Martial arts discussion thread

[GoktimusPrime]

We try not to encourage any form of style discrimination by labelling any particular style as "crap."

The individual matters more than the style. Learning a 'good' style doesn't mean you can fight, and conversely not learning a martial art doesn't mean you can't. Arguably one of the greatest fighters of the late 20th Century was Mohammed Ali - who didn't learn any traditional martial art, but a fighting sport (modern boxing). Yet if we took Ali in his prime and put him up against say Bruce Lee in his prime, I'd put my money on Ali.

A more important question over "what style do you do?" is "Can you fight?"

Now having said all that, I'm speaking from a combat/self defence martial arts perspective. People do martial arts for different reasons - not everyone learns it for fighting. There are some people who learn it as:
+ a sport, e.g.: Olympic Wrestling/Judo/Fencing/Taekwondo etc.
+ a performance art, e.g.: Capoeira, Modern Wushu, Pencak Silat etc.
+ for holistic health, e.g.: non-combative styles of Tai Chi

None of those reasons are "wrong" or "crap." The best style is the style that works for you.