Something I thought y'all might appreciate...

[Cyborg Girl]

I dont' read much of Stross' blog these days, what with the huge depression quotient and actually needing to function right now, but this guest post:

"Martial Arts and the Cycle of Bullshit"

is interesting, and I thought it might strike a chord with those here who practice martial arts (particularly those in it for actual self-defense). Let me know what you think... But bearing in mind that I have no practical knowledge of martial arts whatsoever, from my personal observations I would say Tricia Sullivan is on to something.

[Cyborg Girl]

And here is part two:

"Wag that Puppy"

with some stuff on the neuroscience of kung fu...

In a high-stress situation where a lot of sensory information is coming in very fast, the visual cortex can't keep up. The brain has to make a guess about what's going to happen next based on your opponent's position and the early 'cue' at the beginning of a movement. This guess is informed by your past fighting experience; the more fighting experience you have, the better the guess. To my knowledge, the current understanding is that the myelination in cortical areas dealing with sensory information and motor response are only layered through specific experience, and there's science suggesting that with increased practice, visual tracking will still take place after the response is initiated, enabling an expert to deal with a late correction. This offers some explanation for how a great tennis player can return a seemingly impossible serve.

I know that science has basically relegated the "conscious mind" to the status of glue code, but it still amazes me how much stuff people can do without consciously thinking about it.

[FZR1KG]

I wouldn't pay much attention to what she's saying but she also does have some points.

Martial arts don't make you a fantastic fighter, they provide several key things to make you a far more effective fighter, than you were.
1) Conditioning, meaning learned responses to stimulus and the strength to carry it out.
2) Removing doubt. If you don't know how to handle a situation you won't handle it well. Having a bad idea is better than no idea at all
3) Provide you with fighting experience

What that means is that a 12 year old studying since they could walk and knowing the same things as a person who is 25 won't be the same fighter as the 25 year old. A smaller woman with the same skills as a larger man (or even the same sized man) isn't as good a fighter as the man unless there is something wrong with the man. It's just life. Certain people are stronger, faster, have better reflexes, have higher pain thresholds etc etc.

Also the key thing to remember here is, it's not the dog in the fight that matters, it's the fight in the dog that does.

But, with training you get better than you were. If you go to a real dojo rather than a McDojo you will be quite effective but that doesn't mean you will be invincible.

You can't compare a particular art or style that doesn't provide those three things with ones that do and she does.
The classic example is the story of how white belts beat up black belts in a free for all fight.
Were the black belts from a McDojo?

Another is her ridicule of Segal giving Silva fighting tips and her comment that Silva has nothing to learn as he is better/great fighter.
That totally misses the basic fact that learning the correct technique is the important part, not who teaches it.
e.g. lets say a martial arts master, one that has done nothing but fight and learn the martial arts gets a debilitating sickness or becomes paralysed.
Oh well, he can't teach anyone anymore because he isn't a better fighter than them.
That's the idea she is pushing and that is so ludicrous I'm not even going to bother explaining why.
Segal is a high ranking martial artist in Akido and is acknowledged in Japan for it.
Just because he is a bad actor doesn't take that away from him.

To finish off, she rags on the martial arts but makes her living teaching them, knows the MMA fighters and knows that there are no untrained successful MMA fighters. So guess what? It seems that learning the martial arts works according to her own references.

Silva's martial arts background:

Although known primarily for his mastery of Muay Thai striking, Silva is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, a rank he earned in 2006 from Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira who follows the Gracie Lineage through Carlson Gracie, like Murilo Bustamante and the Brazilian Top Team. He began martial arts training at the age of 13, training Tae Kwon Do and earning a black belt by the age of 18.[18] He is also a black belt in Judo,[18] a yellow rope in Capoeira[19] and is a professional boxer.

Take all that away and does anyone in their right mind think he'd be just as successful?

[grapes]

Interesting, but sorta old news. Isn't the street v trained the plot of half the adventure movies ever made? The half that does not show two opponents engaged in a ritual (insert style here) display.

Theoretically, an effective style for the street would be useless for MMA, cause you know, you kill them first.

[FZR1KG]

Actually street vs martial art is like saying street vs street.
It's more like trained vs experienced.
There are various versions of the legitimate martial arts.
Some are toned down for public/street use.
The "martial" ones are not however wise to use for the modern age as they are all about high injury and kill moves.

Then there are the fluff martial arts. If she broke them down that was and discussed the fluff ones she'd be right.
But she either doesn't know about Akido's legitimacy or that Segal is quite highly ranked in it, or doesn't care so puts them in the same basket.

[Cyborg Girl]

I don't know much about Seagal, but, uhh, anyone remember this? It was huge back in 2009.

http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.c ... _5171.html

That said I have no idea whether this Constantine dude can be taken seriously as an investigative journalist, because let's face it,

http://truthmovecom.blogspot.com/

being a 9/11 Truther does not engender any level of trust.

Edit: regardless, Steven Seagal seems to be a blooming idiot. I'm sure he could kick my ass though.

[grapes]

Can they not recognize art? It's a dance, obviously. But, moi, a non-combatant, does not judge. My historical weapon of choice has always been low-yield nuclear.

[FZR1KG]

lol

Seagal is a douche. No doubt about it. But he is actually a well trained douche.
Not sure how much of those sites I'd trust though.

If you want to see a real wanker, look up Frank Dux.
Hours of fun material to read about this nut job.

[Cyborg Girl]

Yeah, when I was in high school I knew this kid who was the son of two martial arts buffs. Black belt at 16, etc. And he was a total asshole. No self-control at all - he routinely used reputation to intimidate people, never mind the actual training. Absolute asshole.

Sadly, right does not make might... Far too often the opposite in my experience.

[SciFiFisher]

Yeah, when I was in high school I knew this kid who was the son of two martial arts buffs. Black belt at 16, etc. And he was a total asshole. No self-control at all - he routinely used reputation to intimidate people, never mind the actual training. Absolute asshole.

Sadly, right does not make might... Far too often the opposite in my experience.

That's why the good trainers emphasize mind/body discipline. Martial arts are supposed to be about learning things like self control, discipline, honor, and how to deal with conflict. One of the things I always appreciated about the old David Carradine series "Kung Fu" was that he always tried to deal with conflict in a non-violent way first. Of course, it never worked in the series because everyone watching it wanted to see someone get their booty kicked.

The truth is that some of the best fighters I have known resolved conflict in a non-violent way 99% of the time.

[FZR1KG]

When you don't have any honour, integrity, ethics or skill, you pull out your gun.
The NRA supports conceal carry permits for everyone!!!
Even if you are a retard and can't open your own soda bottle you should have the right to defend yourself!!!!

[SciFi Chick]

Seagal is friends with Putin and supports the annexation of Crimea. Enough said about this douche.

[FZR1KG]

It's because of his, "CIA" contacts. lol

[Sigma_Orionis]

Can they not recognize art? It's a dance, obviously. But, moi, a non-combatant, does not judge. My historical weapon of choice has always been low-yield nuclear.

Low yield nuke? what do you think this is, Kindergarten? Nuke'em from Orbit, 50 Megatons or more, it's the only way to be sure

[SciFiFisher]

Can they not recognize art? It's a dance, obviously. But, moi, a non-combatant, does not judge. My historical weapon of choice has always been low-yield nuclear.

Low yield nuke? what do you think this is, Kindergarten? Nuke'em from Orbit, 50 Megatons or more, it's the only way to be sure

Who needs nukes? if you go for orbital bombardment you can use nice clean kinetic weapons.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Why would I want it to be clean? I'm a psychopath remember?