You Suck At Martial Arts

[Oily Dragon]

Oh I see! A duster in England is a cloth used for removing dust from surfaces in ones house!

I'll post a pic of these ridiculous overpriced things.

Nothing like seeing some city slicker in an ad for a $300 riding coat that isn't even leather. Hee haw.

 

[Gyakuto]

In lockdown, when I was bored…I errr…bought one of these…..capes

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Depends on the system. Learn from a reputable boxing coach and gym for example, and you have the potential to be a killer.

But, but, I don’t want be a killer coach…

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Depends on the system. Learn from a reputable boxing coach and gym for example, and you have the potential to be a killer.

I’m just playing because some people think that as great as Cus D’Amato was, he could turn anyone into Tyson with the right system. I just think that’s a lot of hooey. Same with BJJ MMA TMA etc. All the ingredients count in a recipe. Garbage in, garbage out. Good healthy, hard working, guy with a good coach and a legit training method over a period of time can make a skilled fighter. Remove any one of those elements and the chances of a skilled fighter being the product goes down. Not everything can be taught.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

I think so, some people will just never be a Lion

True that, not everything can be taught.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

View attachment 29121

How much for the pet dragon?

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

I'll post a pic of these ridiculous overpriced things.

Nothing like seeing some city slicker in an ad for a $300 riding coat that isn't even leather. Hee haw.

We call that “all hat and no cattle.”

 

[Oily Dragon]

We call that “all hat and no cattle.”

Ridiculous.

KAIROS DUSTER

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onegoldenthread.com

Am I supposed to be impressed? The knit on these things is atrocious.

$333? Some robot came up with that number...no human being prices things that way.

 

[Oily Dragon]

You too can be the lead singer of Duran Duran.

 

[Oily Dragon]

IF you like the Cenobite look, there's this stuff. How it finds me, I don't know but at least it's better than the political ads I'm also getting spammed with.

 

[Steve]

What non physical skills are you referring to? I’m trying to think of a non physical martial art skill.

I said skills, but really meant more like traits... things like respect, resilience, honor, integrity, etc.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

As a martial artist and musician, I guess I agree.

But I still think martial arts skills are relatively useless, even compared to being able to read or play music. There's no real practical application for them except in rare circumstances. Most people will never be in a fight in their whole lives, and the few that do can't realistically expect their martial arts training to be a huge factor, especially when guns, police, and other real world violence stuff is factored in.

And when you also factor in the sheer amount of time people invest in martial arts...I mean if you learn to walk tall and have inner peace and all, excellent. But there are diminishing returns, especially in the MMA/full contact sphere. All these black belts that spent all that time ranking up, what exactly did they get for it? Don't know, never had a black belt.

You underestimate the value of physical exercise, purposeful skill development, goal pursuit, and other things that are part of most martial art (and other) training.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Yes, that’s why there are so few of us compared with players of, say, football, basketball, badminton, athletics, tiddly-winks…ok…maybe not tiddly-winks. We may think they’re relatively easy because we’re a group of self-selecting good martial artists on a MA discussion board, probably with high ranks!

I don’t think basic MA skills are harder than, say, tennis fundamentals.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I think so, some people will just never be a Lion

That definition applies in the States, as well.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Ridiculous.

KAIROS DUSTER

Discover your new favorite Kairos Duster coat, so soft & comfortable. Shop sustainable fashion - men's & women's luxury clothing made from soft natural regenerative tree fiber fabric that feels like Nature's cashmere.

onegoldenthread.com

Am I supposed to be impressed? The knit on these things is atrocious.

$333? Some robot came up with that number...no human being prices things that way.

View attachment 29130

Obi Wan Kielbasa

 

[Steve]

Obi Wan Kielbasa

That site is a trip.

 

[Oily Dragon]

You underestimate the value of physical exercise, purposeful skill development, goal pursuit, and other things that are part of most martial art (and other) training.

I don't think most martial artists get the physical exercise part right.

Which has to make you wonder, why some people put so much effort into obtaining colored belts, and can't fight their way out of a paper bag.

I'd recommend Yoga or Pilates to somebody before I'd ever recommend an Asian fighting art. Maybe Qigong if they were ready.

Why do you think that is?

 

[Oily Dragon]

That site is a trip.

Right?

I can buy this off Amazon for half the price..

 

[Jimmythebull]

That definition applies in the States, as well.

I'm a Bull Gerry...A raging Bull

 

[Hyoho]

I sometimes speak with discouraged newer students. They believe they lack natural talent, or that they are not coming along fast enough, or that they are just not 'getting it'. They feel that they are not progressing in martial arts and that they are not going to progress. Some of them are thinking about quitting. I am sure some do quit, without telling anyone. This is most unfortunate.

This is what I tell them...

In my experience, if you look around the dojo at the high-ranked students who appear to perform their exercises and kata effortlessly and well, with speed, precision, and power, what you do not see is the work that went into those capabilities. What you do not see is that when they started, as white belts, they lacked that ability, and in fact, many of them were about as uncoordinated, inflexible, and out-of-shape as it was possible to be. When you see a statue, you do not see the block of granite it was carved out of.

It has also been my observation that many of the most naturally-talented martial artists I have seen have quit before very long. I never understood why, perhaps they didn't feel challenged, or perhaps they were just bored, but they didn't stick around. When someone walks through the door and within days they are executing beautiful kicks and nice solid punches, I sigh and wonder how long it will be before they are gone. I wish it was not the case, but this seems to be what happens quite often.

I have seen one and only one secret to martial arts success, and that is to keep training. Train until it becomes a habit, and then keep training. There is no goal, no end-date, no moment in time when you will not have to train anymore. But don't be discouraged; good training is like a powerful drug; you'll want to train, you'll miss being away from training, you'll long to get back into action. And this is a very good thing.

So you suck at martial arts? You have no natural talent? Your balance is pathetic, you have no breath control, you are stiff and uncoordinated? That's terrific!

Go ahead and suck. I suck too. Everybody sucks. The question is not whether or not we all suck, the question is what we suck at and how badly we suck.

So you see a lot of students wearing black belts and they don't seem to suck. Trust me, they suck too. You just don't see all their mistakes, because your eye is not accustomed to looking for the details where they reveal their suckitude to their instructors.

What matters here is that we accept that we suck. It's OK to suck. Be awful, be useless, embrace it!

But keep one goal. As we train, we try to suck a little bit less each day. Not huge strides, small gains. It will sneak up on you, you will not notice it. Or you may notice tiny little differences one day and go "Hmmm, I used to not be able to do that..."

So we all suck and it's OK to suck and we're going to keep sucking.

Just suck a bit less each day.

Keep training. There is no one in the dojo who thinks you are the worst they have ever seen, because THEY were you a few short years ago. They have the benefit of hindsight which you do not yet.

But if you keep training, one day some new student will look at you in admiration and ask you how you got to be so good, or they'll come to you and sadly confess that they don't think they are 'getting it' and want to quit, and you will have to tell them the same thing I tell you now. You will tell them that when you started, you were not very good at it, and they won't quite believe you.

Yes, you suck. Keep training, suck less.

And we've all got your back. We all support you. We all sucked just as bad if not worse than you. And we just kept training. All you see when you look at the dojo floor is people who sucked but kept training.

Do that, all will be well.

We are supposed to do our arts because as a famous mentor told me, "Love your way, if you don't love it dont do it" All members make up a working dojo and contribute in some way. What probably differs in the West is that in Japan it is a community activity that make it what it is, as is everything else.