To someone new to the martial arts, like a mother trying to find a school for her kid, the words "recognized by" might seem to be an indication of quality.

Now days, nothing could be further from the truth.

In the last few decades there has been a rapid rise in the growth of what have been termed "soke councils" and association with one is usually an indication that the person desires admiration from others but is not willing to put in the time or effort to earn it.

What is a soke council? The short answer is it is a circle jerk of egotistical incompetents that team up to try to give themselves an appearance of legitimacy.

Here is how they work. Lets say two friends and I got together and formed the "Bad Ass Macho Stud Association." We then vote that the association acknowledge each of us as uber- killer sensei masters. Then all of us can say that we were given a title and our awesomeness was acknowledged by the association when people ask about our qualifications, or even when they don't. Then we might go on to charge other people 200 dollars to be acknowledged by us.

The twists and turns soke councils take make it less obvious, but this is essentially what they do.

Soke is a Japanese term for the person who heads an art, controls how it will be run, who can claim to teach it and who will take over after they are gone. It is not used very often in modern Japanese martial arts, and it is actually far more common when dealing with things like traditional dance or tea ceremony.

As I ranted about in the blog "So, you are too good to keep going for instruction?" there are many folks in the martial arts that seek the quick road to fame and admiration and do this by setting themselves up as the head of their own art.  Since they head their art, many of them try to impress others by using the term soke to describe themselves. This is where the term 'soke council' comes from.

They may not use the term soke in their title. “Grandmaster,” "Anshu", "Shihan," "Hanshi" and several other terms are used as long as it sounds impressive and maybe hints at a link to someone overseas. About the only title I have yet to see being used is "cobra commander." So it may not use 'soke' as part of its title, but if people are pointing to them as a source of recognition, then they are probably what we would call a soke council.

Even though most soke councils no longer use the term soke, it would be a good idea to do an internet search of the term 'soke council' and see just how many hits you get. Read a few and get a feel of what they claim to be. Try examining them with a critical eye after you have read this and see if you can't see some of the things I talk about. Try looking up some of the claims and see just how much seems to be fishy the more you look into them. I have seen claims I know are false on these sites because of my years in Japan and wide experience. How many others can tell if the story about a representative of the 'imperial temples' actually recognized the group or not? (I am serious about that last part. I read it just last night. There are no 'imperial temples' in Japan and members of the imperial family do not go around giving out acknowledgements of martial arts by round eyed guys that can't even hold a sword correctly.) How many stories like this are there that you have no way of confirming for yourself? Can you confirm that the photo of the asian man in a uniform is actually their link to another country, or just something they pulled off the internet. If the group the teacher you are considering says recognized him sounds the same, run away.

These organizations exist because there are so many egotistical people in the martial arts that can't get an endorsement from someone that actually taught them. That does not get in the way of their dream to make others literally bow to them. There are dozens of them, maybe hundreds. It used to be that one of the most notorious charged over a thousand dollars to 'recognize' someone as a soke. Now with the advent of the internet and laser printers the going rate seems to be about 50 to 250 dollars. Many morons in martial arts belong to several of these groups. Many founders of soke councils first join others to get recognition so that the trail is less obvious. In many cases, two or more egomaniacs will trade ten degree black belts with others so that they have 'independent' confirmation of themselves as a master before they try to charge others to recognize them as masters.

Of course, the soke boards or their members will of course try to portray them as sources of quality. If you bother to look them up on the internet, you will find lofty ideal stated, but in reality as long as the check clears you will be recognized. Some might say you have to send in videos of yourself, or certificates. Years ago some folks on a message board got their dog registered as a soke and the video they sent in was a pornographic tape. The dog was listed as a soke of his own art by the organization. I have seen far too many incompetent idiots and outright frauds try to use their membership to deflect questions about their qualifications to believe that any soke council actually checks the materials or claims of their applicants.

Here is what the typical comment about the soke board might go like,

"The Bad Ass Macho Stud Association (B.A.M.S.A.)  is to ensure that our studies and methods are recognized by a council of well respected Martial Artists. The B.A.M.S.A. has set out to establish a federation to assist in our development as martial artists and respectful citizens. The B.A.M.S.A. is a great place for us to call home!"

I have seen far too many cases of outright fraud associated with these types of groups. Even if they use the term “Japan” or “Japanese” in their title, the closest link they might have is the sushi place they go to. I have seen that. I have also seen cases where the photo on their site that they say is their mentor/ founder in Asia was taken from another internet site.

Even if they are not actually dishonest, none I’ve seen so far are completely honest.

As part of their drive to add an air of credibility, it is common for memberships to be given to famous martial artists without their asking to join, or given a choice to opt out. Just keep in mind when you read their sites that Chuck Norris, Steven Segal and the Gracie family are all far too important to really need to be recognized by some group you never heard of before you followed the link from the teacher you are considering. I personally saw a member of one of these soke councils walk up to the head of my art in Japan (a real soke) and give him a trophy and his membership certificate while a lackey took pictures. The Japanese had no idea what the hell was going on and could not react before the bozo walked off with the photos. My soke’s name is on the list of their members and I doubt he knows about it, or what the typical bozo in that group is like.

This also goes for things like awards. An excellence in teaching, or hall of fame run by an organization might be given to known names without them knowing. Maybe they will send a cheap trophy as a courtesy. But then everyone else that gets the same award from them or ends up on their hall of fame gets a bit of legitimacy by association. So just because you see famous names you recognize does not mean the group is any good. Actually, considering that folks that are good do not need acknowledgement by groups of silly men that run around in pajamas with more patches than a NASCAR racer and insist people call them 'master', the chances are pretty good that the group is just another circle jerk.

The key is, the guys who are added without them asking do not show up for the award dinners and such. They never use the soke board on their bio on their web sites. If you see the teacher you are thinking of training with at an awards dinner getting a trophy, that tells you just how desperate he is for recognition- and he can't get it from a real teacher.

For a real martial artist, the only real recognition he needs is from a teacher he respects. If someone got a real rank from a real teacher, that is the only thing he needs to show the world. The mere fact that people are applying to a group that never trained them tells you that they lack the respect of someone who trained them.

Think about it. If someone truly wanted to go their own way to the extent that they do not want the approval of their teacher, why would they try to get approval from someone who has never been in the same room with them?

Soke councils offer nice little certificates, often in Asian languages (some of them truly hysterical to someone like me who reads Japanese) so that people can mount them as eye candy on the wall. If you see them, the natural question should be, 'Why is he displaying this instead of a certificate from the person who taught him?" The answer is in 99 percent of the cases is that they never trained long enough for any of their teachers to think they deserved to be anything other than a student. In a lot of cases, they never had a teacher at all. I have seen that, and they got into a soke council without problems.

One more thing, the mere idea that a bunch of folks can tell by such things as video tapes whether you are skilled or not is hysterical to real martial artists. I have sat in on conversations between two different internal Chinese martial artists describing just how different their outlook and strategies were. Even as closely related their arts were, they could not judge what was good and what was bad by the other's standards. To think that a group of people claiming to do karate and kung fu can judge whether a jujutsu stylist is skilled is about as silly as asking your car mechanic to look at your chest x-rays.

It is true that sometimes people leave teachers for good reasons and can't get confirmation from them. I know a few people who left martial arts cults. The difference is, the folks who had legitimate reasons to leave are very vocal about their reasons and will gleefully lay out the arrest records, testimonies and such to back up what they say. Not one of the folks I know who had a legitimate reason to leave went to a soke council. Only those who have a need to cover over their lack of a teacher's support end up with them.

There are many reasons to start a martial arts organization. Some might be for people with things in common to get together such as a Christian martial arts organization. Some groups do things like try to coordinate tournaments in areas or standardize rules for sport sparring. But only someone who has been around someone can judge if that person should be a teacher or not. If you question them about their qualifications and they point to a group of folks that would not recognize them if they passed on the street, you should realize now what that means.

People join these groups because they want to impress people and they can't get a real, legitimate teacher to acknowledge them as anything other than slime. They may have many different names, usually involving terms such as 'independent', 'world' or other variations, but they all claim to be able to recognize your skill without actually being your teacher. That is just plain stupid if you have any real experience with a decent teacher. They thrive because they sound good and most people do not know what to look for in these things. With this blog, I hope that people will learn to take a more critical view of these types of scams.

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