I've officially heard it all

[SevenStar]

I was talking to a friend today, and she began to talk about crouching tiger hidden dragon. I told her that I didn't care for it, and she told me that I have no concept of what martial arts is about since I didn't like the movie. She was dead serious. (yes, she know I train) The subject then progressed to martial arts, and she asked me how long I'd been training in kung fu. I told her that I'd been doing it for a little over three years, and of course she asked "Are you a black belt?" I told her no, and she was like, "Three years, and you're not a black belt?? You must suck!" - She knows that in ATA TKD, you can get a black belt in 18 months, and 2 years in some other schools.

The thing is she was serious, and it made me think - Is this really the concept of martial arts that people have these days? If so, that is sad. The people that do have this concept and then go to train may be the very reason why we have McDojos. Too many people are catering to the general public.

Ah well. that's my rant for the day. I'm going to go finish training. Maybe while doing so, I'll realize the ocncept of what real martial arts is.

[Chris McKinley]

I wouldn't worry too much about the opinions of the un-Illuminati out there. If you're worrying about the opinion of some non-training girl who thinks real martial arts are in the movies, then at least I hope you're trying to get a date with her. Otherwise, she's not qualified to have a valid opinion one way or another.

You think that's bad, I've been training for 27 years and my sister still thinks she ought to start Tae Kwon Do lessons for self-defense. Makes me want to pull my hair out.

[jon]

These can often work wonders.

Do you have a black belt?

*Yes its in my car, called a seatbelt and has been an excerlent form of defence in all my travels.

* NO, mines made of leather and much more usefull.

* It used to be a white one, now im not really sure what colour its supposed to be...

* My instructor has cord to hold up his kung fu pants does that count?

* I could go buy one if you think that would help?

* I beat up black belts reguarly, they never fight back being made out of cotten and all.

* My favorite, no i havent paid my fees for this month so they took it away.


Still sounds like she was only teasing you, wouldnt surprise me if she was actualy flirting with you in the hope you would pipe up and try 'restrain' her or something :p

[Water Dragon]

Don't feel bad Bro. It took me 5 years to get my mom to say Taiji. Now she thinks EVERYTHING I do is Taiji, even BJJ.

[Ryu]

CTHD???????? :mad: ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !


You are the savior of the world, SevenStar. Don't listen to her!

Ryu

[joedoe]

So did you show her how you can fly through the air? :D

[Sharky]

did you show her your hidden dragon?

she probably just wanted your meat in her.

[Water Dragon]

From now on, he will be known to all as Big Daddy Woo Woo

[SevenStar]

I care less of what she thinks of me, but what she thinks of martial arts. I'm wondering if the majority of the public looks at it that way. I knew among many people misunderstood/looked down upon it, but damm, is it that bad?

[red_fists]

Sevenstar.

Thanks to Hollywood and others the general Public has the totally wrong Impression about MA in general.

These days you can't even watch a Cartoon without seeing a "Princess" perform some MA moves (aka Shrek).

AS for the BB issue, I always reply.

"Yep, need it to hold my .45 up" which tends to shut them up fast.

As yes, for closing: "It is worse than that."

[qeySuS]

call her boo boo kitty fu(k and tell her to make you some dinner.

Well anywho i know what ya mean, i was sitting outside our Dojang with my teacher today before class (the room itself is a closed room on the second floor of a gym, there's a "waiting room" of sorts in front of the training hall where you can sit down and watch whatevers happening in the training room (dojang) and this is also where both guys and gals changing room doors are). So there are two guys coming out of the changing room and look at the practice, and incidently this was beginners practice, there are 2-3 there that are decent, the rest have just started (it shows too they all have white belts or are not in uniform yet). And they said "Hmm that's ok, but it's not as powerful as Karate" and start badmouting it all and saying karate is what counts. Now my i look at my teacher and he rolls his eyes to indicate what he thinks of them, but doesnt get into any arguement with them. And they just leave. My teacher starts talking about how many self proclaimed masters and experts there are in Martial Arts, people with little to no training that have just read something in a boko and take it as a fact insted of reaching their own conclution and such.

This is just happened 5 hours ago, then of course there's this msg board i control here (to my knowledge the only MA msg board in Iceland), and it's the same stuff there, a guy taht actually practices Tai Chi and he was argueing with me that Tai Chi wasnt a Martial Art and it was ONLY an excersize to practice your Chi. Remarkably the MMA people are the respectful ones over there, they wanna talk about different styles offer people to come to their gym and share philosophies and have a friendly sparring session, while the TKD people are the worst and self proclaimed knowitalls with one year worth of training.

It sucks ass, but half of the time i dont even get involved in these discussions unless people are disputing known facts (like the Tai Chi BS) and saying something that is just plain WRONG. If it's a debate about what style is better i suggest you just bow out and be the bigger man.

[Budokan]

SevenStar, from your post your friend seems to know more about martial arts than ordinary people. The average person's knowledge about MA isn't only woefully inaccurate, it borders on fantasy even more than your friend's.

That's why mcdojos and mckwoons do such great business.:)

[rogue]

I don't mind the general publics ignorance of martial arts, but I'm astounded by so-called martial artists who are ignorant. While visiting a school I was paired up with a brown belt who was supposed help me through the class. Well at one point she missed what the instructor said and asked me, I told her he wanted the attacker to use a reverse punch. Her response was "what's a reverse punch?" She honestly didn't know what her style called certain techniques.

[straight blast]

About four years ago I went to a Goju-Kai Karate class to have a look. There are some very good GJK fighters in my old locale so I thought it would be worth my while.

There were two "Black Belt" (and I use the term loosely) instructors. One was about 35 and fat as. The other was about 13 and looked like he really wanted to be at home watching cartoons. I trained with a brown belt. He was bigger than me but his punches (again, the term being used very loosely) were pathetic. I then stopped and had a real good look around.

It suddenly occured to me that everyone there (bar me) was a high grade, the lowest being two belts off black. Half of them didn't even own a gi yet, and the they all had pi$$ weak stances and form. I respectfully finished the lesson and left.

Then I went and did Muay Thai instead.

But the moral to this story is that I think this is what the public think when they think MA. I had been told by several people that this was a good school and that the people there were all very good. The sad thing is, they probably thought that they were.
Sigh...:(

[Chang Style Novice]

Maybe she calls a reverse punch by a different name. I, for example, don't know what you mean by a reverse punch.

[Johnny Hot Shot]

That your sifu Starts everyone with a black belt, beacause for those who know can tell and when you can tell you are all just brothers anyway.

[Wu Wei]

If someone asks you if you have a black belt just feed them a load of BS.

Like:
"Do you have a black belt?"

"Actually it's called a Zhang Zi Yi, but we only wear them on the first practice of the month. Thats how the Shaolin-Do monks used to do it when they opened the first temple in Hong Kong."

Then when they get all interested at the history of kung fu continue with:

"Kung Fu actually means 'mystical art'. But the white people thought that it was evil thats why they sent ships to china kill all the monks. Thats when a legendary martial artist, named Wong Fei Hong moved to Japan so he could start teaching martial arts, and thats where karate comes from."
Then the first communist leader in China, named Ashida Kim hired ninja assassins to kill wong."

Try it. It will be fun.

[respectmankind]

Well, I dunno. There is a large ignorance even among people who claim to practice martial arts. Now it seems that people practice and think because they break a board of put out a candle (ect...) that they have some skill.

[scotty1]

That's a funny story mate.

But I wouldn't let it bother you. How many a$$holes are there in the world? Loads right?
I'm glad that true (dangerous) martial arts are only learnt by people willing to seek them out, otherwise we'd have a lot of dangerous a$$holes on our hands.

[Goldenmane]

There's another aspect to this.

Friends of mine have known for years that I am a martial artist. An occurrence at a party required that myself and a friend (who has been a martial artist for longer than me, and a bouncer and railway special constable [a job the normal cops just don't want anything to do with because it's so dangerous])... anyway, we ended up having to deal with a speedfreak who was causing trouble.

And what happens? The people who have *no* experience in MAs or the like, but know that this is what *we* do... say "Oh no, you're going to hurt him... you're going to kill him..."

All we were doing was restraining him and keeping him quiet with a choke until the cops arrived. We knew exactly what we were doing, and everyone there knew that, but for some reason it didn't really penetrate.

Gah. I forgot my point. I think it was something about the distorted view of martial arts. You just look these people in the eye and say, "Look, this is what I train for. Do *you* want to take over?"

-geoff

[red5angel]

Funny, I just had a conversation about this last night with someone. I was talking about how hard it is to start a martial arts school that isnt a mcdojo because people around here really really like chains. To them it is some sort of validation to thier authenticity. That and most people seem to equate martial arts with Fitness and Self DEfense. I was saying for health it can be a good choice, if you get into an athletic style or school, and for defense, well, I said if you went to my school and trained hard for a minimum of three years, you would be able to defend your self adequately from most people, but to take a "self defense" class is more folly then anything.

I say this, next time she bad mouths kung fu, show her azz right there what it is all about!!!!! Scream KIIIYAAAAIIIIIIIIIIII and pick her up over your head and spin her around and then toss her!!!!!!!! Ok maye this is more professional wrestling but try to deny that isnt a martial art!!!!!!

[jaz1069]

Originally posted by jon
These can often work wonders.

* My favorite, no i havent paid my fees for this month so they took it away. :p

Jon:

Thank you, you made me smile on what is already a really sh!tty day!