Since when did martial arts or mma or what ever, make people, hard? Cool? impressive?

Question

As a swordsman and martial artist I'm a little sick of people thinking that just because they can hit somebody, means they should, why is the most prized forms of martial arts becoming something kids fear? Shouldn't you knuckle heads be protecting more and not talking about how fast u can knock someone out?

Answer 1

I agree.  I have taken martial arts for half of my life (I'm 15).  In the 7 years of instruction I received, I think the most important thing I learned was to not tell anyone and not get in a situation where I had to use any of that training.  Most kids these days might take a single seminar, and all of a sudden they are immortals.  I think that martial arts shouldn't be feared (which many people try to do), but instead respected for the amount of discipline that goes into learning them.  People who use it to intimidate people aren't real martial artists, they're people looking for an ego trip.  

Answer 2

hey dont make me knock you out, i have knocked people out with swords before you know!!  

Answer 3

Go ask the Mc Dojos that teach mainly styles of karate and tae kwan do, then go ask most of the MMA schools that don't teach discipline and spirituality.  

Answer 4

good question Bryan .... I too am a Iaido practitioner and a jujitsu practitioner to boot.  I have a team of young men in their late teens early twenties that often ask the same question you've just asked here and I always respond "seriously" with ..... "T.V. jujitsu is a common practice gentlemen"  I work hard to keep my students well grounded and down to earth and I give them lots of credit they are "very modest" sometimes "falsely modest" about their own abilites.  I'm glad that I've instilled that much into them.  When my team and I go to the competitions I see and hear "ego" every where and it makes me want to vomit dude.  Then to hear every day normal kids out on the streets talking smack to one another is the icing on the cake.  The UFC has done the Mixed Martial Arts dojo's of America no favors that's for sure.  A sensei can be teaching his kids decent values as best he can then they go home and see "ego trip" after "ego trip" on the tube during some UFC interview.  Kind of defeats the point doesn't it?  All we can do as teachers, instructors, coaches, trainers and mentors is to be the best we can and be as humble as we can and hope that our students will follow our own examples.  T.V. is a powerful medium though and it's more powerful than even adults will admit that it is.  It's kind of like fighting against society when you're a decent teahcer these days because of what T.V. pumps into every one's heads.  Reality has now become fiction and T.V. is the only fact that many need anymore..... kind of sad actually.

Answer 5

It's just the person, not the martial art. They would still be cocky jerks if they didn't do martial arts. MM artists don't realize that MMA isn't a real martial art and they think it's the best in the world and that they are cool. I just listen to their cocky comments and laugh. If you can laugh at it then just ignore them. Sometimes I like to call them out on it and ask them a martial arts question which they have yet to answer correctly if at all.

Answer 6

Old samurai doctrine"manners and courtesy are the mark of the true warrior."

Seen any around lately?

Thank god for the winner who doesn't need to do the "touch down dance"

To boast of accomplishments in battle to take undue glee in the defeat of an opponent is the mark of all that is bestial in man.

Answer 7

How to word this...

There's a difficult balance that has to come with martial arts training. While teaching someone to be violent, they need to be taught to be gentle, and that these are not mutually exclusive behaviors -- you can be each as necessary and do not need to be one or the other. Further, there's a side effect to competing in front of an audience: the attention feeds an ego that needs to be kept in check. An instructor can not teach his students to keep their ego in check without first controlling his own, and since many coaches get a vicarious ego boost through their fighters, this becomes even more difficult.

You should keep in mind though that much of the talk on here about hitting people comes from people I like to call "forum fighters" -- those who don't train or do not train seriously.

Hatsumi Soke wrote an article that was published in a book of such articles which (If I remember correctly) was called "Togakure Ninpo Hiden" where he talked about the "martial sicknesses" -- the compulsive need to fight, paranoia, over-confidence/ego... They're stages on the way to becoming a good martial artist that one has to pass through, and many get stuck in. Everyone gets them in some degree or another. It's just part of the path.

Stay the course, focus on your own training and let them focus on theirs. You can't change them, only yourself.

Answer 8

It's a pain in the **** when people do stuff like that. I've been learning karate for 11 years now and the most common question I get is "What's the fastest way to knock someone out?" or the more disturbing "Do you know how to kill someone? Could you show me?".

When I tell them that I don't fight to make someone unconsious or to kill them, they then ask "Well why are you learning to fight then?"

I had a friend of mine nearly get me into a fight the other weekend. We were out on the town and afterwards went to the fast food restaurant for a late night snack. The young cashier was telling this guy around my age to get out. So I stepped in and told him to leave. After a few words, my friend steps in and says "You had better do what she asks, she could flatten your ****, she knows karate". I do not believe it is right to do that and also to advertise your skill. If this guy had of thrown a punch at me, I would've defended myself. Otherwise, I'm not out looking for a fight.

It really gives martial arts a bad name when people ask things like that, and it makes it worse when people advertise it to intimidate people. The only time I talk about it, it's always in a positive manner and trying to encourage others to come along and try out this fantastic sport.

The other main question I get, because I've been training for so long, is why I'm not a black belt yet. The club I go to, I started in juniors and they do not believe in a junior black belt, then when you get to seniors, you start the process all over again. Plus their gradings only occur once a year.

In juniors, I spent 7 years getting to 1st kyu (was only meant to be 6, but I refused to leave at 18 until I got that 1st kyu - recommended to leave at 16 yrs) and currently have spent another 5 years getting to senior 3rd kyu. I still have another 2-4 years before I am eligable to grade for a shodan ranking. I know that, I'm happy with that, and I am willing to continue training until I get there. Plus the light of I would be the first female black belt in the dojo;s 60 yr history to get there helps a bit :D