Are You Training For A Fight Or For A Dojo?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hello, everybody. It's Matt Gallagher. I want to welcome you back to my podcast, Sensi Speaks. Now we're going to talk about traditional martial arts today and the bad rep that they get. You'll hear most people say traditional martial arts don't work in a real fight. If you're in martial arts, you're going to hear that all the time.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

They're too rigid, they're unrealistic, their techniques are outdated.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

But here's the thing: that criticism isn't completely wrong. I just think it's pointed at the wrong problem. Because the issue isn't traditional martial arts. And honestly, it's not even that traditional, I don't even think traditional arts get it wrong. The real issue is how people are training them, how we're teaching them. When people talk about traditional martial arts, they're usually talking about systems with structure. They teach forms, techniques, there's a lineage, there's a focus on discipline. None of that is the problem. In fact, all these traditional martial arts were built for real world situations. But somewhere along the line of these arts being passed from teacher to teacher to teacher, they got lost.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

The training changed.

The Bubble Of Style Training

What Real Attacks Look Like

Pressure Testing With Simple Tools

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Be honest, if you look at a lot of martial arts training today, it does look unrealistic. You see these beautiful clean techniques, timing, always perfect, and very compliant partners or UKs. And everything works every time. Now you would say, well, that's good, but no, that's exactly the problem. Because real violence doesn't look clean, it will not look controlled, and it definitely does not cooperate. So to me, the first issue is a lack of pressure training, a lack of pressure testing our techniques. A lot of training happens inside a controlled environment. No one's really resisting, no one's trying to stop the technique, and everything's very predictable. And if you never train against resistance, you don't know if your techniques actually work. And if you don't know they work, you're not testing skill, you're just rehearsing, you know, a dance choreography, which is what a lot of martial arts, a lot of the traditional martial arts get blamed for when compared to BJJ, a Krav Maga, and stuff like and the arts like that, the more modern combatives. But here's another issue, and this one really doesn't get talked enough about. Most martial arts train inside a bubble. Karate versus karate, taekwondo versus taekwondo, aikido versus aikido. We could keep going on. Even in the combat sports, boxing is training box against boxers. Jiu-jitsu, like a Brazilian jiu-jitsu, is going against other Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And again, all this type of training has value, but it creates a very specific environment. Your training isn't realistic. Over time, what happens is you get really good at solving the problem of stopping a karateca or a jiu-jitsu or whatever art you're training. But unfortunately, real violence isn't gonna follow your system, they're not gonna follow your rules. Sport techniques work in a sporting environment, and they work really well. But there are rules, referees, everyone's gonna fight fair to a point. There's a rhythm to the fight. Even a fight in a ring or on a mat still has structure. No rounds, no refs, no agreement, what's fair and unfair, and what techniques we can and cannot use. It's fast, it's gonna get messy, it's very unpredictable. And if all your training only exists inside a rule set, and you might be really skilled at it, but only in that environment, and that's where most people miss in their training and even their teaching. Real attacks usually aren't very technical, they're habitual. People fall back on natural aggressive behavior, wide swinging punches, they're gonna punch you multiple times, they're gonna be grabbing you, they're gonna try to use an overwhelming force. Sometimes it's a tackle, sometimes it's just mad chaos, and they're punching, kicking, scratching. You've never trained against that kind of pressure. You're missing the most likely threat. This is where your training has to come together. It's not traditional versus modern training, it's not about my style's better than your style. It's about how we train. Does your training include pressure testing, resistance, and unpredictability? Because without those, you're not building a reliable self-defense technique. You're building confidence in choreograph techniques, and that is dangerous because when you're outside, they don't know how to attack you, and it's gonna sound so stupid, they're not gonna attack you the way they did in the dojo, and you better be used to that, or your belts and all your training is gonna become useless. I've seen people throughout these years have perfect technique in training, but as soon as we do what we do here called kata-based sparring, they fall apart under pressure.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

I've seen you know high-level black belts not be able to do live drills.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

But here, what does work is simple movements that were honestly trained under pressure. To me, that's the difference. They don't the moves can't be complicated, they have to be simple, and you have to train them, and you have to train them against unpredictability.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

We're not talking about a style, we don't want to get lost in our tradition.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

None of the drills look like that type of violence, your forms do not look like that type of violence. Either do your like one and three and five-step sparring drills, don't look like that, but you have to take your traditional forms, drills, and then add to this type of training. You have to take them and train them against pressure, and you'll be surprised what they can and cannot do. And if you don't, you're really missing the most likely threats you or your students are going to have in the real world. But if you do that, this is where everything is going to come together. Because it's not about traditional martial arts or our modern martial art, it's not about my style being better than your style. It's about how we train and teach our students. Look at your training as a teacher, look at your training if you're a student. Does it include pressure testing, resistance, and unpredictability? Because without any of those, you're not building a reliable self-defense system.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

You're gonna have confidence in these techniques, but you're not gonna have any proof they work, and that's really dangerous because there's a lot of techniques that look perfect in training, but they fall apart under pressure, but I've seen simple movements that actually work because they were honestly trained, and that's the difference.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Not style, not tradition.

Takeaways And Raise The Standard

SPEAKER_00 11:09

You have to be honest in your training. Here's the takeaway for me today traditional martial arts doesn't mean ineffective.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Sport martial arts, because they go live and don't mean they're a complete martial art.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

But arts and techniques that have been untested, they're unreliable.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

And if your training never forces you to deal with again, resistance, random timing, and unpredictability, then you're not really preparing for reality. You're preparing for the comfort of the dojo, the studio, the dojang. Again, take a look at your own training. Ask yourself, am I getting really good at my system? Or am I preparing for something that doesn't follow any rules? Because at the end of the day, when you get attacked, you're not fighting someone in your style. You're gonna be dealing with chaos and craziness, and your training needs to reflect that. Alright. I hope you like this episode. Again, not meaning to offend, it's it's it's all about us raising the standards of martial arts and the safety of ourselves and our students. Alright. I'll be back next week to give you to talk to you next week. All right. I'm Sensei Matt. Thank you for listening again. I hope you've been enjoying my podcast. Please try to share it out to your friends. This is project is started out something that scared the crap out of me, and I'm really starting to enjoy it. And I'd just like, you know, talk to more people, get more feedback, and let's keep this going because I think it's making me a better martial artist and a better instructor. And I hope it's helping you guys too. All right, till next week. See you on the match. Bye-bye.