Thursday, February 24, 2011
'Beliefs' in the martial arts
Matters of 'faith' seem to permeate just about everything in our society. Rather than start bashing Christianity or Islam for my first blog attempt, I would rather bring to light something that is very similar. As a person that is always in search of knowledge and truth when it comes to matters of science, I share the same 'belief' when it comes to knowledge and truth in the martial arts. If someone tells me they are a master baker, I naturally assume they can bake a cake. If someone tells me they are a physicist, I naturally assume they could intuitively demonstrate there knowledge of basic Newtonian mechanics. If someone tells me they are a martial arts master, naturally they should be able to, crudely put, whoop someones @ss. Right? However just as there are many scientists, there are also 'pseudoscientists'. It's the same in martial arts. In the scientific world, they have what is called 'peer review', which is a process where if someone makes a scientific claim, others in the scientific community will try their hardest to verify if the claim is true or not. Well, in the martial arts community, we also have a 'peer review', which entails putting on gloves, headgear and a mouthguard, and then backing up your claim or exposing someone else's claim as falsifiable. Yet there exist many claims that have yet to be backed up by physical evidence and reasoned logic. They have not proved themselves or their claims through our 'peer review'. Yet they have many followers who pay good money for their superstitious nonsense. Sound familiar?
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You are officially Jon the baptist. And I am your first folllower! Do I get a prize???? :) In regards to you being a pearlist... Is it poo poo pearls you are refering to? I look forward to heckling you. Love you.
ReplyDeleteMan, getting a blog post from your wife is the next step below getting a sticker on the fridge! ;)
ReplyDeleteGood point about martial arts and the claims people make. The proof is in the pudding, as it were. I look forward to more rants of reason :)
Haha. 'Rants of Reason'. Love it!
ReplyDeleteI would like to point out that not everyone enjoys sparring or competition, and therefore they don't do it, and also someone can be a fantastic instructor without being a very good fighter or competitor. For example, I can teach someone how to perform any of the Judo throws that I know and I can teach them how to perform the throws on moving, resisting opponents, but I am so horrible in competition that I cannot beat someone with a year of training. I will admit, however, that I am much better at kumite than I am at randori--karate is my first martial arts love.
ReplyDeleteThnx 4 ur comment. I am thinking that 'sparring' is not the proper word for the idea I was meaning to convey. I think more appropriately may be the expression I would rather would be maybe, 'pressure test', maybe. Most styles have this. Some I think may be more productive than others. It's how Muay Thai, Aikido, Wing Chun etc. 'test' their techniques.
ReplyDeleteSome styles don't properly test there techniques in controlled environments. Many times their student can be hypnotized to 'act' a certain way.
Also, I do not have to spar or train in Ilustrisimo sword techniques to understand that what they are doing is reasonable and will definitely give a person skills. Just like, I don't have to understand Quantum Mechanics to know that this method of understanding reality, has been scrutinized and reviewed to be reasonable.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to do EVERYTHING to know when some technique, methodology or style can produce legitimate self defense skills.