What are “Players to the Game?”  This is term defined by Professor Rick Moneymaker, co-founder of the Dragon Society International.  One of the goals of the DSI is to keep terminology simple and easy to understand.  As such, this term was coined to refer to principles and methods that make techniques work much better.

These are essentially the “secrets” of the Martial Arts that practically everyone talks about but few people seem to know.  As we travel around the world and meet with Martial Artists of all ranks and from all styles and systems, we routinely ask if their system has secrets.  When we ask if they know what they are, no one seems to know any secrets!  And it is not that they won’t share with us; they admit they do not know any secrets themselves!  And this has happened all the way to 10th Dan!  Surely if anyone knew them, it would be the heads of the systems!

So, how many secrets are there?  Who knows!  No one will share them, but the DSI will!

For over 30 years now, the DSI has collected these secrets from our research and have painstakingly been documenting these so they will no longer have to remain a secret from our brothers and sisters in the Martial Arts.  Many have been lost over the generations but we are extremely active in tracking these down and making sure they are not lost for future generations.

And who gets to decide who is allowed to learn them?  I have even been told by practitioners over the age of 60 with over 40 years in a system that they were told by their instructor that they were not ready to learn them.  Are you kidding me?  If after that long of a commitment, someone cannot be trusted to learn the finer aspects of an art, there is a problem.  Or, perhaps the instructor does not know any themselves, which is the more likely case.

How do we discover and document these secrets?  There are processes by which we are able to extract them and even discover new ones.  In future articles, we will be looking at some of these and the processes by which we discover new methods.

We have already documented over 200 principles.  Many of these are available on video at https://www.dragonsociety.com/shop.  We have an entire Players to the Game series on DVD and streaming.

We are also putting together a series of seminars on teaching these principles and methods, which apply to all sorts of techniques including strikes, joint locks, grappling techniques, etc.  These methods are truly style independent and agnostic.  Find out more information at https://www.dragonsociety.com/mastery.  We are also looking for hosts to host these seminars and would love to know if you have a location and would be interested in being a host!

So, do you believe there are “secrets” in the Martial Arts?  Have you been trusted with the leadership in your style with any of these so-called secrets?  Be sure to let us know in the comments!

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  1. It is my strongly held belief that if this knowledge was shared freely the World would become a much safer place to live in and there would have to be more respect shown to one’s fellow human beings. In the USA the rule of gun law applies instead of this. Whilst this might be understood there might be a better way of going about things. I can remember attending a “Masters Seminar” in England Whereby Grand Master Rick Moneymaker pointed out the the martial art we were studying could be enlikened to carrying a loaded gun. “Just because one might have the ability to use such a weapon it does not imply that this would be necessary”. He gave an anecdote to support this mindset! It has always stayed with me! Thank you Sensei Rick! I must be like a bloody elephant! I never forget! OSSSS! 🙂


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