Via Brillianter I read an article from Low Tech Combat on training realism.

I’m with both of the guys on this: that you need to train in realistic environments or as close as you can get while still safely training, but it can’t only be that. It’s a progression, going from learning in a calm controlled static manner, then moving towards more alive and realistic training.

Low Tech isn’t trying to bash traditional martial arts (TMA) in his article, but the faults he points out are correct that most TMA’s do not train in any sort of stressful and truly combative manner. But is that bad? Not necessarily. I would say it all depends upon the goals of the art, the school, the students as a whole, and the individual student.

If your goal is to be effective in combat, to be able to actually defend yourself if you got attacked “on t3h st433t”, then you better ensure there’s some training that actually simulates that. As Low Tech points out, you need to move beyond calm and relaxed training, there should be surprise, intimidation, it should be all part of the training.

But a lot of people take TMA’s for exercise and physical activity. Some find it as a social outlet. If it’s little more than “physical education” there is nothing wrong with that. If all you do is cooperatively tango with folks at the dojo, that’s fine. There doesn’t need to be yelling, surprise, ratcheting up the force, and so on. And there is nothing wrong with this. Everyone that undertakes martial arts does it for their own reasons, and so long as your training is consistent with your goals and you are honest about your training, that’s fine.

That is the key tho: being honest about your training. Every so often back in my Kuk Sool years there’d be talk about self-defense, being able to deal with “t3h st433t” and so on. But apart from a couple people who just “had it” mentally and physically, I know many of the people in that school would be p0wnd pretty easily because their training rarely if ever went beyond cooperative dancing. I got honest with myself about the training I was receiving, and while good in many respects it was not directly satisfying my goals of being capable in combat, so it was one reason I left.

Bottom line: know your goals, be honest with yourself about your goals and the training you’re receiving. Whatever your goals or reasons are for studying martial arts, as long as everything is in honest alignment, that’s what matters.