I’ve talked at length over the past few years about how the martial arts industry is shooting itself in the foot. I’ve written some of my points down (here’s 10 of them in one article, here’s one, and here’s another) and there’s still a lot more to come, including some big ones. In keeping with the theme, I’d like to expose another straw that’s been heaped on the camel’s back by martial arts schools across the globe, but especially here in the U.S.: form over function.

Thousands of years ago, martial arts was about function. People in many parts of the world needed it for survival. For many others it was about developing dominating hand-to-hand combat tactics for military personnel. Martial arts training in those times wasn’t a game, wasn’t a hobby, and certainly wasn’t a joke.

As you can imagine, modern-day citizens who live in relatively safe societies have different goals than their 2000 year old counterparts. We’re not interested in kicking people off horses and learning how to maim someone’s face with a Kama. Instead, we’re interested in not getting fat, teaching our kids discipline, focus, and respect, and participating in a sport/activity that engages us.

Because of this shift, many martial arts have switched gears and become martial sports. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is growing wildly as a sport. Wrestling, Taekwondo, and Judo have all been adopted as Olympic sports. And mixed martial arts — a combination of dozens of arts — is gaining in mainstream popularity with no sign of slowing. In a major move, the UFC just signed a multiyear deal with Fox Sports.

I think that was a great move. Sports are popular. Sports have rules. Martial sports are exciting. And you can create a huge industry around sports. But what is the heart of a martial sport? It’s a physical competition against another human being. For martial sports, which are spawned by ancient arts that gave their practitioners nasty combat skills, the competition must center around combat. Taekwondo, Judo, Wrestling, Boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and the UFC have all figured that out.

But thousands of schools around the globe are taking combat out of martial arts. They’re removing the function and replacing it with form. They’re taking something inherently useful to society and making it useless. They’ve removed all sparring and physical contact from the curriculum, they’re putting an emphasis on kata and forms patterns, they’re replacing combat with board breaking (and often not even using real boards), and they’re filling the gaps with games, fitness, and fluff.

Sparring is the most important aspect of martial arts in terms of function. It’s the only aspect of training that teaches you pin point timing, distance, feinting, the application of power and technique, and self-defense. But there are schools awarding Black Belts to students who have never participated in a single sparring match. It’s the equivalent of awarding NFL contracts to people who have only played flag football.

“…there are schools awarding Black Belts to students who have never participated in a single sparring match. It’s the equivalent of awarding NFL contracts to people who have only played flag football.”

The industry can’t survive the long-term repercussions of this. It’s a cancer. When you give Black Belts to students who can’t spar, you create future instructors who can’t spar. These instructors are impotent as teachers of the next generation. The side effects are students who have a false sense of security and an industry knee-deep in mediocrity and empty martial arts curriculum. And that kills long-term profit.

The industry has already damaged itself enough. The industry associations are encouraging schools to remove sparring from their curriculums because it results in higher dropout rates. But I’ve already explained why only bad teachers water down curriculum. Real teachers prepare the student for the path, not the path for the student.

Martial arts training is about function and removing the functional aspects is akin to removing the soul of the martial art you teach. Scrubbing out the most challenging parts of your curriculum may help short-term retention, but good luck surviving when nobody wants your product because it no longer has any function. If this trend becomes more widespread, the industry will suffer another major body blow to its reputation. And at this point, I’m not sure how many more of those we can survive.