We often label other martial arts groups as a cult, and laugh at their silly behaviour and rituals, but at the same time we are a bit blind to the cult-like aspects to the things we do, because that’s ‘normal’ to us.
I went to a different BJJ school one time and they kept making jokes about my home school being a cult because we have to wear an official gi when training, which is more expensive to buy than a normal gi. There were a few other things mentioned, but that was their main issue. A white belt from another branch of my school had visited previously and he had committed the cardinal sin of facing the corner while tying his belt – that was apparently also a sign of a cult and they recounted the story with much hilarity – “I thought he was having a piss in the corner!”.
However, in that school I observed students doing several things that were equally cult-like, but were apparently completely normal to them:
- If you stepped on the mat without bowing, that was 10 burpees.
- Classes started and ended by lining up and bowing to the teacher.
- I (a grown man) had to ask permission from the teacher to have a sip from my water bottle, or if I wanted to leave the mat for any reason. And then ask permission to come back on.
- If a black belt asked somebody to roll, they weren’t allowed to say no, even if they had already agreed to roll with another person.
Now we do some of those things in my school too – we line up and bow at the start, for example, and bow onto and off the mat, but some of those things we don’t do. However, they’re all just different versions of showing respect to each other before and during training. We are learning techniques that have the ability to kill and maim, and people could easily get hurt in the training if we weren’t respectful of our partners safety. Building an atmosphere of respect around the training will hopefully instill that in the actual training.
There is something of an uneasy tension in modern martial arts between capitalism and customs. In modern times the people in a martial arts class are usually paying to be there – they are, as modern capitalism likes to call it “paying customers”. The phrase “the customer is always right” has not entirely entered the martial arts vocabulary yet. It still retains these throwbacks to its “traditional” student and master martial arts heritage, for the reasons outlined above.
But let’s not muse on capitalism too much. The point of this post is to draw attention to the blind spots we all have. To return to that BJJ school – the higher belts were technical, but also fighty without being overly aggressive or dangerous, and the instruction was good and clear, the rolls were good too. But I could have done without the undercurrent of tribalism that that had been instilled in the students and was reinforced by the higher belts.
I think it’s worth repeating that all martial arts are cults, and if you think yours isn’t… then isn’t that exactly what a cult member would say? My attitude is to accept the various rules and customs of each particular cult or organisation as the price for them existing. Without any rules anarchy and disorder would break out and there would be no club at all. The Xing Yi classics famously say – “There is only structure, and there is only Chi”. With no structure, the Chi just leaks all over the place, and with too much structure I guess it can’t flow anywhere. A happy medium is what you’re after.
We (human beings) have the same attitude to our own bodies as well – we don’t see our own blind spots. The way we walk feels natural to us, but that might involve pointing the toes outwards at 45 degrees, compromising our lower back, instead of forward, for no good reason except habit. We might have been doing that for 30,40,50 years, and will probably keep doing it until the day we die without question, until somebody comes along and points out our blind spot, at which point it has become our ‘normal’ and it feels weird to walk in any other way.
A little period of self refection on the subconscious and conscious beliefs we hold true, without thinking about them, is always a good thing.
The Tai Chi Notebook 
Yeah, in BJJ we tend to throw the word “cult” around a lot without it meaning the full fat version of the term – i.e. an actual cult. You make a nice distinction between a real cult (control of personal life) and martial arts rituals. The point of my post was to point out that all marital arts schools have rituals, and to laugh at another school’s rituals means we’re probably blind to our own. Nice comment Ken, and a merry Christmas to you and yours.
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Interesting post, Graham. Maybe it will cause some folks to think about why they do the rituals that make up their practices. I’m not sure conflating simple rituals and practices in a martial arts school with cult-like behavior is completely on target. Intent is important. If a ritual such as bowing promotes discipline, respect, and a sense of community, that is not a negative thing, depending on how it’s handled. The difference between most martial arts schools and cults is that when you leave the dojo, you can live as you please, have the friends you want to have, do the job you want to do, with no controls over your life, ideology or critical thinking.
Cults, on the other hand, tend to isolate members socially, use psychological manipulation, isolate members from family, and discouraged or even prevented from leaving the group. In most martial arts schools, students are free to leave without fear of retribution, and in fact, some of the friends they made in class might remain friends, unlike a cult.
Cults demand a high degree of control over your personal life.
In my classes, we don’t bow to begin class. The teacher is not referred to as “sifu” or “sir.” We use first names, and we don’t bow to the training floor. But when I am in a school where those are the rules, I comply out of respect. It strikes me as “traditional” more than cult-like, and I understand that these traditions came from Eastern cultures that look at things a bit differently, and possibly have ties to religious rituals. Although the cult-like behavior of religions is a topic in itself. LOL
I do know some Taiji folks who won’t meet with me to even do push hands in a friendly meetup. They keep their practices closed to outsiders. This might be out of insecurity, not necessarily out of being a cult, but secrecy is one cult warning sign, and worshiping your teacher like a supernatural god is another. Not necessarily bowing to him or calling him “sir.” It’s a lot more fun to invite people from other styles and other arts to your practices, even BJJ guys, because I like to compare notes and see how we do against them, to assess our skills and the effectiveness of our arts.
Questioning what we do is a very good thing, however. Once, when a Chen teacher saw my student bow to the training floor, he asked the student, “You guys bow to the training floor?” My student said yes. The teacher, an American, said, “How Japanese!” When my student told me this later, I laughed. The teacher was right. I told my students on the spot that bowing to the training floor was not part of our rituals anymore, because we don’t worship the training floor. It is simply a tool. If I practice outside, I don’t bow to the grass. I had never considered this until that moment. I also don’t count in Chinese when teaching. If someone asks why, I say, “I doubt that a Chinese person who is practicing boxing counts their punches in English. I wouldn’t expect him to do that. He’s Chinese. That’s why I don’t count in Chinese.”
So to sum up a reply much longer than anticipated: Ritual can be tradition for a positive purpose. Cult-like behavior is control over your personal life, social life, family, and thinking.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, and don’t do any rituals over the holidays, like unwrapping presents and all that cult-like behavior!!
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