XMA on Discovery

[pineapple]

I had great expectations when they described the new technology that would reveal things never revealed before. I was disappointed with the show and turned it off before it was over. This is not the kind of martial art that I train in.

On the other hand, I must give my respect for the people who choose to do this type of art because it obviously takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

[KnifeHand]

I agree that most of the things they do in their forms and katas are useless in a real confrontation. But I sure as hell wouldn't want to pick a fight with a dude that could flip upside down while kicking and fling kamas around faster than the eye can catch. Every system starts with the basics. You learn a front kick before a crescent kick or hook kick. I'm sure these guys understand the basics, they just expand on them. What I'm saying is that there has to be some amount of practicality in their art - they just exploit the "extreme" portion of it. I watched the Discovery Channel thing, and found it very entertaining. I noticed that in the sparring competitions, no jumping, flipping, diving, or spinning was used. It looked to me like they used very fundamental scoring techniques. Anyway, I'm not a huge XMA fan at all, but I do feel that these guys are very talented and have something to offer to the martial arts world.

[SevenStar]

uselessness is in the eye of the beholder. the sheer athletic ability of those guys alone would enable them to land many of those techniques in a real confrontation. I've seen a tkd training friend of mine win a confrontation with high and spinning kicks.

[Dark Shogun]

My mum taped the programme for me.

"I taped a karate show for you dear"

"Thanks mum"

I cracked up when I got to the kata competition, man that was lame. I liked the way the main chap that the show followed (Matt I believe) was made out to be 'traditional'.

The guy with the katana in the kata comp was a laugh too. He talked about his 'push-pull' method of cutting and proceeded to jerk the sword back and forth. And if you flip sideways in a sword fight your so going to get cut. I must admit tho, he had the best flips of all the 'martial artisits', he didn't seem to bend his legs he just seemed to levitae and turn upside down.

All the show needed was smoke bombs.

[SloMo]

Well, I'm going to find something good in the show ( I did spend two hours of my life on it! ) and here it is.

I wish the entire show was just showing the people who were demonstrating the weapons. I've seen a couple of them at the US Open tournaments and Ming ( The woman doing the fans and wu shu sword ) is extremely talented. But I wouldn't call what she does "Xtreme". She doesn't flip or do twisty things in the air. Matt ( is that they guy they were following? ) was pretty weak in the weapons form because ( IMHO ) he showed no proficiency with the weapon at all. He could have been holding two hot dogs in his hands for all the actual weapons moves that he did.

I think XMA has it's place and it doesn't try to pretend it's anything more than what it is. I think PEOPLE try to make it more than what it is. I hope nobody gets too insulted with this comparison but it reminds me of pro wrestling. It's fun to watch, you appreciate the skill, and you can see the training it took. It's entertainment.

[Nick_UKWC]

I've got this show, some of it is quite interesting. They do those tests on the force of the kicks, coming in at over 2200psi

Most of it is pretty laughable though

[aefibird]

I hope nobody gets too insulted with this comparison but it reminds me of pro wrestling. It's fun to watch, you appreciate the skill, and you can see the training it took. It's entertainment.

Personally, I think that's a very good comparison. I respect the athletes in the WWE for all the hard work and training that they have to put in, but it is still entertainment. Same with XMA. Those who are good at XMA put a lot of effort into their training and come up with good MA-based entertainment.

[Jbone1]

The pain WWE or any organization like that, the guys get beat down. They get injured and though it's a show their bodies wear down.

It's not a good comparison in my opinion. Some of you guys need to get a grip, they don't make XMA out to be more than what it is. They train hard to become good athletes which lacks in MA today and they put on good shows for competition.

They don't say, hey you will fight better or you'll be unstoppable with these moves. But like someone said earlier, I would like someone who works as hard as they do to have my back. Mike Chat can have my back anytime.