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Do martial arts teach people to be dumb?


Waldo

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I'm thinking of those video's you see, where the teacher is stood and surrounded by his students; the students are then told to attack the teacher, and they do so, but in a very linear, dumb, and prescribed way. One by one, the teacher applies techniques and counters each attacker.

 

I think this kind of thing happens a lot in martial arts, it makes the teacher look good; but, isn't it conditioning the student to be dumb?

 

Or have I mis-understood?

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It's a demo thing- more of a show than anything practical. The actual practical self-defence potenetial of many martial arts clubs are pretty minimal.

 

Bear in mind that you could take a genuinely proficient self defence tutor, but if you surround him/her by 6 attackers who come at him/her in any kind of realistic fashion, they'll not do too well.

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Martial arts are a big topic. Without going into specifics I would just advise that you should be aware of what you want from a martial art.Self defense, fitness, friendships,competition, status etc, and what each one has to offer.( This can take a lot of time in the beginning. Question everything until you are happy with your instructor, training environment and what you are learning. There are so may approaches to essentially the same thing,as long as you enjoy what you do and feel you are learning from your chosen art, then that is a good place to start.

 

Happy training.

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In "Self Defense Land" (like in James Bond films) the attackers are all polite and wait for there turn before attacking their victim, but this does pose a simple question.

 

Lets pretend you are in a gang of 8 people and you are attacking someone, you are the 8th person to go.

 

James Bond/or the Martial Arts expert has just floored 5 baddies in one punch/one move, person number 6 has also just been layed out with one move. Which thug in their right mind is going to take this expert on? if I was person number 8 - I would be thinking about running away, I would not consider getting into a fight with someone who is certain to knock me out cold in less than 5 seconds.

 

Having said that, when at an FE Learning centre last year, self defence classes were taught one day (as a treat for good behavior for the students) and they all enjoyed it, they went through

 

  • dealin with knife attacks
  • punching
  • dealing with a thug armed with a bottle
  • defence against wrist grabs (do thugs grab you by the wrist?)

 

which was great, until one of the more badly behaved students got frustrated and then decided to kick one her fellow students, leaving her victim with a massive bruise on the leg and needing to go to hospital. Ironically, during the self defence class, they had covered "defense tactics against thugs that kick", sadly it failed on this occasion

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I'm thinking of those video's you see, where the teacher is stood and surrounded by his students; the students are then told to attack the teacher, and they do so, but in a very linear, dumb, and prescribed way. One by one, the teacher applies techniques and counters each attacker.

 

I think this kind of thing happens a lot in martial arts, it makes the teacher look good; but, isn't it conditioning the student to be dumb?

 

Or have I mis-understood?

 

This seems to be what Martial Arts were like in the old days?

At AFK, the students are anything BUT dumb. Many are students at university and some have Degrees. In fact, one AFK student passed his A levels with A-A-A-B which is really good.

Also 2 Girls who started training at AFK got their degrees from Cambridge university!!!

 

More importantly, AFK Students train to FIGHT, not to defend against set paces.

 

 

 

The above are Video Clips of AFK Students Battling in the ring against local opposition.

 

come and try it for yourself ;)

 

http://www.sheffieldkickboxingclub.co.uk

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which was great, until one of the more badly behaved students got frustrated and then decided to kick one her fellow students, leaving her victim with a massive bruise on the leg and needing to go to hospital. Ironically, during the self defence class, they had covered "defense tactics against thugs that kick", sadly it failed on this occasion

 

This is kinda related to what I mean. Teaching students to do things in a safe training environment, may lead them in to a false sense of security; where they feel able, yet, are not really equipped to effectively deal with what life throws at them.

 

That's the thing, how do you most effectively train and condition people to effectively deal with adverse circumstances, be that people attacking you, or other bad stuff coming your way in life.

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A good 'straight left' with some weight behind it usually sorts out an attacker. One of those and its 'Goodnight Vienna' .Ask any boxer......

 

Thats why you need to look at the Youtube clips above.

They both show AFK Kickboxers fighting against local opposition. Neither are using "choreographed" or "dumb" techniques.

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