Martial arts exhibitions nothing more than dancing routines and gymnastics?

come on!... have you seen those?


why do they even call them "martial arts" exhibitions?


don't get me wrong, i think they can fight; but those contests are a joke!


what they need it to put some gloves and get on and a ring and fight it out! for christ sake thats what martial arts is all about! self defense!


like mma. not doing flip flops and dance routines! thats a joke to all who really train to fight.





ohh and the combats they have are a joke too!


it seems they are cardio dancers with so much protection as if they where training wild lions! come on!





anybody think like me?

Martial arts exhibitions nothing more than dancing routines and gymnastics?
I have to disagree with Opinionatedkitten. What we are wittnessing is not Martial Arts. It is gymnastics with kicks and punches thrown about. Next time really watch the small stuff. You will see on half the moves they have their eyes closed, which is a beginers mistake. Also watch for the attitudes. If you have ever seen them at tournements you know what I am saying. I would also really love to see them do one of the fancy flipping kicks in a crowded resteraunt or on a slippery sidewalk.


How do you do extreme martial arts weapons? Get a featherweight weapon that wouldn't harm a girl scout, flail about with it in the most unrealistic manner possible, while keeping your eyes closed and making a face like you are constipated, and yelling like a bee is in your gi pants. Sorry but it is true.


If that is what they want to do it is fine. They are very showy, in excellent shape, and do train what they do hard, I just think it shouldn't be called Martial Arts,. How about Martial Gymnastics?
Reply:right you are ..
Reply:Any martial artist would agree with you on this, but the general population do not study martial arts and only really wish to see flashy, flux, and beautiful 'fighting'.





They want to see flips, and they're the ones who are paying in the end.
Reply:I agree. I am so grateful that my Sensei was a Chicago cop and taught us how to use our skills in a street fight situation! We never went to a single tournament. We neither used high kicks nor 'flair' techniques. It was strictly based on efficiency and often was damaging and possibly fatal to an opponent. If people want to dance they should join a ballet club, if they want to get in shape they should hit the weights and jog/swim or something. If they want to defend themselves then they should learn a martial art. I wasn't taught to blend fighting with dancing or 'kicking my way to perfect abs' and am thankful that I learned to strictly kick ***!
Reply:They're doing things which would impress the average person.Remember that martial arts movies are why most people get into fighting in the first place. Who doesn't want to try those things?





Once you know what martial arts is all about is when you can finally appreaciate the real matches.
Reply:You don't seem to understand martial arts at all. Martial arts don't exist for your entertainment.





Big Foot's video does support your point though. Whatever he's doing seems geared toward providing entertainment.
Reply:I know what you mean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJDgWM5-9...
Reply:agreed entirely
Reply:Martial arts exhibition are about displaying the art of martial arts and showing what these people can do in ideal conditions.





I don't know why people like you seem to think everything that is not fighting is completely worthless. If everyone just did nothing but fight, fight, fight, their technique would have improved only slightly since grade school. The time away from fighting is the time you can spend learning. Something I suspect you don't do much of. What? Are you trying to tell me you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is go down to the ring for a fight, and then you fight all day? There's more to life, and there's more to martial arts as well.





Have a good day.
Reply:I agree with you but I like the flips.
Reply:These events are for armature martial artist. Not everyone can nor do they wish to get the crap beat out of them. This format allows competition and you can go back to your nine to five job and function there.


Do not get me wrong I know what a get down and dirty fight is. Not everyone is in it for the same reasons.





I always tell my students because they can spar well does not mean the can hold their own in a street brawl, however if you can't spar you cant fight well either.


As for the "fancy dance" that brings in the continuing arguments about kata. That is a separate question.
Reply:hahaha so true, im a martial artist lol.


those dance things at exhibitions are just to show off the martial arts they are just patterns to show the style off. it is from along time ago where different styles created forms and stuff to make it fancy so that they can gain more recruits however these forms were done so that rival styles didn't know how use the techniques.





in other words those dances and jumps actually have practical uses hidden within them.





this is true as some martial arts dont actually teach the true use of them anymore. how ever at least mine it does teach u the true more effective and less fancy use of the moves.





yeah i admit those flips and stuff are pretty useless but those armour stuff is due to rules lol stupid ay. lol o well in competitions anyway for me we do full contact sparring no protection no gloves sometimes.
Reply:Yep - all dance routines - but then again - what is a Kata ? Claude Van Dam was a dancer that had never done any martial arts in his life. Says it all really.
Reply:These demos go waaaaaay back to martial arts begginings but the purpose was better understood.It wasn't to amuse or amaze spectators and in fact were rarely done in public.They were about attaining absolute control of the body by pushing the limits of what the student thought possible.


They were never presented as fighting technique and any good instructor will define technique as "this is for demo only and this is for kicking ***"


Neither is fighting in a ring with rules very realistic and one of the main reasons bad *** we spar all the time with contact types still get their *** kicked in real fights.
Reply:Good points....


I have to somewhat agree with you. I've done capoeira and gymnastics. When I was in gymnastics, practically all the moves I learned my gymnastics teacher could teach me. She said almost all of those performing arts moves are the same things she teaches her dance and gymnastics students only difference is for martial arts performance you "flare" out more showing more of the motion,like for kicks, while in gymnastics and dance you tend not to.





This is why back in the day of the original power rangers days(when you actually had to have experience in something) you either needed a background in martial arts, gymnastics, OR dance. I believe the black ranger had background in dance and the blue and pink in gymnastics leaving the red, yellow, and green the only ones with actual martial arts background.





But as far as a "joke". Hey whatever floats you boat, everybody has there own opinion. I personally like both performing and combative competing. Some people might like one or another.





Even if you put on gloves and fight it out there are still controversy within that.


Point fighting vs full contact


Full contact(one style) vs MMA


MMA(with certain rules like the UFC now; no kicking a downed opponent) vs MMA(with different rules like pride: you can kick a downed opponent but no elbows) vs old school UFC(no gloves, weight classes, etc..) vs true no holds barred anything goes street fighting





You are right though martial arts is about fighting actual self defense, it is literally the art of war.





But once again I'll tell you the controversy in the martial arts world. Some people would argue that fighting in the ring still is limited compared real world self defense. You go into the ring yeah you may get beaten up(badly) but you don't expect to get killed, there are refs, doctors, no weapon, it's still a pretty controlled environment. This is why the Spartans boycotted the pankration events at the Olympics because it still had rules; this is why Bruce Lee(was for full contact sparring) but wasn't too in favor of combative sports competition; and the military instructor on the Human Weapon's episode of the Marine Corps Martial Arts said you put me in the ring with Randy Couture he'll beat me; but put us on the streets and I'll kill him.





My opinion is that yeah in ring fighting is still pretty different than real life self defense, but it[MMA] is pretty much as close as you are going to get. And of course the fighting another resisting opponent its going to realistically fine tune your skills. And it's definitely going to better prepare you for real life self defense than flipping around all over the place. But that might be why some people are doing it for the performance, come on you know you watch Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and Tony Jaa movies. :P





I think as long as you don't confuse performing with actual fighting you are good to go.





LOL that just reminded me of that new MMA movie about to come out, Never Back Down.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmDzyS6LR...


@25sec into the video that guy tried a backflip like move in an MMA match and the other guy waited for him to land, and laid him out.
Reply:no, most competitions have sections, form/katas(as you say dance), and sparring, what are wrong with katas? u are right, MA is about self defense but you choose a horrible example, MMA isnt self defense its a couple guys using there myriad of MA skills in a ring
Reply:Yeah I agree.





I saw a video of some little asian guy trying to dry hump Brock Lesnar into submission while Brock pounded his head in.





Martial arts is gay.

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