Sometimes those kids don't grow out of it, and they develop a "martial art" around it. Then they are genuinely surprised when it doesn't work on a practitioner

Sometimes those kids don't grow out of it, and they develop a "martial art" around it. Then they are genuinely surprised when it doesn't work on a practitioner of a real martial art designed around the reality of kicking ass in a competition arena, or even one that has preserved some real combat techniques in its cloud of tradition and ceremonial claptrap. They train their acolytes to stagger or fall down when hit by an "energy ball". It's essentially a live-action role-playing game that cannot deal with people acting out of character.