Modern martial arts. There’s been a ton of them, like combat-o, who made the mistake of bragging they were unbeatable. Then they went into the ring against traditional karate, Judo and traditional Kung Fu.
And lost every match.
Make sure you’ve got something to brag about, before you brag.
The first modern martial art is Jeet Kun Dao, or “Way of the intercepting fist”. This style was invented by Bruce Lee. It was almost enlightening for me to read a book called “Bruce Lee’s notebook”, released by his wife. It showed the genesis of Jeet Kun Dao, and made some questions arise right away whether the direction Dan Inosanto has steered it is ultimately the direction Bruce would have taken it. But Dan Inosanto remains committed to one concept: Absorb that which is useful, reject the rest. Don’t want to learn the Philipino stick fighting or knife fighting aspect of it, okay, don’t! Want to incorporate the long arm elements of Choy Li Fut and french Savate? Do it!
But make it work. In some ways, my own martial arts journey could be called “Jeet Kun Dao” – I just haven’t taken the Bruce Lee curriculum.
In many ways, what you’re seeing today is the fulfillment of Bruce Lee’s vision, but there’s one cardinal rule that’s missing. Jingkagu Kansen Ni, tsumuro koto – seek perfection of character. This is missing in modern martial arts. So is “karate begins and ends with courtesy.” Japanese martial arts insist on this. Modern ones often reject it in what has become gladiatorial battles.
Next is BJJ – Brazilian Jiu-Jutsu. This is a form mostly dominated by the Gracie family, who’ve taken Jiu-Jutsu techniques and refined them. If it doesn’t work well, or takes time to set up and make it work, the Gracie’s jettisoned it (if any of the Gracies would like to comment on this and clarify, feel free).
BJJ uses traditional Jiu-Jutsu techniques. Techniques said to break arms are only called that if the Gracie’s personally have broken an arm that way, or one of their student’s have. In many ways, the greatest service the Gracie’s have done is started the death knell to the so-called “death touch” and “Internal energy” aspects of martial arts that remain fakery, con artist trickery, superstition and old wives tales. The Gracie’s in the past have invited people, “Show me the death touch. Show me. Kill something with a touch in front of me.”
Unfortunately, what has grown out of BJJ and Jeet Kun Dao is the third modern martial art – MMA. MMA has been denounced by the Gracie’s as a fighting system and not an art. But once you opened the door to “ground and pound”, you can’t shut it again, is the claim of Hung Gar master Pavel Marcek. And he’s right.
Two MMA artists were sent out by the Discovery channel one year around the world, and the same thing was heard on every episode – “My MMA background and training is useless in this environment.”
Ready for the definition of MMA? A calculated martial style designed solely for an artificial environment and useless on the street. Face six opponents, and try to use MMA against them. Karate trains for this. Aikido trains for this. If you leave your feet in this environment, you will die. Multiple opponents is a stand up game, bottom line. Street fights are rarely one on one.
So, how do you portray an MMA practitioner in your novel? Go back to the first one, on boxing. tire the opponent out, get them making mistakes, do a “Shoot” takedown, then pound their faces until they give up.
next time, we’ll look at a lot of common mistakes in portraying fight scenes in novels
