What is the most damaging thing to martial arts?

**Salamander** · Posted On: 5/29/2007 8:57pm

Too many schools nowadays are trying to capitalize on the MMA craze. Lots of old Karate Douches are claiming to now be masters of Brazilian Jujitsu and Muy Thai. They also seem to think that their point sparring experience qualifies them to train fighters for MMA fights. This is bad for Martial arts. I mean, since the late 70's and early 80's Martial Arts has become a business and nothing more. These guys rope little kids into it promising that it will help them defend themselves, get them in shape, and make them more disciplined. At all the Traditional martial arts schools I have been to none of these things ever happen. Now that people realize that Karate, Aikido, and Kungfu are not viable forms of self defense they change the moniker on their school but teach a lot of the same old crap in the same old way and throw in a few grappling techniques.

**IMightBeWrong** · Posted On: 5/31/2007 1:48pm

I read a bit about the whole one hit knockout punch that never actually hits the opponent.... Obvious bull crap, and even if it were real it would be completely useless on the street when you could just pack a .45 ACP which is a lot quicker on the draw than making stupid waving hand motions and treating a dangerous situation like some kind of GAME. I mean I have nothing against Tai Chi because it's a very healthy practice, especially for older folks who need to keep their joints active, and many people can use it for self defense after enough years of practice, but a one punch KO without actually hitting anybody... That's just silliness.

I put down Charlatans, but I was still split between that and McDojos. Often times I find combinations of the two, such as the ATA dojo down the street. They teach supposed Tae Kwon Do, but their sign in the front says karate, and they also claim to teach BJJ but they "refuse to teach it to anybody until they have a black belt in TKD first." Then they charge you 200 dollars a month. Ridiculous.

**GrandmasterCain** · Posted On: 5/31/2007 9:53pm

It's definitely a toss-up between charlatans and McDojo's for me, but I'm also going to go with charlatans. They deliberately perpetuate the worst myths about martial arts, all in an attempt to satiate their own egos. I've also never seen a Bullshido dojo that wasn't also a McDojo as well.