why are CMA people generally dorks?

[neijia_boxer]

Case Scenerio #1-

So I get a call the other day from a guy who used to train with me. he now does BJJ and got a blue belt at a school I do computer work for. He is not happy that he did TCMA (Shaolin in NYC) and Shotokan for over 10 years and now loves BJJ. However the school he is at is not high level BJJ. So he asks me who in the area is the best. i give him my top picks for BJJ in the area. he goes and tries a few classes at each place, decides not to budge.

Case scenerio #2-

i got to Yamasaki acedemy in-house fights that have muay thai and BJJ competiton. I run into an old CMA classmate who is watching. he does San shou/san da, but the school he is at is poor since they do mostly wushu and Tien Shan Pai. i went to his school for 2 years and did san shou there, but know for a fact which schools in the area trains harder and have more champion coaches,fighters, and staff. His school does not train hard, he is talented fighter and could use some real coaching. I suggest he come check out our school for free classes. he never shows up and still half-asses it at the other school.

Case scenerio #3-

Another joker at a CMA school is now fighting in Muay thai events. His videos on youtube look awful, he has no stamina, tired after 30 sec. and swings wide. He loses in each of his now 5 or 6 ( i think he is like 1 and 8) fights due to stamina and endurance going out the door, i suggest trying our school or training with me for endurance and stamina our fight team uses. Our team took 2 guys to WKA nationals and out of 400 fighters both got first place, both claim it was the fight training circuits that made them through the 3 fights each had to do. Dorko never shows up or checks out a class because he wants to get his 2nd degree black sash.

Case scenerio #4-

this dorko is a instructor for many years and now is doing MMA fights. we train hard on focus mitts and thai pads. We go through circuits and he quits early out of breath. i gave him a light version of our training and went 50%. he wants to do things his way. he loses both matches in 2nd round due to exhaustion.

case scenerio #5-

this joker type calls and emails me often and out of the blue, they are like a web bot that seeks info, i never met him but we talk alot and i have given him advice and whats good in the area. hes says he will come by but is always a no show. last I heard he is only 39 and already has had a heart surgery. i dont care to teach him fighting but help him focus on tai chi and meditation.

Case scenerio #6-

this guy finally get around to train and has been doing CMA for over 15 years. he comes over with a tie dyed t-shirt and leather indian boots up to his knees. he says he knows the tai chi form and flows through the native american hippy form from the wizard of the purple clouds sect. he smokes to much weed and still has a pair of nunchuks hanging on his wall.

Conclusion- my final answer for advice will now always be- "seek and you shall find" - dont askme... fuck off... i aint giving out no-mo advice to CMA dorks.

[everything]

lol, don't know, but those were funny stories about dork-itude.

I would say it's not limited to CMA but applies to everything. CMA is just a really weird example.

Why are people dorks and staying in some situation: relationship, job, whatever, that is not really giving them the best the world has to offer them? We've all been there and are probably there right now in at least some facet of life.

[Ian]

Case scenerio #6-

this guy finally get around to train and has been doing CMA for over 15 years. he comes over with a tie dyed t-shirt and leather indian boots up to his knees. he says he knows the tai chi form and flows through the native american hippy form from the wizard of the purple clouds sect. he smokes to much weed and still has a pair of nunchuks hanging on his wall.

Awesome

I think a healthy attitude is being willing to drop everything if something better comes along. Often egos get in the way and people can't let go because they think they've invested too much of themselves for too long, but simply working hard doesn't guarantee results. In order to stay in touch with reality, sometimes being a quitter is the smart thing to do.

[neijia_boxer]

i dont like to use generalities, but i think the stories are funny too. Props to those CMA artists who go out and seek truth, knowledge, and skill and not get complacent.

[Bao]

Awesome topic, awesome title. Just awesome. Thanks!


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No, I am not going to answer the question. It's kinda dorkish...

[Doc Stier]

Ha! Ha! What a hoot!

Sounds like the same folks that turn up at every Chinese martial arts tournament I have ever attended.

There are always a number of wannabe experts, pretending to be badass, who would have...could have...and should have acquired some legitimate skills by now, but of course never trained hard enough to make that happen. All talk, but no substance.

Just appreciate these guys for the light entertainment that they continually provide!

Doc

[RobP2]

Dungeons and Dragons has a lot to answer for....

[cerebus]

LOL! Well Matt, all I can say is that if you were living out here and offered to train ME to get my endurance to a functional level, I'd be all over that.

Everytime I start to get my self back into shape (much more difficult to motivate on my own), this buddy of mine (who means well, but doesn't really understand the importance of my being in shape if I'm gonna do any competition) always drags me outta my schedule, and when I gripe at him about it he says "Oh you're in great shape, you can miss a few workouts and it won't kill ya!" Then of course my motivation to train dwindles, and now it's been nearly a week that I haven't worked out...

[Darth Rock&Roll]

I think that people who think they are badass, but when faced with the reality of what it takes to BE badass, they crumble...well, those are dorks.

lol

competitive fighting is HARD! make no mistakes it is one of the hardest endeavours you will EVER undertake.

going to a karate class or a kungfu class and getting a workout ain't shit compared to the regimen involved with tuning a fighter for fighting.

without that goal, there is no path.

[Chris McKinley]

I think in order to understand it, you have to be willing to own your own dorkitude first so that you can relate to the appeal. At some point, all of us who practice CMA fell victim to our inner dork and signed up. Part of it is a subset of the bigger question of why do dorks get involved in martial arts in general? Often it's because they aren't naturally the bigger, stronger, more naturally dominant among us, and may have had negative experiences with those who are. The martial arts, and CMA is as good example as any, represent that magical mystical secret which will allow our hypothetical dork to level the playing field without having to somehow grow taller, bigger and stronger.

CMA is generally even more "exotic" and mystical-looking than most TMA. Its rounder, more fluid motions beckon to the inner dork the same way such motions appeal to the generically spiritual, New Age neo-Wiccan hippie-chick Wolf-spirited uberdorkstress. Some of it is just that appeal of something exotic to our culture....something that supposedly contains magic in its mastery, that only an elect few have had privy to, and surely because they themselves are somehow just a bit more special and enlightened than the rest of us. That last bit is something that attracts dorks like moths to flame.

Rapport is at the heart of it. The rapport of being part of those who are "in" on the secret of martial arts, and of the even more elite few who are "in" on the extra-special version known as CMA. If you're truly and irredeemably dorky, you'll go further and get involved in the "internal" CMA.....a term sufficiently vague and mysterious so as to add all sorts of extra exotic points to your portfolio. It's a case of being more-mystical-than-thou.

A lot of people that come to IMA already have a fairly developed career in the dork industry. Many are already "green-friendly" neo-liberal neo-Wiccan granola-munching, hemp smoking/wearing hippies, D&D gamers, computer programmers, New Agers, Asiaphiles, and RenFaire goers, and often have exotic pets. Any and all of those sins are forgivable as long as, once the dork has started training CMA, he/she actually busts ass and works hard at actually being able to fight. It's always that last bit that trips them up.

If the dork had been willing to work very, very hard at something physical, they wouldn't have chosen martial arts in the first place. They would simply have got involved heavily into athletics and started working out to get stronger, get more coordinated, and gain better endurance. The fact that they didn't, and that they chose a magic bullet pathway (martial arts) instead, explains why these dorks are so reticent to bust ass in training once they sign up for CMA. Put simply, they don't want to work hard physically at much of anything at all, and they certainly don't want any part of the occasional fat lip, bloody nose, black eye, pulled muscles, bruises and wind sucking that come with actually striking and being struck as part of the training.

[Doc Stier]

Well said!

Here's a couple of great examples:





Doc

[JusticeZero]

*shrugs* True, though the dorks I have dealt with didn't 'get involved heavily with athletics' because it would have required putting themself out during their training as an easy and everpresent target for "those who are.. bigger, stronger, more naturally dominant among us". Myself, I was a dork, but I was a dork that wandered the hall juggling thirty pounds of weight while wearing an additional twenty pounds, just for the heck of it.

[Darthwing Teorist]

What is wrong with computer programmers?

[Chris McKinley]

In the interests of transparency......

Me = Grand High Poobah Overdork of the clan MacDork. Like....one hair's breadth away from wearing a katana on my back to a high school reunion kinda dork.

[mrtoes]

What is wrong with computer programmers?

Nothing, I hope!!!

As for the topic...

[runs and hides clasping hands over head]