Martial Artist’s Message to Trolls: Here’s your education

By Rochelle E. Brenner

Martial arts is one of the most rewarding educational pursuits. It teaches discipline, stamina, reaction, fighting courage, resilience, creativity, and respect. Yet, if you spend any time in online martial arts communities, you’ll notice something else: the culture of commentary is overwhelmingly negative.

There isn’t just criticism; it’s dysfunction. And it makes martial arts one of the most negative cultures. This is my plea to educate the Internet - please share this any time you see ill-informed  negative comments. 

Martial arts is an education. It’s also martial. It’s also an art. Let me break it down.

Education

Think about colleges. Do Penn State professors spend their time making fun of how University of Florida professors teach? Do Harvard students go online to mock an associate’s degree? Of course not.

Yes, a Harvard degree carries more prestige and respect than a community college degree—but no one pretends they’re the same thing. That’s not the competition. Everyone is allowed to pursue their education, whether they graduate with honors, need extra time, or never use their degree professionally. And they still get to keep their degree. I’m a journalism graduate whether you like my writing or not, and I couldn’t write a page of a sci-fi novel if you paid me. Does that make sci-fi an inferior form of writing? It’s just different. Do you use or remember every math concept you learned in school? No. Does that cancel out the value of your science degree or education? The goal is to get an education – to memorize, practice, learn, drill, adapt and become more confident and capable.  Every math equation and subject-verb agreement does not apply to real world math and writing. Just like every martial arts move isn’t for a street fight.

Why can’t martial arts be treated with the same respect as other forms of education? Why can’t we honor the pursuit itself, regardless of the style, the level, or the outcome? Why can’t we at least give honest critical feedback, rather than a downpour of mockery?

Martial

The internet rarely shows how good martial arts really is. Why? Because martial arts is respectful, honorable, but violent.

There’s a zero percent chance I’m going to post a video of someone demonstrating how to knee a man in the back, break his arm, and gouge out his eyes. That’s not appropriate for the internet. So what gets posted are the more acceptable, sedated moves—the role-playing, the fantasy sport, the anticipation drills. They’re helpful to demonstrate speed and skill. Those are the ones that get picked apart. Sometimes the students that get posted are “soft” or “inexperienced” but unless the caption says “This 80 year old will kill you in a street fight” then see it for what it is. It’s an 80 year old living longer and stronger and figuring out some way to do self-defense. They’re not trying to get in or win a street fight. They’re not trying to do a cage match, they’re doing their best. It’s like a college graduate making fun of someone who just passed 4th grade.  Fourth graders get A’s on report cards, as do college graduates. They both get belts – it doesn’t devalue someone else’s achievement.

Context matters when it comes to martial combat. The goal could be to kill, survive or control. All three of those goals are valuable purposes for martial arts training. Know the difference before you comment. It’s the whole Einstein line about not judging a fish by how it climbs  a tree. Too much of the online vibe is focused on climbing a tree and it is not an honest reflection of true martial arts. 

Police officers do martial arts to control and handcuff someone. Officers can not gouge out eyes or use any means necessary. A rape victim, however, needs to get away by any means necessary, including eye gouging or stomping a head into concrete. Martial arts includes battles to the death, not just fights to the winner. Different goals require different tactics, yet every post seems to get responses from people who don’t know the difference. Martial arts ends up sounding defensive while getting attacked. That would be like a field goal kicker saying “Now this is not a touchdown.” Yeah, we know. Changing the online presence requires two things: 1- martial artists to post great stuff without apologizing or being defensive 2- commenters need to be slightly smarter. (I’m not talking about healthy criticism especially when it’s your own style and the criticism is valid.)

ART

We addressed varieties of the martial part of training – different goals from self-defense to containment to sport to military-style conflict. All those styles will change what the practitioners will do and should affect the perspective of the comments. 

Now for the art. It’s an art. Arts allow for incredible acts of athleticism, accessibility to all and creativity. It should be martial-inspired but a 720 butterfly kick is as relevant to martial arts as a skilled swordsmith making a decorative sheath. The sword is no less a sword.  There is consistent historical use of artistry in martial arts. At the peak of their use in combat, swords were so ornate they are now in museums. Martial artists are demonstrating the extreme ends of their athleticism whether or not the move has a specific practical use in combat. There is zero reason to decorate a sword if its only purpose is to kill. Decorating it does not take away its purpose – but rather adds to its value. The artistry in martial arts adds to its usefulness.  The key qualities are the visual, presentation, performance, and showmanship – not “Will it work in a streetfight?.”

Should an extremely fit martial artist only kick shin-high? Should they be out of shape? Should they only do the moves originally taught by someone 200 years ago? Does every post need to get a comment “that wouldn’t work” by someone who doesn’t know how or why it works? Of course not. There is traditional martial arts and modern arts. There are ancient manuscripts and modern novels. They are not the same, and they shouldn’t be compared to each other. In some ways, it makes sense that the invention and proliferation of guns and bombs makes deadly hand-to-hand combat less common. Therefore, modern martial arts logically grew and evolved toward artistry, athleticism and self-defense. There’s a whole segment infused with choreography for film fight scenes and stunts. You can’t perform practical martial arts in movies because it’s too hard to see in the movies. Any real martial artist will tell you there has to be adjustments for the camera and the angle.

Art evolves. Martial arts has evolved for centuries.

One artistic expression often critcized is the noises. Battles are loud. Even in the movies. Simulated battles are meant to be high-energy. If you’re doing martial arts in the air, you have to show intensity and fierceness. Screaming and “kyias” accomplish that. It’s beneficial for judge’s scorecards – but also true to simulating a real martial battle. In daily self-defense, being loud draws attention, disrupts and distracts an attacker, and forces breathing.  The noises show intensity, get attention, create energy. You just don’t whisper in a sword fight.  

Whatever you do, do it well. That’s the real measure of worth. The way I currently train is to the maximum peak of performance without causing injury.  If I wanted to be a world champion, I’d have to level up and take bigger risks, just as Olympians and professional athletes do at all levels. Other martial artists can hit way harder without gloves, but they also have a lot of scar tissue I’d rather not have for myself or the 8-year-olds or working professionals in my karate school. 

I love hitting hard – I competed at a national level in boxing. But that’s not self-defense. And top-level fighters don’t always hit hard in sparring —- it’s practice. I don’t particularly like doing point-fighting. But I know what it is: It’s a challenge of self-control and getting there first – it’s not boxing. Every martial art has pros and cons. The best one is the one you do, with an honest assessment of your goals, abilities and risks. 

Don’t mock the jab

Real combatants don’t look at a stroke victim punching through tremors and say, “That won’t win a fight.” They say, “Wow, that’s amazing.”

Mocking that is like making fun of someone with dyslexia for earning a high school diploma. 

The mean-spirited, misguided criticism in martial arts communities needs to stop. Yes, there are questionable practices out there—like “no-touch knockouts”—but does that need to dominate the entire culture? Can’t we be more inquisitive, curious, and observational instead of cruel?

The nitpicking gets absurd. A guy wears shoes to train, and people mock him because “you don’t wear shoes in martial arts.” A guy trains barefoot, and people mock him for not preparing for street fights with shoes.

Not everything is a street fight or a macho contest. It’s martial arts. And martial arts deserves respect—all of the universally respected martial artists actually recognize this and share it, from Bruce Lee to Ed Parker to Michael Jai White. They train in different styles for different purposes and respect other styles for what they are. People have differing specialties, just as linebackers and quarterbacks are on the same field playing the same sport doing completely different things.

In conclusion: Martial arts is an education. The education combines both martial combat and artistry. It’s a pursuit of knowledge, skill, and personal growth. It deserves the same respect we give to other fields of study.  Or else I’ll back flip kick you in the face and punch you in the knee.