Art Print Appreciation

Uh, well, like it or not, martial arts were developed as “martial” arts, i.e. their main purpose is fighting

Well, Martial arts were developed to be used in fights, it would be like me saying im not a swordsman, i would only use what i know to protect but either way i am swordsman. But i do agree, what happened to be called Martial Artists?

misplaced confidence. I have had many instances where I have had to forcibly correct black belts who tought their belt made them a good fighter.

Confidence and fear are both humbling, But in different ways. Not everyone who practices martial arts fights and not everyone who fights practices martial arts. I’ll tell you that the best fighters you will ever meet are the most humble and least likely to get into a fight, cause there’s nothing to prove when you already know you really can put the beep beeps on someone.

A combination of reasons in my book; you have a lot of active fighters on here, you also have a lot of former fighters on here, you have a lot of want to be fighters on here(not to be confused with wannabes) and then you have your usual range of idiots, kids and people who just like to talk trash and brag about bs that no one can make them back up.
The first person to contact me on here was a younger guy who liked my answers because he could get a sense of my experience in various forms of fighting competition and I was greatly honored by that. I am a martial artist and have been most of my life. Can’t stand the idea of street fighting, but ABSOLUTELY loved the time I spent in competitive fighting and enjoy trying to help up and comer fighters. Now that is just for me personally, but I would say you have a good number of those 2 categories on here. Why wouldn’t some of us who have been there and done that want to try to give some advice and encouragement to the young up and coming guys, I love it and love still being connected to that. I don’t formally teach any more, but still work with several active fighters in several different types of fighting competition.

LOL. XD

Typical yahoo answers martial arts section list;

“how do you kick someone’s @ss?”

“there is this sh*t at my school giving me crap, how do I bash his brains in?”

“would Fedor Emanialenko smack the crap out of Mike Tyson?”

god damn man, the list could go on.

XD

I get kind of sick of those too. I’m not a martial artist; I just have a relatively modest knowledge of the history, theory, etc, as far as applied expertise though, don’t look at me.

still though;

XD.

‘Cause they think that just because we practise a martial art that we are looking for people to kick the @** of… and they have no clue…
They just don’t know…don’t blame it on them, unless they tell you to go bash someone up..then, you blow up at them about how you don’t wanna

Most of the posters on this forum are KIDS “literally”
They tend to ask quite immature questions at times but I guess that is part of the nature of being young and inexperienced.
I was young once too but I think everyone should realize that martial arts can be for your own personal desires. Fighting or a healthy lifestyle or whatever… Most people are more likely to trip and fall during a monday than get in a fight on a monday.
Father time kicks every one’s A– in the end…

I would have to agree with Scott D Omega and Stephen.

I have seen a steady influx of the asinine questions and answer posts over the past year, and have finally been able to get past wanting to straighten out any of these ill-formed thoughts.

Every mature martial artist I’ve known has worked hard at avoiding conflict whenever possible too. It’s the beginners and youngsters that believe toughness through violence is the way to go. This does nothing good for their lives as they mature, and the ego driven world only exacerbates the issue.

I used to point it out often, but have just grown to letting them wallow in their delusions, occasionally dropping a pearl of wisdom to those seeking, as it was done for me in my path to maturity.

Well, I think with the popularity of MMA, it’s a natural misconception for people who are not familiar with the true aspects of martial arts. MMA has brought one aspect of this world into many households; mma figthers are truly fighters, obviously.
Of course as a martial artist, we know it’s more about self-discipline, confidence, humility, self-control, integrity, and the indomitable spirit. But even before mma became popular, I found myself explaining this to people who were truly surprised, but open to learn it.
For me/us, it’s the confidence and avoidance. I would do just about anything, including run away to avoid a physical confrontation. Not because I’m not confident in my skills, but because I can. It would bring me more shame to give in and lose self control than to flee a confrontation. I learned this at a concert a couple of years ago. I didn’t hurt the guy, but I scared him. And though I did avoid as much as I could..looking back on it, there was one more thing that I could have done..not that he didn’t deserve it and not that I wasn’t very well within my ‘rights’..but I could have still done a little more to avoid. That lesson has stayed with me, because it really didn’t feel good to see him go from a* to scared.
I don’t think MMA fighters are any better or worse than the Martial Artists; just different paths. I really try to avoid all of the conflicts between the two.

I think it is all because of that song “Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting”. It really romanced the bad-ass element of martial arts. The song connects Kung-fu (a martial art) with fighting, thereby creating an involuntary association between martial arts and fighting. So, in essence, the average person can’t help but think “fighting” when their mind is presented with “martial arts”. Blame the 80s.