The question is right in the title of this thread!:ultracool
Do you feel that the Reality Based arts teach in a more effective manner than a TMA? For reference purposes, the RBSD arts would fall into the category of folks like Tony Blauer, Peyton Quinn, Marc "Animal" MacYoung, and arts such as Krav Maga. Your TMAs are: TKD, Kenpo, Shotokan, etc.
We have a great mixture of people here on Martial Talk, so I'm hoping we'll get some good debating!
I figure that throughout history, there have been RDSD, which makes in traditional, and that TMA was designed for fighting at the time, which makes it reality-based. I'm sorry if that's not helpful, but I needed to make that point before I go on.
Since this debate is not a new one, but one that goes back for mostly all of history, I think it's fair to compare old thinking about this stuff.
In European swordfighting, there are different classes of fight training. These styles are still being studied and re-born today. At the basic, you have the "Vulgate" style of fighting. Tranlsated, that means the "Common," or "Base" style of fighting. It relies on simple, easy-to replicate, gross motor skill moves that succeed by doing the moves faster than your opponent. Most Soldiers have been taught this throughout history. Especially when you consider that most armies were made up of people from other life-styles that fought for short periods of time. This type of "common soldier" needed to learn quickly how to instinctively perform the correct actions needed to survive.
It is very effective, and is useful for what it is intended.
Then you get into the higher levels of training - for instance, cavalry. Being able to keep your seat during a fight takes a bit of subtlety. It takes longer to learn to fight from a horse, but you can learn the fine-motor skills to ride and fight to a point where it is instinctive. It's got a slower learning curve, but more potential.
It is very effective, and is useful for what it is intended.
Then, there are the highest classes of training. These are represented by fencing masters who dedicated their life to exploring the "science" of fighting. What they teach cannot be used effectively for quite some time, several years if starting from scratch. Until then, it's pretty much useless. However, once the basics are mastered, the sky's the limit as far as potential effectiveness. Very few people through history have pursued this to the end in various fighting styles, but they have an almost mythical status.
It is very effective, and is useful . . .
A good army, will have people from all classes of fighting. It would be stupid to only limit yourself to the elite, because if one gets killed, it would take years to replace him. On the other hand, an army of only common soldiers won't be able to fully use the strength of their numbers.
It's like investing -- you need to have short-term, liquid assets, medium-term, higher-yield, perhaps a bit riskier assets, and long-term, slowly maturing but high-return assets to be successful.
RBSD through TMA is a continuum, not two separate groups. Basic RBSD is the stuff you learn to survive on the playground, where styles with complicated joint-locks or heavy reliance on pressure-points would be at the other end of the spectrum. Everything else falls in-between somewhere. Then you add in the branches of weapon-work, and it gets even more muddled. There's a continuum for knife-work, one for gunfighting, one for improvised weapons, etc.
For instance, I am on the "vulgar" end of knife work and other short-range weapons (but not a total commoner) - slightly more detailed on Gun-fighting, a little more so on empty hand fighting (mostly gross motor skills, but some technical aspects included), and pursuing the "highest class" for swordfighting. (Specific to rapier, that is.) Each one of those fits where I want to be!
People will naturally stick with the place on the continuum that fits their personality most naturally. It depends on how much patience you have for a useful result, and how much you're willing to work for it. When you find a system that gives you the appropriate result for the amount you want to invest - go with it, and stick to it!
That's why the "Best" art is typically the one you are in!
Within that, of course, you have individual training methods. Adrenalin can be produced in different ways, and should be a part of your training, whatever you're doing. Some who pursue the technical arts never stick with it long enough to find the real potential, but stop at a sport level, giving others a mis-representation of the true art. Stuff like that makes it hard to pick a certain style to put in a certain category. A lot of it does depend on the practitioner.
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