Why do people refuse to believe that Martial Arts actually work?

Question

As a student of Hillcrest High School, I have trained in Kenpo, traditional Tae Kwan Do, Aikido, Haikido, and Silat, some also with the use of weaponry (Sai, Kama, Bo, Staff, Katana, etc.). I come upon many people that, just because they don't know martial arts, say that it doesn't work, or it won't protect you. I know that it works perfectly well, I have fought with it before and never lost, but when they want to "slap-box" me or "play-box" me, I refuse, and they taunt me and poke fun at martial artists until I put a palm strike into their shoulder and up into their chin. Two most common sayings: "Martial arts do not work, dude.", and the famous belief that all martial artists know Karate also comes into play here.

Answer 1

I got alot of that in high school, right about the beggining of the ufc... and while people cracked jokes, they never threatened me in any way shape or form.... and when one guy was about to beat up my friend... i got between them (my friend was small)... and the guy made a crack about I don't wanna beat up the "karate kid" and walked away.... as a grown man, a good friend of mine joked about it.. said I bench press 400 pounds (and that is true), I'd break you in half... he joined a Muay Thai school with me to prove his point (so it would be friendly), and after a month he said, "ok maybe you can kick my ***, but dont let me get a good grip on you", and he quit MT.... PPL that dont take martial arts, are far more confrontational, than ppl who do.... and when the martial artist always avoids the fight.. it is easy for the other person to say "i would have kicked his butt", when in reality, that guy avoided the fight.... it only takes one to start a fight, but it takes 2 to avoid one... It really shouldnt bother you if ignorant ppl talk down about something you believe in, and are unwilling to be open to the discussion.... and it is really unfair to be upset with them for their opinions (albiet completely unfounded).... but if it keep digging at you... get two pair of boxing gloves, and two sets of head gear, and next time someone says something, offer them a safe friendly sparring session... and they will decline... and still badmouth, but you can feel better that they backed down

Answer 2

Interestingly enough, I referenced my thoughts on this question in an earlier question on here. In short, my feeling and experience is that those who most often say those things have never seen a true martial artist in his prime after years, even decades of training. Originally, martial arts were taught as a lifelong ambition from young childhood. But because of today's job demands, social responsibilities, family dynamics, etc., very rarely do any students have the resources in either time or money to train for that long.

The inevitable result is that we as martial artists are forced to pare down the styles being taught/learned and compress a vast amount of knowledge into a comparatively short amount of time. This is done with some good measure of success, but even so it's difficult to attain the kind of proficiency needed to be a highly skilled martial artist such as yourself until after years of training.

Anyway, the point of all this rambling is that the common misconception amongst those who have little to no experience or understanding of martial arts and just how long of a commitment is needed is that martial arts don't work, because the majority of martial artists they have encountered are still relative beginners--even those who have two or three years of training under their belt--and so they see a very limited sampling of just what martial arts can do.

I'd love to hear their thoughts if the majority of their encounters with martial artists had been instructors who have been training for eight to ten years or so.

Answer 3

Probably because most people tend to equate martial artists with fighters. There's a difference, ideally, fighters evolve into martial artist. Anyone who has read the Art of War by Sun Tzu know that the greatest goal of a General is to win a fight without lifting a finger, this is considered the highest level of skill for a warrior. Most fighters are basically foot soldiers who do all the dirty work, when they learn that they don't have to dive into the muck all the time and can win a fight by using their heads instead of their fists, then they become officer material. It's the same with Martial artists, one starts out at the bottom as a "grunt" fighter who rushes headlong into a fight and takes punches to his head to be able to dish one out himself, when he finally learns to dodge and realizes he doesn't need to get hit or over exert himself just to be able to defeat the other guy, that's when he begins to become a martial artist. When people say martial arts don't work, they usually mean it doesn't work for them, but that's not the martial art's fault, it's usually their fault, they either don't have the discipline or patience to train diligently to achieve proficiency in an art or have incorrect notions and ideas of what martial arts are about.

Answer 4

Let's face it, the REAL reason why they say that they don't work is because they are only exposed to the flashy stuff that they see on the media and they find it not to be practical in real life defense.

That is the ignorance of society. They fail to think DEEP about anything.

Any martial art can help you in defense, but let's just be real , there are martial arts out there that does teach flashy and non-practical stuff. That is the side of martial arts that society sees.

Answer 5

because they missed school and have no clue as to actual history of the world and events that happened. From the days of taught Greco Roman arts, to the sword skills of the spanish, the chinese war arts, japans samurai, the korean hwrang do warriors, well let me see we have the taught skills of the ancient europeans whom well need I say it is history, and then of course we have the fact that we can create MMA from it all, need I say more.
And to say MMA is no good is just as foolish as it is the arts mixed, and watch the IFL - UFC etc, you will see aspects of all the arts.
It is the moral foundation that is eroding today, the thought that beating someones as. is better than bettering your ability to succeed. I learnt that if I had a choice of hitting or helping I would help, if I could save or kill I would save, and if I could become my enemy's friend and help us both do better in life - I will. Nothing has as much value as human life, nothing. And if you can learn this in your style, well it is a Great Style.
To be a sport fighter does not represent the streets, and to be a street fighter is not to represent the concept of the code of ethics in most all ancient Martial Arts, it is of a defensive nature not an offensive one.
When we as a society learn to care about each other and thrive, that is when most of our Masters will be satisfied. The concept being one of justice and compassion.

Answer 6

a lot of peoples conception of a 'fight' is something where people square off, wail at each other until some one wins and everyone gets to go home.

this is not a fight. this is a physical competition for dominance, its a challenge for a rung on the ladder of societies ranking.

this is not what i believe a fight is. to me a fight is when conflict causes someone to become a serious threat and must be neutralized. depending on the level of threat, someone may not get to go home. in a real fight nobody wins, doing this level of damage to a person hurts the giver as much as the receiver.

so what they are saying is most likely true from thier standpoint. it is true martial arts dont work for their concept of a fight because in reality there is no threat in a battle for dominance, dominating doesnt work if the person is completely incapacitated, dead or more to the point 'neutralized'.

i will not play box either and i think MMA or any competition based martial art sport is more complex play boxing, which is why i dont approve of them.

i found that through self discipline and discovering my own truths through training, that i become secure in the knowledge of myself, this enabled me to step off of societies ranking ladder and to simply exist in my own space. i refuse to engage in social ranking, its a trivial and pointless exercise.

my advice is to not let it get to you and just hope that one day they can find their own path : )

Answer 7

I think Marc MacYoung said it best.

What these people are saying is that martial arts are not good for street fighting - and they're perfectly right. That's because martial arts teach discipline, self-control and self-respect.

So for anybody who wants to get in a street fight, those are things he'd rather not learn, because these are precisely the things that will keep you out of a street fight. So they'd much rather not learn anything that risks putting their precious fantasy of being the baddest of the bad in jeopardy.

Answer 8

people refuse martial arts work

Answer 9

This is generally merely an opinion, and frequently one expressed by individuals whose closest proximity to anything equating to real training or martial arts practice is getting up off the sofa to grab a soda during the break when UFC or Ultimate Weapon is on TV.

Anyone physically engaged in training within the martial arts is normally doing it for a variety of different reasons but they generally quickly realize the efficacy of most traditional disciplines, depnding of course of the instruction provided. I would not expect many of these individuals to raise such silly generalized assumptions and opinions, especially to anyone engaged in martial arts training - so on the whole, I'd just ingore them and tell them to "believe what they want to."

As far as the general idea that martial arts "dont work", just what is this opinion supposedly based on? The traditional arts I've been exposed to and have experienced work just fine of multiple diffrent levels and in multiple different ways. Anyone can argue the primary purpose of the martial arts and of training - with many diffrent opinions promulgated and debated. In my experience, anyone who had trained in the martial arts is far better off in many ways than those who have never trained.

Martial art training provides mental, spriitual, social, and physical opportunities for development and enhancement of base skills and knowledge. With regard to physical defense. they help individuals to avoid such conflicts which is likely to be their greatest and most important skill. When the worst occurs, they provide a tool box with a variety of different techniques, concepts, and ideas to draw upon when the chips are down - any one of which could mean the difference between survival and demise.

While martial arts training cannot guarantee anything, and while there may be other ways to develop physical defensive skills beyond the martial arts, I personally don't believe there is any doubt that regular and long term training in the martial arts is effective, beneficial, prudent, and supremely enjoyable for most people. If I had any doubts, I would not have been studying and teaching the subject for over twenty years!

Ken C
9th Dan HapMoosaKi-Do
8th Dan TaeKwon-Do
7th Dan YongChul-Do

Answer 10

Mostly stemming from ignorance regarding the martial arts.

I have successfully defended myself dozens of times in street fights and mugging 'attempts' using the martial arts of Judo, Karate, and Jiu-jitsu, so I know from first hand experience that they do work.

But I have my doubts about the effectiveness of BJJ and MMA junk.