Blog#4 Sempie / SiHing

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu we tend not to talk about certain things that are stressed in other martial arts, BJJ tends to be more progressive and looks down on traditional martial arts culture. I do see that the benefit in letting some of the old ways die off as BJJ has a unique culture on to itself, but for me i feel a strong connection to the traditional arts. There is the concept of Sempie in Japanese or Si Hing in cantonese, these essentially mean the same thing, meaning older training brother or senior person, I didn’t really appreciate this until I got into my 40s and I had people around me who started before me and approach martial arts in a similar way as I do.. For me this person is Nardu Debrah. He is both SI hing. and Sempie haha. We have had a deep connection through various martial arts for the past 25 years. In many ways Nardu is also one of my teachers, the impact that he has had on me as a practitioner is up their with any of my long time teachers. In many ways to have a senior who is always refining grants you greater access to technique that may not be available to you otherwise. Its also does something wonderful for the ego which is when you put them in a position of honor and not in a position of envy or competition you learn lessons in humility and let go of a self induced battle with your own ego. You open the flood gates to knowledge because that respect will flow both ways. There is nuance here that the si hing must be of good moral character and understand their role. The senior person when they step into this role must be secure enough to hold that space for the junior man without it effecting their ego. Si hing, sempie, or senior it is all the same, as my time in the arts continues I have had the pleasure to be both the senior man and the junior man, these rolls continue today. Its not that one day you stop having access to them, their teachings continue even after you are not around them as much.. I know that whenever I have a question Nardu is their for me, sometimes you need the teacher to provide the information but the Si Hing to give you the depth of knowledge to process it