(Fair Warning: This article is 100% unprofessional, mostly ridiculous, and contains the word “fuck” throughout; so feel free to not take it seriously).
Constantly, I hear people proclaim the ruin of Judo due to the Olympics, usually in the form of, “Look what the Olympics did to Judo…” the person then thinks they’ve made a completely full and valid argument against making their beloved martial art an Olympic sport.
But it’s a stupid argument.
The Olympics haven’t ruined Judo at all. Ronda Rousey only did sport Judo and still beat everyone’s ass in MMA before she ever learned how to throw a punch. (Plus, as a stereotypical, impatient American, I fucking hate all of the bowing, memorizing Japanese, and other traditional stuff it comes with. Just teach me to fuckin’ throw, man).
It depends on your goal. Are you looking for the perfect self-defense program? Then get some basic BJJ/Boxing and always remember to bite whenever possible, and hit
them in the sack. You don’t really need much else for the “street”. (Besides, you can avoid a shit-ton of street fights if you stay home and watch Netflix and argue about martial arts on Tumblr). Or, as Penn and Teller state, “If you’re willing to use deadly force on another human being, use a fucking gun. The moral and legal consequences are almost the same.”
Sport is fun and it’s a great way to challenge yourself and improve yourself. You just have to remember that it’s A FUCKING SPORT.
For every martial art there are 3 versions:
- “Street”
- Sport
- MMA
All of them have various applications and techniques that work for one but not the others.
It doesn’t mean one is clearly superior to the others, it just means they have different goals in mind, so they are focused to those goals. So don’t go around saying a sport version of your martial art is ruining the art for everyone else. You know what actually ruins it for everyone else? Whining about that shit every chance you get.
You wanna dance in Pajamas? Cool, do your katas; just remember that it’s a fucking dance. You wanna learn to kill a mother-fucker by ripping out his larynx with your teeth? Sweet, do that shit; just remember that according to self-defense laws, it’s not a kosher thing to do. You wanna play an exaggerated game of tag? Bitchin’. go for it, just remember to not try it if you get mugged.
Just do your thing. Why worry about how everyone else is doing it? It’s like a couple of obese people arguing over which flavor of ice ream is better; it doesn’t really matter because it’s all subjective to the individual’s preference anyways.
