martial arts that openly admit it's a hobby/sport

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by MMAWARRIOR20, Mar 25, 2020.

?

from your anecdolatl observations which MA is likely to admit it's a hobby and not self defense

  1. capoeira

    50.0%
  2. tae kwon do

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  3. jiu jitsu (tradtional japanese)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. wing chun

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  5. tai chi

    33.3%
  6. other

    16.7%
  1. MMAWARRIOR20

    MMAWARRIOR20 Valued Member

    I'm curious what the general culture or atmosphere of various martial arts are. Like are there any where the general consensus is "we're learning a craft similar to origami or swing dancing". i've dabbled in various ma's in my teens up until now. I have a hunch capoeirakas don't think about self defense all that much. And i would learn a martial art just as a hobby and disregard self defense value completely if i'd had the money to chose that over other things.


    disclaimer:i'm not interested in bashing the practicality of any MA. and the poll is to get ya'lls nogging jogging. So feel free to refer to any MA that comes to mind not just the ones i mentioned
     
  2. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    There are martial arts that definitely do not focus on it. You'd have to make the distinction between self defence and just practical applications though.
     
    axelb likes this.
  3. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    All martial arts are a hobby, especially the SD ones, they're training for an event which will probably never happen, using ineffective training schedules, which cost more financially then any muggings will.
     
    axelb, Grond, pgsmith and 4 others like this.
  4. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    How many people who cross-train for MMA earn money competing in MMA?

    Even if we leave out the ineffective training bit, you could still say:

    "All martial arts are a hobby, especially the MMA ones, they're training for an event which will probably never happen, which costs more financially than any competition earnings."

    Fighting might get people in the door, but I think that is not the sole motivation that keeps people in martial arts for the long haul, regardless of the art.

    Having said that, most people I've trained with have had a physical altercation of some kind in which they've used their training, no matter how minor, and I don't think the psychological effect of coming out on top when someone tries to physically dominate you should be undersold.
     
  5. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    I don't know anyone who takes up BJJ or MMA etc for money, but people do take up SD so they don't get mugged.

    Everyone I've trained BJJ with has competed, same for judo, and somewhat true of kickboxing, and MMA, Although often it's just the BJJ guys trying to round out their skill sets for fun.

    Essentially what I mean to say is that this question is wierdly biaised, by saying everything that isn't SD based is less worthy, when often it can be the opposite, the SD crowd attracts some decent people, as well as a whole host of dodgy people using fear to get money out of people for less then optimum training.

    Of course not your style, your special, but definitely the majority of the others.
     
  6. Mitlov

    Mitlov Shiny

    "it's a hobby/sport and not self-defense"

    Totally false dichotomy. There are martial arts that are sports that are also effective for self-defense (boxing and wrestling being two classic examples). There are martial arts that are not sports that are also not effective for self-defense (kyudo and iaido being two classic examples).

    I also agree with Deadpool that the phrasing of the question is unfairly dismissive of sports. Since you're about 20x more likely to die of heart disease than murder, there's a lot to be said for, say, Olympic TKD, which doesn't translate well to street self defense but is one hell of a workout.
     
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  7. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    I don't get the biased/dismissive comments, when you have this in the OP:

    Seems that people are riling themselves up by how they are interpreting it.

    Yes, it's a false dichotomy, but I'm not seeing how the OP is biased or dismissive.

    MMA, as we know it from UFC and all the other promotions that spawned, is a rule set designed to make money. I would not class BJJ in the same way, as that is a martial art and you can be considered more than a hobbyist regardless of the income it brings you. But, in MMA if you're not earning a living from that rule set, you are a hobbyist.

    Yes, that's true. At least no-one can ever accuse me of getting money out of anyone! :)
     
  8. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    I took the question as "are there any martial arts that have nothing to do with fighting in a street context and accept themselves".

    Yeah, there's a lot although it varies. I know a girl who instructs capoeira and will mention the combative aspects more than others would.

    Some others:

    Tai Chi
    Aiaido
    Kendo
    Kyudo
    Most HEMA's
    Fencing
     
  9. Rand86

    Rand86 likes to butt heads

    Everything is a hobby unless you make money from it; then it's a job.

    Also, I like how somebody will write "self defense" on here and the next thing they know they're on the highest branch of a tallest tree waiting for baying wolves to get bored and go away. :D
     
  10. MMAWARRIOR20

    MMAWARRIOR20 Valued Member

    Sorry for the misunderstanding i didn't want to make the thread title too long. What i mean was martial arts or martial-ish systems that either the general practicioners don't claim self defense practicality or the figures of authorities ie (grandmasters, instructors, governing figures etc..) don't claim self defense practicality.
     
    David Harrison likes this.
  11. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    These come to mind immediately...............
    Modern definition Wushu (The Chinese Government approved martial art that is gymnastics as much as anything)
    Iaido (As most people don't carry swords around & the art is based on sword drawing)
    HEMA (Recreation of medieval fighting. I think mostly with swords and other archaic weapons and perhaps armor.Not sure about the latter.)
    Kendo (Again, based on using swordplay and armor)
    Fencing
     
    Monkey_Magic likes this.
  12. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Yeah, me too.

    I think that's a bit of a narrow interpretation of "hobby". Especially these days when there are a lot of people who don't earn money in the job they are most professionally qualified to do (eg. most graduates).
     
  13. Grond

    Grond Valued Member

    This is one of those "which is martial art, which is not discussion" and I hate these, so as someone who has actually had to defend the fact that boxing is both a martial art AND a self defense method for half my life (and regret the wasted effort), "I'm just going to leave this here", as the kids are fond of saying.

     
  14. El Medico

    El Medico Valued Member

    I have to object. I don't see why you left out say, Karate or Kenpo if you're going to list TC. As you're a guy who has been blooded in the ring you should appreciate that TC people were fighting "full contact" years before the American Karateka started their "Full Contact Karate". And discovered they couldn't punch for beans.

    Of course I shan't deny that most TC "practitioners" East or West would have their hands full with a ten year old bully.

    Unless you're employing such things for other purposes,like some of the Filipino guys during WWII.

    To me the martial arts are the things which were not designed for function but for other reasons. I will be boring once again and cite as example iajutsu as opposed to iado.For that reason,function, I still don't feel western boxing is a martial "art". And I certainly do not disrespect such boxing of the Anglo European descent.

    Gosh,it's nice to jive around with you folks again.

    @ aardia- Hi, sis!
     
  15. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    So it's claimed but I have never seem a TC fighter or even a school that claims heavily about martial practicality, which OP was asking about. Karate and kenpo, whether effective or otherwise, will often claim to be able to fight.

    I'm not saying TC folk can or can't fightm I'm saying they themselves never claim it. They claim only to promote health and sometimes look at application.
     
  16. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    You aren't paying attention to TCC threads then. We talk about TCC as an actual martial art. So do some forums on FB I am on. You can feel however you want about the efficiency of it, but some schools do teach it the way IMO the art was originally intended. As an actual martial art, not only for health.

    I, for one, have posted repeatedly about my fellow student who used TCC (she studies no other art) to successfully defend against a mugger. She was in her early to mid 70's at the time.

    I will grant you it is the minority of TCC schools though.

    HI El Medico! Glad to see you back on here!
     
    Pretty In Pink likes this.
  17. icefield

    icefield Valued Member

    Practical tai chi make this claim but since they dominated in Hong Kong full contact fights and here in the UK I will let them make that claim, from the Wu lineage I believe.

    A few other lineages claim they train for self defence but like most arts if there's no hard gloved up sparring the claim tends to be meaningless,
     
  18. Grond

    Grond Valued Member

    Then it depends on how you define "art" and art is widely applicable to practically any human endeavor involving the mind and body, including the hand to hand combat arts but also dancing. Boxing is arguably the world's oldest "martial art" in the sense that it involves a combination of both experience and skill development to achieve in (you can't fake it), and it is comparable to dancing with a partner as well as trading blows, testing endurance levels, and so on. And I don't think "Western" applies to boxing, really, since the earliest forms of boxing as an art are Grecian, Chinese, Egyptian, etc. People use this term a lot but it's a neo-colloquialism and quite frankly, a form of cultural appropriation too. Ancient boxing is adorned on clay pots and in marble statues predating Jesus Christ. If that's not art depicting life depicting martial art, I don't know what is.
     
  19. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    It's not cultural appropriation any more than "Mongolian wrestling" is the Mongolians appropriating the culture of US high school and college students.

    Western boxing denotes the rule set used in the sport of boxing today, from its beginnings in 18th Century England, as distinct from rule sets from other parts of the world at different times. Oh, and Greece is in the West.
     
  20. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Right but all I'm saying is that on the whole, TC places don't really claim to teach martial applicability that much. Am I wrong?
     

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