Scot Conway

HOW DOES A SERIOUS MARTIAL ARTS MASTER DECIDE
TO TEACH THE JEDI ACADEMY?

By Master Scot Conway
8th Degree Black Belt

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I'm Scot Conway, the headmaster of the Guardian Martial Arts. I was awarded my 9th degree Black Belt a few years ago, but based upon my system rules, I need to wait until I'm 51 years old to accept it. So, right now, I'm an 8th degree Black Belt. 8th degree typically represents between 35 and 43 years of martial arts training. My mastery is in Guardian Kempo, and I'm known to masters here and there all over. I am known for teaching students effective self defense in a lifestyle martial art in a somewhat traditional format.

I am considered a serious martial arts master. I co-authored the ACMA Instructor Certification Manual. I sat on the Board of the American Council on Martial Arts and later the Martial Arts Teachers Association. I've appeared in Black Belt Magazine, Inside Karate, Karate-Kung Fu Illustrated, Martial Arts Training, Martial Arts Professional and other publications. I've taught at the National Association of Professional Martial Artists World Conference. My students have successfully defended themselves more than two dozen times since I've been teaching.

Given that background and my status in the martial arts community, why in the world would I do something like a Jedi Academy?

PHILOSOPHY

One of my Black Belts recently asked me if I had any regrets about how well I've been able to train my students. She noticed that a lot of students only trained hard enough to avoid failing tests, and a lot of them did not seem to understand how to think like a martial artist. My answer was simple: I wish I could figure out a more effective way to teach the philosophy.

Statistically, about 1 in 3 people will ever need to fight a violent criminal. Everyone can benefit from solid, assertive thinking. For 2 out of 3 people, the body and mind training for their day to day lives will be the greatest benefit. Even for the 1 in 3 who may have to fight, most of them will only fight once, but they will live with their fitness, health, thinking and personal philosophy every day of their lives.

One of the challenges with teaching philosophy is that even though it is the most important part of martial arts training, it is also the one least valued by the average student. If you understand the principles of the movements, you can learn much, much faster, be dramatically more effective, and you can learn to defense yourself in much less time. If you just try to memorize everything and just go through the physical motions, you get less than half of what you could be learning. I had tried to understand how to teach philosophy to the western mind. In our case, everything is in writing and in audio lessons in almost every class, so there is no mystery to it - but getting even good students to understand it has always been a challenge.

Here's how this contributed to Jedi Training: The Jedi have a philosophy.

People in general do not grasp philosophy in martial arts because there is no consistency. We are affiliated with Agathos Ministries that teaches a particular style of Assertive Christianity. Those who have some exposure to martial arts thinking might have gotten it from the UFC, movies, television or think it's all about eastern religious philosophies.

The Jedi have a pretty well defined philosophy. So much of the philosophy lines up with traditional martial arts philosophy, with religious philosophies reflected in the world's dominant religions, and in principles generally accepted in the secular world. There is a way of thinking in the Jedi mythology, and that mythology provides a powerful starting point for philosophical training alongside real martial arts.

“WHAT IF”

“Thinking outside the box” is a great skill in executive leadership, parenting, business and academic success and even relationships. The “What If” thinking of light saber combat helps break us out of the rigid thinking of how we personally perceive reality - often in negative, pessimistic, unproductive ways. As soon as we start asking the question “How would I fight with a real light saber?” it steps us out of the realm of the real in the real of fantasy. In that fantasy, we unleash our creativity within a particular framework.

In a very real sense, this is no different than the more traditional martial arts training I provide. I own a combat quality katana, what most people know as a samurai sword, but I do not carry it around with me. If I am ever attacked, a criminal is not going to attack me with a sword. But I am trained in a lot of sword vs. sword techniques. It has very little direct application to modern violence.

In that sense, light saber combat is the same. Katana are connected to a very different time in history from which we can learn a great deal of principles, philosophy and a warrior's ethic. Light sabers are connected to a fantasy mythology, but we can release our creative thinking and learn exactly the same level of principles, philosophy and warrior ethic. Neither has much significance to modern self defense.

So, for practical self defense, light saber training has great similarity to katana training. For philosophy training, again, light saber training has great similarity to katana training.

For expanding out thinking beyond what we think “is” to what “could be” - light saber training is actually superior.

FUN OUTREACH

I've been a serious martial arts instructor for a lot of years. I think martial arts is a lot of fun. I love a great workout, and I feel great after teaching an insightful class where students really develop their skill. Unfortunately, it is not as much fun for everyone as it is for me and a great core of people who love learning martial arts. It's a workout - but for many people, it isn't as much fun.

Jedi training will be hard work the way I teach, but it should also be a lot more fun! We can work hard, get in Jedi Fit condition, and learn a lot of skills, but we'll get to “play” more, too. I think it will make the classes more fun for more people. Star Wars fans will definitely feel they are getting a solid, Jedi-level workout. And we get to play at the same time…

THE BACK-STORY

I came to the idea of doing a Jedi Academy step by logical step. First, there was some background in my classical martial arts training.

Kenjutsu

I have been trained in the use of a katana, what most people know as a samurai sword. I also have some experience in fencing and European sword fighting styles. These techniques are blended together and comprise one third of the Guardian Kobujitsu program. I readily admit we do not produce nearly the caliber of sword fighters as Kendo or Kenjutsu - two arts that specialize in sword skills. But we do develop a wide variety of skills that could be used with any weapon about the right length. This could be a stick, a bat, or even a light saber.

Musashi Miyamoto's A Book of Five Rings is a classic 350 year old book on sword fighting as philosophy. He started with his physical mastery of the sword. From there, he explored the deeper principles and philosophy of sword fighting. So there is a precedent for exploring philosophy from swordplay. More on this in a moment.

Ki Principles

I have exceptional skill, insight and understanding of ki. I am by no means a master of Chi Gung or pressure points, I do have exceptional understanding and insight into this energy, what it is, how it works and how to teach it. For years, Ki Principles have been light heartedly referred to as “Jedi Force Powers.” There certainly are a lot of interesting applications of the principles!

Philosophy

I spoke earlier about my efforts to figure out how to teach philosophy along with martial arts. The thinking of a martial artist, a Guardian Martial Artist in particular, requires growth, introspection, and, at times, deep thought. While everyone is certainly capable of this, most do not choose to do so. The opening pages of a book called Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters has a dialog between someone of my generation talking to someone of the next generation. “So you want to be a Jedi, but my generation never produced a Yoda to train you.” Upon reading that line, one of my students remarked: “You can train us to be Jedi!”

Jedi come with a built in philosophy. The principles found in the movies, the comics, the games, and the novels are a great starting point for teaching philosophy. Authors have found parallels between Jedi teaching and Christian doctrine. Beside Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters, there is The Gospel According to Star Wars and Star Wars Jesus. In the past, I've had many discussions with friends about The Force, Star Wars, Jedi and how it all weaves in to my way of teaching and thinking.

Because of the fantasy element, it seems much less threatening to people to have “serious” discussions. Because we are discussing something from entertainment, it is less personal, and therefore you can go deep faster because you are not stepping on someone's beliefs. It is easier to get to the hard questions and the equally hard answers.

Hero Building

As an aspect of this, I had been pondering conducting a seminar on Hero Building. The idea is fairly simple in principle: Develop a heroic persona you can step into when you need strength.

The simplest version is when you walk in the martial arts school, mentally imagine dropping off the stresses and concerns of you day outside. It should feel almost like an imaginary backpack dropping off you as you walk through the door. As you step on the training floor, you should straighten up, cast your shoulders back, and take on the thinking of a martial arts student. Your day is left outside. You are here to train.

As simple as this may sound, it is also difficult for many people. Something that has worked for a lot of people in a lot of sports for a very long time is to think of yourself as heroic. If you can imagine yourself bigger, stronger, faster, and better than you are, you can push yourself when you train. It shifts your attitude and how hard you will push yourself. They key is to see yourself as something more than you are right now so your heart has a direction to move. Otherwise, too often, students show up to “go through the motions” and they attend classes for weeks or months and hardly improve at all.

A more advanced version of this is to do something called Hero Building. Actually build a character - like crafting a hero-version of you that could be a character in a book or a movie. You can imagine you as a Black Belt. You can imagine you as a Matrix character, a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon martial artist, or something equally fantastic - provided it goes to your martial arts training - and it will help you step out beyond your present self to train to be more. There are layers of psychological tools that make it work, but that's the essence for those who easily grasp such things.

Jedi training comes with a partially built in hero: You as a Jedi Knight.

Stephen Covey

This is where my thinking really got going. I was listening to an unabridged audio of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People where he shared a story about a date night with his daughter.

He never much liked science fiction or fantasy, but his daughter wanted to see Star Wars. She told him that the reason he did not like Star Wars was because he did not understand the training of a Jedi Knight. She told him that Jedi are trained in all the principles that HE teaches his clients, and if he understood the Jedi better, he would like Star Wars. They went to the movie together and she became his mentor in all things Star Wars - especially Jedi. Of course, he found that the Jedi do, indeed, learn principles!

Demonstration Teams

While doing our continuing education as martial artists, I got to work with Ernie Reyes, Sr., on of the longest lasting and best known masters of performance martial arts. He leads the West Coast Demonstration Team - and his team is absolutely phenomenal. By training to do shows, it ramps up their intensity, their focus on sharp, crisp form, and it drives them to do their best because they will performance for audiences. At the convention, the team performed for an audience of 2200 martial arts professionals, mostly Black Belts, so they HAD to be good!

Some of the Guardian Instructor Team got to train with Mike Chat of XMA. This is another performance style that also develops sharp, crisp, dramatic martial arts through showmanship. For whatever limitations in combat execution might result from training for show, it is certainly a much higher level of training than a typical “I'm just showing up to get through another class” student.

That lead to the final piece…

New York Jedi

In New York City, there is a group called New York Jedi. I was watching the bonus features from the DVD called Reclaiming The Blade. They were featured in one of the bonus featurettes. I listened to their leader, “Master Flynn,” talking about making training fun, and how they got to use sword techniques, stick techniques, and staff techniques with their light sabers.

They got to do hero building; he actually used the exact same phrase I use: “hero building.” In their case, they go all the way with costumes and are allowed to mix their universes. They start with real techniques and choreograph light saber forms and fights and perform those in parades and at many events.

I shared the video with my students, and they all loved it. I talked to them about what they would think of a Jedi Academy, and they thought the idea was “awesome.” Even those who were not Star Wars fans and only had a passing familiarity with Jedi thought it sounded like a fun way to ramp up their skills.

That pretty much cinched it.

THE JEDI ACADEMY IS BORN

In more serious discussions with several longstanding students (and a few new students), we discussed what might be a part of a Jedi Academy. We talked about our Kobujitsu sword program, our Conditioning Kata, Ki Principles (and advanced Ki Principles from a seminar I taught last year), and a few more skills. We discussed how we could use Hero Building, craft a performance, and put on a show next July at the San Diego County Fair.

The decision was made.

Real Martial Arts. Real Fun!

Just so there is no confusion, we have no affiliation with Lucas Film.  JediAcademy.info, Guardian Academy, the Guaridan Martial Arts, Guardian Kempo, Guardian Karate, Guardian Jujitsu, Guardian Kobujitsu and Scot Conway are in no way affiliated or endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd. or any of its affiliated companies.  All brands, trademarks, and character names listed are the exclusive property of their respective owners.

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