Is FMA a Low-Class Ghetto Art?

geezer

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Is FMA a low-class "Ghetto" art?

The other day I had a brief conversation with a co-worker who is something of an authority on Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). He is a tall, very thin devotee of the rapier, as well as broadsword and Polish sabre. He is so slender, in fact, that his training partners complain that when he turns sideways, he is hard enough to see, let alone hit!

Anyway, when we spoke, he was nursing some sparring injuries and complaining about a certain mutual acquaintance of ours, a burly FMA guy who also attends the local HEMA practices. This fellow, by contrast, is a powerfully built individual, and apparently when technique fails him he compensates by just going ape and pounding his HEMA partners with brute force, oblivious to the strikes he receives in return.

...Incidentally, this same individual is not a particularly popular training partner in local FMA circles either!

Regardless, my battered HEMA friend, knowing of my love of Eskrima, concluded the conversation dismissively, stating something like, "Well, what can you expect, ...that Filipino stuff is basically low class, ghetto fighting with machetes and crap. On the other hand, what we do is a sophisticated art, ...very elite!"

Somehow I never imagined the regular guys on the battlefields of Europe in centuries past, hacking each other apart in a desperate battle to survive ...as elitists.

Neither do I think of myself, as an FMA enthusiast, as doing something particularly ghetto. Does this mean I have to start wearing my pants down below my butt and listening to gangsta rap? :eek:
 

yak sao

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Does this mean I have to start wearing my pants down below my butt and listening to gangsta rap? :eek:


You mean you're not already?????

Better shape up there homie if you're going to keep doing FMA.
 

JowGaWolf

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Short answer yes.
But remember. You need to be more like this.



And make sure you take some pictures. Your last ones didn't come out too well. Just remember sag your pants, not your drawers.
98f2fa2879c3d664e59437948bb3db24.jpg
 

drop bear

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BJJ was a low class getto art untill they marketed it to rich people.

Boxing? I think the same.
 

Headhunter

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Who cares and quite honestly if any martial artist says rubbish like that they need to seriously look at themselves
 

Headhunter

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BJJ was a low class getto art untill they marketed it to rich people.

Boxing? I think the same.
I'm no expert here but from what I heard wasn't jiu jitsu the rich people's art and luta livre considered ore for poorer people which created a rivalry between them. I'm sure I remember reading something like that
 

Charlemagne

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FMA was, and is, a family art most of the time, so in the event that the family was "low born" that would be the case. Regardless, it works when trained properly, and that is what I am concerned about.
 

Uchinanchu

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Seems to me that you need to find better friends to associate with. He sounds like a snob. Some of the best martial artists I've known and had the pleasure to train with were FMA. It doesn't matter the background/history of the art itself. It's the individual and said individual's action / character that bring respect to it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Tony Dismukes

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I'm no expert here but from what I heard wasn't jiu jitsu the rich people's art and luta livre considered ore for poorer people which created a rivalry between them. I'm sure I remember reading something like that
Carlos and Helio Gracie were very oriented towards acquiring money status, and fame, so they worked hard marketing Jiu-Jitsu to the upper class. At the same time, Oswaldo Fadda was busy teaching jiu-jitsu to poor folk free of charge. The Fadda lineage is just as legitimate in BJJ as the Gracie lineage, but the Gracies are much better known due to their work in self-promotion.

You are correct that Luta Livre was more popular among the poor, especially since it didn't require the expense of a gi. The BJJ/Luta Livre rivalry was partially class based, but given Helio's determination to establish Jiu-Jitsu as the most effective art around, the rivalry would likely have occurred even if rich people were doing Luta Livre.
 

Bill Mattocks

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Regardless, my battered HEMA friend, knowing of my love of Eskrima, concluded the conversation dismissively, stating something like, "Well, what can you expect, ...that Filipino stuff is basically low class, ghetto fighting with machetes and crap. On the other hand, what we do is a sophisticated art, ...very elite!"

I seek to understand in what way a person is less dead if killed by a machete as opposed to a rapier. I would wish to avoid an unhappy encounter with an expert carrying either one.
 

Xue Sheng

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Is FMA a low-class "Ghetto" art?

The other day I had a brief conversation with a co-worker who is something of an authority on Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). He is a tall, very thin devotee of the rapier, as well as broadsword and Polish sabre. He is so slender, in fact, that his training partners complain that when he turns sideways, he is hard enough to see, let alone hit!

Anyway, when we spoke, he was nursing some sparring injuries and complaining about a certain mutual acquaintance of ours, a burly FMA guy who also attends the local HEMA practices. This fellow, by contrast, is a powerfully built individual, and apparently when technique fails him he compensates by just going ape and pounding his HEMA partners with brute force, oblivious to the strikes he receives in return.

...Incidentally, this same individual is not a particularly popular training partner in local FMA circles either!

Regardless, my battered HEMA friend, knowing of my love of Eskrima, concluded the conversation dismissively, stating something like, "Well, what can you expect, ...that Filipino stuff is basically low class, ghetto fighting with machetes and crap. On the other hand, what we do is a sophisticated art, ...very elite!"

Somehow I never imagined the regular guys on the battlefields of Europe in centuries past, hacking each other apart in a desperate battle to survive ...as elitists.

Neither do I think of myself, as an FMA enthusiast, as doing something particularly ghetto. Does this mean I have to start wearing my pants down below my butt and listening to gangsta rap? :eek:

This reminds me of more than one CMA Internal vs External conversation, article, discussion...apparently getting your butt kicked by a Baguazhang guy is much more high level than getting your butt kicked by a long fist guy......made about as much sense to me there too....
 

Flying Crane

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The general reckoning in the martial arts is that whatever "I" do is high class, sophisticated and elegant. Whatever anyone else does is ghetto, low-class and crude.

Don't you all know this???
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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The general reckoning in the martial arts is that whatever "I" do is high class, sophisticated and elegant. Whatever anyone else does is ghetto, low-class and crude.

Don't you all know this???
I thought it was whatever I do, is brutal and efficient, and the rest of it is all flashy or fake?
 

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