Go to the Source of No Source

This clip is a pretty good mini-doc on the history of martial arts, and it has some great stuff on Kano, who is among the most important people in taking martial arts from a military art reserved for few and banned to most into a sanctioned sport dedicated to developing integrity. My own roots go back to Hawaii, which has some dark corners, but it allegedly goes back further to India and China around 440 A.D.

Traditions are important because they keep us connected to a source of truth and keep us honest. It is reckless to discard tradition entirely without knowing what is being put aside. Ultimately, tradition must be abandoned, but it should be understood first if the deepest personal development is pursued.

Medicine does not rely on procedures from 100 years ago, which would be stupid, so why should martial arts? Why should anything? Any serious martial artist should always have the humility to seek new ways of doing things and be willing to be beaten in order to learn. That's evolution, and that is our history.