Xtreme Martial Arts

I suppose if you look at it as pure entertainment it's okay. It's when you "pretty" things up, add gymnastics, fancy uniforms, and cool weapons, but still want to be called a serious martial artist that I have a problem. These guys have about as much to do with actual martial arts as WWE has to do with actual wrestling.
 
This is about commodifying the martial arts--about turning everything into something sellable and marketing it. The question is, will it leave anything intact in "real," arts?

It's been going on for quite a while, of course, back into pre-modern China; as you can see in lots of Jackie Chan films, there were lots of wu shu demos done in marketplaces to make a few bucks so people could eat.

It's inherent, too, in contemporary tournaments, which have their full share and a few scoops more of fake ki-ais, taps-that-score in point sparring, screeching parents, sloppy judges, more-or-less famous people awarded trophies for lousy forms and crappy self-defense routines because they're--well, mildly-famous, and kata rewritten to, "improve," their showmanship.

It's capitalism, Jake. What do you expect?
 
Heh, I remember liking Gymkata at the time.

Well, as long as TV entertainment is crap, it might as well be crap about the martial arts, I say.
 
The Xtreme Martial Arts show was on again last night. Did anyone else catch the show about martial arts before that?

I couldn't help but shake my head in disgust at the "Combat Ki" school, or seminar, or whatever. I didn't see them have one technique that had someone DEFENDING against getting hit, but rather they were standing there, getting ready, then hissing like a moron while getting hit in the throat. The saddest part was how many people were there.

The section on Ninjutsu (I'm pretty sure I spelled this wrong, sorry to any Ninjutsu practicioners) was better, and interesting from a historical perspective. Overall the teacher demonstrated much more skill.

The final section on Aikido was good from a perspective of looking at the ART. But the instructor was an @$$hole! I would NEVER go to a school that resembled that teaching method. The way he treated his students by making them kneel so much and so often was obviously a superiority thing. Then not letting them stretch in the middle of class (Why are you stretching? I didn't say back stretch? Why are you stretching???)... That just didn't make any sense at all. The thing that really topped it all off was that he built the whole dojo per 16th century Samurai HOUSE standards, and then was making his students clean all of it, the kitchen and all. The funny part is that this neurotic, controlling teacher was termed a 'Zen master' at the beginning of the segment. I was unimpressed.
 
Sorry if I accidnetly psoted twice with nothing on it, I pressed enter to many times but anyway the Xtreme MA is on today on Discovery Channel from 4-5(centeral I believe) so figure out which part of the U.S. you are in and go from there. But anyway I thought I would let the Martial arts community know.
 
I apologzie it is on at 3:00 centeral, once again I'm sorry about that.
 
I think we all learned a lot of important lessons from Xtreme Martial Arts
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. At the end, the guy they were following basically gave up and decided that at his ripe old age (twenty something?) it was time to pass on the torch (i.e. vicariously live through his student). I think that is a terribly example for adult martial artists, perhaps even worse than the narcisim and ridiculously unrealisitic notions of fighting because at least the latter keep people active and involved in a meaningful way.
 
i really dont like them, ever since I read the article in Black Belt Magazine about them talking about how its a great system, theyre just a bunch of gymnasts that occasionally kick
 
MY 2 CENTS I liked it alot I am into sport karate I can't do the flips and stuff I more into the sparing but the xma was very good maybe over played but good. they give u a taste of everything in it some said it is cool if your just starting out yes and it is cool cause we have martial arts on tv how often do we have that normaly just the US OPEN on espn 2 on friday nights at midnight lol
any ways it was good but i am not going to buy any of the xma stuff or try it lol cause if I spar some one at the dojo who try to do like gymnastic moves to me I will hit him harder cause u try and do a flip kick to some in a bar fight and miss would just plain out be funny and dume but don't froget the video shows SPORT MARTIAL ARTS Sport being the key word

just my 2 cents so :mp5:
 
I think it was actually a disservice to the martial arts community. There was already a goofy image of martial arts from the Karate kid and aerobic kickboxing. The more martial artists are shown divorced from reality, albeit sometimes accurately, the less we will be taken seriously and the more credibility we lose. Even if you look past the acrobatics, the fighting format is not representative of anything approaching self defense or real combat. The weapons routines had more to do with twirling than anything actually having to do with fighting. Furthermore, even his appeal to traditional martial arts with self defense applications from his form lacked generalizabililty (your opponents would have to be positioned in a very specific formation for the technique to work) and lacked tactical consideration (all the horse stances left his groin wide open). Nothing about that program had anything to do with real fighting, yet viewers were led to believe that they were the super human authorities on self defense and martial arts.
 
:ultracool There was already a goofy image of martial arts yes there is ! But this I feel was more made to get people to watch and want to maybe even join martial arts. What you want them to show people in metation and in slow katas sure there great if you train but people who know nothing thinking your hitting the air they don't find out what the moves are till later , I feel it was more for people in the 10-17 to join martial arts but once they go to a dojo by them they will see all the sides of karate not just the flash\


just my 2 cents
 
Why do people think the gymnastics has such appeal to the teenagers?
, would'nt the averager teen whom is being picked on want to learn anything beyond figure skating poses?
 
Commercialism and pushy parents who see dollar signs.

Unfortunately, too, we live in a culture that glorifies violence, the flashier the better.
 
If it was supposed to be an overview of real martial arts in general, then it did a pretty poor job.

From what I have seen and heard though, people who are martial artists hate it, and people who are not love it.

Take it for what it is worth I guess. I don't think that the program ever really claimed to be showcasing real world self-defence techiniques.

And personally, I thought the Wu Shu weapons forms or whatever they were were pretty damn cool. Obviously they were not anything like a real world fight, but they were still pretty cool.


The program overall is pretty much what I expected it to be. It is a TV show after all. You are not going to get people to watch if you show an nothing but a couple hours of kata and a self-defence class.
 
Takes some really high level athletic abilities, is great for fitness, there are some really dedicated preformers. What is the problem?

That they used the sacred words "Martial Arts"?

So What?

Performance, Meditation, Fighting, Fitness, Self-confidence, etc.

Many reasons to train, many different approaches that match them.

Everyone that I have met that did that sort of stuff knew and claimed that this is not for fighting or self-defence, it is for fun and for show. There is no deception at all in what they do, they are perfectly honest about it.

Isn't this sort of like if Tour de France guys started complaining how BMXing is not biking, has no real value and is all for show cause they can't really race comparred to racers, and showing it on tv hurts the image of "real" bikers?
 
Andrew Green said:
Takes some really high level athletic abilities, is great for fitness, there are some really dedicated preformers. What is the problem?

That they used the sacred words "Martial Arts"?

So What?

Performance, Meditation, Fighting, Fitness, Self-confidence, etc.

Many reasons to train, many different approaches that match them.

Everyone that I have met that did that sort of stuff knew and claimed that this is not for fighting or self-defence, it is for fun and for show. There is no deception at all in what they do, they are perfectly honest about it.

Isn't this sort of like if Tour de France guys started complaining how BMXing is not biking, has no real value and is all for show cause they can't really race comparred to racers, and showing it on tv hurts the image of "real" bikers?
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Well said, that pretty much sums up my thoughts on it too.
 
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