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The thing with 99,999% of martial arts is that they're practicing the wrong thing. At best they're practicing for competitions and some are even trying to pose
by yason 15y ago
The thing with 99,999% of martial arts is that they're practicing the wrong thing. At best they're practicing for competitions and some are even trying to pose as street-cred martial artists but yet that's a whole another universe away from survival. And survival isn't about fighting—at all. The thing is, it wouldn't be legal to teach survival in a dojo.
Fighting is about winning but survival is about... surviving, and anything goes. Survival is dirty, in the sense that if you think it's going to be a fight you will only realize he had a knife when the damn thing is already between your ribs or whichever side you momentarily forgot to leave less protected. Survival is something where you will get injured, bleeding and body parts disjoint very quickly; most often both of you do, and running like hell is often the best way to survive: in a war that might not always be an option, though.
Of course, that is, assuming it started as a one-on-one situation and ended as one, too.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- BadassFractal 15y agoThis sounds a lot like what Krav Maga claims about its teachings. They certainly have a point when they say that fighting in the ring and fighting against gangs with guns and knives on the street is a very different situation that traditional martial arts do not do much about.
- gnosis 15y agoUnfortunately, from what I understand, Krav Maga students don't practice against resisting opponents. Because of this, it has been criticized as more of a "dance" art, where the student and the opponent are just going through a "kata" or predefined motions without meeting real resistance. Of course, it is rare to come across a situation in any martial art where your training opponent will be resisting 100%, the way a real opponent would on the street. However, there are some martial arts where opponents do give a significant amount of resistance both during training and in competition. I have heard the claim made that this factor makes the students of these other arts more ready for real survival situations than something like Krav Maga.
- BadassFractal 15y agoI'd love to know what these more realistic arts are called. I like whatever is most pragmatic.
- gnosis 15y agoBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Muay Thai, boxing, various types of wrestling, and many other arts train and compete against resisting, sometimes strongly resisting, opponents.
- BadassFractal 15y agoIt's interesting, Krav Maga makes similar accusations about "regulated" sports like the ones you mentioned. Its argument is that on the streets you're not both following the same rules on the fighting ring, you're using guns, knives, pencils, baseball bats and kicks to the groin, almost always facing multiple opponents at the same time. There's nothing in the sports you listed that prepares you against that. That said, I agree that simulating twisting the weapon out of someone with a gun pointed at your forehead with a fully extended arm might lead to a boost in confidence, but not so much of a boost in survival rates. I'd still argue that your chances are better with techniques fine-tuned for the streets, rather than the ring.
- andy_boot 15y agoKrav Maga - Is not a 'dance' martial art. You will learn the quickest way to ensure your opponent is on the floor and will not be able to getting up again easily. You will train against resisting opponents. You will train against multiple resisting opponents simultaneously. Then you will train against opponents with plastic knives and guns. You are taught things like 'If your opponent is on the floor - keep kicking him - because then you look like a psycho and nobody wants to fight a psycho'.
- BadassFractal 15y agoYou seem well-versed. Any good KM schools around SF?