5 teachings from the movie Redbelt
A film with a measured epic that aims at the essence of martial arts
In the panorama of martial arts movies, David Mamet’s film (about BJJ, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) is a little niche and the reason is that it represents a more realistic approach to martial dynamics:
- In practical combat terms
- But even in the philosophical ones
Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).
Probably Redbelt has not been received in the right way by the big public: it has been more like a sort of gift for those who abandoned the initial childish enthusiasm about the idea of the invincible practitioner to move toward a more profound understanding (read The true meaning of martial arts [MINI-GUIDE]).
Said this, let’s continue our cinematic martial path (started with 4 teachings from the movie Ip Man) and let’s see what we can concretely learn from this particular film.
Redbelts’s teachings
1) The real enemy to face is always and only within ourselves
“Conquer your fear and you’ll conquer your opponent.”
“A man distracted is a man defeated.”
In the first scene, when Mike Terry (the protagonist) says this, he refers to the first and most important rule of martial arts: aim to take the reins of the only possible element of the struggle that can totally be under our control, our mind (all the rest is influenced by factors that we cannot fully manage at our will).
Many people think that this is just a poetic phrase that has no basis in the reality of the practice but this is absolutely false:
- The fight is a sort of scale that compares the weight of our self-control with the one of our opponent
- Given the right martial preparation, it is always the person with the best self-control who wins the fight
- Not having self-control not only puts us at a disadvantage but also gives our adversary a big advantage (a double loss)
To deepen this topic read The 3 winning mindsets of a fighter.
2) There is always a solution at our reach
“There is no situation you could not escape from.”
The direct and natural consequence of the first quotes we analyzed is this one.
In BJJ where ground fighting (read also Ground fighting) moves the practitioners to a slower and more tactical field of combat, self-control becomes the primary key to reach the necessary clarity to unlock seemingly impossible context (read Introduction to the idea of Precision Control).
The point is not that we are all able to solve any kind of dramatic situation as we want (this is an impossible and stupid thought), the real teachings are two:
- The basic one is that a clean, relaxed, positive and constructive mindset can show myriads of (maybe even very simple) solutions (read Martial arts: how to become invincible?) otherwise hidden by confusing bad feelings ( tension, prejudices, anxiety, etc.)
- The higher one is that it is real that there is always a viable solution but it may not be the one that we or the others expect initially
A note by Master Kongling – Are we saying that any not-practitioner can prevail against a BJJ world champion fighter? No. Is it true that there is always a way to prevail as we want? In most cases yes but in many cases we do not have the time and the intelligence to find it. What we are trying to say is that (reasoning at a more realistic plan), depending on the problem: on one side, there may be “less orthodox” paths within our reach (read How to always have the possibility to prevail), on the other, there may be a sort of paradigm change that can still lead us to high-quality results; the secret is that we never have to let others set our goals and never set them based on superficial prejudices (read Accept problems to find solutions and The right thing to do).
3) Exploit the opponent’s energy
“Don’t get tired, let the other man get tired.”
“You let him use his strength, and you use your understanding.”
“Everything has a force. Embrace it or deflect it. Why oppose it?”
This is a more practical tip for combat (even if it in reality works in any life context): in martial arts in general but especially in ground fighting (where the energies can unexpectedly end much faster), the first rule is to try to avoid as much as possible to use our strength.
The idea is to:
- Avoid any type of unwanted and / or prolonged tension (in our school we say, be liquid, read The secrets of tactical combat interactions)
- Economize our efforts and use inertia / technique / tactics instead of muscular power (especially if not divided into a muscle chain effort, read The Muscle Chain (for martial arts) [MINI-GUIDE])
- Prevent strength against strength situation by abruptly changing our body stance and technique
- Channel or exploit any type of force present in the evolving dynamics of the combat scenario
- Try to force our opponent to do the opposite
4) The meaning of a black belt
“What does the black belt mean?” – “That I represent the academy.”
The belt only serves to keep the trousers from falling down, as Bruce Lee used to repeat (read 8 teachings from the movie Birth of the Dragon); this is to say that even a black one has no meaning by itself:
- It is just a symbol, that must represent true dedication and knowledge
- Trying to get a belt with backroads to avoid the fatigue of studying (read 6 Dragons Kung Fu: what does it teach?) and physical conditioning (read Physical conditioning: how it works) is completely useless and stupid (at this point let’s buy it at the supermarket, we save a lot of money)
- The value of the belt is directly proportional to who gave it (and to the relative reason), because it means that that master, allows us to represent him / her
- Last but not least, a belt has nothing to do with the actual combat skills of its possessor (that depends on myriads of factors and changes every day)
In addition to this, it must be stressed that, for a real martial arts practitioner, the black belt is a starting point and not an arrival one (read Martial arts: how to never stop improving).
A note by Master Kongling – Many times people write me asking if I can give them a black belt (even offering a lot of money sometimes): what I always reply is that if they pass all our exams, there is no reason I could oppose myself to giving it to them. In our school, anyone can demonstrate to be worthy of it and we do not ask even for specific time spans (read Kung Fu exams: online graduation). The fun fact is that those people do not understand that is impossible to pass our exams without real preparation in our specific Kung Fu (not in others). Our exams are not complex, they are simply proportioned to the level of each student but if a person does not know (for example) how to execute our kicks, how could he / she think to be promoted?
5) The real warrior’s mindset
“But you train people to fight.” – “No, I train people to prevail.”
This Mike Terry’s character quote brings us to the apparently subtle difference between a fighter and a warrior (read Fighter VS warrior: the differences):
- The fighter voluntarily searches in fact the fight (to demonstrate something)
- The warrior accepts instead to fight only as the last resource (and sees it as a failure, read also The 6DKF’s diagram about the use of violence)
The term “prevail” in this context has a deeper meaning than beating an opponent, it may mean to:
- Demonstrate a potential adversary that it is useless and dangerous to fight
- Avoid a physical confrontation using our intelligence (eg. using negotiation, read Self-Defense: 10 tricks to handle conflicts)
- Convert a negative start into a positive ending (eg. “throwing water on the fire” avoiding an argument that could even have lethal outcomes, read Self-Defense: 10 things to avoid in a quarrel)
- Prevent a danger before its activation or even escape from it (read Personal defense: the S.A.F.E. method)
- …
A note by Master Kongling – For a true warrior, stooping to respond with violence to a physical or even just psychological offense is a real humiliation (it means admitting to having been touched, wounded, read also The 3 alerts of a Shaolin monk).
Final notes
A few conclusive thoughts:
- In reality, the film is generally enjoyable, even for those who don’t have a martial background (perhaps the ending is a bit questionable but maybe it’s due to the tight production times), we just need not to expect the excesses to which the genre has accustomed us
- Although Redbelt touches on some martial topics that are rarely discussed (and in a very interesting way), it suffers here and there from some arrogant and superficial attitude on the part of the protagonist but if this makes him more human and less “ascetic”, it gives realism to the general narration (what we are trying to say is that his behavior is not always that of the “ideal master”)
- It is interesting to say that in the film, in the role of the grand master, appears the great Dan Inosanto (a student of Bruce Lee and a point of reference for Jeet Kune Do; his appearance is substantially a sort of tribute, read Dan Inosanto: real master)
- …
In-depth video courses
- Mind self-control hacks – A path to gradually take control over our brain and improve its processes
- Self-defense basics: how to – A video course about the fundamentals of 6 Dragons Kung Fu’s self-defense method
- Self-defense: not violent self-preservation – An excerpt from the Self-defense basics: how to course
- Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu exercises – The 6 Dragons Kung Fu way to build real martial skills
In-depth articles
- 5 teachings from the movie Ninja Assassin – An adrenalizing action movie with some good teachings
- 9 teachings from the movie Batman Begins – 9 interesting self-defense notions that we can extrapolate from the first Nolan’s Batman movie
Questions
Reply in the comments and share your experience:
- Did you see Redbelt? Did you like it?
Author: Master Kongling
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