Jean Poutine
March 7th, 2010, 03:50 AM
Let me start this by saying one thing :
You are all extremely gullible.
Martial arts teaching is one of the most unregulated professions in North America. Credentials are easily forged and people are easily made to believe things. We view martial arts teachers as inherently virtuous because of the view we have of martial arts training : inner peace, discipline, honor, etc. Lemme tell you this. Throw this view of martial arts out of the window. Right now. The prime aspect of a martial art should be hurting people into oblivion. None of that philosophical nonsense.
While choosing a martial art, there are only three things you should ask yourself :
1) is this person qualified?
2) are the techniques taught sound?
3) is the training taught with aliveness?
1) is this person qualified?
Some martial arts (like Judo, Karate, BJJ) have national or international bodies that keep track of credentials. For example it is easy to write to the USJA/USJF/Judo-Canada and ask "hey is joe schmoe really 3rd dan". Which is what you should do.
Other arts do NOT have organisations. This is true in most forms of kung-fu (some eclectic kung-fu derived arts have one). Generally you should ask your prospective teacher for his "lineage". Chinese martial artists are usually proud of their lineage and should give it to you without asking questions. If the answer is not "I trained under x who trained under y who trained under the founder..." then run away. The answer should be straight-forward, not vague, like "oh I trained with so many people". This is also done in BJJ, your teacher should be telling you for example "I'm a purple belt under Fabio Holanda". If you don't trust him then write to BTT-Canada and ask them yourself.
There are also wide-reaching bogus organisations that operate strickly for money. To spot these, generally you should look for overly grandiose titles like United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame. It is also unlikely that your local karate instructor could've won "Instructor of the Year" from the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Such "Halls of Fame" are pay-to-play organisations : you pay for the mention, no questions asked.
2) are the techniques taught sound?
You aren't going to be catching a punch in mid-air. Forget about it. Techniques like :
-standing wristlocks (or even just standing joint locks)
-chambered punches
are unlikely to work in a real fight. If your art contain lots of those and much more, change, it's worthless. Ask yourself : "would a trained UFC/Pride/whatever fighter use this shit?"
You are always safe with a combat sport. No matter what anybody tells you, you need to fight to become good at fighting. Sparring and sportive combat generally weeds out the stupid shit from the art and makes it certain to be effective (more on that later).
Arts that can generally be characterised as "effective" :
-(kick)boxing
-judo
-BJJ
-kyokushin, ashihara karate
-daido juku
-wrestling
-sambo
-MMA
-muay thai
-sanshou/sanda (sportive application of kung fu)
-others...
Arts that can generally be considered as poop :
-taekwondo
-most karate
-most kung fu
-aikido (sans tomiki aikido)
-traditional japanese jujutsu
-krav maga
-ninjutsu
-MANY more others...
3) is the training taught with aliveness?
Generally, "aliveness" is described when training uses methods that are as close to a real fight as possible, while still making it safe. For example, MMA is very alive. Doing kata in front of a mirror is "dead" training, so is hitting pads. Point sparring is about as alive as a cancer patient five minutes away from dying. Non-contact sparring is not alive despite what anybody will tell you. Drills are obviously useful but are still dead training.
While training, you should spar often, with a good amount of contact, and as little rules as possible, while still being safe from grave injury. Technical drilling should and must occur, but there must also be sparring. This is where you pressure-test your shit against someone who is looking to wreck it.
Never buy into "our art is too dangerous for sportive combat". They'll tell you it's why you don't see Wing Chun fighters in the UFC. It's a bullshit excuse that bullshitters use to get out of trouble. If your art relies on eye gouges and strikes to the throat you can't practice, it's rubbish. You can't learn to swim on dry land. It's hard enough to punch someone in the face - how the fuck do you expect to gouge their eyes out?
The truth is that the "delivery system" of these arts is useless. If it was good then you'd see Wing Chun UFC fighters doing well, even without eye gouges. You are not being trained to "deliver" your moves by hurting a compliant partner who's letting you hurt you. There must be resistance.
No, kata is not useful to learn how to fight. It is useful to learn how to dance. The proverbial image neophytes have of martial arts is hundreds of Shaolin monks lined up and doing taolu in the wind. This doesn't make you a badass. It makes you a dancing fairy.
Punching bags is good for refining technique and conditioning. Not for fighting. Women who do tae-bo aren't going to kick your ass.
One more thing.
www.bullshido.net
Learn it and love it.
You are all extremely gullible.
Martial arts teaching is one of the most unregulated professions in North America. Credentials are easily forged and people are easily made to believe things. We view martial arts teachers as inherently virtuous because of the view we have of martial arts training : inner peace, discipline, honor, etc. Lemme tell you this. Throw this view of martial arts out of the window. Right now. The prime aspect of a martial art should be hurting people into oblivion. None of that philosophical nonsense.
While choosing a martial art, there are only three things you should ask yourself :
1) is this person qualified?
2) are the techniques taught sound?
3) is the training taught with aliveness?
1) is this person qualified?
Some martial arts (like Judo, Karate, BJJ) have national or international bodies that keep track of credentials. For example it is easy to write to the USJA/USJF/Judo-Canada and ask "hey is joe schmoe really 3rd dan". Which is what you should do.
Other arts do NOT have organisations. This is true in most forms of kung-fu (some eclectic kung-fu derived arts have one). Generally you should ask your prospective teacher for his "lineage". Chinese martial artists are usually proud of their lineage and should give it to you without asking questions. If the answer is not "I trained under x who trained under y who trained under the founder..." then run away. The answer should be straight-forward, not vague, like "oh I trained with so many people". This is also done in BJJ, your teacher should be telling you for example "I'm a purple belt under Fabio Holanda". If you don't trust him then write to BTT-Canada and ask them yourself.
There are also wide-reaching bogus organisations that operate strickly for money. To spot these, generally you should look for overly grandiose titles like United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame. It is also unlikely that your local karate instructor could've won "Instructor of the Year" from the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Such "Halls of Fame" are pay-to-play organisations : you pay for the mention, no questions asked.
2) are the techniques taught sound?
You aren't going to be catching a punch in mid-air. Forget about it. Techniques like :
-standing wristlocks (or even just standing joint locks)
-chambered punches
are unlikely to work in a real fight. If your art contain lots of those and much more, change, it's worthless. Ask yourself : "would a trained UFC/Pride/whatever fighter use this shit?"
You are always safe with a combat sport. No matter what anybody tells you, you need to fight to become good at fighting. Sparring and sportive combat generally weeds out the stupid shit from the art and makes it certain to be effective (more on that later).
Arts that can generally be characterised as "effective" :
-(kick)boxing
-judo
-BJJ
-kyokushin, ashihara karate
-daido juku
-wrestling
-sambo
-MMA
-muay thai
-sanshou/sanda (sportive application of kung fu)
-others...
Arts that can generally be considered as poop :
-taekwondo
-most karate
-most kung fu
-aikido (sans tomiki aikido)
-traditional japanese jujutsu
-krav maga
-ninjutsu
-MANY more others...
3) is the training taught with aliveness?
Generally, "aliveness" is described when training uses methods that are as close to a real fight as possible, while still making it safe. For example, MMA is very alive. Doing kata in front of a mirror is "dead" training, so is hitting pads. Point sparring is about as alive as a cancer patient five minutes away from dying. Non-contact sparring is not alive despite what anybody will tell you. Drills are obviously useful but are still dead training.
While training, you should spar often, with a good amount of contact, and as little rules as possible, while still being safe from grave injury. Technical drilling should and must occur, but there must also be sparring. This is where you pressure-test your shit against someone who is looking to wreck it.
Never buy into "our art is too dangerous for sportive combat". They'll tell you it's why you don't see Wing Chun fighters in the UFC. It's a bullshit excuse that bullshitters use to get out of trouble. If your art relies on eye gouges and strikes to the throat you can't practice, it's rubbish. You can't learn to swim on dry land. It's hard enough to punch someone in the face - how the fuck do you expect to gouge their eyes out?
The truth is that the "delivery system" of these arts is useless. If it was good then you'd see Wing Chun UFC fighters doing well, even without eye gouges. You are not being trained to "deliver" your moves by hurting a compliant partner who's letting you hurt you. There must be resistance.
No, kata is not useful to learn how to fight. It is useful to learn how to dance. The proverbial image neophytes have of martial arts is hundreds of Shaolin monks lined up and doing taolu in the wind. This doesn't make you a badass. It makes you a dancing fairy.
Punching bags is good for refining technique and conditioning. Not for fighting. Women who do tae-bo aren't going to kick your ass.
One more thing.
www.bullshido.net
Learn it and love it.