Game Changers

[sensei8]

Has anyone ever seen the movie Moneyball with Brad Pitt?? In the move, based on a true story, the GM for the Oakland Athletes of MLB, Billy Beane, who's rebuilding the team from scratch, is convinced by the newly hired Assistant GM, Harvard-educated statistician Paul DePodesta, to use sabermetric principles to run his team, with OBP, On Base Percentage, was the way to win a game, the way to win the pennant, the way to get into the playoffs, and a way to win the World Series. After all, the more 'W' than 'L', the better chance to the promised land of the World Series.

So, the GM of the Oakland Athletes starts filling his roster with players that have a proven OBP. The scouts were irate!! The way to pick a player was to scout them, following them, track them, fretted them, and to go by owns gut feelings about potential players.

Over the 2002 season, the Oakland A's, went from the basement to the stratosphere by winning consecutive playoff appearances. Like-minded GM's started to adopt Billy Beane's strategies for their chance of similar successes, including the efforts of In-Play Percentages for an improved "Outs" ratio, and looking more at High School players for the draft.

Oh, btw, at the end of the 2002 season, the Red Sox offered Billy Beane over $12 Million dollars to GM the Red Sox; Beane turned the offer down!!

Actions of Beane changed the game of baseball forever!!

Within the world of MA, and in your opinion, who were the game changers??

I'll start...

Bruce Lee was that game changer. How so?? By one statement...one quote...

"Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own"

This, for me, and I'm pretty sure a countless number of MAists as well, was a game changer. This started me looking, and respecting, other styles of the MA. My first exchange was with TKD because they had a kicking arsenal that respect to this day; Shindokan kicks are waist down.

Had it not been for Bruce Lee's quote above, I'd be stuck in the limitations of Shindokan, and not changed my game to be eclectic as possible.

Over my 53 years in Shindokan, I've cross trained in a wide plethora of styles of the MA to add to my own; it has made all of the difference in my MA betterment. I'm complete in my totality as a MAist, even though, I'm still learning something new and effective every day.

Another game changer was our own Soke.

He refused to compromise with the status quo that permeated Okinawa Karate of that day, and possibly still today. Soke was cast aside by the powers that be in Okinawa Karate because he refused to join their organization(s) and follow their way and their rules. The powers that be in Okinawa Karate back then, made it extremely difficult for Soke across the board. So, he finally decided that he and Dai-Soke would travel to the USA in order to teach Shindokan.

That too, has made all of the difference to me. I don't succumb to any governing body of Okinawa Karate or any other governing body of any MA style. After all, proof is on the floor; now and forever!!

[JazzKicker]

Great question! I can think of several, though it's questionable whether they changed the game for the better.

I would agree with Bruce Lee being a game changer.

The TV series, "Kung Fu" (based on Bruce Lee's story idea), despite it's flaws, brought a mainstream US appeal to martial arts, paving the way for Lee's and so many other Kung Fu movies. I admit it influenced me towards taking up karate.

More recently, Dana White, Gracie JiuJitsu, and the UFC upended the martial arts world. They certainly made traditional martial arts look useless and obsolete.

In Okinawan karate, I think GM George Dillman was a game changer, though now many think he's a charlatan. He was a pioneer in instructional videos, teaching seminars, and interpreting the classic forms as hidden road maps to pressure point strikes (tuite).

[Tempest]

Dillman was and IS a charlatan.

Let me think... some people who were game changers:

Well for me, the Gracies obviously. But also Anderson Silva.

Ann Maria Demars. Certainly changed American Judo.

The Karate Kid... It was fun and made Karate cool to young people which helped fund a generation of martial artists.

Mohammed Ali - Changed boxing. Started the idea of a fighter "selling" the fight outside the pro-wrestling circuit.

[OneKickWonder]

The Karate Kid... It was fun and made Karate cool to young people which helped fund a generation of martial artists.

.

I was practicing wado around the time karate kid was released. It used to amuse me because you could accurately forecast waves of new starters just by checking the TV guide to see if there was going to be yet another repeat airing of karate kid.

We'd get a wave of newbies, all full of enthusiasm, all believing that within just a few weeks some ageing mystical character would turn them into the next elite fighter. After a couple of weeks of sweat and minor bruising, most would disappear. By about 4 weeks the last of the new wave would have dwindled away. Then, a few more weeks would pass, then lo and behold, loads of newbies again. The movie had been aired once again. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

[singularity6]

I think the internet has been the biggest game changer in a long time. Historically, the only way one could really immerse oneself in martial arts was either by practicing, or through limited media consumption (magazines, books and physical video like VHS or DVD.)

Now we have online forums (like this one,) retail websites, social media pages and YouTube channels. It's never been easier to find advice, different perspectives, or to buy equipment.

[bushido_man96]

Chuck Norris was a game changer. The sheer bulk of movies he put out were great exposure for the Martial Arts, especially in the U.S. I remember watching Chuck Norris movies with my dad growing up. Lone Wolf McQuade is still one of my all-time favorite movies.

[OneKickWonder]

I think the internet has been the biggest game changer in a long time. ...

Now we have online forums (like this one,) retail websites, social media pages and YouTube channels. It's never been easier to find advice, different perspectives, or to buy equipment.

I agree, but with a caveat.

There is a lot of really good martial arts related stuff online as you say. But there is also an epic amount of utter rubbish, and then there's the heavily biased stuff.

YouTube is chock full of videos that follow a tediously repetitive format of vs BJJ/MMA, where we know in advance that the BJJ or MMA man is going to beat up someone who is not very skilled in their art, and probably has little to no experience in the ring.

Then there's all the self proclaimed experts. Those that demonstrate things against a compliant opponent and tell us it definitely works.

And dare I even mention the self defence brigade or worse, the no touch chi masters. Or those that punch through 10ft of concrete or have base ball bats bust over their heads.

And we all know, thanks to the Internet, that aikido doesn't work at all, and karate is a relic. A few years ago Krav Maga was the only style that worked. Before that it was Muy Thai. Today it is BJJ.

There is a lot of good stuff online, but I think one needs to already be a reasonably knowledgeable martial artist to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

[JR 137]

I think the internet has been the biggest game changer in a long time. ...

Now we have online forums (like this one,) retail websites, social media pages and YouTube channels. It's never been easier to find advice, different perspectives, or to buy equipment.

I agree, but with a caveat.

There is a lot of really good martial arts related stuff online as you say. But there is also an epic amount of utter rubbish, and then there's the heavily biased stuff.

YouTube is chock full of videos that follow a tediously repetitive format of vs BJJ/MMA, where we know in advance that the BJJ or MMA man is going to beat up someone who is not very skilled in their art, and probably has little to no experience in the ring.

Then there's all the self proclaimed experts. Those that demonstrate things against a compliant opponent and tell us it definitely works.

And dare I even mention the self defence brigade or worse, the no touch chi masters. Or those that punch through 10ft of concrete or have base ball bats bust over their heads.

And we all know, thanks to the Internet, that aikido doesn't work at all, and karate is a relic. A few years ago Krav Maga was the only style that worked. Before that it was Muy Thai. Today it is BJJ.

There is a lot of good stuff online, but I think one needs to already be a reasonably knowledgeable martial artist to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I agree with the sentiment that one needs to be an expert to separate the good from the bad, but one doesn’t necessarily have to be an expert. I’m far from an expert (where’s that thread?), yet I can spot it relatively easily. I’d say some experience is necessary. Even people who’ve never trained can see the nonsense; at least people who’ve actually been in a fight. And people with a bit of common sense.

The negative things you’ve mentioned are a good point, but they can be very positive too. It all depends on your perspective. I like them because they expose the ridiculousness. They help with credibility and a lack there of. But people also see a snippet of what they’re doing and think that’s all there is or everything they do is along those lines. A great example is my organization (Seido) has an annual tournament, and various dojos hold an in-house tournament. Kumite is point fighting. There’s no other videos I’ve seen of us sparring. People on the outside think that’s all we do. Couldn’t be further from the truth. The number of people competing is a small faction, and its once or twice a year tops. I’ve seen people on other forums asking about Seido, and a few times I’ve head all we do is light contact point fighting for sparring. In over 3 years in Seido, I’ve done one tournament. Preparation for it was several weeks, and it was during off-hours class times (our CI added a weekly class for anyone who wanted to compete). The ones who compete and/or show up to those classes do so to change it up from the normal routine. Some people came to the classes even though they didn’t want to compete.

If guess that’s a long-winded way of saying the internet can help and hurt. Not everything everyone does is online; you only get a snapshot.

[JR 137]

One of the biggest game changers is Mas Oyama. It’s a stretch, but very arguably more so than Bruce Lee IMO. Oyama took Jissen Kumite (bare knuckle full contact) and made it the norm when either no one was doing it or very, very few were. He put theory into practice in a way that no one did previously (or at least on that scale). Kyokushin had and still has students in the millions. Yes it’s hard to verify and refute, but there’s no denying the size of Kyokushin. After Oyama’s death there was significant splintering of Kyokushin. Counting up the number of “official” Kyokushin organizations (IKO 1, IKO2, etc.) and the well known offshoots like ShinKyokushin, Oyama karate, Enshin, Ashihara, Seidokaikan, Seido, Kudo, etc. leads to a ton of practitioners worldwide. Then do the impossible of adding up the dojos who left those organizations and started their own. A huge portion of the karate world can trace their lineage to Mas Oyama.

Love him or hate him and what he’s done, there’s no denying the impact he’s had. Sending his students to fight in different countries under different rules and organizing the first world open full contact karate tournament was a huge game changer.

All IMO.

[LLLEARNER]

I would add Royce Gracie. He took an art with little to no striking (like other popular arts), used it to great effect and now it is one of the fastest growing arts in the world.

Most of the major movie starts in the 80's and 90's.

Fumio Demura. he taught much of Hollywood, and really pioneered the MA in the US.