Government Regulation

[AngelaG]

Would government regulation in the Martial Arts be a good or bad thing? Why do you feel the way you feel? What are the pros and cons?

Angela

[Aefibird]

Well, I think that it is one of those things that is a good idea in theory, but would work badly in application (like bunkai from some schools ).

Regulation would be good at stopping or limiting those without credentials to teach...but who would do the licensing? What it an instructor has 30 or 40 years training experience but can't prove it? My Sensei would be in that category. He's trained for about 35 years and taught for 25 but he has no 'proof' that he knows what he knows. When he trained with his Japanese instructor there were no certificates and no real gradings - his sensei just told them to get a new belt when he felt they deserved it.

Also, what if a MAist from one style is put in charge of running the whole shebang? TKD people may not like a JuJitsu person running it or Muay Thai may not want a Kenpo instructor being the overseer. Or (evern worse) it could be a government minister with no idea of martial arts who runs the show.

Some government intervention might be OK - e.g make everyone who teaches MA for money register with the council and ensure that they have a child protection policy and a first aid certificate - much in the same way that tattooists are regulated.
There's a big hoo-har in the tattoo community at the moment, because the Hair and Beauty Industry Association wants to impose standards and training on tattooists and piecers. It's a little like an Aerobics Governing Body wanting to put restrictions and rules on Karate - similar sort of field but nothing to do with them. At the moment tattooists have to be registered with the council and have the environmetal standards people check them out (I think it's every 6 months). They also have to have first aid certification. Something like that may be a better way for MA to go than full regulation by a government body that probably won't have a clue about MA and the differences between styles and clubs.

At least if each person who was paid to instruct MA was registered, students would at least be sure that they were getting an instructor that was qualified in first aid and was child prtection police checked if nothing else...

[AngelaG]

Do you think if government regulation came in that it would favour sports karate? After all they would want to promote it for the Olympics etc. I feel karate would go the same way as TKD and lose any real "martial" aspects. I can't see them liking dojo training in the real nasty bunkai etc. Karate is quite badly misunderstood in the wider public and often not portrayed in a good light.

Angela

**edited to actually make sense**

[Aefibird]

I think that if Karate enters the Olympics many clubs will go the way of Judo (now a sport rather than an MA) and TKD (ditto, only more so) - with or without government regulation.

A lot of people outside of MA have a misconception of Karate anyway - they think it's all "Daniel-san", crane kicks and other "Chop Soky". If Karate enters the Olympics it'll get more people involved, but they're gonna want to go to clubs that will promiose them that they're in with a chance of making it to the Olympics and will teach Olympic style. That could mean that Olympic-style karate clubs flourish whilst others go by the wayside, due to lack of support as the aren't "like karate in the Olympics".

I know that's a slight side-track from government regulations, but I think that the principle is the same. Goverment regulation may want karate to become more sport orientated. Heck, you can even do karate as part of GCSE and A level Sports Studies! That sort of shows the route that gov. reg. may take if it ever came to pass.