Magician Syndrome

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by Darzeka, Feb 9, 2003.

  1. Darzeka

    Darzeka New Member

    I've been getting this a little bit lately and I will use a couple of stories to explain what I mean by it.

    I have been training for a year now and am quite good and my mate joined up a little while ago and he had done about 7 years of TKD previously.

    Now whenever he starts talking about his training in comparison he tells a story similar to this
    - " I have done 7 years of TKD, got a black belt and stuff. Then the first lesson of Ninjukai and I think 7 years of my life wasted. When someone who has been doing it for 6 months (me at the time of the first telling) can hand my **** to me."

    I have a few problems with him saying this

    1. Its detrimental to him in that he now places a kind of hero worship on me (not quite but pretty close - the thinking that I am better than he).

    2. It could inflate my ego if I bought into the whole thing.

    3. Its more a problem of his training and thought processes rather than his previous training.

    4. It makes me seem an egotist and an even bigger one when I try to shut him up.



    Now this has kinda always been the case with me being incredibly hard to hurt - even moreso now. And I was kinda violent in High School - I'm nowhere near that now, you be unlikely to get a reaction from me if you punched me.

    But now he is taking it to the extreme and I could walk all over him but he can't think beyond me being able to it in the idea that I wouldn't ever do it cause he's a mate. Also his thinking I can do it would allow me to do it without much difficulty.

    My other friend who does this sorta thing to me I have worked with for two years. After I started he didn't think much of it - it was just another cool thing, but now as I've gotten really into training he almost seems afraid of me hitting him and kicking the crap outof him. I can see where this idea comes from with the amount of **** he talks about me, my family and my private life - he's trying to get a rise out of me and can't see I don't care.
    So now he expects me to just be fully geared toward hurting people and being able to it like what happens in the movies.

    This is true to small extent but nothing like what these guys are placing on me. It is easy to ignore but I am thinking about talking at least to the first guy because it isn't good to think this about anyone - especially a friend.

    This is where the magician syndrome comes in - they think I can do these things better or make it appear good because I am just a good fighter but in actuality they could be just as good or better if train and think about what is happening. A show magician is just doing things that everyone could do just smoother whilst distracting the viewers.

    My instructor is the opposite. He downplays his abilities to the point where he says that anyone could beat him and he is soft. I know he knows different, I know different because I watch him train all the time to get ideas and pointers but continually saying it to people can be damaging for the subconcious. I am getting an idea why he does this - the magician syndrome. He will just downplay his abilities to get people to stop talking about him in fighting situations but a constructive conversation and he is a fount of knoweledge.

    I don't want to take this approach but don't want the situation to continue.

    Just wanted to see if anyone else has had this happen, has any thoughts or ideas.
     
  2. r4bid

    r4bid New Member

    heh as a magician I don't know how much I agree with the title but I understand what you are talking about.

    Really all you can do is sit down with your friend and explain what your thoughts are.
    Your instructor has the right idea, be passive but know how to defend yourself. Much easier to keep friends that way.

    Your friends need to realize that everyone is different and each person will gain a certain level of skill after enough practice but that there will always be people who are better and people who are worse but none of that matters. Who cares if you can kick someones ass? MA should be for defense and internal growth not unjustified offense.
     
  3. Burnsey

    Burnsey Armchair liberal

    I agree with r4bid, you just have to talk to your friend. Could it be that your friend who did 7 years of TKD wants to be accepted and so slags off the art he used to do. I find it quite difficult to believe that anyone who had been training for 7 seven years would get beaten by someone who had been training for 6 months no matter what MA's were involved. Either that or your friend went to a Mcdojo.
     
  4. When you say you beat him and that....

    Beat him at what? It certainly wasn't "Who can kick the hardest and fastest." You both just have strengths in different areas. And you will of course excel at a martial art he's never done before.

    As for the friend who thinks you're gonna hit him. May as well actually do it as punishment for being so ignorant about our gentle ways. :D
     
  5. Skrom

    Skrom Banned Banned

    so what? who cares? it doesn't matter if you're never going to fight him, and if you did for whatever reason then you'd beat him. i'm not seeing the problem. i agree it can be annoying when people sort of worship you like that, but it's not exactly a huge issue. just make it clear to them that you don't like it and then deal with it.

    that's being a little too optimistic. sparring is sparring; there's watered down sparring, and there's more realistic sparring. it sounds like his friend hasn't done too much sparring, and the sparring he has done likely hasn't been very realistic. it has nothing to do with being good at a particular martial art...if you're a good martial artist in one style, you're a good martial artist in another generally, because all martial arts are about combat. of course there are exceptions since not all styles cover all ranges of combat effectively; when i switched from okinawan kenpo to mma i obviously did very well with stand up sparring, but when we hit the ground i had very little to go on. that was just a deficiency within my training. the problem with most tkd is they don't really spar realistically at all, standing up or on the ground. (note that i said most tkd, please don't take this as a personal attack :rolleyes: )
     
  6. hux

    hux ya, whatever.

    sounds like yer bud respects you as a MA - which is a good problem to have ;) Martial arts is a business of perceptions, as you are finding out.

    I have similar issues at work. They see me come in banged up, they know I train in "that kung fu stuff" which is in reality TKD/kickboxing and BJJ, it doesn't take long for somebody to lay some real goofy crap on ya. Either "kick me! go ahead!" or "man, I bet you could beat the ever living crap out of somebody"...that sort of thing.

    First off, I have given up trying to 'splain the difference between "that kung fu stuff" and kickboxing. Ugh. Blank stares.

    As far as the other stuff, the only thing I have found to work consistently is humor. "I'd kick you, but my right leg is like a samurai sword. If I pick it up to kick somebody has to die" or "I think of kung fu the same way I think of sex - I like doing it, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm any good at it" or "I am so sore a schoolgirl could beat me senseless right now".

    It's only not worked once. The guy was telling me how "that stuff doesn't work" and I invited him to throw on some head gear for his protection and come play. I even offered to allow trapping/takedowns...the only stipulation was that I get to hit as hard as I want(with 16oz, of course) and we video it. I figured that way we could find out without anybody getting really hurt.

    Still haven't seen him around ;) Shrug. All of this without any of them having seen me throw a single kick or punch. People are weird.

    humor is the trick if you can get away with it IMHO. as with most things.

    PS I would not assume that 7 years of training equates to any level of competency - he might have only showed up once a week or something.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2006
  7. Wolf

    Wolf Totalitarian Dictator

    Something tells me none of this matters as neither of the original posters has posted in well over 2 years. I think this thread needs to go back to the grave from wence it came.
     
  8. Banpen Fugyo

    Banpen Fugyo 10000 Changes No Surprise

    heheheheehheheehh Ninjukai.... hehheheheheehehe
     
  9. Skrom

    Skrom Banned Banned

    did not notice that... :bang:
     
  10. I blame Burnsey for finding a really old thread and bumping it to the front page. Damn you Burnsey. Now we all look silly.
     
  11. brahman

    brahman Banned Banned

    i got that a little bit when i first got into my system i am in now. i came from a Taekwondo school and they had very limited jui-jitsu skills. to point where the blackbelts knew

    2 wrist releases
    3-4 wrist locks
    1 weird defense against ball bat technique
    and a few ground moves,7-8 all from BJJ and no real knowledge of the BJJ moves being tuaght.
    oh and the sleeper hold, but no variation to put it into a trachea hold.

    when i went to a pure jui-jitsu clas i was like, :eek: soon after came :love: :love: :love:


    long story short it passed. maybe your friend will get over his imtheshiznit syndrome too.
     
  12. hux

    hux ya, whatever.

    damn you burnsey! I was feeling all smart and stuff, too.

    :bang:
     
  13. Banpen Fugyo

    Banpen Fugyo 10000 Changes No Surprise

    That shoulda tipped you off first! :eek: :eek: :D
     

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