martial arts, being a 'sport'.?

[travisty]

ok, am i the only one who doesn't like that martial arts have become 'sports'?

like, it annoys me to see people wearing martial arts related clothing with out any training, such as UFC, tapout, affliction, and people say it's no different than wearing a NFL jersey to support a team, didn't the UFC start as 'put up or shut up' thing for artists of different styles? so it's not ok for the fans to act like they know what they're talking about.

the martial arts, were not created to entertain people, football, baseball, basketball, were created for the intents of sport, and entertainment. jiu-jistu, karate, TKD, hapkido, aikido, all of those where created to do serious physical harm.

is it just me, or is the categorization of sport the worst thing that has happened to martial arts?
Question M there are very few martial arts that weren't created to cause maximum damage in minimum time and effort.

judo and BJJ would be examples (judo was created as a watered down version of TJJ, and BJJ is derived for another sport from judo) the few 'sport' arts, JKD is meant to do maximum damage for minimal effort in minimal time, but was created for self protection.

traditional jiu-jistu was used by the samurai on the field of battle, as was karate, iaido, fencing was created to sharpen ones swordsmanship for fighting. most martial arts where created to kill.

lycann, you are correct that is how many sports/games of modern did come about, the sport tournaments spawned the mcdojo, i was specifically targeting UFC, it was just the most popular example currently. i have no problems with movies, and tv shows, because with out them i'd bet most people would have never heard of any specific martial art.
ok, to the people saying sparring is what makes martial arts a sport, that isn't true. point sparring makes it sport, but full contact sparring is training technique. i do not agree with point sparring at all.

and Mr- Tri, Judo was created in japan because people had decided that jiu-jistu matches were becoming to brutal and to violent. this information, was gathered from a former marine who trained judo, was a 7time all judo champ, 3time all service champ, and an olypmic judo alternate for america.
whoops, typo.

where it says 7 time all judo champ it's supposed to say 7 time all marine corp judo champ.

 

[John]

I don't think that is the worst thing that has happened to martial arts in my opinion. I can separate the sport aspect of martial arts from the health and welfare aspects as well as the more serious purpose of self-defense or even causing serious bodily injury aspects like when you use it in an offensive way. Some martial artists can't separate those aspects and that is fine as long as they don't dis those that can or pursue the different aspects that I mention. The sport aspect is just a test of your skills and abilities under controlled conditions and I know many martial artists that are quite good but terrible at the sports aspect but that hardly makes them less of a martial artist than myself.

If I had to try to put my finger on it I would say that the worst thing that has happened to martial arts is the watering down of the promotion standards and the resulting quality of instructors who obtain higher promotions when they should not have ever been promoted. They in turn pass on those watered down standards to their students if and when they start teaching somewhere or open their own school. This has been progressively going on now for twenty plus years and you see the affects of it in a lot of schools. Students in those types of schools can't hardly execute a technique that would hurt a butterfly much less a person that is trying to do them harm. They also often times lack the knowledge that goes with those techniques like why they should use this technique as opposed to that one. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each technique? What am I doing wrong when I do that technique and how can I improve it and my ability to do it?

I would also agree that there are some other things that have hurt martial arts in this country. One is that martial arts is for everyone. While the health and welfare benefits are great martial arts at a high level of skill and proficiency only comes with hard, dedicated work and not in a program where they "play" at teaching martial arts as I call it. A good analogy is a cardio kickboxing class. Such a class hardly prepares you to get in the ring with a trained fighter or use those skills in a self-defense situation without considerable risk to oneself. It will be interesting to see what some of the other answers will be about this and what others viewpoints are.

 

[Lycann]

I think the worst thing was martial arts becoming so prominent in popular culture movies and television then being sold en mass to casual participants. That's largely what has lead martial arts towards the sport classification it has now.

I've read an interesting article that states all sports are diluted forms of combat. They serve as either a more peaceful alternative to war or a means of maintaining skills useful in war or both. Obviously the methods used to fight a war have changed quite dramatically in the past couple hundred years, but for literally 1000s of years before that wars were fought hand to hand with swords, spears and other variations on a stick. Ultimately it's the evolution of war that rendered martial arts somewhat obsolete on the battle field that lead them to establish a niche in the sports world and for self defense.

Martial arts, despite their short comings against modern warfare tactics, are still quite useful in individual encounters. These one off encounters don't get as much attention as the sporting events that highlight martial arts so it's no surprise a majority of people today associate martial arts with the UFC and MMA in general. To the population that trains hard for self defense we know better and whatever the general view towards martial arts happens to be, well we just don't let that bother us... much.

All that said, I'm not sure whether I would ever have taken up martial arts if they hadn't ingrained themselves within pop culture as they have.

 

[Enrique C]

I disagree with you.
I'm completely delightful seeing martial arts popularity grow!

It's a great opportunity for the trainers to increase the amount of students at their academies and stop struggling financially.

It's a great idea that we (the ones who know martial arts) get respect from other people because of our dedication and discipline to learn an art that involves our body and mind.

Don't you feel bad when a stupid guy like Ronaldinho receives all the attention from the media while our super dedicated stars (Masato, Silva, Buakaw, Liddell, Gracie, Tito Ortiz) kill themselves at the gym and in the ring/octagon just to get a little attention????

I love to say to the world that our discipline is one of the best available to stay fit and healthy. And martial arts meet every test to be a sport, so why not to consider it a sport??