RBSD

[bushido_man96]

the selling point of rsbd appears to be cutting out a lot of material that is not effective and/or reflects tradition. which i suppose is subjective. the end result is supposed to be faster learning. many other aspects from martial arts are lost when thinking strictly in terms of fighting. having functional ability is the most important yet more traditional styles offer so much in addition.

Personally, I think that this is the focal point of the Martial Arts; fighting. At least, self-defense, is very important, and should be the focal point.

[MMA_Jim]

My personal thoughts on RBSD are as follows

1: Very underqualified instructors

Often times instructors at such schools are very underqualified. For example, in many "military" and other RBSD systems, one only need to study for a brief period of time (say a few weeks or a few months) before being "qualified" to teach that system or that style. Most people who are beginners are ignorant to the idea that someone would be ill experienced yet still attempt to teach a self defense style- money is a powerfull motivater and leaves many people decieved.

2: Lack of credentials

This is probably one of the biggest problems I see with RBSD systems- no one has any experience in fighting or competing. The entire emphasis is " WE TRAIN FOR THE STREET, NOT FOR THE RING." Sounds like a good premise but a couple of things to understand:

1a: anyone can claim to have any number of unrecorded street fights, bar encounters, and prison brawls or what have you- its the most beautiful thing about these systems- you can claim any of these "real life" circumstances and never have to worry about someone disproving your credentials, because things like these cant be disproven, which brings us on to the next

2a: The purpose of ring fighting is that it can be recorded and documented without being corrupted- that is, when all is said and done with a ring fight we are left with one story about how the fight went down. There are no death touch or ninja gang stories. The other thing to take into account with ring fighting is that it is much more stressfull to step out onto a competition mat (assuming its a combat sport such as wrestling, BJJ, judo, muay thai, boxing, or sambo) or into a cage than it is to fight in real life. If you can handle the nerves you feel while getting ready to fight into the cage, real life encounters will be cake.

3a: Most instructors like to list military experience or some other form of service (such as swat/police, body guards, or my personal favorite, bouncers). The problem with this is that these services do not lend very well to hand to hand combat. The military teaches their recruits the most basic of h2h and for a good reason- we'd rather that you learn how to shoot a gun or operate a tank than how to effectively ko someone. You're almost never going to see a h2h confrontation in modern warfare and the military knows this. As such, even the military instructors are quite novice in terms of their skills. The same can be said for SWAT and police agencies, and being a bouncer is about as difficult and sitting in a corner and flirting with girls all night. Once again though, if one puts on their resume that they were a bouncers, they're free to fabricate any story they want and it cant be disproven. Its not to say that all former bouncers lie about their stories, its just that when it comes down to it, we cant use their word as objective evidence.

And finally # 3- over reliance on "deadly" techniques

Most RBSD schools teach and overabundance of eye gouging, groin grabbing, and biting. Such techniques are vastly overrated. Learning something basic such as how to throw a 1-2 combination or learning how to standup in base from your back is going to be so much more valuable and usefull than someone telling you to eye gouge someone. Such techniqes are desparation moves and quite honostly, are easily defeated and countered. Every girl knows from the age of 6 that it hurts a guy to get kicked in the groin, yet thousands of rapes still occur despite this, because its not as easy to execute in a real life situation and its an overrated technique thats not the guarenteed fight ender that its put out to be.

So, pick a school with instructors that can have actual fighting experience that can be proven and you'll be much better off in learning how to defend yourself

[ps1]

Good post MMA Jim,

You bring up some great points. As a veteran of Iraqi Freedom, I completely agree with what you say about military h2h combat. It's not focused upon. It's the very last layer of defense.