Glossary of Street Fighting - Traditional Martial Arts - What Is It?

Glossary of Street Fighting – Traditional Martial Arts – What Is It?

by admin on Jul.14, 2009, under Street Fighting Glossary

TigerStanceWP

Are you studying Chinese Kung Fu, Korean Taekwondo or Japanese Shotokan Karate? Then you are studying:

• Traditional Martial Art – the 1st of the three categories of martial arts. Here I am in a kung fu Tiger fighting stance during my traditional kung fu study of the past. I have long since left the traditional martial art arena. What about you?

Are you cross-training in a combination of traditional martial arts techniques with an emphasis on Brazilian jiu jutsu to prepare yourself for a Mixed Martial Arts cage match? Or, are you possibly sparring everyday in the dojo for an upcoming Karate tournament? Then you are studying:

• Sports Competition Martial Art – the 2nd of the three categories of martial arts.

Are you training with an instructor who has a background in one of the traditional martial arts, but also has worked as or has had real-world combat and street experience as a bouncer, bodyguard or special forces military personnel and your entire training takes place in as little as 2 or 3 days of an 8-hour a day intensive scenario-based fighting simulating real-world modern situations, then you are studying:

• Reality Based Self Defense – the 3rd of the three categories of martial arts. Reality Based Self Defense is also known as Reality Based Fighting or RBF.

This post is Part 1 of the 3 modules. We will look at the defining characteristics of category number 1 of fighting.

Traditional Martial Arts Instruction

These are the typical types of fighting systems that have gotten stuck in a time warp of the past. The tradition of what was learned, taught or practiced 500 years ago takes precedence over the immediate practical applicability to modern 21st century urban situations. (In traditional martial art instruction, you are still asked to dress in ancient Asian garb and walk around in bare feet.) There is absolutely nothing wrong with this and studying a martial art with all of its countless techniques, forms, katas and history is a choice like anything else. I am only being descriptive here.

All Art In Its Truest Since Is A Life Long Study

Traditional Martial Art focuses on perfection as does all art. The perfection of an art indeed should be a life-long study and experience – BUT – and this is a big BUT, learning an art that involves fighting moves, should not be confused with learning real-world self-protection. Parenthetically, I can imagine that 500 years ago, the traditional martial arts systems that we know today were reality-based, but they were the reality based on the society and the situations that happened at that time. (I have never seen a kata to handle a carjacking.)

Traditional Martial Art Teaches You Countless Techniques And Thus Increases The Likelihood That You Will Become Confused When Faced With A Real-Life Encounter

The more techniques you learn and the multitude of things that you stuff in your head will only serve to confuse you when you are face-to-face with someone who has much more street smarts and is much more used to real street violence than you are.

You take your average martial arts black belt guy and put him to bounce at the door of a club, and most will fail miserably – because even if you have a black belt – you MUST have a reality-based mindset.

So, study your martial art for its beauty, its grace and its tradition, and not to say anything about how it will also aid you to get in better physical condition, but please, look and what you are studying and honestly evaluate if you truly believe that you are being trained to be combat ready in the real world of the 21st century – because nobody really cares what color belt you have in a real street fight. It is all about the last man standing.

What is your take on traditional martial art? Do you see it as highly effective and practical for the streets?

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1 comment for this entry:

Nicholas K.
December 2nd, 2009 on 7:36 am
“These are the typical types of fighting systems that have gotten stuck in a time warp of the past. The tradition of what was learned, taught or practiced 500 years ago takes precedence over the immediate practical applicability to modern 21st century urban situations.”

Not true. This is the exact reason why kata was invented. Kata is a compilation of movements without any set application. This is because people in the future would need to adapt their art to fit the needs of their current time. I’ve said this before and you can use the same movements found in kata some hundreds of years ago and apply them to attacks people make today. The problem only lies wherein people learn the kata but don’t practice the techniques within it because sport fighting takes a higher priority in most dojos. In fact, I know someone who works in the military field and almost all of the techniques in their hand-to-hand course is found in various kata. Yet they are still being used today (which actually caused some concern to military parents because their children were learning the same techniques they learned in the military).

“(I have never seen a kata to handle a carjacking.)”

Funny, there’s no technique to handle a situation only techniques to handle what happens within a situation and kata does have techniques to be used in confined spaces even while sitting. In fact, Japanese martial arts is one of the only martial arts that teach self-defense from a sitting position (because samurai had to defend themselves at all times with or without weapons and they are most vulnerable while sitting on the toilet).

“Traditional Martial Art Teaches You Countless Techniques And Thus Increases The Likelihood That You Will Become Confused When Faced With A Real-Life Encounter”

Not true. The great thing about TMA is that you don’t learn specific techniques for specific situations. You learn the mechanics and principle behind the technique so that you can apply that to situations even if you don’t use a clean technique when the time comes and you just use the principle.

“when you are face-to-face with someone who has much more street smarts and is much more used to real street violence than you are.”

You are assuming that karate-ka aren’t used to street violence which is ignorant. For instance, I practice karate but I used to street fight all the time at one point in my life.

“…you MUST have a reality-based mindset.”

Some dojos (some just focus on sport fighting) do teach that mindset. In fact in our dojo we practice what is known as the wall drill. Basically one person has their back up to a wall and two attackers attack him simultaneously with full speed. The defender has to use everything at his disposal and fight like his life depends on it in order to escape. It is very rough and people bleed and get hurt.

Traditional martial arts (and I stress traditional) is made for self-defense and isn’t limited by the date. In fact, the techniques are continued to be taught everywhere I look even in “modern” teachings. (I quoted modern because a punch, kick, knee, elbow, or finger jab never becomes outdated and all techniques have already been around for hundreds of years so there really is no modern fighting techniques).