I Am Sick Of So Many Things

I've decided to moan and complain about all the things that have annoyed me over the years as a martial artists.

Children

I think it is great that kids are doing MA but there are a few things that I am sick of seeing. First of all young kids getting their blackbelts. I think you should have to wait until your 16/17/18. If you can't demonstrate the patience then you don't deserve it. We can debate over 14/15 forever but we can all agree that there is something wrong when a 9/10 yearold is awarded their blackbelt. The youngest I've ever seen was 7 and it turned my stomach.

The second thing about kids is that they should have their own classes seperate from those above five feet tall. I'm sick of tripping over them. I know that alot of schools have seperate classes but from my experiance the majority don't.

Those Undeserving

So many blackbelts out there who got their belts after six months. Most belts are awarded for time served not abilities. I think it is time to do away with the whole belt system. It carries know meaning anymore.

Softening

The martial arts are and should remain primarily about fighting. It seems today that Kata is more important then one's ability to defend themself. My biggest pet peeve is those who say and believe that size doesn't matter. Strength is a very big factor. If your 5'6 and 120 pounds you will have to be the reincarnation of Bruce Lee to take down someone who is 6'4 and 220. Toughen up people(that was a general comment not directed at the user's of this forum imparticuler).

Breaking

Any idiot could do it. It's not very immpressive. I taught my little sister to do it. I'm talking about breaking wood. It is immpressive to see someone break a block of cement that's wresting flat against a solid object.

Competitions

Wow. I tapped him more then he tapped me. Wimps. Lose the 8 layers of pads. Learn to take a hit.

I know I'm forgetting something. Oh well.

:kaioken:

lol i agree

now adays its pretty hard to find decent teachers.. most just give the next belt to keep the paychecks coming..

[ This Message was edited by: Dbzhub on 2002-05-24 19:22 ]

Blue,

I'm glad you started this thread. I agree with the "7 year old BB" thing.

My pet peeve lately is a girl in my class. Her technique SUCKS. I mean, she REALLY sucks. She don't even try to improve. The white belts have technique better than her! Just because she is a rank higher than me, she thinks she can tell me (and others) how to do things. NOT. When she grows up (she is a immature 14 year old), and learns to RESPECT the arts and the people around her and actually TRY harder in class, THEN she can tell me what to do.

I'm not saying that I'm perfect. I'm definitely far from it. But for someone who doesn't even try in class, like her, then she expects people to listen to her???

And ego's bother me, too. The "rank going to the head" thing. I won't go there.

The katas are not there for no reason. The katas are meant to contribute to the overall abilities of the martial artist. However, to say that self defense is the most important aim of martial arts is to miss the whole point, which is much greater and cannot be divided into component parts and rated for importance.

Secondly, don't write off the whole belt system just because black belts in some arts are easy to get. There's a thread about this, I think here in the General Martial Arts forum. You might want to read it.

I tend to ignore most of those things and those people in particular. I even ignore those people on other things besides MA because it frustrates me so much. Who says they don't think the same about me though ?

Even so, it doesn't really seem to do much to help the issue, only makes it worse since these people probably increase with proportion to the amount of them.

Maybe if we could exchange opinions with these people and instill a little humility in them and show them they do not know everything, ie. they may know more on some aspects than us, but we know more on others. Still, I find it incredibly frustrating when someone who does not even train in MA, but has great awe for it tells me I am wrong and he is right without any arguments to back up their point when I am trying to express my views & thoughts. Can you blame me for not talking about MA with him, or trying to offer thoughts that might make them a better 'martial artist' ? I find it hard to talk about MA with people who have a lot of kata in their style, or do a traditional style. That's their thing, fine. But, it's not mine and the fact I don't want to train in it, is not wrong. Further more, I find it so ironic some of these people study a traditional style, but go on to say we do a bit of everything at our dojo, whatever works, we train in. Yet, when it comes to crosstraining, weights, sparring matches, they're not interested & stop listening.

To sum it up, I guess I'm frustrated by people being traditional for the sake of tradition. In my opinion, this is utterly foolish! I feel very strongly about this, because the way I see it is it corresponds to technology and technology is always improving. Just about everyone uses a computer these days, it makes life a lot more easier. How many people still handwrite a letter for the sake of tradition when they can use email to type it up in 15min and send so it's there within 2 seconds ? How many people handwrite assignments or documents they have to do for work ? How many people use some form of technology to entertain themselves these days ? I'm not saying old methods won't work, or don't have their value, but modern methods are much more efficient and productive, which is why I think we need to keep an open view. Also, most of these people idolise Bruce Lee and we all know he broke tradition and is guilty of heresy. The end result ? Nothing short of phenomenal to these people..

I hope I make my point clear...

I may be ignorant about kata and forms, but I HAVE done this sort of training. I did karate for a year when I was younger, now I'm sorry I stopped training in MA, but I found karate way too boring because of the kata & I didn't know there were other things at that age. I might have been too young to see the point, but mimicking movements as closely as possible does not help someone learn how to fight. It taught me how to throw a punch and a kick or two, that's pretty evident from everytime I hit someone and they'd go down. But, was it the kata that taught me this ?! No.. it was mere repitition of the technique that taught me to punch & kick. If I hit someone and they didn't go down the first time and they fought back, I'd be in trouble. Once I didn't get to throw the first punch and I got smacked in the nose, I went down so quick and I didn't get up for a while. I never learnt how to fight properly until I started sparring and getting hit.

Sure, there's the application of the kata too, but I did kata at my last dojo too and I was 16, so I dare say I was mature enough to understand it this time. We had one kata, that consisted of 24-26 movements, I can't remember exactly how many. I never learnt it all and I was there for a year. Why ? Because it's merely mimicking movements off someone else. Ask any of the other higher belts who knew the kata and could perform it to explain what it meant, they wouldn't know where to begin. To me, unless you made the kata, it just seems ludicrous to mimick it. Not everyone thinks the same, not everyone has the same fighting style. What one person perceives as one thing, another will perceive as another.

Kata was originally used to hide techniques in it because they were illegal wasn't it ? This is all I can see it does, teaches technique.. I'm yet to understand how kata can teach someone how to fight... I've never got anything more than you're wrong with a shake of the head..

Bon,

Can I ask what "karate" that was? And what ya take now?

Anyways, I need to gripe again. Another thing that Blue brought up. The "undeserving". The girl I was refering to earlier doesn't deserve her rank. The big reason is that she doesn't even try. I'm sick of teachers passing people who "know the motions" but don't try to better themselves in anyway.

If I was a teacher, I would not pass people like this. I don't care how much they pay me. It's not right. If a parent "complained" that I didn't pass their "dojo darling" because I felt they weren't ready, I would tell them that you brought your kid to me to learn something. If they don't wanna try, then I'm not going to pass them. If they don't like it, go find a McDojo.

Sorry if I came across a little harsh, but I'm tired of people getting something they don't deserve while the rest of us are busting our asses to get it.

_________________

Laurie S.

Yellow belt/green stripe TKD

(formally 5th gup blue belt TSD)

[ This Message was edited by: karatekid1975 on 2002-05-24 21:09 ]

I know the feeling of having a hard time finding a school. In time I just gave up.

I finnaly decided that training at home was the best thing for me. I think I'll start a thread about that later.

Amen preach it brother. LOL....

I really hate the kid black belt thing. I don't test them until they are 16. I made mine at 18 and at the time I felt I was a bit young. I think 16 is a good age becaue it goes hand in hand with your drivers licenes. If you can kill someone with a car then you can with karate LOL.....

Im also with you on point sparring I hate it. You learn by getting hurt IMO... If you keep doing something and don't fell pain then you think its good.

I slightly disagree about the kata thing. I love kata and think when it is done correctly it is just as good as actual sparring. But I understand your point.

KarateKid, I did chito ryu karate before. I've done freestyle kickboxing and I do BJJ now..

G95champ, PLEASE explain to me HOW you think that. That's the part I fail to understand. Are you saying it's like the equivalent of shadow boxing ? It causes me great provocation when people can't explain their point to me and I can explain mine. I believe if you can't explain/teach something to someone, then you don't understand it yourself.