Nino bernardo

Ego and Marketing in the martial arts

By Nino Bernardo

In this month´s column, I´d like to discuss how a big ego can be one of the main blocks that can stop practitioners from training in wing chun with what I believe to be the right attitude. I´ll also talk about the way that aggressive marketing strategies can feed an instructor´s ego.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. It´s often difficult for experienced practitioners to train with beginners. That´s because the beginner doesn´t acknowledge shots that haven´t been taken. In other words, an experienced practitioner will get in a dominant position, but will turn down the chance to destroy the beginner in order to continue playing. However, the beginner won´t realize what has happened and will land a lucky punch from a lost position.

This situation is like being shot by a dead man. For a split second, the experienced practitioner will experience anger. An invisible line has been crossed. Their ego will suffer from being hit by a beginner in front of everyone in the kwoon. If the ego of the experienced practitioner is stronger than their awareness and patience, they will be tempted to pulverise the beginner, which goes against all the qualities I´ve outlined in previous columns.

As I´ve said before, I believe that we should remove violent intent from the game of chi sao, so that we become like engineers or architects, studying the biomechanics and structure of the body. We should develop a sense of innocence, indifference and patience, yet still be prepared for surprises. Beating up beginners goes against all this.

In the state of mind that I believe we should develop, violence is an accident, not something we seek. The punches in wing chun exist to make chi sao a little bit frightening, rather than as a tool to overwhelm those who unknowingly offend us. We should try not to get angry or frustrated when we practice chi sao and strive to re-adjust our negative emotions. At the same time, we should develop our intelligence through listening to our fear.

I believe that practitioners should wait for opportunities in chi sao, rather than trying to force themselves through to score a point. We should develop crisp entries that minimize the risk to ourselves and those who train with us, rather than trying to destroy our training partners. At the same time, we should strive to be honest with ourselves and our partners or we are wasting our time.

Within the game of chi sao, we can learn to feed false information to our partners and not use excessive energy. We must also learn to improvise, or to answer stupid questions with intelligent answers. If one hand is moving, we should always try to be aware of what the other hand is doing. If you are concentrating on any of these aspects before a beginner lands a lucky shot, you should smile and continue to do so after getting punched.

I believe that training should at all times be fun, enjoyable and carefree. We shouldn´t be afraid of making mistakes. We should neither love ourselves for doing something right nor beat ourselves (or others) up for doing something wrong.

Of course, it can be extremely difficult for martial artists to leave their egos at the kwoon door. One danger lies in the way that instructors sell their classes to newcomers. An easy way of bringing in new students is to set up a marketing strategy that emphasises the experience, talent and general deadliness of the instructor. New students come in thinking that the teacher has never made a mistake. This can feed the teacher´s ego, leading to more beginners getting pulverised for innocently crossing invisible lines.

Personally, I´ve avoided marketing as much as possible. For 16 years, I ran the Basement mainly on a word-of-mouth basis. It is only in the last five years, since setting up the Ibiza Kwoon, that I have sought a slightly higher public profile, including this column and the website which my friend Alex has created for me.

I try to avoid telling my students and potential students that I am the most experienced, talented, deadly and best-looking martial artist in town. Instead, I tell them to believe nobody, least of all me. I strongly believe that you can learn from anyone. If you start believing all that I say, we´re halfway to creating a cult. I encourage my students to research what I say, then either agree with it or disagree with it. If someone agrees with most of it but disagrees with some of it, then that´s great.

I also prefer to train in casual clothes and with everyone learning from everyone else. For example, I often use complete beginners in my seminars to innocently point out distortions in techniques to the more experienced students. I believe that this is healthier than having lots of of different coloured uniforms and belts and high-level students wandering around the kwoon with big heads.

I also believe that you don´t have to dress up as an old-fashioned Chinaman to practice wing chun, as your attitude is more important than your clothes. To give you an example, if I wanted to learn how to use an old English longbow in my garden, I wouldn´t dress up as Robin Hood!