Post by Vince on Mar 31, 2006 11:07:33 GMT -5
Hey folks, I am honored to announce that we have a new board member and RMATA chartered school owner, Dr Ken Erickson. Ken runs the Hayastan/ Invicta Grappling Academy in Jamestown NY. He is someone who I respect very much not only as a martial artist, but as a Christian man of integrity.
I will include a portion of some rescent e-mails I recieved from him, which will give ya'll a little insight to his thinking about some issues in the martial arts and his background.
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I am in agreement with you regarding these guys that live in a fantasy world concerning what they are capable of doing in martial arts yet are not willing to actually test it. I think
it is fine for people to train in the martial arts that do not care to compete or to even spare if they are doing so from a simple love of the art. Of if they like the history involved or for some other similar reason. But the problem in my mind is when certain so called experts teach some super deadly art to students that believe they could actually defend themselves in a real situation. To my mind this is a very sad situation. I've seen many people buy into this idea that they could actually deal with any opponent, regardless of size or strength or skill, using some technique that they were told was so deadly that it just couldn't be used in a competitive match. I think this speaks more to a fundamental aspect of human psychology that is based on fear.
Facing life head on is a scary situation. Believing in a superhuman ability to ward off those fears is very reasurring to people so they are prime victims for some guy that is selling bullnuts in the form of martial arts. I find the students to be victims and the teacher to be a manipulator. It's a sad situation but one that is unlikely to ever go
away due to the nature of the human psychic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think we are all on our own spiritual path and for some of us that path has taken us into this world of martial arts. Even the people that cling to untested and most probably bogus techniques or arts are searching for their own truth. It seems that my path has recently taken me into an area where I am being challenged to examine my unwillingness or inability to understand things from the other guys point of view. For several years I have been very judgmental concerning stories of mystical masters or of some guy that could kick every bodies rear end but just doesn't care to demonstrate his lethal skills. I have found myself in arguments with people trying to convince them that this stuff was all just non-sense and I never got any where with them. I started to examine things from their perspective and that is when I began to realize that what you are up against with that stuff is really fear based. Fear is an insidious foe that slips up behind us and takes hold of us on such a basic level that most of us cannot recognize it for what it really is. So we try to cover it up with drugs, alcohol or belief in some magical power in the form of a mystical martial art. There are many other ways people try to hide their fears as well but I have come to believe that this is the basis of what we are discussing when we discuss people in the martial arts world that are unwilling to truly test their skills either in competition or in serious sparring/training.
I began my athletic career in power lifting and won two national titles. At the time I was very strong and big but deep in my heart I knew that I did not know how to fight. So consequently I projected allot of aggression and fear on an unconscious level. That energy, if you will, caused me to draw a lot of aggression from other people. One day while I was lifting weights at Logan college I had an incidence with some kid in the weight room and I almost came to blows with him. At that time Darrin Pordash came up to me and asked me if I'd ever done any martial arts and I told him that I thought martial arts was make believe bullnuts and I didn't see how that stuff would work in a real fight. Just before this happened there was an Aikido demonstration at Logan where these guys would run at their instructor and he would throw them around effortlessly. I thought it looked staged so I asked if I could run at the guy and have him throw me. I was told that I was being disrespectful and that only his students had that honor. This solidified what I thought about martial arts and I told Darrin exactly what he could do with his martial arts. To Darrin's credit he was calm with me and invited me to go to Jay Damato's martial arts school (California Martial Arts Academy) in St. Louis. So I eventually go to this place and the first person I meet is a guy named Steve Yant who is a black belt instructor under Jay. Steve was very nice to me and invited me to come out on the mat and do what ever I wished. He said he could just show me some stuff or we could actually "roll" to "tapping". I did not know what tapping was so he explained it to me and so I thought to myself "there is no way this guy can tap me". Of course you know what happened. I went to sleep. Then I went to sleep again and again. Then my arm felt like it was being broken and I tapped again. Then Jay beat me up standing up. This went on for about two straight hours. At the end of cla*s I sat there exhausted and sweating and for the first time in my life I felt like I didn't have to pretend I was a tough guy. It was so ridiculous for me to even pretend to be a tough guy down there that I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me. I actually felt safe for maybe the first time in my life. I know that sounds strange. How can you feel safe in a place where everyone can kick your a*s? But that is what happened. I felt calm and realized that I did not have to pretend to be some tough guy. I signed up to learn more and have been at it ever since.
I share that story with you Vince to give you a feel for where I came from. A place of fear. And I'm certain that most people who are believing in some form of mystical martial arts yet are unwilling to demonstrate it or have it tested are coming from the same place. They are just unwilling or unable to allow themselves to face their fears. I feel sorry for these guys to be honest with you. Now I'm not saying that there might not be some "Master" out there that could go into MMA fighting and just wipe everyone out in a few seconds. But that is not the point. Perhaps this man exists or perhaps there are many that exist. I personally have serious doubts about this but my doubting it doesn't make it so. There is an axiom in research that says "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". Just because we have not seen some master test his art doesn't mean that there couldn't be one out there somewhere that was so devastating that he could simply knock Gokor or you down with just his look or some secret technique. I concede that possibility as a scientist. But........how does that serve me? How am I affected from that fact? Do I cling to the remote possibility that someone, somewhere could take a man of your size and skill and just play with you without using strength, skill, endurance, and all the other things that come with what I consider 'reality'. If I cling to that concept then I probably am being served in some way from doing so. My fears are being covered over by that belief. Now if I say to myself. Vince is this big strong guy and he could probably beat me to a pulp, then that means that I have to face my fears. This man could actually hurt me no matter what I do. Then I'm faced with a couple of choices. Live in fear and run for the rest of my life or start down a road of hard work and hard self reflection. Actually face my fears and begin to build skills in myself that are difficult to learn and that will repeatedly expose me to my fears. It's a hard choice. But I feel that true liberation from our fears requires us to face them. As Christ said "The truth will set you free". So the question is not really if there exists some top secret technique or super deadly master but if each of us is willing to be honest with our selves so that we can come to our own truth. I find that the more people want us to believe in these untested techniques the more than are revealing their own fears. They probably need a friend or for someone to simply listen to them. I know one thing to be true Vince, you will never change a person's mind about this stuff through argument. The more you argue with them the more they dig their heals in. Of course isn't this true for each one of us? Feel free to use what ever you find of value in these correspondents my friend.
My School is the Hyastan/Invicta Grappling Academy
Jamestown NY, 14701
716-969-4873
Dr. Kenneth Erickson
My back ground is in powerlifting. My martial arts background is ingrappling(BJJ, Sambo) and I have trained JKD and Kuntao for several years. I've trained steadily for about 15 years or so. My students have competed in submission tournaments as well as professional mixed martial arts competitions. I consider myself a student of the martial arts and really only beginning the journey into learning.
I'm a chiropractic neurologist which is a speciality in the profession that requires three additonal years of training and board certification. I've lectured on brain function in the U.S, Canada and Europe. I'm currently completing my dissertation for my Ph.D in Health Science at St.Martin's college/Lancaster England. I've just started working with Benny "The Jet" Urquidez on a seminar series concerning the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of martial arts as they relate to current understandings of brain function. So now you know more about me than you probably wished to;. I am happy to be a*sociated with you and your organization and will help out in what ever way I can.
Best regards my friend,
Ken
I will include a portion of some rescent e-mails I recieved from him, which will give ya'll a little insight to his thinking about some issues in the martial arts and his background.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am in agreement with you regarding these guys that live in a fantasy world concerning what they are capable of doing in martial arts yet are not willing to actually test it. I think
it is fine for people to train in the martial arts that do not care to compete or to even spare if they are doing so from a simple love of the art. Of if they like the history involved or for some other similar reason. But the problem in my mind is when certain so called experts teach some super deadly art to students that believe they could actually defend themselves in a real situation. To my mind this is a very sad situation. I've seen many people buy into this idea that they could actually deal with any opponent, regardless of size or strength or skill, using some technique that they were told was so deadly that it just couldn't be used in a competitive match. I think this speaks more to a fundamental aspect of human psychology that is based on fear.
Facing life head on is a scary situation. Believing in a superhuman ability to ward off those fears is very reasurring to people so they are prime victims for some guy that is selling bullnuts in the form of martial arts. I find the students to be victims and the teacher to be a manipulator. It's a sad situation but one that is unlikely to ever go
away due to the nature of the human psychic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think we are all on our own spiritual path and for some of us that path has taken us into this world of martial arts. Even the people that cling to untested and most probably bogus techniques or arts are searching for their own truth. It seems that my path has recently taken me into an area where I am being challenged to examine my unwillingness or inability to understand things from the other guys point of view. For several years I have been very judgmental concerning stories of mystical masters or of some guy that could kick every bodies rear end but just doesn't care to demonstrate his lethal skills. I have found myself in arguments with people trying to convince them that this stuff was all just non-sense and I never got any where with them. I started to examine things from their perspective and that is when I began to realize that what you are up against with that stuff is really fear based. Fear is an insidious foe that slips up behind us and takes hold of us on such a basic level that most of us cannot recognize it for what it really is. So we try to cover it up with drugs, alcohol or belief in some magical power in the form of a mystical martial art. There are many other ways people try to hide their fears as well but I have come to believe that this is the basis of what we are discussing when we discuss people in the martial arts world that are unwilling to truly test their skills either in competition or in serious sparring/training.
I began my athletic career in power lifting and won two national titles. At the time I was very strong and big but deep in my heart I knew that I did not know how to fight. So consequently I projected allot of aggression and fear on an unconscious level. That energy, if you will, caused me to draw a lot of aggression from other people. One day while I was lifting weights at Logan college I had an incidence with some kid in the weight room and I almost came to blows with him. At that time Darrin Pordash came up to me and asked me if I'd ever done any martial arts and I told him that I thought martial arts was make believe bullnuts and I didn't see how that stuff would work in a real fight. Just before this happened there was an Aikido demonstration at Logan where these guys would run at their instructor and he would throw them around effortlessly. I thought it looked staged so I asked if I could run at the guy and have him throw me. I was told that I was being disrespectful and that only his students had that honor. This solidified what I thought about martial arts and I told Darrin exactly what he could do with his martial arts. To Darrin's credit he was calm with me and invited me to go to Jay Damato's martial arts school (California Martial Arts Academy) in St. Louis. So I eventually go to this place and the first person I meet is a guy named Steve Yant who is a black belt instructor under Jay. Steve was very nice to me and invited me to come out on the mat and do what ever I wished. He said he could just show me some stuff or we could actually "roll" to "tapping". I did not know what tapping was so he explained it to me and so I thought to myself "there is no way this guy can tap me". Of course you know what happened. I went to sleep. Then I went to sleep again and again. Then my arm felt like it was being broken and I tapped again. Then Jay beat me up standing up. This went on for about two straight hours. At the end of cla*s I sat there exhausted and sweating and for the first time in my life I felt like I didn't have to pretend I was a tough guy. It was so ridiculous for me to even pretend to be a tough guy down there that I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from me. I actually felt safe for maybe the first time in my life. I know that sounds strange. How can you feel safe in a place where everyone can kick your a*s? But that is what happened. I felt calm and realized that I did not have to pretend to be some tough guy. I signed up to learn more and have been at it ever since.
I share that story with you Vince to give you a feel for where I came from. A place of fear. And I'm certain that most people who are believing in some form of mystical martial arts yet are unwilling to demonstrate it or have it tested are coming from the same place. They are just unwilling or unable to allow themselves to face their fears. I feel sorry for these guys to be honest with you. Now I'm not saying that there might not be some "Master" out there that could go into MMA fighting and just wipe everyone out in a few seconds. But that is not the point. Perhaps this man exists or perhaps there are many that exist. I personally have serious doubts about this but my doubting it doesn't make it so. There is an axiom in research that says "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". Just because we have not seen some master test his art doesn't mean that there couldn't be one out there somewhere that was so devastating that he could simply knock Gokor or you down with just his look or some secret technique. I concede that possibility as a scientist. But........how does that serve me? How am I affected from that fact? Do I cling to the remote possibility that someone, somewhere could take a man of your size and skill and just play with you without using strength, skill, endurance, and all the other things that come with what I consider 'reality'. If I cling to that concept then I probably am being served in some way from doing so. My fears are being covered over by that belief. Now if I say to myself. Vince is this big strong guy and he could probably beat me to a pulp, then that means that I have to face my fears. This man could actually hurt me no matter what I do. Then I'm faced with a couple of choices. Live in fear and run for the rest of my life or start down a road of hard work and hard self reflection. Actually face my fears and begin to build skills in myself that are difficult to learn and that will repeatedly expose me to my fears. It's a hard choice. But I feel that true liberation from our fears requires us to face them. As Christ said "The truth will set you free". So the question is not really if there exists some top secret technique or super deadly master but if each of us is willing to be honest with our selves so that we can come to our own truth. I find that the more people want us to believe in these untested techniques the more than are revealing their own fears. They probably need a friend or for someone to simply listen to them. I know one thing to be true Vince, you will never change a person's mind about this stuff through argument. The more you argue with them the more they dig their heals in. Of course isn't this true for each one of us? Feel free to use what ever you find of value in these correspondents my friend.
My School is the Hyastan/Invicta Grappling Academy
Jamestown NY, 14701
716-969-4873
Dr. Kenneth Erickson
My back ground is in powerlifting. My martial arts background is ingrappling(BJJ, Sambo) and I have trained JKD and Kuntao for several years. I've trained steadily for about 15 years or so. My students have competed in submission tournaments as well as professional mixed martial arts competitions. I consider myself a student of the martial arts and really only beginning the journey into learning.
I'm a chiropractic neurologist which is a speciality in the profession that requires three additonal years of training and board certification. I've lectured on brain function in the U.S, Canada and Europe. I'm currently completing my dissertation for my Ph.D in Health Science at St.Martin's college/Lancaster England. I've just started working with Benny "The Jet" Urquidez on a seminar series concerning the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of martial arts as they relate to current understandings of brain function. So now you know more about me than you probably wished to;. I am happy to be a*sociated with you and your organization and will help out in what ever way I can.
Best regards my friend,
Ken