Perhaps no other recreational activity has so many rumors, myths and outright misinformation surrounding it as does the Martial Arts.
Whether it is from “haters” who are jealous of the accomplishments of martial artists, or just a result of misinformation, a simple Google Search will show conflicting opinions on just about any aspect of the martial arts.
Here, I hope to clear up three often repeated myths about the Martial Arts. As I said, these are far from the only three; if response is good, I may revisit this later.
Martial arts are outdated and have no use today
Utter nonsense. Granted, not many people will encounter a drawn sword in a street fight, but then again, how many people actually encounter streetfights?
For all the talk about “Mixed Martial Arts”, all the Mixed Martial Arts instructors are teaching is just the same skills taught in traditional martial arts (punching, kicking and grappling), repackaged and super-sized for the multi-media generation.
A punch is a punch. In other words, the basic techniques of fighting have not changed in millenia. The idea is still, just like it always has been, to inflict maximum damage to your opponent while receiving minimum harm to yourself. That was the goal in 15th century China, and it is the goal on the back alleys of 21st century urban Detroit. Principles do not change; that is why they are called principles.
Martial Arts is a Chinese/ Japanese thing
Actually, the earliest structured martial artists we know about are the ancient Greeks, who had regular organized wrestling matches with written rules, a point strategy and organized techniques as early as 704 BC, making it perhaps the first truly organized, teachable fighting method. In fact, the name “Martial Arts” is named for Mars, the Greek god of war.
Every region of the planet has contributed a martial art to the mix, whether it is Savate from France, Boxing from Europe, Gung-Fu from China, Wrestling from Greece or Capoeira from Brazil, all are legitimate Martial Arts, all developed pretty much independently of each other. Only in the 20th century with the rise of Karate did we begin to see one art heavily borrowing from another.
The reason the Martial arts are associated primarily with the Asian countries is the popularity of B-grade martial arts movies, in which the hero either is an Asian Shaolin master, or a white guy who studied in a forbidden fighting at under a Shaolin master. In other words, it is the mystique associated with the Asian culture that gives westerners so much curiosity about the Asian martial arts.
My style (whatever it is) is superior to your style
With the commercialization of the Martial Arts in the 20th century and the rise of the storefront martial arts school, the fight for students was on and instructors quickly found out that lofty and noble principles were not as effective at recruiting students as was telling them that the instructor’s style was vastly superior to whatever the alternative was that was being considered.
Then, after the students began training, instructors had to keep them motivated (and paying monthly fees), so they had to reinforce the superiority of their style, practically telling the students that if they studied any other style and were caught in a fight, they were doomed to certain failure. Then, in the late 20th century, with the rise of the information age, we saw the age of the “instant expert”, who could publish books cheaply and easily and sell information to the gullible and easily impressed. Again, the way you do this is to create fear that they do not have the best information, and that (for a nominal fee) you will be happy to show them the true path.
The cold hard truth is that knowledge of any style is better than knowledge of no style. A trained Judo fighter is much better off in a fight than an untrained street fighter, and a trained boxer is in an infinitely better situation in a “real fight” than an untrained couch potato. When you are faced with having to fight, the best style to know is… the one you know.
Like I said, there are any number of martial art myths out there; these just scratch the surface. If you have a favorite Martial art myth, share it in the comments!