Symmetrical vs. Asymmetrical Martial Arts

[skribs]

You linked sport to symmetric and street to asymmetric in your next paragraph.

Maybe I didn't make it as clear in my OP as I thought I did, because @gpseymour and @Tony Dismukes both read it the same way you did. Let me try and rephrase it:

There are drills, and there are arts. Symmetric arts will use symmetric and asymmetric drills. Asymmetric arts will also use both, but probably lean more heavily towards asymmetric drills.

It's also not a perfect definition, just like any attempt to categorize all martial arts isn't going to be a perfect definition. The Taekwondo we do at my school, we have some things that are solo or performance-based, some things that are symmetrical, some things that are asymmetrical, in their end goal. We have self-defense training, which is asymmetrical in nature. We have sparring, which we go to tournaments, which has a symmetrical goal.

My goal of this post isn't to tell everyone how to think about arts. It's to provide another way of looking at what you train, from a different perspective. Sometimes that different perspective gives you new insight, sometimes that new perspective is completely useless.

At the very least, it gave me a different way of thinking about things, so I'm happy with it.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Certainly

Okay, in that case, I think I agree with all the comments in that part of the thread (without going back and looking at them). I was initially reading them with a different definition of "sport" (as in organized sports).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I would go one step further and say being able to wrestle well would help more for knife defense than any number of seminar certified 'self defense' (tm) techniques you could learn from any TMA.

I certainly learned my fair share of them in my time training WC. I like being alive to much to ever use them.

And even better if you add a training knife and work with the wrestling moves to find out which ones work best in that scenario. Which is really what scenario training is about.

Replace "wrestling" with any other art, and the outcome can be much the same (you find out what in that art works best in that scenario).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Which you would only know by creating a sport that involves someone trying to shank you and you trying to stop them.

Because then a good wrestler may just flip you on your head and then you can say that is good knife defence.

That's why I liked that definition of "sport". I'd usually call that scenario training, but it's the same thing by any name. You take a situation and create a game/sport to work on it.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Wait. So boxing, kickboxing and MMA are not sport fighting if you don't have any matches behind you?

That's the way I'd normally use "sport". In my mind (and perhaps not in most) it refers to organized sports with formal competitions. So I'll often refer to "sport-oriented" training, because someone could go to a boxing gym and train for boxing by boxing rules, etc., without ever competing in a formal match.

But I like the definition you and DB are using here. It simplifies the discussion.

 

[skribs]

That's the way I'd normally use "sport". In my mind (and perhaps not in most) it refers to organized sports with formal competitions. So I'll often refer to "sport-oriented" training, because someone could go to a boxing gym and train for boxing by boxing rules, etc., without ever competing in a formal match.

But I like the definition you and DB are using here. It simplifies the discussion.

I'd still like to complicate the discussion and separate "sport" from "game".

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Maybe I didn't make it as clear in my OP as I thought I did, because @gpseymour and @Tony Dismukes both read it the same way you did. Let me try and rephrase it:

There are drills, and there are arts. Symmetric arts will use symmetric and asymmetric drills. Asymmetric arts will also use both, but probably lean more heavily towards asymmetric drills.

It's also not a perfect definition, just like any attempt to categorize all martial arts isn't going to be a perfect definition. The Taekwondo we do at my school, we have some things that are solo or performance-based, some things that are symmetrical, some things that are asymmetrical, in their end goal. We have self-defense training, which is asymmetrical in nature. We have sparring, which we go to tournaments, which has a symmetrical goal.

My goal of this post isn't to tell everyone how to think about arts. It's to provide another way of looking at what you train, from a different perspective. Sometimes that different perspective gives you new insight, sometimes that new perspective is completely useless.

At the very least, it gave me a different way of thinking about things, so I'm happy with it.

I think this is clearer than your OP.