Why is there so much controversy over what martial art is the best?

I agree with you 100%.

Sadly, some think that by tearing someone else down, they make themself look big, when in reality they only reveal how shallow and superficial they actually are.

Thank you for providing the perfect example of this in your previous question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar.Qt...

Can you say, "contradiction"?

Many (men epically) want to know that they are on the right track to becoming the greatest. They want the best everything. When someone challenges them to a race with their car, they don't brag about how good a racer they are, they tell the other person that they have no chance to win because they have a superior vehicle.

Same in martial arts, if they think they are studying the best then they feel at ease knowing that all they need now is a little hard work and they can be the best.

What they fail to realize is that all martial arts are base around the human body (yes even those with animal names) and are completely capable to best any other martial art skill because of this.

Any martial art developed for combat when applied correctly by someone that knows what they're doing is effective. The problem with martial arts these days is that many of the styles that are out there that are advertised as self defence are in fact sport styles, any real combat martial art will cover all aspects of fighting you should not need to look outside of a complete system to learn how to punch or kick or grapple or joint lock or fight from the ground... People who think that a hand to hand system invented a few years ago is more effective than a system that has been around for hundreds of years are kidding themselves, the way that it is supposed to work is that you learn a system suited to you, you get it to work the way it was designed, then you alter it to better suit yourself, the most famous example of this is JKD which is pretty much just Bruce Lee's interpretation of Wing Chun, the system is perfect for Bruce Lee and not really for anyone else, people would be better off following the same path that Bruce went down and would end up with something better suited to themselves rather than forcing themselves into his mould...

Also I understand that people argue about what is the best style, no one wants to think that they have wasted countless hours perfecting something that doesn't work, and anyone starting out wants to know that the style that they choose will be the best, no one wants to waste time and money...

The most common question I've been asked by beginners is how long did it take me to get to the level that I'm at, I answer and they nod their head with a look in their eyes that they assume that their journey will be the same.

Pfft... Anyway, I'm being one of those people that annoys me now writing a long winded answer that has gone completely off the topic...

I think in short, martial arts is a journey... If you are interested in being a superior fighter then train that way, any style is grounded in proven techniques just pick one and make it work, then train it against different ideas and see if you need to adapt your ideas to deal with them.

Egos, and they don't want to be told they are wasting their time on an inferior art.

The people who are worried that their style is "the best" are idiots, should be ignored, and are not true martial artists.

These would be people on par with "my religion is the true religion, and every that doesn't believe in my religion is going to hell" kind of people.

And after being in some tournaments, i've found I have a distaste for point fighting and how political the judging can be. Some dojos train only for tournament fighting and they may or may not pass it off as actual self defense. (I'm not specifically talking about Tae Kwon Do btw)

Basically, it comes down to ego and whether or not you want to bother with arguing about it.

Here's an example:

3 tae kwon do people fight 3 isshin ryu people. 2 isshin ryu people win and one loses..... Does this mean that isshin ryu is better than TKD? No. It just means that on that day, at that time, in that place, 2 isshinryuka and 1 TKDka had better skills then their opponent.

This is an age-old question without a definitive answer. The truth is that you can debate this forever without really coming up with the answer. I think this is why Bruce Lee believed in taking aspects from different arts and making it your own. I currently train in Reality Based Self Defense (RBSD), and all styles aside, my ultimate goal is to be able to fight in every range of combat.

Jim M.

Many people extoll the virtues "their" martial art to feel superior over those who train in a different discipline. Many times though, at least in my experience, the question is originally posed by somebody looking into various options for training. I don't see any problem with someone researching effective methods for self defense or fitness, It's only a problem when some know-it-all hijacks the conversations and tries to put everybody down.

As a street fighter I come from TKD and Muay Thai its because its about competion ofcourse when I started in either of one i start to think it is the best but in reality every martial art has a weakness. There all just different styles.

I agree fully, but it is true some martial arts are better at things than others. For an example Tie Chi is verry efective but cannot be learned in a fiew years. Cung Fu can be learnd fast but less efective. More people say ''My marcial art is better than yours because I punch better''. But leave out the weaknesses.

Fools.... listen close... THERE IS NO ULTIMATE MARTIAL ART, THERE IS NO BEST MARTIAL ART. just get over it.

that is why it is best to cross train in multiple martial arts that compliment each other, such as Judo and Muay Thai, etc...

traditional martial arts are outdated, don't kid yourself or you will have to learn the hard way. Reality based arts are the only ones that work in reality. UFC is NOT as real as it gets.

If you spend several years dedicating yourself to a particular martial art, when someone else claims their particular brand of fighting is better - many people will respond with neener-neener.

Of course, a true martial artist would find the whole "my style is better that your style" argument beneath him or her.

I train not to show I am better, but to attempt to be better. I dont train pretty, flash, mystically. I train for function, not the eyesights agreement. if you believe your TKD is good, then good for you. but anyone not willing to cross train is limiting themselves.

if you dont know how to use your elbows properly, shouldnt you consider learning how to? or is TKD enough? is anything ever enough.

you see, the main arguments are not just blind yelling, but an attempt to open the eyes of the blind. It hasnt been because I know nothing about TKD, but because I have come across many who did it, boasted about it, just before ending up on their @sses. it is this experience that many of us have that determines how we view other arts.

and at the end of the day, who would admit they wasted their years training for nothing? not even those on their backsides admit that.

edit: and like everyone here can see, there is no ONE perfect art. but there are many crap ones. garbage in = garbage out. cross train to avoid falling for crap because you have nothing to compare it to that would allow you to know the difference.