Wow! What hypocrisy in this martial arts group?

[donearguingwithidiots]

There is constant bashing of 'sport' oriented martial arts, particularly any TKD school that does sport competition.

But at the same time most posters darn near worship MMA which is SPORT, and speak highly of Judo which was created solely as a sport....

Do you realize how hard one has to train for serious competition? How in shape one must be? How fast one must be?

Many years ago in college I worked as a bouncer, I never enocuntered a single opponent that was even half as tough to fight as the guys I meet in open tournaments....

Sport is a hell of a lot tougher than you guys think.

 

[Bujinkan Ninja]

You have sport "martial arts" and then you have real martial arts. M"MA" is hardly a martial art. It's nothing more than a sport. Most TKD schools teach it as a sport for competitions and not as a martial art, but you can still find the ones who teach traditional TKD. Same goes for Judo, it can be taught as a martial art or as a sport. I personally do not see why people waste their time learning it as a sport. Yes, I've trained for serious competitions. No matter how tough it is, that does not make it a martial art. A real martial art is not weakened by training under the rules and regulations of competition.

 

[pugpaws2]

Well said !

Although I'm not really that into the sport aspect of the martial arts, I have a healthy respect for the real guys that do. I've known a few tough characters that could do sport or self-defense. Eiother way they were good.

 

[Jim R]

Most of the objection you see on here toward sport type martial arts is because of that MMA worship of which you speak. In my limited experience, MMA is a term used mostly to attract new students. It is easy to convince the uninitiated that a mixture of martial arts is the thing they need, because they are told that this one lacks that thing, or some such foolishness. Anyone training seriously for competition will obviously train hard, get fast, and become good at what they do. They are very tough people, period.
Traditional martial art on the other hand trains it's practitioners to kill and kill very quickly, something disallowed in most sports. Those of us who express our belief in traditional martial art do not disrespect any sport, but ping pong doesn't train it's people to kill anything either. It is an unfair comparison in any case, because sport and war, and survival are three different things that have always coexisted, and probably always will.
J

 

[John]

I agree allot with what you say. I have always said that the same, speed, agility, balance, strength and skill it takes to compete at a high level is the same as it takes to be a good martial artist in other ways. A lot really has to do with whether or not that martial artist also bothers to train in self-defense or other aspects at as high of a level but the raw capabilities are there. I fought and did kata as well as weapons on the national circuit and was a known and rated person for many years in the top ten in my division nationally in all three. Did my training in some other aspects take a backseat to competing-you bet. It is very hard to be a well rounded martial artist, fight or compete at a high level whether it is full contact kick boxing, sport karate, MMA, or some other aspect and train for that level while also trying to focus or continue to develop yourself in other aspects. It was the same also when I fought full contact, American rules kick-boxing prior to that. My training and fighting dominated my time, energy, and attention over other aspects.

There are some people I guess that can't look at a martial artist and appreciate them for what or who they are. If a person is excellent at self-defense but never fought in the ring or competed then I see a person that still has excellent skill and knowledge. It does not have to be the same as mine and often times I even envy that skill and knowledge or try to engage them and learn some of what they already know or can do. At a national tournament while waiting to fight in the night time finals once I saw a demo. It was done by a gentleman out of the Washington DC area who was black, dressed in a gold silk gi and he had developed his own style, Sugar Ray Jujitsu. I thought to myself-oh man this is malarkey. It was tremendous and the aspects that he was showing and doing were very dynamic and outstanding. Several months later Black-belt magazine ran a big article on him and his art and how effective it was and some of the law enforcement groups he had done seminars with. That just goes to show you that you can't judge a book by its cover and that there are some very good martial artists out there. To me it does not matter if they fit the same square or round hole that I fit into.

 

[bunminjutsu]

I have the greatest admiration for sport fighters in the judo/bjj/mma arena because their forte is close quarters combat .TKD is unrealistic and can't stand up to close quarter experts and before you say I don't know TKD you are wrong I belonged to the winningest dojang in the northern US and CANADA and competed and won in their tournaments.My beef ?Anything that couldn't get you a "point" in a tournament was discouraged or outright banned. Self defense? Forget it .