Systems/styles/organizations/masters/legends/theory's/proper this and that, it's really all just a bunch of bullshit. Training with a teacher, who has experience and some knowledge about a subject you would like to become more capable in, is a very honest undertaking. If I want to punch hard, and I find a guy who can punch hard, and I ask him to help me learn to punch harder, this is a very honest and useful relationship. However in the martial arts we have a tendency to formalize and organize everything to extinction.

A title is something bestowed on you by yourself or by someone else, and has no true reality in the world. Now the reason someone might give you a title is because you have some true ability with a given thing, however they might also give you a title because you are their nephew, or because they are dying and you are the only one who cared. The only reason you would give yourself a title is because you feel inadequate with out one, and feel the need to bestow some "magic" on yourself by becoming a "master".

Styles are really no different, while gross differences like one style only wrestles and one style only kicks are obvious and useful to a person not in the know; things like "small frame" and "hard style" are often just a bit more bullshit, to make something seem a bit fancier. You are really never going to fight like a Tai ji guy or a southern white crane guy, or a ninja, or an Aikidoka, you are only going to fight. Fighting is fighting, some times you strike, some times you wrestle, sometimes it's standing and some times it's on the ground, but it's all just fighting. No style will give you the magic ability to do things that aren't realistic in a fight, and no style is going to make you a master fighter, if you never actually get into a fight.

If you want to learn to fight you should find a guy who has been in several fights, not a guy who has talked to guys who were in fights. And not anyone who has been in 600 death matches (likely they have only fought their sister, and they lost, so now they are a master of the pit fight). You should find a guy who has done some sport fights, and been in some bad situations, normal honest people who seem to know something and can demonstrate it, not just talk your ear off, and show you their fine silk pajamas, or assortment of belts, fancy papers and titles. And most importantly you will actually have to get in some fights yourself. The other day I heard that a "master" said " you don't have to get into a car wreck to know what it's like", to that I said "uh, yeah you do."

Organizations and titles are just a bit of bullshit to deflect you from reality, and the bullshit runs deep.

-Chris

I see your point.

You should never assume that someone who is a master of a particular martial art can teach you what you want to learn. You should never assume that they can't teach you anything of value, either. You have to pay attention and think.

I once herd that you should only ask a rich person how to become rich. What if you are poor and want to become rich, and the rich person is Donald Trump and has never been poor a day in his life or had to start from that point? They may still have something of value to teach you, but they may not have all the information that you need.

Maybe the answer is--calm down, lighten up, work hard, learn all you can, discern carefully, and try to have a little fun along the way. Maybe? Ya think? Sheesh!

No, he's right.

The only problem is that there is no direct correlation between performance capacity and teaching ability.

Being a good teacher is whole nother discipline that takes dedicated practice. Some people are good fighters, some are good teachers. Rarely both I'm afraid.

Look at the most famous boxing coaches, that trained the top fighters. They themselves were never champions, but they at leat played the game, paid their dues in the trenches. But their inability to win a title themsleves did not stop them from conveying their understanding to someone with better attributes or greater discipline.

So, the reason that it's almost impossible to find a great teacher is, the only people allowed to teach in MA are blackbelts and champions. The tenacity, boredom, free time or money that is required to achieve black belt status in most MAs doesn't necessarily equip you to teach someone to fight, nor does it teach you how to teach.
Becoming a champion requires so many sacrifices, that the oppurtunity to learn to be a better teacher would have to wait until your competitive goals have been completed, IE most great fighters never make the committment to learning how to teach, because it slows down their progress towards championship.

Catch 22