Why do you think many martial artists think that martial arts can be either only good for self-defense, either only good for sports.....?

Martial art does nothing for longevity. What martial art does is helps you cultivate good health so you can remain vital for most of your life whether that means dying at 60 or 90. Everybody eventually dies of some sort of illness or disease regardless of how healthy they were.

Martial art is a tool and how you train and use it for is what is relevant to the user. If you want to use it for sport, then you train with it for sport. If you want it for self-defense, then that is your focus. Both goals share some commonality, but are not totally inclusive. How you train dictates what "good" it does for you.

Self-defense is not a sport and sport is not self-defense. There are no rules or referee in self-defense. You don't score points for self-defense. If you fight in a self-defense situation as if it were a sport, you will lose and losing in self-defense can mean death. If you fighting in a sports competition as if it were self-defense, you will be break several rules by using techniques that are barred because they are lethal. You deliberately kill someone in competition, you will be ban and perhaps in up in prison.

Some things do overlap. If you train sports or self defense it's exercise which is good for health. If you have the discipline to suck it up and stick it out no matter how hard it gets in either sports or self defense or just to lose weight or many other things in life too, it builds character.

Where the argument however starts is between the sport and the self defense and the confusion that exists among the kids thinking that if it looks brutal enough it must be self defense. No matter how brutal it may look the goal is still not to hurt your opponent too much, maim, let alone kill your opponent in sport. This makes it different. Most people have never been in a fight for their life and most people never ever will be. The worst anybody will ever encounter is a brawl with the school bully. To kids these shuffles are so traumatic that it gets confused with a real self defense situation and 'street fighting'. I think it has much to do with the bubbles we raise our kids in these days that disconnects completely from some realities (fighting to survive is one) and creates new ones.

Because... it's all how they train, and the mindset. In sport, you fight to stay as long as you can to get points. In self-defense, it's the polar opposite: you fight as little as possible and look for the quickest way out.

The problem is, if you give someone a hammer, all their problems begin to look like nails. If your instruction is focused for competition, you begin to think you can handle yourself on the street. But what happens when the person who's accosting you is twice your size, or outnumbers you 2-1, or has weapons, when all of your training has limited you to timed rounds, no weapons, against one person who's similar in capability and weight class? What if you're older, and the punk is in his teens? These are things they don't teach you in a wrestling or boxing gym - and for good reason.

And that crap about good for exercise? Yeah, right. Tell me again how training to the brink of torn ACLs, sprained knees, dislocated shoulders, and torn rotator cuffs is healthy? Or conversely, how does practicing wrist releases, forward rolls, or pressure points going to keep the cholesterol levels down?

Martial arts is not about fitness. A school might have adjunct classes on fitness, but the core instruction is not about fitness. Fitness may be required for the sport and overall longevity, but fitness is not a by-product of martial arts.

And character development? (or any of that other fluffy stuff like concentration, focus, self-control) Look, if someone's a jerk, the style - sport or otherwise - is not going to change that person. They'll eventually just be a jerk with a black belt. Can martial arts help with these? Yeah, if you get the right instruction; but then, so can soccer, chess, and fencing.

And this is all something that comes from within. No board, punching bag, or focus mitt has any empathetic or telepathic powers that governs your concentration, focus, aim, or technique. If you keep striking things without concentration, nothing will improve. These are all elements of you that improve through general training, and there isn’t one kind of training that will improve that - except repetition through earnest practice - any practice.

Martial arts can be good for whatever you want and train in them to be good for. If you train for sport it can be good for that. If you train for fitness it can be good for that. If you train for self defense it can be good for that. However, don't expect that you will be good in a fight if you only train to pull punches. Let alone think you will be good at self defense. Some of the same techniques used in self defense are also used in sports. Often the strategies differ. The targets and intent are also different. In sports you train to be safe and not to injure. Some sports allow face contact and others don't. On the contrary in self defense your training consist of not keeping your attacker safe. In fact it is just the opposite. The objective it to self preservation. You are to main or kill.

There was nothing in my boxing training that prepared me for the day when a gun was put to the back of my head or when the knife was pulled. But it was covered in my self defense training and I survived without injury. There was at least 3 of them with the gun and after I grabbed the gun they ran off so fast. The one with the knife did have a wrist injury and I held that person until the authorities arrived. I had a couple of other gun incidents and I did what my training taught me. The distance was not close enough to fight. So my training said to run. Not only run but not to run in a straight line. It's much harder to hit a moving target and don't give a direct line.

Hey Georgie it's been a while mate, I wasnt going to answer as you can refer to comments i left on possums answer, because for the mainstream(self defence or Sport) thats a pretty accurate answer, i believe there is the 3rd aspect that doesnt get hit much on because people dont have that connection to their art outside of that environment its portrayed in the class,

However, when Art crosses over to a cultural aspect with one of my arts( mau rakau) that i have hereditary links too, the whole holistic approach comes into play and the martial art becomes just a small part of a bigger picture of the society it came from, thats where i believe once people make that connection to their past take on some of those values and we will see changes in that person,

Corrections took it on with outstanding results , http://artsaccess.org.nz/mau-rakau-laying-the-chal...

It's translated , doco on an old Maori and what traditional karate means to him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80jmROuekVg

i think for some, on a subconscious level, they do not compete out of fear. then, to not look weak in the eyes of anyone else use the ol "my art is to deadly" excuse, to try and make a name for themselves w/o actually having to do anything other than tell stories. that being said competition can create a confusion as to the legitimacy of the art and certain techniques. depending on the competition, you can say it might be a building block to success, or detrimental. i would say going in a cage would give you more street experience than point sparring in a tkd closed organisation tournament. just saying. at the same time in the street a UFC champ can get sucker punched or stabbed w a knife a lot of the same way anyone else could. then also a lot of schools in mma do not train on how to defend against weapons. there are a lot of points - counter points to this discussion, but i would personally wish to refrain from training w any tool that uses the whole "my art is to deadly to compete" bs. most of those guys wouldn't really fare well against most trained individuals.

If I am reading your question correctly, the answer is simple; practicality.

That is, what works and what does not.

Simply put, it's with good reason you do not see, for example, Aikido masters in cage fighting...same could be said for most other traditional martial arts. Because, they do not work.

There are many that believe in the health and welfare benefits of martial arts which is why they continue doing them is what I have found. However these other things you mention receive a lot of the attention from non practitioners which is why it might seem that way to some.

some things do overlap... if you train sports or self defense it's exercise which is good for health... if you have the discipline to suck it up and stick it out no matter how hard it gets in either sports or self defense or just to lose weight or numerous other things in life too, it builds character...

where the argument however starts is between the sport and the self defense and the confusion that exists among the kids thinking that if it looks brutal enough it must be self defense... no matter how brutal it may look the goal is still not to hurt your opponent too much, maim, let alone kill your opponent in sport... this makes it different... most people have never been in a fight for their life and most people never ever shall be... the worst anybody shall ever encounter is a brawl with the school bully... to kids these shuffles are so traumatic that it gets confused with a real self defense situation and 'street fighting'... i think it has much to do with the bubbles we raise our kids in these days that disconnects completely from some realities (fighting to survive is one) and creates new ones...

sserewr