Greetings all. The style wars have been around since the invention of martial art. It's kind of like the caliber wars we see here on the firing line all of the time. 9mm. vs. .45 cal. Kung fu vs. karate. Hard vs. soft. linear vs. circular. There are a lot of good teachers of martial art. There are also many poor teachers. As for "the new breed of martial arts" Many are the old ways with new names, reorganized to serve the users purpose. I will not say that one way is right, and another wrong. I will not say that one is less, or more effective. Many of the existing martial arts today have there merits. Much of the effectiveness of martial art is dependant on the skill of the teacher. Not just the technical ability, but the teaching abiltity of the instructor has much bearing on your martial arts effectiveness. Also the personal goals of the instructor for the student come into play. Then there is the ability of the student to consider. An instructor with much experience will try to enhance the natural abilities that already exist within the student, as well as develope new abilities. Sometimes this idea may not fit within the ridgid confines of "martial arts style," but the style has to exist. There has to be a place to start the learning. Learning the stances, the blocking, and striking techniques are a place to start, not an end. The effectivness of these techniques may not come to you for a long time, but it is there. Many of the things the instructor asks of us were never ment to be combat effective. So why do them? you will ask. Of course there are many reasons, but I will give only a couple.
Physical conditioning is a very important reason. The low stances, the large movements, all created to develope the endurance and strength of the practitioner. These are not practical fighting techniques, only things to strenghten the body. Much of the conditioning exersises are not favored now because they are hard to perform. There are those who believe that physical conditioning is unimportant, or that a lack of physical conditioning can be overcome by technical ability. This is disproven time after time by the big untrained fighter that crushes the exprienced martial artist with one poorly placed, but massive, blow.
Second is for the development of character. I have listed this second, but the importance of character development is paramount to martial art training. Those who would develope a skill, only to use it in an unholsome manner are evil, and should not be trained. The martial artist who trains diligently so that he may pick fights at the local tavern on the weekends is a poor representative of the art.
There is one other thing that I would like to mention here today. Many martial art instructors have left the learning process to take students of there own, when they are not yet ready. Not all martial artists can become an instructor. Many practitioners of martial art have been trained to use the big movements, and the low stances of the body conditioning exercises for combat because their teachers never learned beyond these things, and so passed on the art in that manner. They have taken what was only intended as a begining, and fashioned from it an incomplete art. A martial artist must never stop training to learn new things.
Whatever your method of training, or style of martial art, keeping the practical, or effective, in mind is important. Physical conditioning, and technical training are also important. Thinking a bit outside the box wouldn't hurt from time to time either.