The death of "traditional martial arts".

[Kusotare]

Silly.. overly floral and romantic/philosophical, but ignoring the practical. Like the difference between the storybook belt color story ('they never wash the belt and it changes colors like seasons signifying growth etc..') and the pragmatic ('I didn't want to throw a newbie who couldn't breakfall, so I had people wear colored belts to pick out senior students.')

One is 'things you do', the other is 'things you tell rich tourists you do'.

No,no... You have that wrong - we never wash our belts as it would be disrespectful to the ryu-ha!

Also, we never let our belts touch the floor - again a mark of disrespect.

K.

[cheesefrysamurai]

If i was taking martial arts strictly for practicality, it would probably eliminate most martial arts.

I would probably end up with krav maga as its extremely practical. Minimal unnecessary movement

IMO the need for practicality and cutting out anything extraneous is born out of necessity.

Many of us like those stories, like the belt that starts out white and yellows over time and discolors over the years of hard training. It expresses a philosophy that we try to live by.

Heres a piece of practicality I derive from that saying - the color of your belt doesnt matter nearly as much as how it got to be that color.

In truth those martial arts masters who seem mystical, aren't magicians, they practiced to the point where their level of finesse is not something we can easily understand, where their technique became so efficient that they could hit that "sweet spot" every time and generate a level of power that some think isnt possible

[ps1]

No,no... You have that wrong - we never wash our belts as it would be disrespectful to the ryu-ha!

Ewwww... that's pretty gross. Plus it has nothing to do with tradition or respect.

http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2005/09/09/urban-legends-of-karate-belts/

[Harkon72]

You should never wash a Japanese style belt in any case; if it shrinks unevenly, it will go out of shape and look awful.

[Tkdampbjj]

I would like to know why the skills I practice are not "self defense"

Boxing, kicking, footwork, grappling, knife and club skills, elbows knees, and conditioning.

Now do I claim robe an unstoppable street fighter who is 91-0.

Yes.

These attributes I have developed are certainly going to improve my odds of surviving a self defense scenario

[Kusotare]

No,no... You have that wrong - we never wash our belts as it would be disrespectful to the ryu-ha!

Ewwww... that's pretty gross. Plus it has nothing to do with tradition or respect.

http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2005/09/09/urban-legends-of-karate-belts/

I was joking

[Kusotare]

I would like to know why the skills I practice are not "self defense"

Boxing, kicking, footwork, grappling, knife and club skills, elbows knees, and conditioning.

Now do I claim robe an unstoppable street fighter who is 91-0.

Yes.

These attributes I have developed are certainly going to improve my odds of surviving a self defense scenario

Depends how you train them. As you say they are attributes, but that in itself doesn't necessarily qualify what you are doing as "self defence"

K.

[JusticeZero]

I'm curious about what level of training in 'Budo' is the equivalent of the minimum standard of 'Self Defense' training, and if, if that is your focus, you meet it. Daily debriefing sessions on every aspect of daily life to compare it to the ideals set down in writings on feudal Samurai codes of behavior? Have any of your fellow students needed to perform hark-kiri yet?

[Kusotare]

Several have tried, but I haven't lost one yet

K.

[Kusotare]

I'm curious about what level of training in 'Budo' is the equivalent of the minimum standard of 'Self Defense' training, and if, if that is your focus, you meet it. Daily debriefing sessions on every aspect of daily life to compare it to the ideals set down in writings on feudal Samurai codes of behavior? Have any of your fellow students needed to perform hark-kiri yet?

I'm not sure you can measure Budo and Self Defence on the same weighing scale.

As for whether our training meets a minimum standard? - Well that's kinda the point. Budo is all about getting better, so no, I guess we don't often hit the sweet spot - but it's all about the trying.

There is only training!

K