Why are So Many Martial Arts Ineffective?
If we ask you to name as many martial arts as you know, how far do you think you can go? Though experts could name a lot, average people would have a hard time naming more than 5 or 10 arts. This is a bit strange as, over history, humans have created hundreds of fighting styles. But the truth is that techniques from most arts do not work in real life at all. Have you ever wondered why? Why are many martial arts useless for self-defense or any other fighting scenario?
Stay with us to find out what separates effective fighting systems from the ones that are not. I will bring you a list of strong reasons and you can add more in the comments below.
They teach bad techniques that are not practical
The main reason why most fighting styles are not practical is very simple. They all teach bad techniques that you can’t apply in real life. These techniques work only in their dojos and are not practical for self-defense at all. This is even dangerous in some way because it gives you a false sense that you possess good fighting skills.
For instance, arts like Tai Chi teach very bad stances. Don’t get us wrong, Tai Chi training has various health benefits and it is very popular. But from the self-defense perspective, it is very bad. Tai Chi teaches you to stand flat in a wide stance while holding your arms extended in front. This is bad because it leaves both your head and body open for punches and kicks.
Most of them don’t include sparring
Most martial arts that are bad for self-defense do not include sparring or any live drills at all. Students train alone and practice techniques in pre-arranged form like “kata,” which alone aren’t as useful, but they do need pressure testing. They spend most of the time punching and kicking air without doing any live drills, live drills being the key word. Kata can be great but always pressure test.
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Even when they do live drills, students do not do that against the partner who is adding resistance. There’s no sparring where you can apply techniques against a moving target that is striking back at you. Once again, they do this in a “you attack me like this, and I will react like this” type of form. We don’t have to spend many words on how this is useless for self-defense.
I mean, how would you know if you know how to fight if you train alone all the time? How can you develop reactions and timing without sparring? How would you control your emotions and keep your mind calm if you have never been kicked or punched before? These are all crucial questions when it comes to real fighting on the streets, which most of these arts cannot answer. Or in other words, you won’t find these answers training in their dojos.
Ineffective martial arts usually do not include competition
Don’t get us wrong here, some martial arts do not include competition but are very effective in real life.
Still, no one can deny that sports competition is good for every martial art because it helps it to evolve. Coaches and fighters are the ones who are always finding new ways to become better, improve existing techniques and come up with new ones. Just look how big a role competition plays in the evolution of MMA and boxing. Fighters from 30 or 40 years ago wouldn’t stand a chance in modern times.
On the other side, ineffective martial arts do not include any competition at all. In fact, you won’t get the chance to test your skills in sparring or competition at all. Most of these arts would claim that techniques they teach are “too dangerous” and “can kill” a person which is nonsense. It’s just a bad excuse, nothing more than that.
As a result, these arts teach the exact same techniques today as 50 or 100 years ago. They have failed to evolve over time, which is one of the reasons why they are bad.
They are not designed to be effective
Martial arts that are not practical in real life are not designed to be that at all. I mean, if you look at their concept, you can see that most of them try to stay away from violence or using force. The goal in most of these arts is to overcome oneself and improve overall health.
For instance, Aikido is among the most famous martial arts that do not work in real life at all. But when you look at the system itself, Aikido was never meant to be effective for self-defense. The main goal in Aikido is to improve and overcome oneself through martial art training. Then the second goal is to learn how to defend without hurting the attacker.
So just by looking at these two things you can figure out that Aikido is not great for self-defense. Fights you may face on the streets are all intense and violent, you have to use force if you want to defend yourself. Soft strikes and light contact rarely works in real fighting. And it is not just Aikido, this stands for various other arts like Tai Chi or Capoeira.
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