Majoring in a Martial Art?

University of Beijing lets you major in wushu as well. Those majoring in wushu are quite versed in many different styles of the Chinese martial arts and can run the forms of many styles reasonably well. But if you dig deeper they do not have the fine nuances of each style. We all know the difference between just running the forms and understanding the moves and they are just running the many different forms. I would not have so much a problem with it but the really good masters are not going to teach at a university. They are going to have their own schools so you don't have the best teachers there teaching you. It is also very political and we all know what that does to martial arts. They also do not have the customs and traditions that you still get in a smaller boarding school in china and they add so much to the style you are studying and I think those are very much part of martial arts and make it an art. I can not speak for Korea but those are the things I find missing in students in China who learned their martial arts at the university from those who learned them the traditional way.

It would NEVER happen here in Australia. There is no college level sports programs like the U.S. In fact there is no major High School sports program like the U.S.

Of course there is still sports in schools here but it is not seen as a serious thing and no school or University offers sporting scholarships. If you want to make it in Martial arts or any sport here then you compete outside of school. Then you make representative teams and then you move into adult competitions and if you thrive then you trial or are picked to represent it professionally. It has nothing to do with education.

You can be the worlds best athlete and you still wont be accepted into University here. Often our professional athletes leave school to join the professional ranks and then are assisted by the profession into doing University work or some sports dont help the athlete further their education at all. Unless you become a professional here, there is no reward for athletes. Education is much different to sports.

I have no problem with a school having a degree in martial arts. But earning that degree will be practically useless in the real world. It won't help students gain employment or in future careers.

I would be interested in what would be the required courses? How long would it take students to complete the course? What are the prerequisites for taking the class?

The schools that I'm aware of that have some martial arts classes all have them listed under PE credit is or health credit.

A person could possibly complete a 4 year degree and not have earned a black belt? It is my experience that most people will have earned a black belt in 4 years of study.

It sounds good, BUT, it is of little value in the academic community as a whole and more importantly it is not helpful in obtaining a job. The only exception might be a job teaching TKD. But few martial arts instructors make a living by teaching only. Most martial arts instructors hold down a full time job in another field.

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Dr Lee, Kyu-Hyung is a professor Kyemyeng University, affectionately called "Taekwondo U". He has turned the study of Taekwondo forms into a science. He is the personification and epitome of "grandmaster". He is highly respected by nearly anyone and everyone who knows him.

While I don't like what has happened to Taekwondo, to be sure it wasn't Dr Lee's fault - that takes a lot more people than one person to do. Also, he focuses on the Kukkiwon side, not the WTF side, though I'm sure if he snaps his fingers, everyone on both sides of that fence will stop to hear what he has to say.

From a purely sport perspective, it would be no different than majoring in football, baseball, soccer, or hockey - colleges here do this all the time. Why not Taekwondo?

As the curriculum for TKD has generally shifted toward sport, this would be natural for colleges to do. I would rather they preserve the self-defense elements, but, those are by-gone days, I think.

As a Karateka who used to teach science at a University, I would say that there are only a few instructors qualified to teach Okinawan Karate at the level needed for a real college program, sometimes Schools try to get someone to teach "karate" and those instructors are severely lacking in knowledge and techniques.

If someone where to do a serious Martial art degree, it would have to include history, language, and culture making it a Liberal arts degree. You would also need to take classes in Physiology, anatomy, biomechanics which would go against what many modern styles are teaching.

I would be against it for the followingl reasons:

1) What exactly does it mean to major in a martial art when you only studied it for 4 years? Are you suppose to be a master qualified to teach in 4 or 6 years? Isn't this one of the major criticism of McDojos?

2) Who are you going to get to peer review the curriculum? Aside from history and basic theories, how are you going to test? Are you going to have belt test every semester and, again, isn't this another reason many martial artists criticize McDojos?

3) What do you do between semester end? Let the student go home and be couch potatoes? Martial art requires constant dedicated training and study. Do you seriously believe that 3 months off every end of the academic year is going to be conducive to their physical skills. And if you are not training their physical skills, what are you majoring in? History?

I would not be against a minor in the history of martial art. I am even willing to entertain a major in history specific to that field. But to award a martial art degree in 4 years smacks of fraudulence.

3)

I don't think there is anything wrong with it in that sense. You can major in almost everything these days. My problem is with the institution of college as it is today. College is not what it used to be. Why do people go to college? To party, to discover themselves, meet people and have fun. Right? Why should they go to college? To get a job and a future career. College is not about enlightenment or having fun. Sure there is some of that but the main thing should be to get that diploma. There are SO many useless majors and worthless programs that it is destroying what college is suppose to be about. I just don't see the point in majoring in something like that.

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No one is stopping you from majoring in kinesiology. Should the University of Calgary offer a Stampede Wrestling major?