Martial arts myths: which have you believed at one point or another?

[IronFist]

This poll is anonymous, don't worry.

Vote for as many as you want.

I am guilty of believing most of these in the past

[David Jamieson]

go poll yourself poll boy.

say, where is this poll you claim there is anyway?

EDIT: Your polls suck. Can you show us on the bear where the bad sensei touched you man?

[IronWeasel]

go poll yourself poll boy.

say, where is this poll you claim there is anyway?

EDIT: Your polls suck. Can you show us on the bear where the bad sensei touched you man?

lol.....

[Syn7]

Haha, I believed lots of dumb shit when I was a kid. Fortunately I grew up. The last one is reasonable most of the time. Of course there are exceptions. While I find flower dancers laughable, they do have the foundation to get out there and test/refine. At least they should have the basic principles common and most MA's. Solid stance, mobile, flexible etc etc... I see no reason why a even a chunner can't make enough of it work if they actually train they way people actually fight. Granted, there are more efficient systems. Especially in the case of WC.

But then that begs another question. If you take a LARPer style and refine it to some reasonable effectiveness, is it still the same art you started with? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Not all styles are created equal, that's for sure. And of course there are those exceptions where the style is just ridiculous and hopeless.

[Lucas]

I chose the last one and still believe it. Its misleading though. If you take a karateka and a kungfu man and they have a stand up fight. Yes the figher will make the difference. If you take a kungfu man and a judoka and have a ground fight, the judoka will win. so in one situation its the art, in another its the fighter.

so the truth is yes and no.

[Scott R. Brown]

BTW, I didn't vote because there was not a "none of the above".

[YouKnowWho]

I chose the 3rd one and still believe it too. I still have not found any new western methods that can help me to develop "head lock" and "leg twist" as effective as the old Asian method yet.

[Vash]

I chose the 3rd one and still believe it too. I still have not found any new western methods that can help me to develop "head lock" and "leg twist" as effective as the old Asian method yet.

Would you be willing to post the exercises for these?

I'm a big fan of 'general' weight training for strength, power, hypertrophy, but skill-specific attribute development has always been over my head.

[Scott R. Brown]

Would you be willing to post the exercises for these?

I'm a big fan of 'general' weight training for strength, power, hypertrophy, but skill-specific attribute development has always been over my head.

You will love this!!

[YouKnowWho]

Would you be willing to post the exercises for these?

I'm a big fan of 'general' weight training for strength, power, hypertrophy, but skill-specific attribute development has always been over my head.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3987/polehang2.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img508/7338/s...adlegtwist.jpg

I also like these 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPKwv_H1yJg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwSS8FmgJ3c

[Kellen Bassette]

I chose the last one and still believe it. Its misleading though. If you take a karateka and a kungfu man and they have a stand up fight. Yes the figher will make the difference. If you take a kungfu man and a judoka and have a ground fight, the judoka will win. so in one situation its the art, in another its the fighter.

so the truth is yes and no.

Yeah..I was thinking that too. I still say it's the fighter not the system, but the training methods matter.

I actually believed a few of those, but in my defense I was 14 years old and the internet was young...

[Jimbo]

I chose the last one and still believe it. Its misleading though. If you take a karateka and a kungfu man and they have a stand up fight. Yes the figher will make the difference. If you take a kungfu man and a judoka and have a ground fight, the judoka will win. so in one situation its the art, in another its the fighter.

so the truth is yes and no.

I agree with this.

And I also picked number 4. I'm ashamed to admit it, but when I was a kid I believed what I read in some books that made not only Taiji, but Xingyi and Bagua out to be superior to all other arts across the board. Even though I'd never met a Xingyi or Bagua person, and never liked Taiji. I used to believe many of those fantastic stories. Of course, I outgrew them after a couple years.

[Lucas]

My grand dad told me if i cant say anything nice to someone to either shut up or knock their block off.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Pretty much all of those i believed at one point in time.
I blame youth and the Shaw brothers !!

[YouKnowWho]

I think the word troll is an abused word. Everyone is a troll now.

Agree! When someone said, "To develop a Taiji (or WC) body", I just want to know what that person is trying to say. Since I don't believe there is a such thing as Taiji body, XingYi body, longfist body, WC body, boxing body, Judo body, the discussion just won't go anywhere.

To argue with somebody about something that you just don't agree with, it may waste your opponent's time and effort to explain it to you, it should be considered as "trolling" behavior.

A: What's Taiji body?
B: Taiji body is ...
A: I don't agree with you because ...
B: You won't agree long before you even asked that question. You are a troll by definition.