Martial Arts Blog 25AUG14

Continuing on, what is a “real” martial art? I’ve seen 12-year olds awarded Black Belts in

several prominent styles. Indeed, lots of colored belts have been given to young children and adults

alike, all for the sake of commercialism. Can any of these “practitioners” fight a real martial artist

without losing their lives in the wink of an eye?

A real martial art used in lethal combat provides the skilled practitioner with reasonable

odds of surviving a physical life-or-death conflict against a similarly skilled individual where the

loser makes the first mistake.

Where does one find real martial arts? There are far too many places in the world where

people must still fight to survive and some nations allow death matches to be held officially or

secretly. Find a martial art that’s generally successful in lethal combat and you’ll discover that

unnecessary moves are absent along with colored belt ratings. People usually train without

uniforms, mostly in non-commercial settings, and sometimes in secret.

There are fascinating examples of how martial arts can get off track, devolving into dance

moves, but sometimes the true art remains hidden. In the Philippines during the long Spanish

occupation, practicing martial arts was punishable by death. Martial artists hid their amazing arts

within what looked like dances to the untrained observer, keeping Arnis, Kali, Escrima, Largo Mano,

and other treasures developed over many generations alive. While effective, this necessity can lead

to false teaching practices.

It’s lucrative to erect a school and hand out publicly recognized ranks of achievement, such

as colored belts, to elevate the social status of students who are proud to receive an award for

dancing rather than dedicating thousands of hours of hard time enduring the painful, difficult,

frequently injurious training and special diets that develop a real martial artist.

So how can one tell what’s real? Most people trust what their teachers say. Unfortunately,

training hard doesn’t mean you’re learning anything significant. Finding a truly knowledgeable Sifu,

not a dance teacher, who is willing and able to pass on real techniques, is quite difficult.

One can ask three simple questions to determine if a martial art is true: Does it work only

against itself and not against other styles? Is combat over in seconds? And, is death the most

common result? If not, it’s probably a sport.

Next we’ll identify some real martial arts, explain myths such as blocking, and sift through

layers of sand to reveal some hidden techniques.