Skepticism & Spirituality in the Martial Arts

[JBliss]

" they want to learn self defense, and by self defense they mean confidence"

Nailed it.

[JohnnyCache]

what class was this for

[It is Fake]

He includes karate in the "dead" arts, but we all know karateka and styles who train alive. And in kung fu, and in etc etc.

Yes, he generalized. We all generalize. There isn't enough time to sit there and say "all but these three karate systems, that CMA school, that KMA etc etc etc." This is more pedantic than any thing I rip art.

At the end of the day I greatly respect Matt's ethos, but he's still part of the BJJihad; he's just disguised here as Eddie Vedder.

Yes, a JKD, Savate, and boxing based striker who added BJJ to his game is part of BJJihad.

I use Matt's philosophy whenever I train, if it's a dead drill (and dead drills have their place), I ask myself how I could train it more alive, and I credit Matt for that sort of thing. But he didn't invent aliveness, he just pointed it out.

Stop it, CMA was marginalized long before he started training BJJ. Do you need the videos where he points out he didn't invent it?

You sound like all of the hippy CMAers that can't stand Aliveness.

[JohnnyCache]

Matt looks like hell, did he go undercover for this assignment? Someone told him the 90's grunge style was still in on college campuses or something and he wanted to blend in with the right flannels and hair.

I like Matt, but he's still heavily biased and persists in associating "traditional" with "dead training". In Matt's world, traditional training is never alive, which is a silly thing to keep spouting in this day and age.

I get that he needs to pimp "Aliveness" wherever he goes but the constant bucketing of "this is used in MMA so it is always trained alive" vs. "This is a traditional art so it's always trained dead" is a false dichotomy that, quite frankly, is just as bad as any "fantasy-based" art.

I use Matt's philosophy whenever I train, if it's a dead drill (and dead drills have their place), I ask myself how I could train it more alive, and I credit Matt for that sort of thing. But he didn't invent aliveness, he just pointed it out.

He's giving a lecture to laypeople, and it already took up most of the class time - constant qualifying and digression for exceptions would be unwieldy in this context. It's more helpful for the people he's talking to get the right takeaway and be pleasantly surprised by exceptions that prove the rule.

[Banjin Tsuki]

While I obviously respect Thornton, and know he would kick my ass, I think he is painfully biased and a little mistaken. The idea of many traditional arts is perfecting the "one punch" (or whatever technique) take down. It drives me crazy that many MMA and UFC fights go on for 5 or 15 minutes. Do that in the street and you're dead!

That said, I agree with his idea about dynamic training against real opponents. Practicing against the air may be ok for trying to ingrain technique, but without application against a live opponent the practice is in vain.

As for his discussion on spirituality - he is definitely full of Bullshido.

[battlefields]

While I obviously respect Thornton, and know he would kick my ass, I think he is painfully biased and a little mistaken. The idea of many traditional arts is perfecting the "one punch" (or whatever technique) take down. It drives me crazy that many MMA and UFC fights go on for 5 or 15 minutes. Do that in the street and you're dead!

That said, I agree with his idea about dynamic training against real opponents. Practicing against the air may be ok for trying to ingrain technique, but without application against a live opponent the practice is in vain.

As for his discussion on spirituality - he is definitely full of Bullshido.

Bolded. You are an idiot. No need to reply.

[It is Fake]

The one hit stop/kill punch is like Bigfoot. Everyone has seen grainy evidence, but it can never be verified under intense scrutiny.

[Kovacs]

While I obviously respect Thornton, and know he would kick my ass, I think he is painfully biased and a little mistaken. The idea of many traditional arts is perfecting the "one punch" (or whatever technique) take down. It drives me crazy that many MMA and UFC fights go on for 5 or 15 minutes. Do that in the street and you're dead!

That said, I agree with his idea about dynamic training against real opponents. Practicing against the air may be ok for trying to ingrain technique, but without application against a live opponent the practice is in vain.

As for his discussion on spirituality - he is definitely full of Bullshido.

You think they purposefully drag those fights out?

[JohnnyCache]

While I obviously respect Thornton, and know he would kick my ass, I think he is painfully biased and a little mistaken. The idea of many traditional arts is perfecting the "one punch" (or whatever technique) take down. It drives me crazy that many MMA and UFC fights go on for 5 or 15 minutes. Do that in the street and you're dead!

That said, I agree with his idea about dynamic training against real opponents. Practicing against the air may be ok for trying to ingrain technique, but without application against a live opponent the practice is in vain.

As for his discussion on spirituality - he is definitely full of Bullshido.

Elite fights go on longer because they are two, not one but two, well conditioned well trained individuals. And they still often end in quick flurries. It is more correct to say SOME mma fights last 15 minutes - many other MMA fights are ended decisively. Since you are absolutely allowed to use any "one punch" you may have perfected in MMA, many people can and do enter MMA competition planning to use heavy hands. Sometimes they are even successful. But generally it is not too long into their time in MMA before they realize there are people out there with a solution to their one punch - such as moving them to a ground context where it can't be used, or using defensive technique to avoid it - and they find that to become effective MMA fighters, they need a plan b. and a plan c. When they start shifting from plan to plan, trying to either deploy or neutralize that one punch( or submission) only to find each countered in turn, you get a prolonged professional fight.

When guys like that get in non-sporting fights, those fights don't tend to last nearly as long as their cage outings against equals.

[atomicpoet]

The one hit stop/kill punch is like Bigfoot. Everyone has seen grainy evidence, but it can never be verified under intense scrutiny.

I have no idea if you're referring to one punch knockouts or kills. Either one does indeed exist. Having it happen is a crapshoot, however — kind of like a hole in one.