What do you consider as key criteria for an effective martial art?
I know alot of people have probably asked this at one point or another, but I'm still going to beat this dead horse because I'm spoiling for a good round of debate-fu.
Now here's the issue: From a very brief reading of posts on this site, the general consensus appears to be that effectiveness= proving it "in the ring". I have quite some serious issues with that, as indicated by the subsequent points
1) Rules? What rules?
That title is probably one of the most annoying things i've ever heard, often parroted by my Krav Maga instructors. See the problem I have with sports fighting is mostly with the rules. A few of my go-to moves in self defense literally can't translate to sports fighting without myself losing by default from penalties. For example, I tend to do alot of stomp kicks to the groin region when sparring (it's not as bad in Krav because we wear two layers of groin cups and fight 30% power), simply because I do think that if I face a male assailant that would be the one move that could bring a man down to his knees, even if he was Goliath reincarnated.
But it's not just the "illegal" moves that I have a problem with. The entire environment of sports-fighting is very unrealistic to me. I don't remember the last time I had a fight with someone on a smooth, polished canvas mat, wearing nothing but a small pair of shorts. If anything, Murphy's Law would suggest that you probably be caught in a life-or-death situation in the worst possible attire (ie tight jeans and restrictive leather jacket whilst in a cluttered and crowded bar).
There are many other points with regards to the issue of using sports-fighting as a criteria for evaluating martial arts that I would like to bring up, but I think I'll get to those abit later if this thread generates some degree of interest.
2) Sports vs fighting
I think another issue is that we get so obsessed with winning in a sports fight that we lose sight of what's really more important: surviving in a self-defense situation in real life. No matter how many times we've TKOed someone, or forced them to tap-out, it all doesn't really matter if one day we get stabbed in the ribs and bleed out on the side of the street.
For me, martial arts can only considered be truly effective if we can use it to survive in real life encounters. The bigger problem is: we can never truly be confident that we could do so. Anyone who thinks different is probably deluding themselves. You can never be sure if your opponent has a rock concealed in his hands, a gun in his coat pocket. Your opponent may be a 5 time MMA champion, or worse, a knife wielding expert. No matter how skilled/badass you think you might be, in a real life hostile situation all that training may just increase your survival chances by 10%. Claiming that putting up a good fight/win in a ring will indicate effectiveness just creates, in my opinion, a dangerous delusion and arrogance that one has become another "deadly weapon", and if reflected into one's daily behavior, could easily get one killed.
Also, although I really don't think I'm trying to troll here, I just want honest, rational answers to my questions and a good healthy debate on a topic that is quite important since this site claims to be about no BS.
I know alot of people have probably asked this at one point or another, but I'm still going to beat this dead horse because I'm spoiling for a good round of debate-fu.
Now here's the issue: From a very brief reading of posts on this site, the general consensus appears to be that effectiveness= proving it "in the ring". I have quite some serious issues with that, as indicated by the subsequent points
1) Rules? What rules?
That title is probably one of the most annoying things i've ever heard, often parroted by my Krav Maga instructors. See the problem I have with sports fighting is mostly with the rules. A few of my go-to moves in self defense literally can't translate to sports fighting without myself losing by default from penalties. For example, I tend to do alot of stomp kicks to the groin region when sparring (it's not as bad in Krav because we wear two layers of groin cups and fight 30% power), simply because I do think that if I face a male assailant that would be the one move that could bring a man down to his knees, even if he was Goliath reincarnated.
But it's not just the "illegal" moves that I have a problem with. The entire environment of sports-fighting is very unrealistic to me. I don't remember the last time I had a fight with someone on a smooth, polished canvas mat, wearing nothing but a small pair of shorts. If anything, Murphy's Law would suggest that you probably be caught in a life-or-death situation in the worst possible attire (ie tight jeans and restrictive leather jacket whilst in a cluttered and crowded bar).
There are many other points with regards to the issue of using sports-fighting as a criteria for evaluating martial arts that I would like to bring up, but I think I'll get to those abit later if this thread generates some degree of interest.
2) Sports vs fighting
I think another issue is that we get so obsessed with winning in a sports fight that we lose sight of what's really more important: surviving in a self-defense situation in real life. No matter how many times we've TKOed someone, or forced them to tap-out, it all doesn't really matter if one day we get stabbed in the ribs and bleed out on the side of the street.
For me, martial arts can only considered be truly effective if we can use it to survive in real life encounters. The bigger problem is: we can never truly be confident that we could do so. Anyone who thinks different is probably deluding themselves. You can never be sure if your opponent has a rock concealed in his hands, a gun in his coat pocket. Your opponent may be a 5 time MMA champion, or worse, a knife wielding expert. No matter how skilled/badass you think you might be, in a real life hostile situation all that training may just increase your survival chances by 10%. Claiming that putting up a good fight/win in a ring will indicate effectiveness just creates, in my opinion, a dangerous delusion and arrogance that one has become another "deadly weapon", and if reflected into one's daily behavior, could easily get one killed.
Also, although I really don't think I'm trying to troll here, I just want honest, rational answers to my questions and a good healthy debate on a topic that is quite important since this site claims to be about no BS.
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