*) the story about the belt originally being white and over years getting dirty until it became a black belt is just a made up story that has been passed around so long people believe it now.
*) No one can reach in a pull your heart out and show it to you before you die. It can't be done.
*) Karate is not supposed to be used as most people think. It is not about having the fist on the hip and always punching out while pulling the other fist to the hip. That and most other common technique/or drills are just training methods. Like you develop you biceps by curling weights. But you don't curl weights when you need to use you muscles, you just do what is needed. Same with Karate.
*) Most Karate masters I have seen, including many that are well known are doing what the Okinawans call "Baby Karate". In other words they are stuck in the mindset and training methods beginners do and do not know that they are supposed to get past the drills. Karate is natural, not the mechanical moves that it appears to be.
*) Kata is not what it appears. If fact it was designed to look like you are doing one thing when in fact you do apply the movements in ways that often look much different than the moves appear.
*) Sparring is not fighting. It is a way to simulate how techniques might be applied. BUT, real fights are only a few seconds at most and someone is seriously injured, nu-conscious or dead. It is never several minutes long and is not something that involves repeated exchanges of techniques. The old masters had a saying,..... "The first thing that moves, dies". It is a true description of how the old masters really fought.
*) A black belt is not an expert or master. In fact he has barely learned the basics of the style he is doing. To support this consider this... All color belt ranks in Japanese arts are collectively called Mudansha, and all black belt ranks are collectively called Yudansha. The "Mu" in MU-Dansha means "nothing". It indicates the belief that student that are below black belt know nothing. At black belt they begin to learn the style.
*) A person having a black belt is not automatically qualified to be an instructor. The minimum rank for that is usually 3rd dan. But all third dan students are not qualified to teach. Only those that are also issued a Sensei title are allowed to teach.
*) Sensei its a title that is awarded or not awarded by the governing organization of the style. It is not something that a person assumes at a certain rank.
*) You do not become a master because you reach a certain rank. Many people believe incorrect things about what a master is. In many arts people believe that if you reach 4th dan you are a master.... not true. Only those issued the title are really masters.
*) Because someone has a black belt does not mean they know how to defend themselves.
*) Shodan (the Japanese term) does not mean 1st degree black belt. It means Sho "First", and dan "Man". It is tied to the belief that a boy is not a man until he turns 16. That is why the Shodan was reserved for students that were at least 16 years old.
*) There is no such thing as the ninja sword or Ninjato, with a straight blade as seen in movies. That is something created by movie makers and TV producers. Anyone doubt that then find one real antique Ninjato...? You can't because they do not exist.
*) Proper punching and kicking for Karate is not developed by using a heavy bag...! that teaches you to push punch or push kick. A properly constructed Makiwara that is used properly is the best way to develop proper punching, ...etc.
*) Most of the people using a makiwara do not have the proper makiwara and are not using it properly either. And that includes most of the well known masters.
I could go on all night and not even begin to tell the story I have to tell. Perhaps I'll add more later.
...
-Supposed weak points and their effects. It's not reasonable to expect (and may not even be humanly possible) to shove someone's nose-bone into their brain, for example. It's hard to actually invert someone's knee with a kick, the ribs and spine are very hard to break with a strike, etc.
-That all martial arts come from the Shaolin temple, from India, and have a single origin.
-That, until the last 150 years or so, ANY martial arts were created primarily for anything other than combat with another person. These include combat sports like wrestling and pugilism, which were often used as rites of passage and cultural entertainment as well as battlefield fighting methods.
-Related to the last point, that practicing martial arts makes you some sort of saint or "warrior", or that one should be held to a higher moral standard simply because of a skill they're picking up.
-That you can somehow be "too old" for martial arts. Mostly we see this in teenagers and young adults, who have NO IDEA how little that particular number matters.
-That black belts/ninjas/fighting monks/"masters" are somehow magical and able to defeat multiple armed attackers without breaking a sweat, or do stupid chi tricks.
-That martial arts are only Asian in origin. There are plenty of martial arts from Africa, Europe, Oceana, and the New World.
-That there's such a thing as a "pure" martial art, as if warrior cultures didn't somehow change due to their contact with one another, or through the transmission of knowledge over the centuries.
-That there's any true "one size fits all" martial art that covers all the bases equally. Some martial arts are better at some things than others. Karate isn't going to make you the swordsman that Kumdo will, for example.
-That there's a "best" martial art. See above. Martial arts were created by an individual or small group in one place in one era. They were made by fallible human beings who didn't have access to every little piece of information.
-That a martial art is inherently "better" because it's either older or younger than another martial art. Again, see above.
-That performing movements in the air without any partner work is equal to or better than partner drills and sparring. Forms and shadow boxing are just one level of learning, and a relatively low level at that when it comes to preparing for a fight.
-That the ability to break bricks or boards makes someone a good fighter. It can be an excellent demonstration of focus and power, but there's a LOT more to fighting than that.
1) The UFC proved traditional martial arts are ineffective.
2) MMA is the ultimate evolution of martial arts.
3) A grappler will always beat a striker.
4) With 6 months of MMA or BJJ training you can beat any TMA master easily and in 5 seconds.
5) 'Insert name here' martial art does not work.
6) Traditional martial arts are not based on reality.
7) 90% of what traditional martial arts teach does not work.
8) Keyboard Warrior knows what he is talking about.
9) If you do not do full contact sparring you will not know how to hit or be able to take a hit without freezing up.
10) If you do not compete your art will not work in a self defence situation.
11) ABC martial art is better than XYZ martial art.
12) If it is not on video/YouTube it did not happen.
13) You can learn martial arts/self defence entirely from a video.
14) Only competition arts have aliveness and resisting opponents.
15) Patterns are useless.
16) Any training that is not "alive" is useless.
17) When you study martial arts you have to give 3 warnings before you are allowed to defend yourself in the street.
18) A 6 week RBSD course can prepare you for self defence better than years of traditional martial arts training.
19) A flying side kick was designed to knock someone of a horse.
20) You can test a self defence only martial art in competitions.
21 ) An MMA match is as close toa real fight as you can possibly get.
22) Traditional martial arts are only dangerous because of eye gouges and groin strikes (like they're the only things.
23) You can snap someones neck easily without much force.
The sparring controversy.
What most people consider "sparring" is no more than a game of tag, even with contact.
Karate is not kicking and punching. Anyone who spars this way is committing a grave injustice to their art.
If I was teaching, there would be kumite in every class, but not that BS you see in most schools.
In fact, I can train someone WITHOUT sparring and most people will not be able to touch him.
This is due to the fact that every aspect of martial arts training is combat conditioning - when practiced in CORRECTNESS.
Many or most will disagree with my last statement and that's okay.
1. You can get punched in the face many, many times and still keep on fighting.
2. Learning martial arts will make you a demi-God among men easily being able to fight 10+ men at any given time.
3. As a black belt you have to register your hands and feet as a deadly weapon.
4. Throwing your knife like in the movies is a very effective in self defense situations.
5. The legendary death touch and no touch knock out.
6. Marines know more about hand to hand combat than regular martial artists/fighters. Some might, but most don't.
7. Any and all myths around chi/ki/qi.
8. Misconceptions with techniques revolving around you catching a wrist mid punch and executing a combination of attacks.
9. There is a lot of myths revolving knife and gun defense. I don't think most schools explain clearly enough how dangerous particularly a knife is.
I'm sure there are more. But those are the ones at the top of my head.
That knowing Martial Arts makes you invincible and/or knowing Martial Arts will win you a fight
That is a good question.:)
For me martial arts is learning a style. That style you can use it fully, partly, or as an influence in real self-defense. So for me you are not exactly training to street-fight if you know what I mean, if you want to really optimize the how can a style be aiding you.
Is you, you are not a slave of a style, you are just using it in those 3 ways for real self-defense. All martial arts in my opinion in order to be optimized needs to be trained in a healthy and safe, both mentally and physical way.
Ideally someone is already fit, physical and mentally healthy and already have defended himself/herself many times before he/she enters a martial arts school. He/she is coming just for the love of it in a sense and he/she is enjoying it. All characters are respected, and training needs to be adjusted per individual. In that way is easier to eliminate potential bad attitudes that are coming from people that are entering a martial arts school and do not know what is what, they have issues, bad attitudes e.t.c
What is self-defense? A case on how things really are for someone that can do well. Attacker comes, defender understands from before that he/she is coming, attacker tries to attack and defender intercepts the attack on the beginning of the attackers movement. Then with a grappling move goes for control. Easy, simple, safe for the ones that they can do. Attacker may go home even totally unhurt and safe.
Clean the fat of what you see and hear and you will not need to be wondering on what is a misconception and what is real. Then you can advance on those that are real. That is my advice on this:)
The misconception in martial arts is you learn self defense when you martial arts instructor picks you wife is the hypocrite.
-1st dan and you are suddenly expert.
-Sparring isn't fighting and it's merely a game of tag.
-Taekwondo is all kicks, when in reality, that's the sport side to it.
-Taekwondo is ineffective/doesn't work in the street.
-All fights go to the ground.
You have to be abandoned at birth and taken in by a sensei to be a good martial artist.
I am looking for common misconceptions about Martial arts, fighting, and self-defense in general, many of you have tried to point some out so was wondering which are the ones that you hate most.
