Hoax of martial arts and self-defence

Whenever there is a case of rape or molestation, there is a clarion call for teaching self-defence or some sort of martial arts to women from numerous quarters. This stupid knee-jerk reaction presumes that women are getting raped or molested simply because some fool has not yet taught them some secret martial art!

This also provides a god-sent opportunity to local martial arts schools and young officers in the police or civil administration. Martial arts schools see it as business opportunity. Young officers see it as a chance to project themselves as saviours or heroes of the ‘damsels in distress’. Most importantly, these gimmicks also serve the purpose of deflecting public attention away from the core issue of criminals getting bolder and the failure of the police.

Then, how could Bollywood lag behind? This year we had an action-packed prison-break film called ‘Jigra’ in which the lead role is played by a frail, small-size woman actor. Her younger brother gets wrongfully imprisoned on a drug charge in some fictitious Far Eastern country and she sets out to rescue him armed with her karate skills. In Bollywood films, Indians have a divine right to break law, commit crimes and spread mayhem anywhere in the world with impunity. This girl of some 45-50 kg, in order to establish her credentials, fights a fully grown man, a former cop (some 70-75 kg), who is officially trained in kung-fu for his job, and nearly kills him with a rear naked choke. She then consoles him by telling that he lost to a yellow belt in karate. God, save us!

She adds that she missed out on her black belt because they insisted on fighting by rules, which she was not amenable to. Well, why bother about belts if you don’t have to abide by the rules of the sport? You could rather do street-fighting! In any case, we do not expect Bollywood’s dumb script writers/directors to know that out of 9 belts in sports karate, yellow belt is the second lowest (white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, red, black in ascending order). A reviewer wrote, “Seriously, her fighting skills are about as believable as a cat taking a bath.”

My point of narrating this is that such crap misleads the un-informed, unsuspecting girls and boys to really start believing that there is indeed some secret stuff that they can master during their next vacation. The purpose of this article is to debunk such myths. I could cite a thousand authorities but, in the interest of brevity, trust the word of the author who has practiced Shito-Ryu karate, boxing and kickboxing for 34 years.

Real Life versus Sports fights

Sports fights seek points, not pain. In non-contact fights, points are given on the neatness of a punch or kick and it is imagined that had it made contact, it would have been devastating!

The outcomes of real life fights are determined by only two things: how much pain you can endure, and how much pain you can inflict upon your adversary so that it becomes unbearable. There are no points and no fair or foul. If you can grab the testicles of the guy and twist them or kick them, gouge out his eyes, throw dirt in his eyes, or bite him on the neck—all very unseemly sights—you might very well emerge the winner and survive.

In a real life combat, even Bruce Lee could not escape unhurt. It is only in third-rate Indian films that the hero does not even get his suit crumpled after bashing a dozen guys. Some injury is bound to take place to both combatants. Those who can override the pain better, emerge victorious.

I challenge, in real life, pick out any girl who has been wasting her time in a self-defence school and just slap her hard. She would be left completely disorientated with just one hard slap. Punch her on the jaw or in the stomach and she would not be left standing.

Ladies, if you have to save your honour, first learn to overcome pain. You have to figure out yourself, given your unique personal situation of job and responsibilities etc., how will or how can you learn that. And that will not come cheap. You might get seriously injured, get marks on your pretty face and be in pain for weeks, or even get hospitalized. But unless you know what it feels like to get punched on the nose or jaw, how will you ever take that in a real fight. No-contact martial arts are an outright scam.

In hundreds of full-contact fights or accidental contact in a no-contact fight, black belt holders have been knocked out cold with a single punch to the nose. In September 2011, a 37 strong team of Taekwondo from Jharkhand was travelling in the Moori Express from Ranchi on their way to Yamuna Nagar in Haryana to take part in the National Open Championship. A fight broke out with some hoodlums in the train near the Mauwari Block Halt, Meja Road railway station over the issue of misbehaviour with women members of the team. Well, the Taekwondo players were severely beaten up and six of them were so badly injured that they had to be admitted in the SRN Hospital, Allahabad.

Do Not Be Fooled By Farcical Demonstrations of Martial Arts Schools

In promo clips of martial arts school young girls are shown breaking boards or kicking men so hard that they are actually sent flying. Interested readers must read the papers ‘Karate Strikes’ by Jearl S. Walker and ‘The Physics of Karate’ by S.R. Wilk in the Am. J. Phys. and ‘The Physics of Martial Arts’ by Brian McGonagill to understand why this is an outright fraud.

For such demonstrations, usually they select boards of pinewood and they are broken along the grain where the intermolecular bond is much weaker, and not across the grain. Bricks and tiles, etc. are kept soaked in water to weaken them; ice slabs chosen have got cracks within or are spongy.

I have myself witnessed a demonstration by a man who pompously called himself a Shihan (Japanese for master instructor). After he had broken some bricks brought by himself, some prankster in the crowd presented him with a brick that had been nearly blackened by over-baking—the Shihan hit it bravely and broke his hand before a laughing crowd.

Think for yourself; if someone could really break bricks with a strike, he must be able to break bones of the face or the ribcage in a real fight. Have you ever seen any faces broken after any sports match with those very guys?

It is only great masters like Gichin Funakoshi or Masutatsu Oyama who were very strong otherwise and had practiced for long years; developed calluses on the skin of their hands and feet, who could break real things—not delicate girls.

Most Chinese martial arts films are notorious for people seen flying as a result of punches or kicks. They are done with the mutual consent and cooperation of the fighters only to amuse the viewer with their acrobatics. In fact, they themselves made fun of such stupidity in the second film of the 36^th Chamber trilogy, namely, ‘Return to the 36^th Chamber’ (1980). Gordon Liu plays an impostor monk who has not really been trained in Shaolin Kung Fu. In order to frighten a local tyrant about his martial arts skills, he puts up a show with his friends in the course of which, they were found flying all around with his kicks and punches. Actually, they had been ‘cooperating’ with him by jumping backwards suitably so as to give the impression of the effect of the punches and kicks. He was easily exposed.

Intrinsic Limitations of Oriental Martial Arts

The simple fact is that, to use them effectively, you have to practice for year’s altogether. The US Army’s training manual of hand-to-hand combat called ‘Deal the First Deadly Blow’ states clearly: “Judo and karate are difficult skills to learn and individuals must practice for great lengths of time before they become proficient in these martial arts.” It further says: “Army hand-to-hand techniques are simpler, and are better suited to our needs and to the time available for hand-to-hand combat training.”

Mind it, this they said for those soldiers who are physically extremely fit, have aggressive spirit instilled into them, and have experience of fighting with their hands in some way—they are not alien to hitting hard and getting hit hard in turn! They are not talking of housewives! Moreover, in the normal course, they said this for regular soldiers in camps who have at least half the day devoted to physical training of some sort which also includes fighting. You, the average person, simply cannot devote that much time.

It adds: “Every attempt must be made to maintain kicking distance in any encounter with an opponent. If the opponent is allowed to close and grapple, as in judo or wrestling, the larger and/or stronger of the opponents will have the advantage.” Once again, mind you, they are giving this advice to men who are over six feet tall and could be weighing close to 90 kg. If such persons could be determined to be at a disadvantage in a grappling situation, you can well imagine the fate of a 50 kg woman! Hence, do not even think of some wrestling hold or a judo throw. Leave that for Bollywood.

Real Life Fighting Is All About Coping With Pain

If you Google the query ‘bloodiest fights UFC’ (Ultimate Fighting Championship, mixed martial arts) you will get a lot of YouTube videos of some great fights, which come close to street fights. Watch the videos and then, for once in your life, you will realize what real fighting means. Real life fighting is vastly different from Olympic boxing, which is children’s play before it. It is all about blood and gore. They will convince you that even when some of the greatest fighters in the world fight, they too get hurt badly. Victory or loss is decided by the ability of the combatants to tolerate excruciating pain.

Coming to women, forget about the female UFC fighters like Ronda Rousey, Jessica Eye, Felice Herrig, Randa Markos, Bethe Correia, Rose Namajunas, and Joane Claderwood, et al. They might be good-looking, might be appearing for photo shoots in skimpy clothes and might even be described as ‘hot’ or ‘sexy’ in the media—but there is no running away from the fact that they are terribly strong, muscular and devote hours every day practicing the deadly art where they get badly hurt too. They are not delicate girls like you.

The whole business of martial arts or self-defence training in the market is an elaborate hoax created by crooks to exploit the hidden fears of the fools. They give the girls a false sense of confidence which may be disastrous in a real life situation. By God, my dear ladies, the rapist or molester, you are most likely to encounter is not going to be such a die-hard karate fan who would be so religiously devoted to karate that he would strike your face only with a rising punch called aage-zuki (and nothing else), and which you will counter effortlessly with an upper block called aage-uke gyaku ashi. Bullshit. He is not going to fight a karate match with you.

You must expect serious injuries and terrible pain when you fight for your life and honour in that dark alley with your rapists. Develop the guts to fight till you are all bloodied and yet are mentally capable of continuing the fight. There is no shame in getting injured in a fight. Everybody does. Get real. Learning basic punches and kicks to attack is not difficult, learn to cope with pain first.