Our K I Fighting Concepts YouTube channel recently passed the one million mark in video views. In fact, we are now averaging about 100,000 videos views per month.
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Our K I Fighting Concepts YouTube channel recently passed the one million mark in video views. In fact, we are now averaging about 100,000 videos views per month.

One reason for our modest success is that we offer a wide array of martial arts options for the viewer. Our YouTube topics are as varied as our viewers. Here is a list of some of our topics we show: single stick, double stick, knife techniques and flow drills. We also offer lock flow, Tracy’s kenpo, trapping, staff, spear, tai chi, boxing, wooden dummy, sill lum tau, chi sau, self-defense, stick disarms, hubud, sumbrada, chi gung, focus mitt training, group classes, historical reference, grappling, juru, kata, takedowns and silat footwork.

An interesting aspect of the YouTube technology is that anyone who chooses to view our training/teaching videos can make comments, offer his opinions and critique our skills. We allow anyone to leave a comment—favorable or otherwise. We allow and welcome differences of opinions to be shared with all of our viewers.
The YouTube channel provides several valuable options for the channel resident. One of the options is a category called demographics, which provides a breakdown of our viewership. This information helps us provide relevant material to specific groups.

Studying the age groups of our site offers interesting insight. For example, less than 10 percent of our viewers can be found in the 18-to-24-age range. I was initially surprised at such low numbers for that age group. After all, younger people tend to be more tech-savvy and certainly have more free time to engage in martial arts training and surfing the web. But I soon discovered the reason for the 18-to-24 absence from our site: the UFC has become such a phenomena, it’s no wonder young males can't see the value in what I have to offer. Young males believe that the only “real” martial arts are muay Thai, wrestling, boxing and jiu-jitsu, and the MMA world itself. Of course, they couldn’t be further from the truth.

Another clue to the lack of 18-to-24 males appreciating the aforementioned arts is found in the comments on YouTube. I would say that 90 percent of immature, rude, arrogant, and self-righteous comments come from that age range. I don’t mention females because they don’t leave comments, and they comprise only about two percent of all video views. It’s rather amusing that the group of viewers with the least amount of experience and expertise in that age group is the most outrageously arrogant and rude.

Several years ago, I was interested the process of being and becoming. Meaning, I was looking for a formula and/or a template to explain the process of learning a particular skill or of becoming an expert on any given subject. I toiled with the formulation of such a template for months. Finally, I produced a set of steps with which we can traverse from beginner to master, naïve to wise.

Here are my thoughts.
In our culture, we refer to how “smart” people are by their I.Q (intelligent quotient). I believe that so-called “smart people” have very basic abilities. For one, they can collect data. Secondly, they can store data. Finally, they can access data. Essentially, they gather information, they store it away as knowledge, and then they can remember it. Thus, they have high I.Q’s. So what? 
Measuring intelligence or wisdom has a different dynamic.  First, we gather new information. Then, we study this new information from several sources and viewpoints. Now, information has become knowledge. But this “knowledge” is actually superficial until we go out and “experience” what we know. Now, our initial information has led us to knowledge, which has led us to experiencing the knowledge. Therefore, we are now beginning to “understand.”

Understanding takes on many different guises. Filtered into this process are virtues such as empathy, humility, respect, patience, and sustained effort. In essence, the true intent of being and becoming is the sacred art of wisdom. Wisdom is the ultimate expression of human intelligence. So the process is information, knowledge, experience, understanding, and wisdom. For me, wisdom is the ultimate I.Q indicator of how “smart” a human really is. And we can agree that “wisdom” takes a lifetime to achieve.

Is it any wonder, then, that the 18-to-24-year-olds have so little experience to offer and so little wisdom to share?