Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
Likely this post won't end well...but here goes
Why do we care, beyond the academic or training opportunity about another style of martial arts
I have been reading these types of posts (Ma A vs. Ma B) on MT for awhile now and the majority seem to come down to one thing in my opinion… fear. There have been a few that where actually legitimate comparisons looking for information but most come out of fear.
Are we as martial artists so threatened by another art that we have to look for ways that range from the silly to the insulting to run another art down to make ourselves feel superior.
It is a very old argument by the way, I am sure it went on way back when Shuaijiao was new or possibly even as far back as Pankration but it did go on in China a while back between Internal Martial Arts and External Martial arts (the categories themselves are a bit off the mark)
A hundred years ago or so in China the argument started that Internal Martial Arts was by far superior to External Martial Arts. Much of this argument came from the fact that some, (louder and/or more literate) IMA people of lesser skill decided to say that IMA was superior to EMA to not get beat up. You see if IMA was superior in skill and philosophy to EMA then they did not want to have to fight to prove it because they did not want to hurt the poor EMA guy and philosophically speaking they were above such baser things… unlike the lowly EMA guy. Thereby they avoided getting their butts kicked, saved face, looked superior and looked tough all at the same time.
But the topic of choice these days appears to be “MMA vs. Anything” or the reverse “Anything vs. MMA”.
As I said, in my opinion, this all has its root in fear. Are we as martial artists, whether we train TMA, MMA or RSBD so afraid of an acronym, do we feel so threatened by another art that we need to come up with ways to make ourselves feel superior belittling another art.
Please can we stop doing these comparisons that range from the silly to the insulting in order to make ourselves look and feel superior to others because in reality we feel threatened by that other style. Learn about the other style from reputable sources and you will feel less threatened by it…or…maybe…just maybe… you will get better ideas as to how to train or get the drive to train harder in your chosen style.
Now can we all just shut up and train... believe me, train properly and you will feel less threatened
Why do we care, beyond the academic or training opportunity about another style of martial arts
I have been reading these types of posts (Ma A vs. Ma B) on MT for awhile now and the majority seem to come down to one thing in my opinion… fear. There have been a few that where actually legitimate comparisons looking for information but most come out of fear.
Are we as martial artists so threatened by another art that we have to look for ways that range from the silly to the insulting to run another art down to make ourselves feel superior.
It is a very old argument by the way, I am sure it went on way back when Shuaijiao was new or possibly even as far back as Pankration but it did go on in China a while back between Internal Martial Arts and External Martial arts (the categories themselves are a bit off the mark)
A hundred years ago or so in China the argument started that Internal Martial Arts was by far superior to External Martial Arts. Much of this argument came from the fact that some, (louder and/or more literate) IMA people of lesser skill decided to say that IMA was superior to EMA to not get beat up. You see if IMA was superior in skill and philosophy to EMA then they did not want to have to fight to prove it because they did not want to hurt the poor EMA guy and philosophically speaking they were above such baser things… unlike the lowly EMA guy. Thereby they avoided getting their butts kicked, saved face, looked superior and looked tough all at the same time.
But the topic of choice these days appears to be “MMA vs. Anything” or the reverse “Anything vs. MMA”.
As I said, in my opinion, this all has its root in fear. Are we as martial artists, whether we train TMA, MMA or RSBD so afraid of an acronym, do we feel so threatened by another art that we need to come up with ways to make ourselves feel superior belittling another art.
Please can we stop doing these comparisons that range from the silly to the insulting in order to make ourselves look and feel superior to others because in reality we feel threatened by that other style. Learn about the other style from reputable sources and you will feel less threatened by it…or…maybe…just maybe… you will get better ideas as to how to train or get the drive to train harder in your chosen style.
Now can we all just shut up and train... believe me, train properly and you will feel less threatened