YouTube Ryu, Humility, and “Hate”
Recently, a fellow of my acquaintance who has a fake black belt gifted to him by a “ninjitsu” instructor (based on the fellow’s performances on his YouTube channel) decided to start training at his local Bujinkan school. As one would expect, our hero the YouTube Ryu Warrior was forced to don a white belt to train at the Bujinkan. While he proudly claims that another fake YouTube Ryu ninja has already taught him much of what he is learning as a beginner, he has started posting videos of his terribly performed kata. While I’m no expert on what the Bujinkan does (I’m not particularly informed on the subject, really) the skill exhibited is what you would expect from an untrained beginner.
Curiously, this fellow, now late of the YouTube Ryu (until he grows bored with his new school), posted on one of his recent videos that he expects his “haters” to start, you know, hating upon him, now that he is — in his words — finally receiving “legitimate” training. Apart from the startling realization that this means all of the training he proudly proclaimed to have before, including his black belt, must by implication be something less than legitimate, his comment underscores the peculiar flaw in the psyche of the average delusional martial arts fake.
To the fraudulent martial artist — the person pretending to be something or someone he is not — simply training at a reputable school and putting in one’s time over the long term, earning ranks as one goes, isn’t enough. That’s why such people become fakes; it’s very hard for them to humble themselves and become students. They’re too concerned with springing forth onto the mats fully formed as multiple-dan black belts.
When such a person finally decides to stop pretending and just… you know, shuts up and trains, this is not a cause for hatred. This is a cause for celebration. This is precisely what the faker’s critics have been telling him he ought to do.
One of the things that characterizes delusional, fraudulent martial artists is that they’re forever challenging other people to fight while proclaiming how formidable they are. One of the reasons this obnoxious behavior irks legitimate students of the martial arts is that the challengers have so little justification for their inflated opinions of themselves. Their arrogance is grating and their lack of manners is off-putting.
Finally taking the step to train — long-term and consistently — at a legitimate school is the only cure for delusional would-be “warriors.” Sadly, it is a cure that takes a great deal of time to work. Too few of these obnoxious frauds stick with a real school long enough for it to do them any good because, damn it, training for real is hard. It requires the student to maintain an accurate self-image. It requires him to assess his progress separately from his ego and regardless of his insecurities.
It requires him, in other words, to be a real person… and this is harder than you might think for some people.
