Ultimate Top Ten Martial Arts

[DragonzRage]

Did anyone see this program? I saw it on TV last night. The show ranked the "top ten" martial arts. It showed a short documentary segment for each ranked art. Some of the documentaries were pretty informative and interesting, but the whole concept of the show was preposterous...and the rankings just didn't seem to make much sense at all. First of all, despite how I might feel about the comparative fighting effectiveness of the different arts, I firmly believe that it is useless to argue over which one is best because different arts are good at different things. At the end of the day it depends solely upon what the individual practitioner is looking for, and what he or she gets out of it. The show might have had a bit more credibility if it actually established some specific criteria for its rankings. I did not see any indication of how they were ranking the martial arts, whether it be by plain ole fighting effectiveness, athleticism & health, culture, etc. They just seemed to describe ten different MAs, while assigning arbitrary ranks to them. Some of the rankings seemed completely unjustifiable by any standards. I mean come on, how the hell can you put ninjutsu in the top five?? Who the heck can even identify what "real" ninjutsu is nowadays? The ninja segement was definitely one of the hokiest parts of the show, complete with guys in black suits throwing dust in people's eyes, and dodging blind sword attacks with a "sixth sense". In another moment of absurdity, they ranked some art called Joko-kai or something like that. It is an art founded by an ex-marine who claims to have studied with all sorts of different masters while he was in Japan and Okinawa and according to him, he is recognized in Japan as a tenth degree black belt founder of his own style. His art is apparently based entirely on chi exercises that supposedly make its practitioners impervious to any strike. They showed his students doing breathing exercises and then half-heartedly punching and kicking each other in the groin, chest and throat and pretending that it didn't hurt. Its funny because you can tell that they aren't hitting each other that hard, and even then they are still showing signs of pain. These morons try to impress their master by trying to pretend that the strikes don't hurt, but i saw nothing high level in what they were doing. I may not be all about the chi stuff, but i have seen chinese guys demonstrate the iron body stuff much more convincingly. But these guys tensed up in anticipation before the strikes came and after they were hit they were grimacing in pain, but trying to hide it by smiling as if it didn't really hurt. Most fighters know that if you try to smile after taking a shot, that usually means that it hurt. Its funny cuz you can tell just by their body language that it was all these guys could do to keep themselves from jumping up and down in agony. I apologize if some people on this forum regard this Joko-kai guy as legit (and if you do you are welcomed to enlighten me with some facts I may not be aware of), but as it stands, I found the whole thing to be pretty hokey.

On the positive side, there were a few decent demonstrations. Bjj got number ten and they showed some vale tudo matches (but i missed most of it). Kali was number nine I think. They showed clips of some stick fights at a dog brothers gathering. Regardless of what my feelings are on TKD as a true fighting art, the TKD segment really showcased competitive TKD well by following a Korean teacher as he trains his students up for a regional championship tournament. TKD was ranked seven i think. The Muay Thai segment didn't say much to truly describe the art, but it did show highlights from Alex Gong's title match with Duane Ludwig. They put MT at number three. Traditional karate was number two. Shaolin Kung fu was given the number one spot, and they described it as "the father of all MAs" (which is such a fallacy!) The Shaolin segment showed a few glimpses of those wushu monk performers and then the rest of it was dedicated to advertising for that Chinese defector Shi-Yan Ming and his New York USA Shaolin Temple.

[ewallace]

I saw that a few months back. I agree the rankings were rather rediculous, but I would imagine that if I had to rank the top 10 cuisines of eastern Zimbabwe it would probably draw some criticism from the locals.

The main flaw with that show was that Juko Kai was not ranked at number one. SCARS would definitely follow immediately in the number two spot.

[fa_jing]

Hey I saw that, and managed to tape it except for the BJJ segment. It was a cool show, who cares about the top ten thing. The kung fu segment wasn't very nice. I liked the Karate segment more. The Juko-Kai thing was, well, impressive. Those were fairly hard shots. I know there was a thread about it a few months ago. Hard to believe they've never had an injury - actually, impossible to believe.

ESPN2 showed the Rudy Ott - ? Weatherspoon match for K-1. Not very exciting at all. I taped it, but our matches at the last tournament were more interesting. Neither seemed to want to commit, really, they just kept trying to pick away from the outside. Eventually Weatherspoon's kicks caused Ott's knee to swell up. It's kind of like watching the UFC, at least the ones I saw on tape that were not at all recent, it makes you think that if someone actually had some skill, they could clean up in there. Yet, no one's stepped up yet.

[SevenStar]

the thing to remember though is that they were two very skilled fighters. They know that if they over commit to something or mess up some kind of way, their opponent will capitalize on it. it would be different if they were fighting lesser skilled opponents. I didn't catch this fight, but ones I have seen usually have pretty good action.

As far as ninjutsu goes, there is still verifiable ninjutsu being taught.

[fa_jing]

Good point, 7*. Sometimes when I watch boxing, I see the same thing. Of course they know how to engage and close the distance, but they will often maintain distance and pick away, waiting for the other guy to make a mistake. I was just watching the Larry Holmes/Jerry Quarry fight on Classic Sports, and you kept seeing jabs over and over, you think why aren't they throwing rights, they seem to be in range for it, but what it is, is that they don't want to walk into something. That's one of my shortcomings, I don't like to wait just charge right in and throw that rear hand. It can work but it's risky. That like when you see the fighter get desperate, in the last rounds when they are behind on the cards.

[DragonzRage]

being an amateur Muay Thai fighter, it is often my observation that amateur fights are often a lot more "action packed" than high level pro fights are. What i mean is that amateur fighters tend to immediately commit to full on attack and throw flurries relentlessly (i myself have been guilty of this in at least a few occasions), whereas a high level professional fight can be a lot more strategic and methodical. The pros know to respect their opponent's abilities more. They know that overcommitting to an attack too soon can open themselves up for nasty counterattacks from a skilled opponent. They also know that throwing too hard too fast can cause them to gas out. That's why pros often tend to probe each other more and plan their attacks more strategically. Amateur fights tend to come off like brawls whereas high level pro fights are chess matches.

[Former castleva]

Lol.
I think someone has already posted a thread on this show earlier but besides that I think it has been mentioned many times in forums by many practitioners that juko-kai is some kind of trash.Some of those strikes used for demonstrations have been cheated in a way that they have been delivered so that they won´t KO or related,so I have heard.
Another thing I heard was that they/or is it the ?founder?
who used to strike one´s groin with a ping pong bat over and over again to be able to withstand groin shots... (this is how I have heard,I´m not kidding)
Was not aikido one of those top ten arts? Nothing wrong with that,just very surprising...
Ninjutsu,as practiced in the old days could have been the most well-rounded MA ever but things that were practiced traditionally have been lost these days and would not be practical these days (in those strategies there probably lies lots of cool stuff but besides that...) this includes ninjutsu&horse-riding,hiding and surviving under water etc.
Probably a good martial art still during these days,if properly taught by proper people.

[Martial Joe]

Nice post.