How do you define martial arts?

**MMAMickey** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 8:30am

martial arts is just a name. Define Bob for me, or Dave.

the point is the only point of martial arts should be to learn to fight.. the whole fucking honour **** is just a tumour on fighting's testicle.

**MrGalt** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 8:33am

I always thought that Bullshido's Godwin's Law stated that as a thread about martial arts grows in length the probability of someone making a comparison or reference to Bruce Lee approaches 1.

**mrblackmagic** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 8:41am

Originally Posted by MMAMickey

martial arts is just a name. Define Bob for me, or Dave.

the point is the only point of martial arts should be to learn to fight.. the whole fucking honour **** is just a tumour on fighting's testicle.

I disagree. At the most, the function is to keep well-trained douchebags from beating up regular people; at the least, poorly trained douchebags from getting beat up by regular people. Everyone isn't going to listen of course, but then they become anecdotes later.

**Styygens** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 8:52am

Originally Posted by MrGalt

I always thought that Bullshido's Godwin's Law stated that as a thread about martial arts grows in length the probability of someone making a comparison or reference to Bruce Lee approaches 1.

Take THAT, Bruce Lee!

**MMAMickey** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 10:37am

Originally Posted by mrblackmagic

I disagree. At the most, the function is to keep well-trained douchebags from beating up regular people; at the least, poorly trained douchebags from getting beat up by regular people. Everyone isn't going to listen of course, but then they become anecdotes later.

perhaps I am mistaken but didnt the western MA develop as a means of training troops and keeping them fit when they weren't in battle?

There is also a report on here somewhere that said the chinese used to all do dirty fighting by pulling each others long hair.. honour and such are not linked to fighting, in fact they are arguably detrimental to it

**Kintanon** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 10:55am

Originally Posted by PointyShinyBurn

Do you know what the difference between 'Parkour' and 'Free running' is?

Linearity vs Flash.
I forget which is which, but one concentrates on the most direct route between A and B while the other invites a flashier display of movement during the run.
But both are going from place A to place B with some additional restrictions.

**Cletus** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 11:01am

i always thought that if we were refered to as martial artisans rather than martial artists, it would cut out a lot of the superflous **** bandied about regarding this entity we all love so much

**AustinHarry** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 11:35am

Originally Posted by Styygens

Thanks.

Given the number of philosophers, lawyers, and other logical-argumentative types on Bullshido, I've been surprised by the lack of interest in coming to a consensus definition of "martial arts." It seems left it in the same limbo as pornography (another BS.net obsession) and using the definition of "I know it when I see it."

"Does an art have to be effective in combat to be a martial art?" Personally, I don't think so. But I consider this another layer of analysis about an art. For example, Icelandic Glima is a belt wrestling style. From what little I know about it, Glima seems to meet my definition of martial art. However, I would bet that it is not particularly relevant to or effective in life-and-death combat. I proposed my definition in a thread about SCA fighting, a style that had its defenders as a martial art, and some insightful critics with excellent arguments against it.

Of course, you could play reductio ad absurdum with my definition too. Is Thumb Wrestling a martial art? I don't think so.

Perhaps YMAS isn't the place for a legitimate discussion of this? Which sub-forum would be more appropriate? (I sense I'll be in Sheerdog in no time...)

I'm not sure the problem here is your subforum of choice. Its more that this is about as interesting and useful as debating whether or not Mighty Mouse would win a fight against a killer whale.

This whole thread reminds me why I dropped Philosophy as a major. You can sit around with underachieving potheads all day and argue about what 'good' is but it will have no impact on anyone's daily existence or decision making process.

A more interesting debate would be Quick Kick or Snake Eyes, which would you pick and why?

**Styygens** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 12:24pm

I have voted numerous times already for Snake Eyes. Ninja. Duh. Quick Kick's skill set includes "zen sword." What's that?

And if the question is uninteresting to you, why bother reading the thread? It obviously interests some people because the question keeps coming up in various ways.

**DunkelAnanas** · Posted On: 5/05/2010 2:44pm

Originally Posted by MrGalt

I always thought that Bullshido's Godwin's Law stated that as a thread about martial arts grows in length the probability of someone making a comparison or reference to Bruce Lee approaches 1.

That is HungKungFu's Law, not to be confused with the Happeh Hypothesis, which asserts that the chance of triangles being brought up in a martial arts conversation is dependent upon each participant's MMPI scores.