XtremeTrainer

In reference to the part of your quote in bold, that's part of my point, that its the effectiveness of the fighter not the effectiveness of the fighting style that is being compared whenever you pit two fighters against each other. I've never known of any martial art that involves getting your friends to help you but the fact of the matter is that's what you can often expect to come up against in the street. In the street you can expect group attacks and you can expect the use of weapons. So if you want to be street effective you need to take those things into consideration.

But there were rules. For instance it could only be one on one, you couldn't have friends help you out. No weapons were allowed. There were also rules against biting and eye gouging. There is always rules of some sort.

Solid post!! To the bold type above... Like you said, content and context must be considered, but the way I was taught, belt and rank are not one in the same. To the bold type above, I would think most if not all people who train in the martial arts are taught that belt and rank are not the same, I don't see why anybody would think they're the same. The fact of the matter is though, that sometimes the two things are confused. For instance, lets say somebody says, "I want to get a black belt," you could give them websites and/or tell them about martial arts stores where they can go and buy a black belt. If, on the other hand, somebody says, "I want to earn the rank of 1st Dan," that is a different matter. Earning the rank of 1st Dan is not something you can do by buying it from a store or a website. The way the two things are often confused, at least from my observations, is that somebody will say the former and they will really mean the latter.

In Star Wars The Last Jedi when Yoda makes his appearance, which in my opinion was the only good thing about the movie, he says that failure is the greatest teacher of all. Another good lesson.

By that logic I could go to a martial arts store or get on eBay or whatever, buy any color belt I want including a black belt, and put it on and that would mean that I earned the rank that the belt represents and I automatically have all the knowledge and skill that comes with it. Put it this way, if I were to put on a star would that automatically make me a General in the US Army?

This is basically what I've been saying. Rank is not a physical thing. The belts and certificates and so forth, they're just symbols of the ranks. Earning a rank under a certain instructor means that you've met certain standards set by that instructor and that you've acquired the knowledge and skill to meet those standards. Sure, belts and certificates can be lost or destroyed, in a fire for instance, but that doesn't change the fact that you've earned the rank and that you've got the knowledge and skill that you acquired in order to earn the rank.

There has been much posting here about the Cobra Kai series on Youtube Red which stats Ralph Macchio who played Daniel and William Zabka who played Johnny and takes place 30 years after the events of the first movie. Anyway, I want to talk more about the first movie. In the first movie, I though the plot and character development was quite good although you really do need to read the book to understand some stuff as the book explained certain stuff and there were certain scenes that were in the book that weren't in the movie. In the book in between the country club scene and the arcade scene there is a scene where Daniel and Ali have an argument and that explains why Ali was not being nice to Daniel at the arcade. There has been some confusion among fans of the movie who haven't read the books as to why Ali was being mean to Daniel at the arcade when all Daniel did was embarrass himself at the country club by having spaghetti sauce spilled all over him. I don't know if such a scene where Daniel and Ali had an argument in between the country club and arcade scenes was shot for the movie and then cut from the final draft or if such a scene was ever made for the movie but the book does have such a scene and in my opinion it was a big mistake that they didn't include it. Also Daniel's age. Among fans there has been some confusion over Daniel's age. The book clearly states that Daniel is 15 going on 16 and the birthday he has with Mr Miyagi is his 16th birthday. This would seemingly contradict Daniel having his senior prom the following spring in the sequel as 16 is a bit young to finish high school but Daniel might've skipped a grade. Anyway those are some of the stuff that the book explains that the movie doesn't. So I encourage any fan of the movie to read the book if they haven't done so.

I've been doing BJJ for about a year and a half now. What I can tell you with what experience I've got is that particularly at higher levels it is less physical and more strategic. While it does require some strength no matter what level you're at, from what I know the Gracies modified Japanese Jiu Jitsu first of all to focus more on groundwork but also for some of the moves to require minimal physical strength. BJJ is human chess, especially when you get to more advanced levels. As of right now all I've got are pawns and maybe a knight, the really advanced people have got all queens.

So do you train at a school that only uses white and black? I do know that back in the day there were dojos where the only belts they used were white and black, they had no in between colors, but I've never known of any modern dojo that does that.

Of course a belt doesn't bestow any new abilities. As Miyagi put it, Karate is in the head and in the heart not in the belt. The belt is just a symbol of the knowledge and skill that's within the head and the heart.

Not if you're the grapes being squashed.

In the future I will make a thread where I talk about how I personally feel about rank. The purpose of this thread was just to point out the difference between ranks and belts, that the belt was just the symbol of the rank not the rank itself.

The difference is that belts are symbols of rank, simply having a belt doesn't mean you're of the rank. Just like in the US Army how a star is the symbol for the rank of General. When a person gets promoted to General they do it by meeting certain standards and they have special rights and privileges that come with the rank and they wear a star to show and symbolize the rank. However, simply coming into possession of a physical star or simply putting a star on will obviously not make you a General.

As for which style is superior, if grappling or striking styles are superior, or if there is a certain grappling or striking style that is superior I would say it depends on the person doing it rather than the style but it also depends on the rules that you're fighting under. There was a time when the Gracies were challenging all these top level strikers and kick boxing champions to fights and their challenges were being turned down because the fighters they were challenging did not train to fight in fights where going to the mat was allowed and they knew they would lose. By the same token the Gracies knew they would lose if they fought under the rules used in kick boxing matches as they were not kick boxers and thus they would not fight in such a match.

Belts in and of themselves mean nothing. Rank on the other hand, I would say that depends where you got the rank and what standards you had to meet in order to get it. In BJJ for instance rank is not just handed out, at least I've never known of any BJJ school that does, so if you've got a high rank in BJJ you would have to have earned it and it will show on the floor.

Its possible for a single punch to kill depending on how its thrown, where it lands, ect. You could punch somebody and your stars could just happen to line up correctly, or incorrectly depending on how you want to look at it, and your punch ends up killing the person.

I agree but what the way I see it, why should somebody even be tried by 12 just because they refused to be carried by 6? Why punish somebody for refusing to be a victim?

Well as I pointed out in my original post, I used the example of two grown men both in college and no weapons are involved. So for age and gender that's covered, two males who are of the typical age that college students are, late teens to early twenties. I didn't mention anything about race as its not fair to add race into the equation but for sake of discussion lets say they're both white men.

For styles of the martial arts that use colored belts as a system of rank I would like to point this out, the physical belt is not the rank its a symbol of the rank. This should be obvious enough but all too often people confuse the two things or at least act like they confuse them. Lets say somebody says, "I want to get a black belt." You could tell them that they could easily order or buy such a belt on the internet or from a martial arts store for about $10. Most martial arts supplies stores will sell you any color belt you want including a black belt but I don't think that's what most people mean when they say they want to get a black belt. What they probably mean is "I want to earn the rank of 1st Dan," or Shodan as its sometimes called, the first rank that is represented by wearing a black belt but as I said the belt is just a symbol. Earning the rank of 1st Dan is not about acquiring a certain belt its about gaining the knowledge and skill that is required for 1st Dan and in doing so meeting the standards for the rank of 1st Dan. As Mr. Miyagi said in the movie "The Karate Kid," Karate is in the head and in the heard it is not in the belt. What Mr. Miyagi says is true, the belt just symbolizes what's in the head and heart.

I've seen the whole season this is what I have to say about it. Spoiler ALERT! If you haven't seen them read no further. I must say its a decent series, it does get addicting although I see it as a spoof and not something that would be canon. It starts out with Johnny being more or less as a bum. He is living in this dingy apartment and he is doing what odd jobs he can to make ends meet although he is not able to hold down the job where he installs televisions. He also happens to be an alcoholic as he's always drinking beer. He ends up renting a unit in a strip mall which he uses as his cobra kai dojo as he decides to re-open cobra kai. At first he struggles with the business as he only has one student but then he gets many students and they compete at the all valley tournament and win after he convinces the board to lift the lifelong ban of cobra kai from the tournament. The series has some interesting twists to it. In the beginning of the series the boy who would be Johnny's first student, Miguel, is a kid with low self esteem who gets picked on. He often gets bullied and one of the main bullies that picks on him is this boy who is dating Daniel's daughter while Daniel is doing really well running this really successful auto dealership and making it big, living in an expensive house and being really rich. Miguel starts training with Johnny and eventually ends up beating up the bully whose picking on him although in their first confrontation he loses and he also ends up winning Daniel's daughter's affections and she dumps the bully for him. However, then Miguel starts to become a bully. It seems that Johnny's solution to dealing with bullies is to be an even bigger bully, and in that Im disappointed. Overall though I must say it was good. Johnny's son starts training with Daniel and there is a scene where Daniel is doing some kind of handstand which he says is the last technique shown to him by the late, great, Mr. Miyagi.

From what I know, self defense can be very iffy in court. If you're attacked and you stop your attacker you're supposed to stop, you can't continue to beat on a subdued attacker and call it self defense because the goal of self defense is to stop an attacker and once you've stopped them there is no need to continue to beat on them. This makes sense. However, to make it more complicated I also understand you're supposed to meet force with equal force, for instance if a small child takes a slap at you, you can't shoot him. Shooting a small child who takes a slap at you would be way too excessive and you would most likely be looking at murder charges, this also makes sense in a situation such as this where there is such a huge difference in force. Now, lets say Im in a situation such as this. Im a grown man and Im attacked by a grown man. Lets say we're both grown men in college and we're roughly the same size. He attacks me first and I fight back. We both don't have any weapons and I stop once I stop him. The way I see it, I shouldn't get in trouble since I didn't do anything excessive. A grown man is equal to another grown man, bare hands is equal to bare hands, and I stopped once I stopped him.

Yes I've though of that too. The book expands on it a bit more. In the book Mr. Miyagi says something along the lines of, "either do Karate yes or Karate no. If you do Karate guess so you get squashed like a grape." So it makes sense to do things properly or not to do them at all. So if you're say, sparring in Karate, you can either throw a technique or you can not throw a technique but if you sort of throw a technique, if you throw it half heartedly, you will be squashed like a grape.

Im thinking of the Karate Kid movies. They're fictional stories but they do make some real points. For instance it makes the point about balance being a lesson of life that goes beyond just physical balance, also, Karate is in the head and the heart, not in the belt, and in the third movie it points out that Karate comes from inside the student. The instructor provides the roots which are a necessity but the development of the art happens in the student and eventually the student will develop it his own way and do it his own way.

Particularly with children all too often we like to use pretend stories to make real points. An example would be the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call the story part pretend and part real. The part about a tortoise and a hare running a race, that part is obviously pretend but the lessons that the story teaches, that slow and steady win the race, that you should pace yourself, and that just because you're ahead doesn't mean you should get comfortable and take breaks, those are real lessons. So the point Im trying to make is just because a story is partially pretend doesn't mean it isn't also partially real. Now, what might this have to do with martial arts? Well I know some examples of fictional martial arts stories that make real points. I would like to mention some of these stories but in doing so I don't want them to be dismissed as pretend stories and that therefore there is nothing real that can be learned from them.

I've seen some episodes. From what I've seen in my opinion it's quite good although it looks like its a spoof and its not canon.