When I picture the ideal martial arts school in my mind, I see a montage of images. The opening scene starts with students sitting in meditation postures looking serene. Then it cuts to them all training in unison, doing forms and kicks in unison. No talking, just training with the instructor giving an intense stare. My montage comes from all the martial arts movies I watched over the years.
A real martial arts school is a little different. Martial arts school are simply groups of people who study martial arts. As with all things that involve people, you are eventually going to come across the negative aspects of human behavior in groups. Human beings are communal creatures and so individuals will always be influenced by their group. This can be both positive and negative depending on the group that an individual belongs to. Clicks within the school, backbiting, dissension between students can quickly poison the atmosphere in a school. All it takes is a click of a few students to give off this negative energy and they begin to attract like minded negative people until slowly but surely the attitudes of a majority of students are negative.
It can be something as simple as not liking they way your instructor teaches certain things. Or not liking a fellow student. Whatever it is, if left unchecked it can undermine an instructor's ability to teach effectively. Usually the students who cause this kind of problem never stay in their prospective art very long. Eventually, their own ego gets the better of them and they leave but not before trying to take a few students with them.
The point that we have to remember as students is that we chose to study martial arts. No one is forcing us to study and practice. It is always about choice. You can choose to study a different art, or not study at all. At some time you have to divorce the martial art from the students who study it. Students will come and go, but the art is a living catalogue of techniques created by individuals over many generations. The art will continue in some form long after we all are dead and buried. We as students are part of this legacy, we continuously contribute by practicing and in some cases teaching it to new students so that it continues to thrive.
Focusing on the art and why you study it will always help you when you feel like your negative feelings overwhelm your positive ones when belonging to a particular school. I am not saying to ignore those feelings altogether. Examine them and really see if the way you feel is due to internal school politics or because the reasons you began studying the art no longer apply. If the atmosphere in a school is so intolerable to the point you feel it makes you want to quit then maybe finding a different school may be your best option. Usually though all the discord can be traced back to a few individuals and by helping them adjust their attitude will definitely improve the overall attitude in the school.
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