The book argues and proves that people will always seek to maximize their benefit and how a small percentage will even cheat. One of the examples used is real estate. The perception is that you seek out the expert because she has knowledge about getting the best price for your house. She is the expert and knows your neighborhood. She will be able to list your house and might even have a prospective buyer. For her efforts she will get 6% of the sale of your home your home. You think that since she's getting a percentage of the sale price, it's in her best interest to sell it for as much as she can. Unfortunately the opposite is true. It's actually in her best interest to sell your house as fast as possible.
Let's say she lists your house for $300,000. Her commission on that house is 6% or $18,000. But in reality that's not the case, her commission is only $4500. Because she will have to split the commission with her agency and if the buyer comes from another agent, which they almost always do, she will have to split that commission with them as well. In the end she only makes 1.5% of the total sale price.
Now let's say she get's a low ball offer of $250,000. Her commission on that sale is still $3750.00 (only $750 off of her original commission). If she wants to stick to stick it out for a higher offer she is going to have possibly spend weeks showing your house, spending money on ads and entertaining offers. The more time and effort she puts into marketing your home for an extra $750 isn't worth it for her. Plainly put, while you're out $50,000, she's out only $750. This being the case it is impossible for both of you to be on the same page. In the time it would take to be trying to get top dollar for your home, she could be promoting other houses and getting new listings. Her goal is to churn out as many sales as possible, not to get the top dollar. In the time it takes to get top dollar for your house she could have sold another house and made another $3750!
The problem with this is that you and your expert's goals are not aligned. the same holds true for you and the martial arts school owner. You want to get in shape and learn self defense as quickly as possible. The martial arts studio owner however wants to keep you involved as long as possible. According to Steve Oliver of NAPMA (National Association of Martial Arts Professionals) the average time someone spends in martial arts is 6 months. The goal of a martial arts studio owner is to keep the person enrolled for 3 to 5 years.
This is why most black belt contracts are exactly that, three to five years long. The studio owner makes most of his money off of monthly tuition and promotion exams. This doesn't include summer camps and tournaments. The more months you're enrolled, the more money he makes. The more interested you are, meaning the more you advance, the more expensive the exam fee becomes. So while you're trying to reach your goal as fast as possible, the school owner is trying to slow your progress. The longer he can string you along, the more money he makes. It is not in his best interest to give you what you need in the shortest amount of time possible. It is not in the best interest of the school owner to make you proficient and self reliant. It is in his best interest to make you dependent and indentured which are the exact opposite of your goals.
The primary way he does this is INFORMATION. He gives you a lot of it, a lot more than you need. Techniques, forms, weapons, self defense, sparring, the possibilities are limitless and never ending. In fact part of the function of an organization like NAPMA is to give school owners more information and curriculum ideas in the spirit of keeping the students engaged and enrolled. The purpose of a martial arts studio, according to NAPMA, is to enroll, retain and renew students. they accomplish this by convincing you that you need a black belt.
From the minute you walk into the dojo you're told about the black belt and how it holds all the answers to all your questions. Everything you see reminds you about the ultimate goal, the black belt. For the martial arts school owner, his goal is not you getting your black belt. From a business stand point it doesn't matter. His goal is to keep you enrolled for four years, anything that is gravy.
Now I know there are good and bad martial arts experiences. I have had both. But what we are talking about are the forces at work that are beyond both your and the school owner's control. When you and the person contracted to do a job have different goals it is only a coincidence that it works out at all.
Let's say for example, you're an excellent student and you can absorb anything thrown at you. I mean you're like the Natural.If you were in the conventional sports world and you could play baseball no one would care how long you played, only that you could hit, throw, catch and understood the game. The same does not hold true in the martial arts world. No matter how good you are, there is still a minimum number of classes or time you must attend in order to get promoted. Or there are a set number of promotion events through out the year. You're ability to
understand and demonstrate the material has no bearing on the time requirement. In reality you should be able to test for as many ranks as you wish all the way up to black belt if the goal of the school owner's goal was aligned with yours.
"Thank you sir may I have another!"
Another way to slow your progress or "keep you engaged" is the addition of new curriculum. This is when the school owner adds new requirements or different techniques. The owner will say that the school is "evolving" and growing. While this may be true, you were probably told when you signed up that the school was the "best of the best". Well if the school had all the answers when you signed up, what happened? If that statement was true at the time or you wither weren't telling the truth or you really didn't know what you were talking about.
Look at MMA and Brazilian Jujitsu. Before UFC, everyone was the best, after UFC every started teaching BJJ and MMA. Now, BJJ, MMA, wrestling, judo, vale tudo, pride, catch wrestling and hooking have been going on for decades. One would conclude that the reality that the "best of the best" statement was based on was limited at well...best. One could also surmise that any future statements should be subject to closer scrutiny as well.
Keeping you involved longer falls in line with the notion that "the longer you train the better you will become". This idea permeates the martial arts world. Whenever martial artists talk they always lead with "I've been training in (name martial art) for X amount of years!". There is no doubt that experience matters, but it's the correct and applicable amount of experience that matters. When it comes to knowledge and experience it's quality NOT quantity that matters.
You could spend 30 years of your life learning something completely useless (which happens so much more than is frighteningly imaginable). How much of an "expert" are you? One minute of accurate information and experience beats a lifetime of the wrong information and experience. For example: I may have been taught that I had to kick the tires in order to change the oil in my car, and I've been doing that for 30 years...what do you mean I don't know how to change my own oil?
The sad fact is that most people spend untold amounts of time and money learning something completely useless. It's a horrible truth. Personally, I don't expect them to wake up and realize what has happened because it forces them to acknowledged that they wasted all that time and time is a commodity not to be wasted. You can always make money, but you can't make time.
The next question to ask is which skills are appropriate for what I want to want learn. If I want to learn about rugby, do I need to play football? If I want to learn how to box do I need to learn karate? The obvious and correct answer is no. Yet many martial arts instructors insist that learning "traditional" style techniques helps with self defense or sparing. Looking at the way MMA fighters train, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of them don't practice forms, katas, weapons or any other non-specific sport technique when they are training for a fight. If you're training specifically for self defense, the same holds true. Why would you practice traditional forms and sport techniques when they haven't any tactical value? You wouldn't, yet people all over the world are told that they need to "cross train" to make their self defense better.
This is idea of practicing esoteric skills in order to make other specific skills better is FALSE. Especially when you have only so many hours in the week to dedicate to your goal. I'm not going to practice ping pong to get better at tennis.
To get the most "bang" for your buck you need to focus on mission specific techniques and tactics.
The latest "wisdom" suggests it take 10,000 hours to master a skill. That means if you want to be the next Bruce Lee and you can practice 6 hours a week and never miss a day it will take you 32 years to become Bruce Lee. So maybe you don't need to be Bruce, but just want to become pretty good or good enough to be able to handle yourself. All other factors aside (factors like attitude, size, strength and fitness), I pulled up and article that had some "times" I agree with.
Let's also define a skill as being a single skill set. Grappling (wrestling with submissions), boxing, kick boxing and self defense are all separate skills and require the same amount of time EACH to become proficient. Cross training in these not only extends your time, but also diminishes your return because in the early learning stages it's necessary to immerse yourself in each skill in order to build a proper foundation. If you were a complete newbie into MMA it would be far better for you to spend your time learning 100% of one skill and then moving on to the next one instead of learning a little bit of each at a time. You're recall and retention will be much faster.
Most people, on average, between work, family and friends can work out 2 to 3 times per week. Let's call it 6 hours per week at a skill. So how long does it take to become proficient in the martial arts based on 6 hours of practice per week?
Level 1: Novice (1,000 hours)or 3.2 years
Level 2: Apprentice (3,000 hours)9.6 years
Level 3: Journeyman (6,000 hours)19.2
Level 4: Adept (8,000 hours)25.6 years
Level 5: Master (10,000 hours)32 years
The problem I have with this calculation is it doesn't take into account the individual and the complexity of the skill set. While Judo, MMA or Golf for that matter require a lot of subtleties and nuances, self defense does not, as does firearms training or even sprinting or running. It's been my experience training thousands of people in the Self Defense Training System (SDTS) that it takes 1/10 of the time to become proficient when compared to what is projected here. This is because the simplicity of the technical skills. The more simple the skill the faster it is learned and the longer it is retained.
For example: you may not be able to play an entire soccer match, but you can still kick a ball, you may not be able to go 12 rounds but you can still through a punch and you may not be able to win the Tour d France but you can still ride a bike. Primary skills that require the least amount of coordination are recalled the fastest and retained the longest.
Becoming proficient in the SDTS looks something like this:
Level 1: Novice (100 hours)or 3.8 months
Level 2: Apprentice (300 hours)11.5 months
Level 3: Journeyman (600 hours)1.9 years
Level 4: Adept (800 hours)2.5 years
Level 5: Master (1000 hours) 3.2 years
This data comes from 9 years of testing and instruction over 1,000 students.
Finally, how does a specific skill set change over time when your mental and physical skills diminish and change due to age and injury? The methods of fighting that require extreme endurance and athletic skill will not do you any good when you're injured, older or out of shape. You may have earned your black belt and been able to do amazing feats of athleticism and endurance but what happens when you suffer an injury like a torn hamstring or a dislocated shoulder? Your skill is only useful when you have the capacity to perform it.
Furthermore, what happens when you simply stop training? If you ask a martial arts school owner he will tell you that you NEVER STOP training. (This still doesn't explain the reason why a lot of martial arts school owners are out of shape). Even professional athletes stop training some time. You're not going to be able to maintain a high level of athleticism and fitness forever. Contrary to what I believe, we ain't getting any younger.
At the end of the day your job is to acquire accurate knowledge and skill as fast as possible, retain those skills as long as possible and finally you want to be able to adapt those skills to meet your current needs based on your current physical and mental condition. Most martial arts are so complex and require so much physical conditioning to perform that even at their best they are only as good as the moment you perform them. The more complex, the more physical ability it takes to perform a task, the faster it will deteriorate.
Look this isn't meant to be a martial arts, dojo bashing. In fact quite a few of our SDC Instructors are martial arts school owners! They offer the SDC Programs in conjunction with their martial arts curriculum. The purpose is to shed some light onto how a business works. The purpose of a martial arts business, the way it makes it's money is to keep you enrolled longer. It's not their fault, it's just they way they were trained and made to believe. It's the nature of the beast.
When you go to your attorney and he bills you by the hour. Is it in his best interest to find you a quick resolution or is it in his best interest to get as many hours as he can? Even if he's working on a percentage, he knows how many hours he is willing to invest if he can get a fast settlement and churn out a bunch of clients for money now rather than hope to get a huge payday years down the road, he's going to take the money now.
Doctors run tests, mechanics tell you you need new rotors when you go in for brake pads, that free 100 point check up turns into thousands for them. It is in your best interest to seek the path that maximizes your goals and it's not going to change. Most of the time you do it and you have no idea that you're doing it because you've been taught to do it a certain way. chances are the martial arts school owner doesn't even realize he does this. At the end of the day you make the call whether or not what you're paying for is worth it.
Train Honestly, Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company
Damian Ross is CEO of the Self Defense Company and developer of The Self Defense Training System, the most lethal and effective self defense system in the world, The Guardian Defensive Tactics Police Combatives Program, 60 minute Self Defense and the Family Safe Program. Mr. Ross also founded the Self Defense Instructor Program that helps people develop their self defense careers from the ground up. Mr. Ross is originally from Ridgewood, NJ where he was a High School Hall of Fame Athlete in football and wrestling as well as a varsity wrestling coach. He then went on to Lehigh University where he was a varsity wrestler and football player. Mr. Ross has 3 black belts, 4th Degree in Tekkenryu Jujutsu, 2nd Degree in Judo, 2nd Degree in Tae Kwon Do. In addition to his martial arts experience, Mr; Ross spent 8 years in the professional security and personal protection business. He is internationally recognized as one of the foremost authorities in reality based self defense.
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