Henry Ford was a revolutionary businessman. He’s the reason the automobile has overtaken the world as the main mode of transportation in such a short amount of time. He’s also the reason you have hundreds of choices when buying any given product and why those choices are all getting increasingly cheaper.

Fordism is a term used to describe the mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. And I’m afraid the martial arts industry is adopting Ford’s model.

The assembly line model is an unbeatable model if you’re mass producing something that is common, inexpensive, and unremarkable. But that doesn’t sound like what a Black Belt should represent, so why are martial arts schools across the world adopting the factory model where students are treated like human shells that need to be pieced together before they get to the end of the conveyor belt?

The public school system seems to have adopted the same model as well. It’s a shame, because human beings should never be treated as products on an assembly line. Cars, fine. Pencil sharpeners, fine. Computers, sure. Human beings, no.

So why do they do it?

Convenience

It’s hard to treat and teach people as unique individuals. Teaching this way takes a far greater level of patience, skill, focus, and dedication.

If we could treat everyone the same, pretend that everyone learns the same way or at the same pace, and that they all have the same wants and needs, our job would be a piece of cake. So instead of facing reality, teachers (in both martial arts schools and real schools) adopt the factory model. It’s easier.

Profit

It’s difficult to create anything extraordinary with the assembly line model, but it is immensely profitable. The more products you can move in a given amount of time, the more money you can make. And if you have good quality control and clients who are willing to pay a premium, you can make a Ford Mustang instead of a Ford Focus. Sounds great!

But nobody cares about the Ford Focus. And you can get a cheap V6 Mustang that looks just like the real one. The fact is, your assembly line can make all the uninspiring cars it wants, but it’ll never build a Ferrari.

Retention

It’s easier and cheaper to keep existing students in your martial arts school than it is to find new ones. If you keep the conveyer belt moving, the chances of a product jumping off the line declines.

And if you have to stop the line to give people a chance to do their job better you’re hurting the bottom line. Remember, time is money in the factory; throw it together so it looks right and move on to the next one. The factory motto is “good enough.”

The problem with Fordism in the martial arts industry…

The reason the martial arts industry can’t afford Fordism is because it’s a race to the bottom. Whenever you turn something into a mass-produced commodity, it becomes less about remarkability and more about cheaper and faster. That’s the opposite of where we want to go.

Our product is about long-term focus and paying the price (physically, mentally, and emotionally). If we race to make it cheaper and faster, the finish line is drawn at the intersection of boring and meaningless. When that happens, why bother? It’s cheaper and easier to run a babysitting service.

Black Belt is not a commodity; it’s art.

Every student is an individual human being and deserves to be treated as such. They have different learning styles, separate learning paces, and unique wants and needs. A great teacher puts the artist in martial artist. They should be less like Henry Ford and more like Michelangelo Buonarroti.

Art is a gift and it requires great time and attention. It’s special. It’s remarkable. It’s meaningful. The assembly line can mass produce paintings but it can never hope to produce art. If your school is like Dafen, you’ve misunderstood what Black Belt is about. We don’t need more painters, we need more artists.

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