I don't want to tell names or give too much descriptions but I have seen a video of a real challenge and it didn't turn out as most people would have expected it.
A BakMei master (from China), having an old reputable school in a town in the US, was faced with a challenge by a new instructor (also of a southern CMA, but the guy himself was American) and also just moved to that town to start his very first school.
As promotion to his new school, the new instructor started to sell demo videos, and some of these were purchased by the students of the BakMei school. The BakMei master and his students viewed these tapes, titled them 'useless' and 'fake', and they returned them for refunds, commenting that this is nothing of use.
The new guy went over to the BakMei school and challenged the master and asked him to show the superiority of his art and teach him why his skills are 'useless'. The master first didn't want to accept the challenge but after a few minutes of talk, he finally did.
The fight began (three matches according to old Chinese traditions), no rules were defined, no protective gears were used. Right away the new instructor started to beat the daylight out of the BakMei 'master'. As the fight went on, the new guy was just literally throwing the BakMei master around like cat playing with a mouse. The BakMei master showed ABSOLUTELY ZERO skills, looked as if he had never even heard of martial arts before. The only single shot the master got in is when they new guy turned around and let him get up from the ground and the master took a cheap shot at him from behind! This was the only shot the BakMei master was able to get in. The new guy, on the other hand threw him all over the school and punched and kicked him many times.
After seing this tape I have certainly redefined my concept of whom I now call a master: the one who has PROVEN himself as such, not just running a school and teaching an art but actually KNOWING and BEING ABLE TO APPLY what he is teaching. Everybody nowadays is a 'master' and make good living from the beliefs of unsuspecting students. I'm more of a traditional artist but I do give credit to sport fighters in that they actually have to show what they know and there can't be as many fakes as in traditional arts.
What do you guys think about this subject? Do you also just belive someone is skilled because he/she teaches an art? I think the above incident is very uncommon, when two actually got to match their skills and it became obvious who knew what. So how can you distinguish today between a real master and an imposer?
-X-