Stupid things you used to believe about martial arts

[Heuristic]

I used to believe black belts meant something

[Sovvolf]

I used to believe black belts meant something

It's relative to the difficulty of achievement. A black belt you get for simply turning up for long enough is about as good as just buying one online. However a lot of kickboxing places won't even let you get past green belt without a few pro fights behind you. You should be a seasoned fighter before you have the privilege of wearing one.

[patfromlogan]

Before I had any martial arts experience, I used to believe Karate blocks would work and that their toolbox was therefore better than boxers.

Later on I learned that people throw punches in combinations, in which karate blocks would be useless since you don't know which punch is coming and you don't have time to react with each karate block for each technique.

Well that depends on skill level. A kyokushin tourney fighter from Japan once only blocked me in kumite, it was humiliating and I decided to take his fucking head off with my one good technique and Shihan noticed and told us to bow. And if you don't think bb mean anything and come down to the Waiakea rec center in Hilo on Friday nights and take on any on the dozens of bb's from a half dozen schools that divide up the big room with tarps. From aikido to three judo and two or three karate schools, TKD upstairs, etc, there's no bullshido...

[sexpert]

[kimjonghng]

That I only have to be into martial arts for the whole 'spiritual path' as well as fighting skills side of it as well or Im getting nothing.

I learned a lot about myself in the boxing training leading up to UWCB, including that I don't thrive on or enjoy competitive fighting. I've also come to realize that some stuff I train out of cultural interests (such as Karate and the Kalaripayattu training I received in India) and then I train other stuff because I just want to be able to floor a fool if I have (Judo, Kudo and Kickboxing).