Stupid things you used to believe about martial arts

**Skillful** · Posted On: 10/13/2008 10:19pm

I heard the whole "black belt registered weapon" myth from a member at the country club where I work the other day regarding his 16 year old son. He refused to answer the follwing question: "If things really got ugly between the two of you, do you honestly believe he could kick your ass?"

**wannab** · Posted On: 10/19/2008 3:51pm

i used to think that a 540 hook kick was a realistic technique for self defense.

**Chr9is** · Posted On: 10/19/2008 9:24pm

That my blackbelt in TKD meant I knew how to fight. (At age 12 nonetheless!)

That boxing was useless. same with wrestling. I always thought "huh, why wrestle when I could kick him instead"

That mma fighters had absolutely horrid kicks (because I saw no "snap" haha)

Thankfully I discovered this site and took up Judo

**Sharkonis** · Posted On: 10/19/2008 9:37pm

[quote=Chr9is]That my blackbelt in TKD meant I knew how to fight. (At age 12 nonetheless!)

That boxing was useless. same with wrestling. I always thought "huh, why wrestle when I could kick him instead"

That mma fighters had absolutely horrid kicks (because I saw no "snap" haha)

Thankfully I discovered this site and took up Judo

Tell me, is the old Movie theatre still there ? you know, the one in the shopping center across from Kmart, or how about Thillinens Stadium and the greasy spoon that was in front of it ?

Sharkonis

**marcusdbrutus** · Posted On: 10/19/2008 11:24pm

My style of TKD was uber complete, because we practiced with knees and elbows against compliant partners.

The axe kick to the forehead was the ultimate knockout.

I could pwn with my kicks before anyone even got close to me.

Then, once I aged past 16:

Every martial art is stupid, street fighting is the only way to go.

I can stop any takedown with a simple knee.

I could easily beat anyone of any size or skill by striking them in the pills.

That last one still works sometimes though.

**ThrasherCub** · Posted On: 10/20/2008 1:20am

Reading this thread made me feel bad because every time I thought I was done remembering stupid stuff I used to believe, more comes up.

Martial arts that center around weapons are far superior to unarmed arts. Why kick when you can decapitate?

Blocking is better than dodging because it will cause the assailants arm to go flying and then they'll just be a huge open target long enough to hit them at least twice.

Having a black belt implies that you are not an ignorant douche.

Only crappy schools don't have a good heaping dose of philosophy and history.

Martial arts are for self-defense. Only bad people want to use them to fight.

Knowing pressure points and very specific places to punch people is a million times better than punching someone really hard. No matter how good you are at striking or grappling you will never defeat big strong people unless you can kill or paralyze them with a pressure point. Or possibly use Aikido.

All unarmed martial arts are equal except for boxing and kick boxing (which suck) and krotty, which is undoubtedly invented by God.

Professional wrestling is fake, but their moves are applicable in a fight.

There are few, if any, crappy dojos out there. It's just a matter of finding the right art for you and a teacher with the right style.

Capoeira is a great addition to any art.

The horse stance is the most useful stance in the world. One-legged stances are popular and therefore likely to be useful as well.

Punching at absolutely nothing constitutes practicing a martial art.

Only some ninjutsu teachers suck and they suck because they know the super cool deadly stuff and just refuse to teach it to you.

Chi plays a big part in a fight.

If you don't kiai then your strike will suck ass and hurt absolutely nothing.

The people on Bullshido don't know what they're talking about.

**twistor59** · Posted On: 10/20/2008 3:15am

Oh yes, just thought of another one from my teenage karate time - instructor used to tell us that jodan age uke was intended to break the opponents arm after he'd thrown a punch at your head, also gedan barai was to break their leg. When talking about the competitions, he'd say the rules are "full point if the blow would have killed him, half point if it would have maimed him"

**Chr9is** · Posted On: 10/20/2008 10:35am

[quote=Sharkonis]

Originally Posted by Chr9is

That my blackbelt in TKD meant I knew how to fight. (At age 12 nonetheless!)

That boxing was useless. same with wrestling. I always thought "huh, why wrestle when I could kick him instead"

That mma fighters had absolutely horrid kicks (because I saw no "snap" haha)

Thankfully I discovered this site and took up Judo

Tell me, is the old Movie theatre still there ? you know, the one in the shopping center across from Kmart, or how about Thillinens Stadium and the greasy spoon that was in front of it ?

Sharkonis

Are you talking about the Lincoln Village theater? Near the car wash?

or the one across from the seedy looking motel /w the yellow sign? One of them closed down, Lincoln Village is still there. Thillens stadium is still alive and kicking, not sure about the greasy spoon.

You're from the area originally?

**Tsai** · Posted On: 11/05/2008 11:46am

At the risk of repeating the previously mentioned stuff...

I used to be biased against non-TMAs, particularly boxing and wrestling. I saw boxing as particularly vulnerable to any attack to their legs. So limited. Just punches??? C'moooon. Your legs are there for a reason. I thought little of wrestling because of the singlets. As far as I was concerned, it's just some guys pushing each other. No big deal. Now, I realize that wrestling's one of the toughest martial sports out there. I feel bad. Really bad. I was so arrogant.

For me, though already aware that TKD was inadequate as a stand-alone system, one could still reasonably hold his own in a fight with it. No grapplers could get me on the ground. My deadly kicks shall knock them out! And nobody can grab my feet when kicking, since our legs snapped back after delivering the kick itself.

I believed that when you're a master of kicks, you were tha shiet. Screw punching! Legs are stronger! If the guy gets close, just skip back and deliver a quick kick to the ribs! I even attempted to write a paper in high school that extolled kicking over punching.

(Still, I think TKD black belts can deliver some amount of punishment...before getting grounded and choked out. Particularly the ones in the national team level. They were quick. And their kicks really did hurt. Plus, it does take plenty of training and dedication to achieve explosive kicking form.)

Black belts could kick any and all ass. Period.

If your punch snapped to a halt in front of a candle and put it out, it was strong enough to rupture organs or something.

If you could do ten one-armed pushups, you could knock someone out. (Honestly, I still don't know what to make of this. Care to enlighten me here, guys?)

That TMA > Eclectic. I was quickly taught a lesson. Especially concerning stamina. TMA seldom trains in stamina and conditioning. College varsities do. But your Saturday morning classes don't.

I also fantasized about using TKD techniques in caged matches. I'd watch UFC fights and notice that this particular technique/tactic would totally work, since they don't observe kicking distance.

Also, I've loved Muay Thai, despite the lack of a Gi. The only flaw that I saw was that I erroneously believed that it was only for one-on-one confrontations, ergo useless. I believed TKD was better for real life encounters, due to its "Korean Massage". It's basically 2 on 1. So HELL YEAH IT'S REALITY BASED!!!! ZOMG!

I feel so very filthy.