As a young girl watches her mother prepare a ham for dinner that evening, the girl notices that her mother cuts the ends off of the ham before placing it into the oven. This prompts the girl to ask her mother, “Why did you cut the ends off of the ham?” The mother replied, “Well, to be honest, I don’t really know. It’s a family secret for cooking a great ham I assume. My mother always cut the ends off so I’ve just done the same.” The mother then replied, “Why don’t you give your grandmother a call, I’m sure she’ll know.” So the young girl called up her grandmother and asked her the same question, “Grandma, why do you cut the ends off of the ham before you put it into the oven?” The grandmother paused and thought for a moment and then replied, “I’m not really sure why, that’s just the way my mother always did it, so I’ve always done the same. Why don’t you call your great grandmother and ask her? I’d love to know why we’ve always done that!” So the young girl proceeds to call her great grandmother to ask her the same question. The young girl asked, “Great grandma, why do you cut the ends off the ham before you place it in the oven?” The great grandmother replied. “Well that’s a simple answer, it’s because the oven I used to use years ago was too small to fit the entire ham, so I had to cut the ends off to make it fit.”

Martial arts are notorious for being steeped in tradition. From the bowing to the uniforms we wear to the techniques we use and claim to be useful in self defense. Unfortunately, like the story above, we get so focused on doing what we’ve always done we forget to stop and ask why we do it. It’s when we stop and ask why that we discover how to better use these techniques, better understand the culture, or even completely remove the technique or drill.

We have to understand the history and the culture behind the martial art being practiced as it will lead you to the reasons why we do what we do. For instance, why do we bow? We don’t bow anywhere else in Western culture. We shake hands, we salute, but we don’t bow. We bow in the martial arts because most all martial arts originated in eastern countries where they greet each other by bowing.

I walked into a Karate school one day to check out the school and meet with the instructor. This school took pride in being known as a “Traditional” Karate school. I’ve always had respect for these hardnosed martial artists. It was to no surprise that they were punching a makiwara board (hard wall mounted target designed to toughen knuckles) and from what I was told, they use no sparring gear and strike full power as it helps prepare them for a real fight. What did surprise me was when I spoke with the students, they were not fighters, law enforcement, military or anything of the sorts. They were just your run of the mill civilians, business men and women. All that ran through my mind was, “Why are average people preparing their bodies for a hand to hand war?” The whole point of learning martial arts as a civilian is to strengthen and protect your body (or another’s) from harm, not break it down and make it accustomed to being beaten.

To each their own, if you enjoy that kind of training, then by all means seek it out. Unfortunately many people just blindly follow and do what they were taught without asking why. Tradition is great…as long as it’s either needed and/or wanted. When it leads to unnecessary injury and irreversible damage, in my opinion, it needs to be removed.

This obsession with clinging on to tradition is not just limited to martial arts either. It’s all over. It’s in politics, religion, our workplace and even our schools. While I will not comment on these as they do not pertain directly to martial arts, it’s important to understand that the only way to move forward in life is to accept that what we know may be wrong or in many cases, no longer apply to current times. It’s imperative that we open our minds and ask “why?” If not, we are doomed to never evolve. This evolution of martial arts has begun to happen over the past 10-15 years largely due to MMA/UFC. I’ve watched many martial arts schools change dramatically since MMA has become mainstream. While I have my criticism towards MMA, there is no denying that it has helped break people’s ties to useless traditions.

However, with this break in tradition, I’ve also found it going too far in some cases. Suggesting that specific martial arts are better than others or that some techniques aren’t useful since you don’t see it done on tv. Once again, we must always come back to one word, “Why?” While it’s important to trust our instructors and not second guess them, it’s crucial to understand what you are learning. It’s up to you how to go about doing this. So please, stop cutting the ends off of your ham and telling people it’s a family secret!