Does it annoy you when people refer to everything as a 'Karate <>".

[ST1Doppelganger]

-
- Onetime I talked about Chinese wrestling with a Judo guy, That Judo guy said, "Why reinvent the wheel?" Should you even bother to explain that Chinese wrestling is much older than Judo?

Yes I find it insane how allot of throwing and grappling arts have no clue about Mongolian or Chinese wrestling existing or the history of it.

 

[Dinkydoo]

It's doesn't bother me, but I will correct them. The simple fact is that the knowledge you gain through studying a martial art is so esoteric anyway that even when you do correct someone and say, no, I do Kung Fu, they'll assume that KF is just the one style anyway - likewise with Karate. If someone isn't interested in martial arts and they're not a close friend or relative of mine then it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

 

[RTKDCMB]

Why should it bother me? It's as good a "generic" term as any, and better than some.
Does it bother you when someone says they're going to "xerox" something, if the copy machine wasn't made by that company?
Does it bother you when someone says they're going to take an aspirin (formerly a brand name for the Bayer CO)?
Does it bother you when someone says they're going to soak in the jacuzzi, if the tub wasn't made by that company?

Expecting a layman to know the difference between arts would be like me expecting you to know the difference between a mayo, a metz, an iris, a miller and a mac.
Can you tell me what those five things are, without using google?

Or they refer to a flying disc as a Frizbee.

Mayo - Mexican holiday.
Metz - Ney York Baseball team.
Iris - Device that protects Stargate Command.
Miller - A person who operates a piece of mining equipment.
Mac - A type of poorly spelt truck.

 

[wingchun100]

Or they refer to a flying disc as a Frizbee.

Mayo - Mexican holiday.
Metz - Ney York Baseball team.
Iris - Device that protects Stargate Command.
Miller - A person who operates a piece of mining equipment.
Mac - A type of poorly spelt truck.

Iris? Oh you mean the woman that the Goo Goo Dolls lead singer would give up forever to touch.

 

[tshadowchaser]

So, this made me think. What do you think when people refer to any horrible display of any sort of combat strike as a 'Karate <(Chop, Kick, Punch, Elbow, Earsmash, Tickle, Hairpull, Slap)>. I, for one, don't mind it when the untrained, uneducated (In martial arts, that is) and uninformed may confuse styles, such as confusing a Muay Thai kick with Karate. I can understand this. It just peeves me off when people call the worst excuses for kicks as a 'Karate Kicks'.


It bothers me more when i see kids wearing their uniforms on the street or in the grocery store or mall.
That being said It really bothers me when you see a poor display of martial arts by kids just playing or actually trying to fight each other and you tell them they can learn how to do it correctly, give the name and address of a school and they say they have no interest.

 

[reeskm]

It bothers me more when i see kids wearing their uniforms on the street or in the grocery store or mall.

In COSTCO the other week, and this exactly happened. Untied uniforms no less!!! With sneakers! And it looked like they hadn't washed them in a while too. So painful to see!

As for if it bothers me if "everybody" refers to martial arts as "karate" - well it depends on how that person is referring to it.

If they say on my behalf "oh, you do Tae Kwon Do" when in fact I'm a Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan stylist, it bothers me! I have to correct them that I do "Tang Soo Do". This assumption - because it's a korean style it must bee Tae Kwon Do - bothers me the most.

If they don't know what TSD is, then I have to say "Korean Karate" so it makes sense to them, and then have to explain "Tang Soo Do" is literally "Way of the China Hand" etc.

It does get a little tiresome after a while, but I believe it's necessary to educate the public.

 

[Michael89]

- I still get annoyed when someone asked me, "Are you still doing that chop chop stuff?" Should you even bother to explain that MA is not chop chop stuff?
- Onetime I talked about Chinese wrestling with a Judo guy, That Judo guy said, "Why reinvent the wheel?" Should you even bother to explain that Chinese wrestling is much older than Judo?

Sometime people just forces you to argue with him no matter you like it or not. But should you spend you time to argue with someone who has no ... ?

correct me if I'm wrong but you do Shuai Jiao?

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

correct me if I'm wrong but you do Shuai Jiao?

Yes, I do! I like to use the term "Chinese wrestling" instead of "Shuai Chiao (Jiao)" here because not too many people know about it.

 

[donald1]

It all just seems like lack of knowledge, I'm pretty sure their knowledge of karate is a martial arts some maybe not that. Even if you try explain it they still may not understand. You can't explain differences between martial arts to someone who's never been involved. And a lot of them don't take it seriously which makes it increasingly difficult and not worth the talk unless they are serious about learning or want to get involved

 

[drop bear]

Depends. Kung fu for example is a generic term is karate the same?

It means empty hand. If you fight empty hand you are doing that karate stuff.

By the way I can confuse most people when I tell them I do mixed martial arts. Which is apparently that ufc stuff.

 

[wingchun100]

It all just seems like lack of knowledge, I'm pretty sure their knowledge of karate is a martial arts some maybe not that. Even if you try explain it they still may not understand. You can't explain differences between martial arts to someone who's never been involved. And a lot of them don't take it seriously which makes it increasingly difficult and not worth the talk unless they are serious about learning or want to get involved

You're right. The only difference the non-involved have ever understood is when I explain wing chun is close-range.

And even then, they might not get how the style works. I've even had people who DO practice express that sentiment. My friends mom took tae kwon do for years; she achieved the rank of 2nd degree black belt. She said those exact words to me: "I don't see how that would work."

I could have gotten into a debate about it, but I just said, "Well, I have fun practicing it" and dropped the subject.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RTKDCMB]

It bothers me more when i see kids wearing their uniforms on the street or in the grocery store or mall. .

When out one night I saw some teenager wearing the jacket form one of our uniforms as a shirt for some sort of fancy dress party thing. I thought it was weird but at least it was some free advertising.

 

[Buka]

I can't get by the idea of kids wearing their gi outside the dojo. But my students who run schools allow it. To each his own, I guess.

As for annoying..

I remember when I was twenty five or so, before Martial Arts were on TV much. On a winter Saturday, one of the stations (ABC, NBC or CBS) used some karate stuff as filler. It was the breaking division of a tournament in New York, the paticipents did their breaks in a ring. A guy came up, had some wood (set up like a stack of pine boards) and was going to do a forehead break. He stood in front of it, did his dramatic breathing several times, got all psyched up and snapped from the waist - it didn't break. So he did it again. And again. Then stopped, looked at it, focused....and started machine gunning with his head, WHACK, WHACK, WHACK, WHACK,WHACK, WHACK, he did this a bunch of times, he's bleeding now, and does it some more and more and more, before he quits and staggers away.

Everybody I know saw it and I was the only person they knew that did Martial Arts. For a year I heard, "Hey, I saw that karate stuff you do on TV! So, what's that guy do now, go back to the Karate Shop and teach that? Cuz I want to get my brother-in-law a membership."

The comments made to me by the boys weren't annoying. The fact that the TV network broadcast the damn thing was very annoying. As was that fight between a heavyweight male fighter and a woman who was a hundred pounds lighter. (same time frame) I forget the names. Anyone remember that? Again, annoying.

 

[donald1]

You're right. The only difference the non-involved have ever understood is when I explain wing chun is close-range.

And even then, they might not get how the style works. I've even had people who DO practice express that sentiment. My friends mom took tae kwon do for years; she achieved the rank of 2nd degree black belt. She said those exact words to me: "I don't see how that would work."

I could have gotten into a debate about it, but I just said, "Well, I have fun practicing it" and dropped the subject.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good for you for handling the situation well, I don't know what technique you did but I also have no reason for disbelief, I do know it's important to show respect to other people and their style

 

[Eastpointvet]

I grew up practicing Taekwondo myself I'm currently training in Shotokan nowadays. As I grew up, it greatly annoyed me that everyone referred to my TKD practice as karate or even kung fu. I couldn't articulate the difference between the two at the time but I always believed that it was pretty obvious even to the untrained eye.

Now that I'm an adult, it still slightly irritates me to have to explain that all martial arts are not karate along with having to deal with the bewildered look that I get once I explain it in layman's terms. I'm actually curious that if karate is seen in such a generic light in other countries outside of the USA. Dealing with the public misconceptions and myths are almost a right of passage if you practice in the USA I would guess lol.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

The other day I worked out with someone in the park. An old man came to us and asked what we were doing.

- I said, "wrestling".
- My training partner then said, "Chinese wrestling, Shuai Chiao".

The old man left but I still don't think he knew what we were doing.

 

[arnisador]

Drives me crazy to hear all Oriental arts called 'karate'!

 

[donald1]

My friend from work once asked me the difference and I told him "if you were two see the two styles enough to know what they are about you would know"

 

[Touch Of Death]

Drives me crazy to hear all Oriental arts called 'karate'!

Let it GO.

 

[tshadowchaser]

My old instructor had the word KARATE on the outside of the school but that was 40+ years ago and most people did not know what other systems of martial arts where called.
He would say to those that asked that he had Okinawan training originally so he had the right to say he taught Karate as part of his curriculum.
Bit I always wondered as the years went by why he did not just put Martial Arts on the sign.

I used to tell people I did Chinese Boxing but they always asked where the ring was and what weight cloves I wore.