Referring to the fighting prowess of a style rather than an individual seems like a category error.
middleway wrote:Referring to the fighting prowess of a style rather than an individual seems like a category error.
Well styles are simply training methods (information) for humans, they dont actually exist outside of the person practicing them so even refering to Styles as 'things' in and of themselves would be the first error.
However, the often rolled out line that its 'not the style its the individual' is a bit disengenuous IMO. To say that one training methods is not as useful for a given goal as another is absolutely valid.
To collapse the evidence by saying we have to focus on individuals rather than the group is akin to saying we must only consider the outlier to draw conclusions from research. It is possible to talk in generalities and still get some meaningful advice from the discussion for 'most people'.
For instance i can say that generally jumping off a 200ft cliff will kill you. Of course individuals have survived such falls ... but it doesnt make my comment any less true or practically accurate. To follow the 'its the individual' process we would have to ignor the advice to not jump off cliffs and say 'Well it depends on the individual, so go try'.
IMO
'In general, the training methodology known as MMA will produce more capable hand to hand fighters than the training methodology known as Tai Chi'
This would be an accurate statement for instance.
I say this while maintaining that the best fighter i have ever met was from the internal arts.
middleway wrote:I dont want to name names particularly but he is known to the board. His striking is the heaviest i have felt. For reference i have been hit by Ryabko, Morris and a fair few other 'heavy hitters'. Combined with this his extreme freedom of movement/mind and subtlty of change ... he once controlled my hands, offbalanced me while doing so, and kicked me in the throat with his toe, without telegraphing at all through the contact points.
middleway wrote:I dont want to name names particularly but he is known to the board. His striking is the heaviest i have felt. For reference i have been hit by Ryabko, Morris and a fair few other 'heavy hitters'. Combined with this his extreme freedom of movement/mind and subtlty of change ... he once controlled my hands, offbalanced me while doing so, and kicked me in the throat with his toe, without telegraphing at all through the contact points.
middleway wrote:It sure is.
middleway wrote:Anyways. back to the thread
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