Kung Fu Panda and the ATA

[Flying Crane]

...but hey, more mainstream exposure to the martial arts is never a bad thing...

I cannot agree with this statement. I often find myself wishing the martial arts were still rather obscure and less well known. Of course I also realize that my own opportunities to train would probably have been severely limited or even non-existant without some level of mainstream exposure. But still, I find that often mainstream exposure is to the detriment of the martial arts. In my opinion, anyway.

 

[bowser666]

I cannot agree with this statement. I often find myself wishing the martial arts were still rather obscure and less well known. Of course I also realize that my own opportunities to train would probably have been severely limited or even non-existent without some level of mainstream exposure. But still, I find that often mainstream exposure is to the detriment of the martial arts. In my opinion, anyway.

I also agree that it used to be obscure and times are changing though, and the Arts are slowly dying, and it is up to us as MA practitioners to spread the word and keep the teachings alive, and pass them on.

It is a sad truth that the more mainstream a art becomes , it becomes diluted and loses its traditional aspects. TKD is a big example of that in my opinion. It has gone far astray from its traditions and is regarded by most as a sport. As far as mainstream exposure, let MMA fall to that particular sword IMO. People are soaking it up right now and who knows , maybe it will give exposure to other MA. On second though , now that I think about it, it will only give exposure to Muay Thai and BJJ, because that is what every cookie cutter MMA fighter has in their reportoire these days. I'm sorry to say. Only one that I have seen that I can recall is Cung Le and he does San Shou. Sorry if I seem overly opinionated,as you can probably guess I am not a big fan of MMA.

 

[Dave Leverich]

On the MMA tangent, I don't think it's having a negative impact on traditional martial arts at all.

Look at the top MMA fighters for examples of excellence in a particular art; Couture - phenom greco-roman wrestling, Mashida - amazing shotokan (and bjj, we just never see it), GSP - amazing wrestling/amazing kyokushin, the list goes on and on.

I do agree that _most_ MMA fighters seem to have the same bag of tricks, but the ones that stand out are exceptional in their original art first.

 

[Balrog]

The movie was great, the kids and I saw it today!

The ATA is capitalizing on this movie. At the theater they were there in all their colorful glory, one kid even had his XMA ninja suit on.

I guess they want to make more 5 and 6 yr old blackbelts for all of us to look up to. They are a major reason why blackbelts mean absolutely nothing anymore.

They have one form that goes something like "hickory dickery block, the backfist goes up top, the punch down low, the roundkick high, hickory dickory block." Oh brother.......

I'm all for kids having something they can do and be proud of,but why do we have to make a mockery of serious martial artists to do so?

I'm just venting. :snipe2:

I'm not too hot on the Spaceman Spiff suits and the amount of time wasted doing XMA. However, let's be realistic. What did any parent watching that demo see? Discipline, courtesy, respect - all the things they want their kids to learn. Whether you're wearing sweats, whites or the SpiffSuit, those are what shine through.

 

[chinto]

The movie was great, the kids and I saw it today!

The ATA is capitalizing on this movie. At the theater they were there in all their colorful glory, one kid even had his XMA ninja suit on.

I guess they want to make more 5 and 6 yr old blackbelts for all of us to look up to. They are a major reason why blackbelts mean absolutely nothing anymore.

They have one form that goes something like "hickory dickery block, the backfist goes up top, the punch down low, the roundkick high, hickory dickory block." Oh brother.......

I'm all for kids having something they can do and be proud of,but why do we have to make a mockery of serious martial artists to do so?

I'm just venting. :snipe2:

I saw the movie and liked it.. it was fun.. but ya i didn't see any of the XMA ninja suits or even gi's there. but I am not surprised that in some of the bigger city arias you do... as to the idiotic thing of giving 11 and 12 year olds Black belts is ridiculous! let alone some kid 5 and 6.. and ya not long ago in my town one of the TKD types gave a shodan to a kid 6!!!! insanity!!