Xtreme Martial Arts

[exile]

Whoa... that's SHAOLIN SOCCER for real!

 

[Laurentkd]

I just wish I could move like this guy:

[yt]gxL6dOAluS4[/yt]

I am at a REEEEAAALY slow computer right now so all I see is jerky still- shots

I'll have to check it out at home, thanks for posting it Andrew!

 

[Dave Leverich]

Saw that one before, and holy cow that kiddo is a human spring!

 

[shrek]

But to each his own. If I ever see you doing a backflip while screaming in a brightly colored, sleeveless "uniform" (again, the common use term) while holding a toothpick bo staff that will break if you squeeze it to hard I'll clap for you!quote]

Umm...I LIKE the southern Shaolin uniforms...sleeveless shows off my GUNS!! :rofl: But I agree with everything else...XMA is fun to watch, but that's about it.

 

[Adept]

XMA are worthless for fighting.

But if it comes to that, so are many methods of TMA (and even MMA) training. Olympic TKD springs to mind...

XMA will encourage a person to develop speed, agility, stamina and 'bounce'. It will develop co-ordination and self confidence. All good things.

So long as you don't try and defend yourself with the techniques you learned in XMA, I see no downside to learning it.

Indeed, I view it as a spin-off of gymnastics rather than a type of MA, and we all know gymnastics are worthless 'on the street', but that doesn't stop people from enjoying it regardless.

I think people find it too easy to get caught up in the name, decry it as a martial art, and develop a negative view. I say, ignore the name and look at the training for what it is.

 

[exile]

Indeed, I view it as a spin-off of gymnastics rather than a type of MA, and we all know gymnastics are worthless 'on the street', but that doesn't stop people from enjoying it regardless.

No quarrel at all with that observation, Adept. What I was saying earlier is that I think there is a valid objection, not to the activity itself—and you're right, it's basically a vary acrobatic kind of gymnastics using MA types of movements in many places—but to the sensationalist treatment it gets from infotainment media which identify it as the best thhing in genuine martial arts since the palm-heel strike. If people who aren't acquainted with the MAs start with the assumption that because this stuff is flashier and more hyped than Shorin-Ryu karate or whatever, it must be `better', and is the thing they should be learning, then they're being seriously conned. The cynicism of the media in promoting XMA as the thing which all MAs are going to evolve into is what I find deceptive and distasteful...

Now that you mention it, I have the same problem with Olympic TKD—not the activity itself or the fine athletes who are good at it, but the way it's promoted, as though it were the combat art itself, rather than just the sport specialization of that art. Same with sport karate—the two cases are very similar...

 

[Andrew Green]

I think combat sports are mainstream enough that no one with an ounce of critical thinking skills is going to watch someone do some flips and 720 kicks and think "Wow! Those would kill in a real fight!"

Theatrical fighting has been around, well, probably as long as theatre. It is what it is. This whole debate reaks of people watching a action movie and counting the shots fired between magazine changes, complaining about the gun handling, going on rants about how "Real gernades don't make fireballs" and other such nonsense.

It's a performance, they know it, we know it, everyone knows it. Enjoy it or don't watch it.

 

[Cirdan]

Those who practice XMA and similar stuff and think this is "the real deal" basically deserve what they get. It takes very little critical thinking and searching to find out it is not.

 

[Laurentkd]

No quarrel at all with that observation, Adept. What I was saying earlier is that I think there is a valid objection, not to the activity itself—and you're right, it's basically a vary acrobatic kind of gymnastics using MA types of movements in many places—but to the sensationalist treatment it gets from infotainment media which identify it as the best thhing in genuine martial arts since the palm-heel strike. If people who aren't acquainted with the MAs start with the assumption that because this stuff is flashier and more hyped than Shorin-Ryu karate or whatever, it must be `better', and is the thing they should be learning, then they're being seriously conned. The cynicism of the media in promoting XMA as the thing which all MAs are going to evolve into is what I find deceptive and distasteful...

Now that you mention it, I have the same problem with Olympic TKD—not the activity itself or the fine athletes who are good at it, but the way it's promoted, as though it were the combat art itself, rather than just the sport specialization of that art. Same with sport karate—the two cases are very similar...

Excellent post Exile, I totally agree. I wish somehow we could get more media attention to the deeper aspects of all TMA. Especially since today's world seems to form its opinions exclusively based off what they see on TV.

 

[exile]

I wish somehow we could get more media attention to the deeper aspects of all TMA. Especially since today's world seems to form its opinions exclusively based off what they see on TV.

I wish so too, Lauren; but the problem is that as long as TV's business is selling advertising, they have little incentive to do anything other than what will increase their viewership, which means, as usual, bread-and-circuses level coverage of whatever the topic is. The thing that gets MAists excited—the realization that some strange looking move in a form, with seemingly no combat application, makes sense if you interpret the preceding `punch' as part of a neck twist—will have the shelf life of a tray of ice cubes left on a hot stove in most viewers' attention spans.

What people do attend to—rapid, high-amplitude motion, loud noises and high intensity, the stuff we needed to be aware of in order to survive in the days when we were a prey species—is just what XMA offers. It has all kinds of pseudo-violence—bo's being slammed on the ground during weapon forms routines, angry yells and fang-bearing facial contortions by contestants—without any of the seriously grim, real violence that TMAs train their practitioners to execute on dangerous assailants: no broken joints, no shattered windpipes or bleeding eyesockets... none of the really sickening stuff that has been part and parcel of TMAs as self-defense fighting systems as far back as we can go based on documentation, or the evidence of the forms themselves. In a way, I sort of think of XMA as one kind of `sanitizing' of TMAs (there are other spins that have the same effect, of course!), one which definitely looks made for TV! The camera loves it....

 

[Kwan Jang]

Well, just compare the mass appeal of real wrestling to the theatrics of the WWE. IMO, XMA is fine as an addition if students have a solid base in the combative aspects of their training. "After you eat your dinner, then you can have dessert." It also will help develop their physical capacities and the work ethic and discipline that it requires is positive as well.

 

[Adept]

If people who aren't acquainted with the MAs start with the assumption that because this stuff is flashier and more hyped than Shorin-Ryu karate or whatever, it must be `better', and is the thing they should be learning, then they're being seriously conned. The cynicism of the media in promoting XMA as the thing which all MAs are going to evolve into is what I find deceptive and distasteful...

To be honest, it's not really a concern for me. I've always let the sheeple do and think what they want. It's none of my concern if they don't understand quite what 'real' martial arts are. So long as I'm confident I know what I'm doing, I'm pretty happy.

Now that you mention it, I have the same problem with Olympic TKD—not the activity itself or the fine athletes who are good at it, but the way it's promoted, as though it were the combat art itself, rather than just the sport specialization of that art. Same with sport karate—the two cases are very similar...

Yeah, I remember when I first saw the Olympic TKD on the television at work. A few of my workmates knew I did TKD at the time, and after watching the two competitors trying to flick each other with their feet for ten minutes, they all sort of looked at me.

"Is that what you do?" they asked.

"No" I replied, my distaste evident in my voice.

"Nothing like that at all."

Excellent post Exile, I totally agree. I wish somehow we could get more media attention to the deeper aspects of all TMA. Especially since today's world seems to form its opinions exclusively based off what they see on TV.

I think that (hopefully) we are starting to a see a trend of moving away from the flips and flash of 80s MA flicks, and into something a bit more gritty and realistic.

I give you the examples of Batman Begins and Casino Royale, where spinning back kicks and flying side kicks were notably absent.

Those who practice XMA and similar stuff and think this is "the real deal" basically deserve what they get. It takes very little critical thinking and searching to find out it is not.

Indeed. Never give a sucker an even break.