Martial art arrogance

Hmmmm im posting this just to see if you guys think im out of line with this belife

Recently I attended my old Taekwondo class with the intention of meeting up with some old friends and contraulateing my old instructor on his new baby girl, well I ended up on the floor in uniform and I was put to the tasks of Helping a Red belt who was going for his black in knife counters

now since quitting taekwondo after being badly hurt when I attempted to use it in a real life situation (I was mugged on a train) I quit it and joined a Modern combat art which covered the techs street fighters use and I found the system was devestateing in real life

now this redbelt was a excelent kicker to his credit, but thats all he could do and it was like he never held a knife in his life, his stance against a knife was just begging more me to shiv him in the belly and the counters he had been taught were too complex, took way too long, and if I had held a real blade it would have severed his radial atrey in the process


now I am low ranked in my current system, I shunted him in the back when he went for back kicks, tapped him in the hip of his kicking leg when he kicked at me, and I smothered the tradisional punches he through, which were ridged and I could see them comming,

I didnt intent to but I took him to the ground disarmed him and cut under his armpit then cut his throat (plastic blade people, a kids toy knife not even a full weight wooden) rolled out of it and left him pretty scared, now my ex instructor gave me a hell of a serve and was very arrogant in general, I stoped going after that for good

other systems ive tried have been My way or the highway as well and seem to refuse to take on any modern praticality for todays world, they call themselves martial arts but the more real life experiance I get they seem more like sports then a combat system

can you guys plese enlighten me as to why my veiws on this have changed so dramaticly?

thanks

Val

Martial Arts arrogance---Tae Kwon Do---surely not.

Personally, I don't think TKD and self protection mix at all well. Best off out of it mate.

Valoren,
nice to hear this. this will be quick/cryptic because i'm at work. i used to fare okay as a (late) teen. i sort figured out things for my physical build. then i formally joined tae kwon do, and it contributed heavily (along with
alcohol) to getting a beating. the old me may still have lost the fight, i'll never know, but i was relying too heavily on my new knowledge base. it was one of the few fights i ever lost like that. it changed my views on tae kwon do. a similar thing happened in karate. early on i sparred one of the black belts (as a brown belt) because the system was really traditional and only let me free-style at this level. i was doing fine (an equal exchange) because i had sort of gone back to my older fast jab, low kick style. then came the correction. 'you can't fight like that!' and then the posture constraints. i had to go backwards again to go forwards. once i was doing okay with this system, i was able to analyze everything that happened...and move on. i know only practice simple effective techniques, work with like minded people, etc...
-rus

The "my way or the highway" syndrome doesn't just apply to traditional martial arts. It's just the fact that certain instructors' egos can't handle the fact that someone else using different techniques or skills can defeat the stuff that they are teaching. This could also potentially hurt their business if it occurs too often in class.

I try seperate the two disciplines completely. I take the view that what someone needs for a grading in a martial arts is exactly that - a sport or art skill to pass a test. For example, a Kata or Set is a bunch of learned moves of a certain complexity to pass a test. You're not going to get jumped in the street and burst into Kata!

If I keep them seperate then I have no mental issue to tell an instructor "that pants". I learn what I need to learn and pass the test.

Just my view. Hope it's of interest.

It's an interesting topic.

There are well known self protection specialists who spend many years studying traditional arts, find they don't work in real life, develop their own system, then pass it on to martial arts virgins.

The difficulty is, how much does their experience and background in traditional arts aid their new modern system? Is it easier to learn from people like, Richie, Bob, Geoff Thompson, Peter Constandine, Dave Turton, et al if you have a decent amount of kickboxing, karate, TKD, JKD, boxing...etc? Is it difficult or even impossible to get students to a high level of self protection ability without first giving them the core skills martial arts provide? Obviously there are some guys who are just fighters and can do the job with little or no formal training. However, they're rarely the people you're teaching.

I run a club and I've discussed this subject briefly with Richie. I realised through trial and error that if we concentrate purely on RBSD, training in street clothes, with no grading system and no base martial art, we very soon became half a dozen blokes or less having a tear up in a village hall once a week. Good fun, but not sustainable long term.

However, By having a kickboxing base, teaching a mixture of RBSD and gradable(?) kickboxing syllabus, we have 15 - 20 regular students in a decent sports hall, with the club running in surplus, allowing funds to build up to buy equipment and subsidise seminars with guys like Richie.

Me and my guvnor don't take any money from the club, but we have to be solvent to keep training and keep providing good equipment and direction for the students.

All that being said, we also believe it's necessary for the base art to be relevant. We're kickboxing as a way of learning / drilling the basic hard tools. There's no point in doing the spinning this, turning that and jumping the other. If someone wants to dedicate years of their lives to learning that sort of stuff, good luck to them. I just wish they'd stop trying to convince people that it's self defence.

What's the old joke?
"How do you beat up a Tae Kwon Do black belt?"
"Attack him in a phone box."

Hahahaha! Ill remember that one. but yeah. my one saveing grace (im not as fit as I used to be which I have no excuse for) is that I remember the basics and stay away from tradisional veiws, I used techniques that im comfortable with and that work for me. served me well so far

Ive been in various martial art systems for 4 years. never stayed with any one long enough to get a high rank. but im gonna continue with CQC
My Instuctors good. I learn from him well

But yeah im the first to admit im a martial arts newbie. you guys seem very knowlagble and you seem to realise that fighting is a much more life or death thing then what most people give it credit for. I joined a system like Budo Jitsu because I litteraly had my ribs caved in on a train, which left me with a hell of mental scars as well as a lot of pysical damage

im over it. but it did change my view on fights as being a thing which happened between "Gentlemen" or two lads at footy