residence, James Wagner was recently found to be padding his own SWAT resume, it appears that this bird cage liner can't even report accurately on their own staff's qualifications let alone on those artists in the martial arts community.
Perhaps we are just cynical however, we thought reporting involved some activity beyond transcribing and printing whatever Soke O K Dookie dictates to you, when your writer/reporters are on bended knee.
Nope, the original emperor wears no clothes and hopefully they'll lose so much money that not even their DVD and tape sales will save them.
I remember growing up and reading BBMag as a teenager. I diligently "tried out" the techniques and absorbed every bit of the pearls of wisdom contained between its covers.
It took me entirely too long to realize that a "Black Belt", in most cases, didn't mean much and often meant very little. It took even longer to arrive at the understanding that people who place importance on the color of a belt to such a degree, often do so because they're unwilling to measure the actual fighting skill it supposedly represents.
Too few black belts represent one's fighting ability. Most these days either serve as indicators of how long a parent has dutifully sent their child and check to the local McDojo, or a last line of defense for keeping closed a gi belonging to an aging "martial artist" against the force of his ever-growing gut.
Regardless, this isn't about the concept of a belt ranking system as much as it is about the magazine that puts such importance on that concept, it's reflected in its name. The Internet has given rise to a new media, and this one doesn't put up with half-truth, obfuscation, and outright self aggrandizing BS.
Written By Sam Browning, esq.
Growing up we believed many stupid things. Santa Claus is real, the government is here to help us, and that Black Belt Magazine provides an objective and valuable chronicle of the American Martial Arts community. LOL :)
Yes, our BS detectors were often forged from noticing that this rag never said anything negative about any martial artist. (Or at least not since Count Dante was still trashing other people's dojos, think early 1970s)
Similarly we noticed that the grand senseis who bought the most flashy full page ads always got the most enthusiastic coverage, that certain topics of great consumer importance were studiously avoided. (For example, why the beginning student should avoid NAPMA-style sales pitches and long term contracts). information that hurt their patrons/sponsors was swept under the rug. (Such as why Jerry Peterson lost his SCARS contract with the SEALS only a couple years after the Navy hired him.)
And what really pisses us off is the hero worship they dump on any martial artist who can appear in a movie, while being able to walk and chew gum, or sexually harass multiple women at the same time. (Take your bow, Steven Seagal:)
With the exception of an occasional good article by David Lowry, and a couple of pithy comments by Bill Wallace, this magazine has been dreck, and unfortunately this dreck has been the primary source of information for new martial artists between the early 1960s, and the invention of internet bulletin boards like this one.
We're not happy that Black Belt Magazine left us about 40 years of fertilizer to clean up. It all could have been avoided had they run an occasional investigation piece, or even renounced their grammatical fellatio-like endorsement of Frank Dux's Kumite claims in 1980. (They haven't even retracted that article yet)
Since Black Belt's in-house Commando in residence, James Wagner was recently found to be padding his own SWAT resume, it appears that this bird cage liner can't even report accurately on their own staff's qualifications let alone on those artists in the martial arts community.
Perhaps we are just cynical however, we thought reporting involved some activity beyond transcribing and printing whatever Soke O K Dookie dictates to you, when your writer/reporters are on bended knee.
Nope, the original emperor wears no clothes and hopefully they'll lose so much money that not even their DVD and tape sales will save them.
Attached Files
Comment