Quote Originally Posted by Oldschool78
Just wondering what art everyone does here?
I mostly do Seven Star Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu. To my knowledge, we have members here who practise:
+ Liuhebafa Kung Fu
+ Taekwondo
+ Hapkido
+ Uechiryuu Okinawan Karate
+ Brazilian Juujutsu
...apologies if I've forgotten any.

I've intentionally not mentioned who does what style other than myself -- I'll leave it to those people to re-identify themselves or not if they want to.

Something else I'd like to discuss is the idea that Asians are inherently better at martial arts than non-Asians. Some of the best martial arts instructors I've come across have been non-Asians. Yet they sometimes suffer from many students who refuse to learn from them, simply because they're not Asians... including fellow Caucasians! I've spoken to some of these teachers and they say that often other white people come to their school, see a white guy teaching an Asian martial art, then quickly conclude that their teaching must be rubbish -- simply because the teacher is a white guy.

Now apart from the obvious stupidity of such a concept, what I also find laughable is that if a white person refuses to learn martial arts from a white teacher because they think that white people can't be as good at martial arts as Asians... then WHY, as a white person, even bother learning an Asian martial art in the first place?? According to their own logic, if they believe that white people can never truly master an Asian martial art -- then that would include themselves!

To make things worse, I have met several Asian martial arts instructors who are really not very good... but they have lots of students who just _flock_ to them simply because they're Asian! Especially if they speak really poor English too (I wish I were kidding). It's as if... these people want to live the "Karate Kid" dream and have their own Mister Miyagi. They're ideal image of a good martial artist is an old Asian man who speaks with a heavy Asian accent. You see a white guy with an Australian accent... RUN FOR THE HILLS PA KENT!



I decided to bring this up because in the past week I've been practising with a guy who seems to have this preconception that people who come from the country where a martial art originated from are naturally better than those who don't. i.e. He seems to believe that Japanese people are naturally more gifted at say Kendo, Chinese people are gifted at Kung Fu etc.

This whole attitude is about as ridiculous as saying that only the French can ever truly master tennis, since tennis originated from France. Yeah right!

Has anyone else ever witnessed or experienced discrimination in martial arts?