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Black Tiger
Black Tiger's picture
Martial Arts Magazine - Rant warning
The one thing I don't like about martial arts magazines, a lot of them tend to focus on "successful" martial artists with "successful" schools regardless of whether this martial Artist/School is a McDojo or not. From speaking to various "successful Martial Artists, You CAN'T be successful and STILL be a genuine martial artist as MONEY becomes the goal and even though they began as a bonefide, superb Martial Artist, their standards lower and the students grades become easier and easier etc and they're living off the past etc. I used to buy a few of them but got disheartened by the topics Why did they not: Expose McDojo's and Fake Teachers/Grades for example which Styles are just Pyramid selling groups where the product just happens to be Martial Arts Specifying National Governing Bodies, who they are, who are the largest members in the NGB's network, What is the criteria/Costs etc and Which NGB is the best for say Sport Karate, which is best for MMA, Which is best for Muay Thai and Which is best for Knock-down Karate Also Liability and Student Issurance, who provides it what's the criteria, etc. Explain the difference between SPORT Martial Arts and "REAL" Martial Arts, explaining that in Sports Martial arts the goal is competition and doesn't actually prepare you fully for real situations Explain what the 3 levels of contact and how they affect you and what are the purposes etc. Which Styles are better for the Street, which Styles are better for Competition and which styles encompass everything - without being bias to any of the styles mentioned. Bunkai WITH genuine Bunkai specialists like Iain Abernethy and Vince Morris etc. OMG there's loads of things one could do to make a MA Mag better than what's out there
karate10
karate10's picture

I agree with your comments above. I personally don't read MA magazines anymore due to the reason that It's pure commercial 100%, rather than talking about the philosophy/Budo in what we train in our respective arts.What makes the Art or style unique is the Individual.......These day's, I stick with the old school Karate books, practical videos on DVD/YouTube, Chatting with MA Sensei on the NET, or simply asking my sensei for advice which is my first choice.

John
John's picture

It's not that the quality of a karate dojo that's run like a buisiness sucks, it's that the people who do teach quality karate don't know how to run a buisness.

When people come to these "McDojo's" they don't know that the quality of what is taught is not very good, but good buisness practices draws them in. It's not like cars or smartphones where there is a big market and everyone knows if so and so sucks.

More people need to see Ians "martial map" to see that martial arts training can encompass lots of things (looking forward to the printed version of that).

Drew Loto
Drew Loto's picture

Not to simply be a contrarian, because on some level I definitely agree with what you all seem to be saying, but what exactly are the qualities of "McDojo"ness you are recognizing in the various schools featured in martial arts magazines?  I've never held a subscription to any of them, but I have browsed several issues of Blackbelt.  Normally when trying to judge a school via their own website or posters, its very easy to recognize a McDojo--there's a certain glam and glossiness to it, that non-McDojo materials seem to lack.  In a magazine, however, the editors and journalists want to glam-up whatever they are featuring because they feel that it looks better and will therefore sell more issues.  I'm just wondering what specifically suggests that the featured schools are "fake".

Finlay
Finlay's picture

the only time i really pick up one of the mags now is if there is an interview with an interesting guy. i don;t much like the genral articles as most of the are just surface reports without going in to anything deep

Black Tiger
Black Tiger's picture

Drew Loto wrote:

Not to simply be a contrarian, because on some level I definitely agree with what you all seem to be saying, but what exactly are the qualities of "McDojo"ness you are recognizing in the various schools featured in martial arts magazines?  I've never held a subscription to any of them, but I have browsed several issues of Blackbelt.  Normally when trying to judge a school via their own website or posters, its very easy to recognize a McDojo--there's a certain glam and glossiness to it, that non-McDojo materials seem to lack.  In a magazine, however, the editors and journalists want to glam-up whatever they are featuring because they feel that it looks better and will therefore sell more issues.  I'm just wondering what specifically suggests that the featured schools are "fake".

Valid Question

I can't describe it any better than these Articles.

The thing is McDonalds is one of the best franchises out there, it provided food, its not the best but its not the worst. you get what you pay for. this is where the McDojo come from as it a Dojo for the masses with One Goal - Profit. There's no denying being a Mcdojo if one looks at All the criteria, but what they don't do is tell the students the "Truth"

http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2007/01/09/how-to-tell-a-mcdojo/

http://mcdojo-faq.tripod.com/

Zach Zinn
Zach Zinn's picture

The 24fc article was reasonable..other one was like reading a kid from Bullshido.com's lecture on aliveness and kata or something. I agreed with parts of the sentiment, but I think It was too..sophomoric  (only word I can think of that fits) to be any kind of decent guide for a prospective student from my point of view.

But yeah I think the fist article was well thought out basic guidelines.

Really there is no litmus test for what is a a 'McDojo', there are a number of factors involved, but despite people thinking it is unqiue, you can find the exact same lack of quality with Yoga, Dance class..whatever, buyer beware! I've seen general fitness classes that are kind of fly by night and look in all likelihood like great ways to injure yourself too.

With the magazines, this is not unique to Karate or Martial Arts,  most magainzes about Yoga, Tai Chi for health, massage.. pick a subject are not very good, and cater to flash over substance.

I used to like Journal of Asian Martial Arts as it had a wide range of articles, if I recall I gave it up because it just seemed to get a litte dry for my tastes. There are some ok magazines out there, but I have to say the last one I remember liking is Jissen lol, there is so much decent info on the internet, books and DvD's now that I lost interest in the stuff in magazines, as it usually can't compare with other media in terms of good supplmental training.

Mr P
Mr P's picture

I gave up on karate mags because fed up with reading about Bruce Lee this and Bruce Lee that... also fed up with endless competition reports and film reviews. I used to like traditional karate magazine and was disappointed when it shrunk down to being just a small section in combat mag.

would love to see a mag concentrate on proper technique, kata performance and practical bunkai. Also look at martial arts history and philosophy and proper in depth interviews.

Alan

Jon Sloan
Jon Sloan's picture

Well, it's kind of s vicious circle. These mags are businesses themselves, they need to generate income in order to pay for their overheads in staff, technology, printing and distribution. These revenue routes are normally a mix of circulation sales and advertising.

For many different reasons, and I'd argue that the lack of quality writing was one of them the rise in 'free' info from the net another, circulations dropped dramatically. The same thing happened with many other print publications, newspaper included.

They began to rely more and more on advertising to bring in the revenue to keep them in business. The advertisers, usually successful martial business school owners, negotiate for an editorial piece to accompany the advert they're paying for.

So, the mag becomes more and more a fluff piece selling the businesses advertising therein.

Writing quality drops even further. Sales drop even further. Mag gets even more desperate to get advertisers.

Circle continues.

The only mag that ever had great writing and properly interesting articles was, in my opinion, Fighting Arts International. However, I think that Terry O'Neil ran it as a kind of side project to everything else he was doing and it never seemed to come out on a regular periodic basis. Eventually it folded too.

Gavin Mulholland
Gavin Mulholland's picture

The mags can only publish what they recieve from people so really if you want more 'real' stuff in them, some of you should probably be writing and submitting articles.

It's the only way things are going to change...

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Jon Sloan wrote:
Well, it's kind of s vicious circle. These mags are businesses themselves, they need to generate income in order to pay for their overheads in staff, technology, printing and distribution. These revenue routes are normally a mix of circulation sales and advertising.

For many different reasons, and I'd argue that the lack of quality writing was one of them the rise in 'free' info from the net another, circulations dropped dramatically. The same thing happened with many other print publications, newspaper included.

They began to rely more and more on advertising to bring in the revenue to keep them in business. The advertisers, usually successful martial business school owners, negotiate for an editorial piece to accompany the advert they're paying for.

I think this is a really valid point. Magazines are businesses and they need to meet costs. Circulations of all kinds of magazines and newspapers are a fraction of what they were a few years ago. The internet provides the alternative of free and focused information. While in a magazine you typically have a variety of martial themes covered, the internet allows people to get information only on the art / aspects of interest.

The big plus of the magazines is that the articles are vetted by the editor and hence you generally get better quality information. It’s also good to be aware of what is going on in the wider martial world, and you don’t really get that if you constantly web search for the same things. However the fact that magazines cost money and are not “on demand” means the internet will be the preference for most people these days.

The other issue is that the magazines are national in an increasing global market place. In my case, I’d say around 20% of my DVD sales are in the UK with the vast majority coming from overseas. Advertising in the UK martial press is therefore going to hit only a small percentage of my potential market. Circulations are also a lot lower than they were a few years ago so it is not as good value for money as it was. Internet advertising in global and is focused on people who are searching for my kind of material. In these challenging economic times, I’ve found internet advertising to be far better value for money and hence I’ve not advertised in the press for quite some time now. I may in the future, but when purse strings are tight I need to be as prudent as possible and I’m sure it will be the same for all other advertisers.

Your typical club owner is also not really interested in advertising to existing martial artists across the country in question. The typically want to advertise to new potential students in their locality; hence the local papers etc are a better option.

The bottom line is that these days most magazines will not be able to pick and choose when it comes to advertisers. So while times are hard for the publishing industry (and most other industries) there nevertheless remain some great magazines out there who keep workable circulations through the constant provision of quality pieces. If people don’t like a given magazine, then buy another because the support of the ones you like will help them to keep bringing you more of the same.

Gavin Mulholland wrote:
The mags can only publish what they recieve from people so really if you want more 'real' stuff in them, some of you should probably be writing and submitting articles.

This is another really solid point. My experience is that the magazines are very happy to receive good pieces and it’s one of those great win-win situations. The writer gets their material out to a wider audience, the reader gets good quality information, and the magazine is able to include good pieces which is beneficial to them, their readers, and their advertisers.

If people contribute to the magazines it helps both the magazine and the readers. So I would second Gavin in encouraging people to submit quality pieces to their favourite publications.

It is a hard time for printed media (books are far harder to make work these days too) so if we want quality magazines we have to provide them with our support.

All the best,

Iain