Final Solution

The general purpose of this blog is for me to have one link answers to questions that come up when I am talking to people about things that are interesting to me. When I explain something, I want to get it right the first time, and continue the conversation from there. The reason why I haven't been posting on martial arts as much as I used to, is because I have been discussing martial arts with people a lot less than I used to.

Why? Because I don't really care anymore if people get martial arts right. Why should I? In so far as I am right and others are wrong:

1. If they were smart enough or diligent enough to get to the truth, they could have already got there without me having to explain it to them. Certain core basics about martial arts that I have spent way too much time debating like the stupidity of the side stance or the necessity of sparring, these things are self evident.
2. The COVID-19 Pandemic has me rethinking my sympathy for the ignorant- ignorant people are a biological threat to me and my kind. I just assume not sacrifice our safety by improving their fighting ability.
3. When it comes down to my concerns about overspecialization, my opinion doesn't change reality. Let's say two guys get in a fight, one has done BJJ for 4 years and has his purple belt, the other wrestled for three years in high school and has done a year of Muay Thai  after high school. All other things being equal, that wrestler-kickboxer is far better prepared for a street fight than the purple belt, even though the purple belt likely put twice as much time and ten times as much money into his training that the other fighter. If MMA has taught us anything, it's that generalization is more important to fighting than specialization.

Why should I sympathize with BJJ blackbelts who openly promote Kumite Point Fighting as a primary way to train in striking? Why should I try to help the martial art consumer who looked at a Shotokan class and a Muay Thai class, and decided "Wow, I sure like that uniform and that point fighting!" As far as the delusional pressure point chi ball throwing people go, I never met one, for whatever reason all the internal martial arts people I have trained with were very much about free sparring.

So if you are a martial arts consumer or potential martial arts consumer, you will find the truth on this blog, and I have made so many posts on it that you probably won't read them all. If you already agree with me, you can link to my posts I have written if you like. If you disagree with me on most of my points about martial arts, then it looks like life is having one of those Darwin moments.