People, similar to me, from time to time hear this secrecy thing crop up about their martial art or karate but in truth this secrecy thing is just another elitist egoistic controlling influence to make students or perspective students feel and think they are getting something, "special," that no one else in the entire worlds can get.
First, there is the influence principle of, "scarcity," that is triggered in humans when they hear that what they are getting is secret as if it is rare and that only a few, if they like you and you have something they want, are able to receive.
It is a way to set a group dynamic that makes its members feel as if they are special, unique and know something that others don't know putting them at a higher level of status in a social way. It literally helps them create a unique, in their minds, status of the group, it helps them other anyone who is not special, i.e., a special member of said group holding such secret special knowledge.
It is a way they can respond to outside sources that would challenge and question their secrets so they simply say, "I can't tell you, its a secret."
It creates a mind-state that makes an already questionable personal level of self-esteem a form of justification to their possible failure, it allays the fears that are from that lack of confidence and esteem and it confirms it yet hides it behind a blanket of special secret abilities often not challenged outside of the group dynamic because that would divulge its secret-ness. It literally gives them ammunition to throw at others not special outside the group and protects them from discovering the glitches in what they are being given, taught or indoctrinated to as group secrets.
It is a way to also promote other weak-minded folks to join up because their be secrets that will provide them the answers to all their ills and being secret makes it fall under the influence principles of scarcity, liking and especially authority.
Authority that the Sensei who is or will divulge his deeply held secrets to you if you stay with the program; it provides a state of mind that says Sensei is infallible and has knowledge no one else outside the group has and all you have to do is accept his infallible deeply held secret knowledge, in time that is, while you grow strictly within his or her group leaving "others" out there not attaining that special "secret" stuff only you will get, some day when you have proven yourself in his or her eyes.
Then that special knowledgable uber-sensei will use the influence principle of reciprocity, "you scratch my back; I'll scratch yours," so one day when he does impart that special secret knowledge to you one of your requirements is to always keep that special secret close to your heart and let no one "outside the group," and even to some within the group, know what the special secret is.
So, as you can see, this type of stuff tends to used the very human tendencies we all have to influence and manipulate and coerce others to join in and become a special member of this very secret society or socially driven group toward its secret destiny.
Think of it as a sales gimmick where they first get your attention by selling you on the idea they hold some special information secret that only you can get if you are good enough to become a member. Then they feed your imagination and trigger your glitches in the self-esteem, etc., leading you up to the final answer of a call to action, "Put in your special request for membership, earn the right to learn the secrets of the secret society and then put your name on the contract and check to be a member."
Ok, now for the meat to grind out removing all the fat for a lean cut; karate and martial arts have no secrets, they were practiced in secret and many of the older Japanese Koryu oriented systems were subjected to an individual masters uniqueness in applications that were kept secret, unknown to others outside the dojo membership, simply because of the times and dangers of their era but in truth the core essence of all of them were not secret.
Karate from Okinawa may have been kept in secret as to what they practiced as unique to the Sensei’s teachings simply to keep competition with others villages lively yet those secrets were more about holding on to certain applications of principled methodologies to give them advantages in village protection and competitions rather that keep some aspect of their art secret as special.
All of it was a matter of survival of small villages, groups, because of the dangers of the times where war, invasions and other local criminal activities existed not to forget the suppression of the government and conquerers like the Japanese in the 1600’s, etc.
Modern society and karate or martial arts were developed to expose the entire systems to the masses especially when it was converted into a process of teaching in the societies educational systems. It meant removing what many thought were the more dangerous and harmful aspects for young persons to learn but that didn’t make them secret, it merely removed them from the teaching syllabus. It was expected after school completion the interested parties would learn the higher level of karate through local masters and their dojo.
In essence, in truth, the human body moves only in certain physics or physiokinetic ways. It has limitations that can be applied and exploited through a variety of methodologies that are principle driven. Joints only move in certain directions; muscles and tendons and cartilage have physical limitations as to strength and use; each person has its uniqueness as to those limitations and abilities so each acts and applies physical actions accordingly and that has been humanities benefit and limits as to hand to hand protection abilities. This is why, with our human abilities being limited and having been discovered and utilized to their limits that we humans discovered and created what we call, enhancers. Those being … wait for it … weapons!
There is no way that in the thousands of years of evolution of humans and our pension for warring with one another as individuals, groups and social constructs that any part of human physical ability to fight and defend would still be undiscovered and kept secret. Simply humans could not humanly possibly keep such a secret for all these hundreds to thousands of years.
So, stop being a dick head, there are no secrets in our martial arts or karate practices. There may be some things you don’t know, you don’t know you don’t know and they may be discovered through training and practice but trust me what it is said, it ain’t a friggin secret, you just didn’t know you didn’t know it was possible.
This kind of thing makes me think of the old, “Snake Oil Salesmen!”
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