In my town, and many other towns in Australia (proborably the globe also, though i wouldnt know) martial arts is 'the new thing'. although its good for the industry, its bad for alot of people my age.
Im 16 years old and have trained in a couple of martial arts during the course of my life so far.
The problem is, being around the teen-young adult age, the trends come and go, eg: when Million Dollar Baby came out, it was cool to be a boxer, when Ong Bak came out, muay thai was the new thing, etc etc.
My age group is very influenced by the media when it comes to their lifestyle and identity.

The question i wanted to ask was, what about all the wankers that are in it to be cool? all the guys that train 2 hours a week and walk around school like pros? all the assholes who have been at it for 6 months and consider themselves deadly?

what is the correct ettiquite for dealing with people like this?

i mean.. i would love to just go over and beat the **** out of them, but it dosent work like that. if they are a kid you know, who is freinds with some mates of yours, and you waste him, some people in your group will proborably think your up yourself or think of you as some violent nut-job.

so it can be a bit of a tricky one.

post back and let me know what you think guys

My guess is that a martial arts forum probably isn't the best way to ask about how to deal with MA wankers trying to act cool.

my advice is to walk around with an air of snooty, pretensious superiority, then write about it on the internet (at least until you get your nuts caught in a door jamb). That would be pretty cool, dude.....

jeez everybodys so cranky.. just forget i said anything.
faaaark.

Learn to shut the **** up and ignore people? Who cares if some guy wants to humilate himself?

Learn to shut the **** up and ignore people? Who cares if some guy wants to humilate himself?

but thats the thing.. everyone thinks its 'cool', because they dont know any better. people my age are like that though. fickle.

The best way to deal with them is to think to yourself "**** 'em" and get on with living.

but thats the thing.. everyone thinks its 'cool', because they dont know any better. people my age are like that though. fickle.

See, there will always be assholes in life and there will always be little ass-remoras that latch on to them.

One day one of two things will happen: These guys will get their ass beat by someone else, or someone will ask your direct opinion about it, giving you a change to quietly, humbly set them straight!

Or number three: They will end up in the same tournaments as you, you will beat them because of your obviously superior martial dedication, and they will make you Prince of the Highschool! The King of the Highschool will look at you and say, "All this will one day be yours!"

That was a dumb question, but here is the obvious answer: Who cares...

Seriously why do YOU care about what THEY do ? as long as they don't come to you or your friends your cool, if they do, go ahead and kick their asses, or get your ass kicked either way it will get solved.

This reminds me of a story someone told me regarding someone who was doing a very "flowery" Chinese martial art.

After an aweinspiring form display at a party. designed of course to impress and intimidate, a bloke walked up and punched said person as hard as he could in the face.


:toothy10:

He cares becaus they are getting attention! It's not FAIR that someone is getting attention! That's not FAIR! It isn't FAIR, dude!

How much training have you honestly had, Jez, if you're 16? A couple years? That doesn't exactly qualify you to be t3h d34dl1, either. My advice is to shut up and train. I mean that in the nicest way possible.

However, you're at the age where feeling invincible is the cool thing to do. As such, if it really bothers you that some folks brag about their martial experience, you can subtly trash-talk when they do:

Moron: "Oh, fear me! I'm taking Muay Thai and am a badass fighter!"
Girls: *swoon*
You: "So, how long have you been studying it? And how often do you train?"
Moron: "Six months, two hours a week."
You: "Dude, that's not very long. You can't be that good at it after such a short time."

At this point the local moron with either (a) shut up, (b) challenge you, or ask how long you've been training as a prelude to (a) or (b).

Never outright challenge anyone. Let them come to you (psychological advantage). Ask questions, don't make statements. Use discretion.

If a more peaceful approach is required, why not get yourself some of the attention through the same methods? "Hey guys, I do Muay Thai. Unlike most people here, though, I'm not just some six-month faddish wimp. I've been doing it for *years.* I'm a lean mean fighting machine."

Of course, since your peers are just as young and stupid, you can expect occasional challenges by those too dumb to know better. If you don't want to be challenged, though, don't poke your nose into other other peoples' MA. The nail that sticks up gets pounded down and all that.

All above statements are predicated on the premise that you've been doing Muay Thai, boxing, and Pankration for an appreciable length of time (i.e., on the premise that you're not a hypocrite) and won't get your arse handed to you in a fight.

But honestly, who cares? If you're in the art to get respect by high schoolers, you're studying for the wrong reasons. It's their own loss if they don't partake of the richness of martial tradition.

EDIT: Oh, and if you plan on doing challenges, invest in some BJJ or other submission grappling training so you can take people out without unduly busting them up. Injuring somebody over something as trivial as being arrogant about their experience is just poor sportsmanship.

most girls i knew in highschool found martial arts to be hilarious, so ask them to show you some moves during lunch time then just wait for the girls to giggle at them for looking like a tool. basically let them pwn themselves.

Suck it up bitch.

Develop some thicker skin and laugh at the wannabes. That I am doing right now, when I read your post.

You deal with them the same way you deal with Americans.

I love you Raynor.

:love5:

You deal with them the same way you deal with Americans.

Distract them with a cheeseburger that looks like jesus?