So what of the grey?

Over the years the martial arts environment has maintained a strong focus on children’s programs. They were fairly rudimentary initially since the martial arts were geared toward adults. But they have blossomed and flourished into strong character building programs that teach not only martial arts, but life skills. It is by far one of the most rewarding opportunities that any martial arts instructor will ever have. The chance to tap into an ever growing customer base, to mold and guide young impressionable minds, to develop connections with parents that can direct you to additional prospects as well as getting the parents themselves involved (on and off the mat). I have had a great experience teaching my own children and several of my student’s children.

Additionally, with the popularity of mixed martial arts there has been an increased interest in Brazilian Jujitsu and Muay Thai. This has done a great deal to bring in thousands of young, strapping testosterone driven males looking to submit or tapout some worthy opponent. Women’s self-defense programs still wane and lack the amount of attendance that they probably should have. At the same time they also lack some of the fundamental life saving components that have very little to do with actual physical application (but that’s for another time).

The question that might be asked is; are there any underserved groups in this mix? The answer is yes.

The first are teens and really they aren’t underserved. They are just too busy, uninterested or too cool to participate. You can feel free to disagree with me, but I have a teen and he has multiple sport and social activities. He likes something today and doesn’t tomorrow. Not to mention mounds and mounds of homework practically every day. I, myself started as a teen, but that was my focus. I didn’t do a lot of the other sports to follow my passion. Social events were replaced with working part time to earn money for class and to have a little bit in my pocket.

The second group is the grey. That group who’s hair has begun to grey over time. They normally find themselves with empty nests, adult children, ex-wives or wives that have figured out that they are who they are and they are going to follow their own paths. They are established, often entrepreneurs, or have that mindset. They might be career martial artists who have trained in a little bit of this and that over the years. They might be closet martial artists who started as kids but never got to continue for whatever reason. They like their toys and activities, which are normally, guns, knives, cars, bikes, family trips, hunting, electronics. They are good people that want to protect themselves and their loved ones. So what of the grey? Well they find themselves in a gi rolling on the floor with a twenty something year old in bjj class (something they'd never do in real life) or kicking thai pads for an hour and subscribing to the latest addition of Advil Daily magazine or worst yet are lined up in a class with some highly motivated young kids showing them some nonsensical “self-defense” that some grand master somewhere created 1000 years ago.

Ok, so what is the alternative for the grey? An alternative are practical training systems that focus on effective application without the focus on a tweny something body, calisthenics or sport. That isn’t to say that everyone isn’t responsible for their own health. In the arts your body represents the tools of your trade, but why waste half the class doing pushups and sit ups in a self defense class when that can be done on your own. You can crossfit on your own time. The arts I have gravitated to,  meet those requirements for me because I fall into that greying catagory. Particularly the Filipino martial arts like Pekiti Tirsia that are based off of a blade culture, but have strong stick and empty hand components. Sayoc Kali which stresses all blade all the time, but has delved into more stick and empty hand work. Silat is also a good direction to look in, but it is more difficult to find and there are several flavors. Some may be less appealing than others depending on their level of esoteric back story and how that is incorporated into their training. Use common sense, if it doesn’t make sense to you it probably doesn’t make sense. Another good option are some of the combative systems based on the Filipino Arts like Martial Blade Concepts. This is another system that focuses on defending against the bladed weapon, but has a strong empty hand application that doesn’t go the way of the generic combatives and dumb it down for everyone approach (which basically turns into exercise again). So we see the grey has some good alternatives we just have to be willing to go out and find it. jb