It's the contextual premise stupid

"Hey man, I did all the other martial arts and (insert favorite martial art here) is the best man."

"(Insert despised martial art here) sucks bro. An MMA guy can kick ass on those dudes anytime!"

I often hear that kind of talk from people doing martial arts. First of all, it's the practitioner that's gonna make the art effective or not, not the art itself. And let's be real, not all martial arts were created equal! As far as I know, karate was not developed as a martial art to be used against other martial artists. Just listen to Okinawan karate master Choki Motobu:

"...the applications of kata have their limits and one must come to understand this. The techniques of kata were never developed to be used against a professional fighter, in an arena or on the battlefield. They were, however, most effective against someone who had no idea of the strategy being used to counter their aggressive behavior." (pg. 96)

In other words, and in light of the research that karate historian Patrick McCarthy has done, karate was to be utilized against a person engaging in what he terms habitual acts of physical violence. Those acts are the contextual premise, the foundation on which the techniques in the kata were created to deal with. I think this is a crucial point to understand when talking about martial arts, especially with people who have no experience with it. Most people's general perceptions of martial arts, in my experience, is seeing it as "fighting". Now, although there is a thin line between fighting and self-defense, how a person trains for one or the other seems to require two different kinds of expertise. And you have to distinguish what you mean when you talk about "fighting". Because if you are talking about fighting where there are guns involved, then no martial art in the world will help you to stop a bullet penetrating your soft, fleshy human body. And if you are talking about fighting like they do in the UFC cage, then you are talking about training in a sport that has rules and regulations and guidelines. And if you are talking about fighting like in the "street" then I don't really think you need to take the time to study a martial art; just go insult someone's momma and see what happens. So "learning how to fight" is different to me than learning how to successfully handle unprovoked aggression. Both may require similar technical understanding, but which martial art is effective or not depends on what you want it to be effective for; winning points/trophies/titles/fame or survival? 

Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até