Doc Stier wrote:I understand. Not my crowd, either.
Nonetheless, as the old kungfu poem says..."I know how to hurt. I know how to heal. I know what to show, and what to conceal."
Likewise if you want them to know nothing, tell them everything.
I think there's a difference between throttling information to help focus the student on development appropriate for their level, and holding back information for fear of... What, the student surprising the master? "Secret" techniques that they want to keep in surprise for potential enemies?
I don't doubt that champion training camps have their proprietary methods for extracting peak performance but the fight game at this point is open source. The chances of a competitor pulling out something surprising depend on chance and circumstance more than some secret punch their master saves for indoor students.
It smells more like a way to encourage students to kiss your ass and curry favor in hopes you deem them worthy to share the precious secrets. I think more often than not, both sides are honestly more interested in the kink of that power dynamic than actually learning a martial art.
I'd gladly eat my hat if proven wrong, but secret masters with secret techniques that are actually useful simply don't exist anymore. Just charlatans with no track record.
The secret is practice and experience, change my mind.