Knocking & Kicking

**DdlR** · Posted On: 6/22/2009 7:00pm

That's the problem. There are *just* enough people interested in WMA on this board to justify the WMA forum, but I doubt that there would be enough folks interested in African MA to keep an African-specific forum active, and I know that Phrost (the owner) doesn't like inactive forums.

Unless we do get a forum specifically intended for the serious discussion of African and other lesser-known styles, threads on those topics will probably keep landing in YMAS. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though; the climate there has changed for the better over the past few years, and most African styles meet the general Bullshido "code of approval" in that they are heavy on grappling and full-contact sparring. I've brought up Dambe and various other styles in YMAS discussion and people are generally interested.

**Hesperus** · Posted On: 6/25/2009 1:54am

Can I get a map of what exactly "Western" means, then?

Is this actually the EMA forum?

**DdlR** · Posted On: 6/25/2009 7:14am

We're generally guided by culture and history rather than by geography, so that (in broad terms) any MAs traditionally originating in Europe are on-topic. Intercultural styles such as Bartitsu, JKD, SAMBO etc. are on-topic as long as the thread in question is primarily addressing the "Western" aspect of those styles. Thus, a discussion of the jujitsu content of Bartitsu would be better carried out in the JMA forum, but a discussion of the boxing, savate or stick fighting aspects would be on-topic here. Obviously, there has to be some lee-way to support interesting discussion.

**Hesperus** · Posted On: 6/25/2009 3:19pm

Originally Posted by DdlR

culture and history

So it is the WMA forum: White Martial Arts.

**vaquero de las nalgas** · Posted On: 6/25/2009 9:03pm

So that would rule out discussion of Native American martial arts, prison systems, etc.

**DdlR** · Posted On: 6/25/2009 11:33pm

Originally Posted by Hesperus

So it is the WMA forum: White Martial Arts.

Um ... q.v. the Japanese, Chinese and Korean MA forums ... (?)

It's culture, race has nothing to do with it.

**DdlR** · Posted On: 6/25/2009 11:37pm

Originally Posted by asscowboy

So that would rule out discussion of Native American martial arts, prison systems, etc.

Yes to Native American styles as well, unfortunately. Like I said earlier, I'd originally advocated a general "lesser known MA" forum that would cover Polynesian, Native American, African, European, etc. styles, but this is what we've ended up with.

Prison systems - I guess it would depend on which styles went into the mix. 52 Blocks is only just on-topic, insofar as it's probably an evolutionary off-shoot of European as well as African boxing styles.

**maofas** · Posted On: 6/26/2009 12:05am

I'd be very interested to see what their kicking looked like. There's some semi-decent description of their sweeps, but some random guy's account stating "they kicked like those karate guys!" (p88) doesn't quite cut it for me.

**Hesperus** · Posted On: 6/26/2009 4:48am

Chinese in the China one, Japanese in Japan, but this one has everything from ancient Greece to turn of the (last) century England with a myriad of times and places in between. If it's not an area on a map (Europe) or ethnicity (Caucasian), what is Western?