Wallace Smedley

Ignorance, Myth and Martial Arts: a Practical Examination of Martial Arts for the Modern Practitioner Wallace Smedley

Publisher Marketing: Within the martial arts a person will find outrageous claims, and subtle lies. There are tales of ancient masters who had powers usually reserved for Superman or Santa Clause, but there are also instructors who use misleading marketing tactics to entice students to pay to be safe. Few instructors actually tell students that the best way to be safe is to be nice to people and not act like a raving ding-dong anytime someone rubs you the wrong way. One will also find absurd practices and a near brainwashing process where you surrender your critical thinking in favor of herd mentality. It is easy to not question the instructor, or the proceedures and policies of the class and organization. There is a much more difficult road in questioning, but questions must be asked. Wallace Smedley has trained in the martial arts since the early 1980's. He has traveled the path of esoteric and mystical martial arts, spent a few years wandering the musky halls of a McDojo, and trained in very rough self-defense schools. He uses his experience to give the reader an enjoyable and thought provoking book. Plain hard facts, statistical based points, and stories from his many and varied experiences give the reader much to consider, and re-examine.