Drag'n
Green Belt
Mike,
I hear you mate. Of course I'm making generalizations too.
But they are generalizations based on years of training in and visiting various dojos and watching loads of martial art demonstrations.
The sad fact is that its hard to find a good dojo these days.
There are soo many people out there teaching fighting skills who have never experienced any kind of fight. It shows in their training methods.
They pass on this distorted perception of combat to unknowing students, who may not realize till its too late, that they really couldn't fight their way out of a retirement home with the skills they've been spoon fed.
It may sound like I'm having a dig at TMA but I'm not really. I think TMA can be very effective when taught properly. Its just that I dont see them being taught properly very often.
The point I'm poorly attempting to make is that I think its good to question what we're being taught. Dont just blindly accept every thing. Make the effort to test what you know under pressure and just be honest with yourself.
If you are being taught to throw a long combination of techniques at a partner who is just standing there frozen, maybe you need to think a little bit about just how realistic that is.
I understand SLs anguish because I felt exactly the same way.
The exasperation of comming to the realization that you've wasted years doing something that you thought was effective, only to find that in reality it just doesnt translate into good fighting skills.
Its a hard pill to swallow.
Im under the impression that 'those of us in good dojos seem to be the lucky exception rather than the norm.
It took me a long time to find one.
I hear you mate. Of course I'm making generalizations too.
But they are generalizations based on years of training in and visiting various dojos and watching loads of martial art demonstrations.
The sad fact is that its hard to find a good dojo these days.
There are soo many people out there teaching fighting skills who have never experienced any kind of fight. It shows in their training methods.
They pass on this distorted perception of combat to unknowing students, who may not realize till its too late, that they really couldn't fight their way out of a retirement home with the skills they've been spoon fed.
It may sound like I'm having a dig at TMA but I'm not really. I think TMA can be very effective when taught properly. Its just that I dont see them being taught properly very often.
The point I'm poorly attempting to make is that I think its good to question what we're being taught. Dont just blindly accept every thing. Make the effort to test what you know under pressure and just be honest with yourself.
If you are being taught to throw a long combination of techniques at a partner who is just standing there frozen, maybe you need to think a little bit about just how realistic that is.
I understand SLs anguish because I felt exactly the same way.
The exasperation of comming to the realization that you've wasted years doing something that you thought was effective, only to find that in reality it just doesnt translate into good fighting skills.
Its a hard pill to swallow.
Im under the impression that 'those of us in good dojos seem to be the lucky exception rather than the norm.
It took me a long time to find one.