Chris McKinley wrote:I think in order to understand it, you have to be willing to own your own dorkitude first so that you can relate to the appeal. At some point, all of us who practice CMA fell victim to our inner dork and signed up. Part of it is a subset of the bigger question of why do dorks get involved in martial arts in general? Often it's because they aren't naturally the bigger, stronger, more naturally dominant among us, and may have had negative experiences with those who are. The martial arts, and CMA is as good example as any, represent that magical mystical secret which will allow our hypothetical dork to level the playing field without having to somehow grow taller, bigger and stronger.
CMA is generally even more "exotic" and mystical-looking than most TMA. Its rounder, more fluid motions beckon to the inner dork the same way such motions appeal to the generically spiritual, New Age neo-Wiccan hippie-chick Wolf-spirited uberdorkstress. Some of it is just that appeal of something exotic to our culture....something that supposedly contains magic in its mastery, that only an elect few have had privy to, and surely because they themselves are somehow just a bit more special and enlightened than the rest of us. That last bit is something that attracts dorks like moths to flame.
Rapport is at the heart of it. The rapport of being part of those who are "in" on the secret of martial arts, and of the even more elite few who are "in" on the extra-special version known as CMA. If you're truly and irredeemably dorky, you'll go further and get involved in the "internal" CMA.....a term sufficiently vague and mysterious so as to add all sorts of extra exotic points to your portfolio. It's a case of being more-mystical-than-thou.
A lot of people that come to IMA already have a fairly developed career in the dork industry. Many are already "green-friendly" neo-liberal neo-Wiccan granola-munching, hemp smoking/wearing hippies, D&D gamers, computer programmers, New Agers, Asiaphiles, and RenFaire goers, and often have exotic pets. Any and all of those sins are forgivable as long as, once the dork has started training CMA, he/she actually busts ass and works hard at actually being able to fight. It's always that last bit that trips them up.
If the dork had been willing to work very, very hard at something physical, they wouldn't have chosen martial arts in the first place. They would simply have got involved heavily into athletics and started working out to get stronger, get more coordinated, and gain better endurance. The fact that they didn't, and that they chose a magic bullet pathway (martial arts) instead, explains why these dorks are so reticent to bust ass in training once they sign up for CMA. Put simply, they don't want to work hard physically at much of anything at all, and they certainly don't want any part of the occasional fat lip, bloody nose, black eye, pulled muscles, bruises and wind sucking that come with actually striking and being struck as part of the training.
Dang Chris- well written essay on the inner dorkiness!
