TKD effectiveness

[tsdtony]

Very well done.I dont think anymore can be said.

[Sam]

exactly - that pretty much summarises the TMA / MMA differences - trainign methods and approach. [the main and NOT only differences]

[SubGrappler]

I don't know, maybe I'm way off here, but isn't one of the purposes of martial arts to be the kind of person who DOESN'T get into fights?

Not neccessarily- martial arts are supposed to teach you how to fight. Philosophers teach you how to become a better person

I'm not talking about true self-defense here, fighting because someone else has made the first move. I'm talking about adding to violence on the street or whereever just because you can--because you are a powerful weapon and you want to use this to get at people who bug you or threaten you or whatever.

It depends. Alot of people say "I've never had to use my skills in a real life situation." That pretty much means that you really have no idea whether or not what you know works (or if you do or dont know how to fight).

Now, Im not saying go out there and beat the hell out of people for fun, but theres no reason you have to change your attitude and philosophy just because you decided to learn how to fight. It would also be nice to compete in something thats full contact, that way you wont be nearly as nervous or scared when a real opportunity comes around.

My instructor, who is 7th dan and in his early 50s, says he is very proud of the fact that he never had to use TKD on the street until about 10 years ago when two guys jumped on him on a city street. He says he was easily able to "immobilize" both and get away, but what he's really proud of is that he went so long without fighting.

Thats his preference, and theres nothing wrong with it. But, what if he had gotten into a fight and realized that what he was trying to do was grossly ineffective? What if none of it worked? He would realize that he spent all those years doing the wrong thing. If this happened to him when he was say, 20, then hed have even more confidence in his techniques and fighting ability (and KNOWING that you can fight goes a LONG way in a fight).

It seems like if we do martial arts right, we learn how to be calm in a hot situation, how to have self-control, how to respect others, even how to walk away from an insult. We know we can use force, and we can if we have to. But it should take a LOT more for us to "have to" use force.

Once again, thats a matter of opinion/preference. I have to deal with situations like this at work, and I handle them just as you wrote, but I do that because thats what I got hired on for (and my instructor is close friends with my boss). I dont want to leave a bad taste in either of their mouths.

If im not working though, then its an entirely different story.

[Sam]

Its great to learn how to keep calm, calm down a situation.... but eventually you may end up needing that trianign it work..... so i would say just as a prevetative measure, id want to make sure hwat im learning works.