I CAN Judge Martial Arts I Haven't Tried 

I am 60 and have done several martial arts over the decades. Martial Arts biggest problem was they were never subjected to the scientific method. People took them as gospel because someone who was 10th degree told them it was true. In the early 90s American martial artists were finally exposed to pressure testing their arts. Many failed and went into hiding to preserve incomes and egos.

The sunk cost fallacy is one hell of a drug

Me: “Getting hit by a bus going 75 miles a hour would suck” Troll: “you don’t know you haven’t tried it” Me: 🤦‍♂️

How do you know the Harry Potter books aren´t real, aren´t factual and didn´t really happen - if you haven´t read them all? How do you know pro-wrestling isn´t actual fighting if you´ve never been a pro-wrestler yourself? ... yeeeeeeaaahhhhh.......

I practice jiujitsu and I also did Krav Maga for a spell and it always amuses me when the “defense lab guy” get mad at me when I point out the flaws of it. Keep up the great work

There are aspects of a martial you can judge without any experience in it, but there are also aspects you can't judge without at least experiencing it being done to you.

Seeing a technique attempted by an expert with resistance will more accurately indicate if it can work but you dont need to become that expert to look at the results of this happening

You're good, there are no soft consonant sounds in Latin, and "v" is pronounced as a "w" in classical Latin, where there is no "w." I'm a nerd, and I approved this message.

Calling it early: the comments section on this video is gonna be fun lol.

"if you want more information, Google it" sounds a lot like "do your own research". 😂

yeah, true. another one that I've heard is you have to be experienced in the art to know if it works. I used to do Wing Chun but couldn't get it to work and my teacher would always say that it's because I'm a beginner and until I've mastered the art I won't understand it. even after I had been training Wing Chun for a year I got told a year still makes me a beginner and once I've been training for over 20 years then I'll start to understand the true purpose of the techniques. I quit and went to an MMA gym and got reasonably skilled after 4 months. I mentioned it to my old Wing Chun teacher and he said how I didn't give Wing Chun a proper chance and quit before I could really learn anything and I replied how I was training Wing Chun for over a year and still couldn't hold my own in a fight and his response was something about how a year is nothing and a year isn't even long enough to learn all the basics and I said how much I had improved since joining an MMA gym and his response was that joining an MMA gym has made my sparring better but sparring isn't real fighting.

The guitar bit made me chuckle. Applies to many things lol

this is also a very typical fallacy when talking about problems in countries. How many times have I heard "you can't criticize X country because you've never been there" (ok so buy a return ticket so you can walk around a few hours then fly back, now I guess you are entitled to talk about it lol) If you have been to the country, they will move the goal post and say "well you are not a citizen". If you ARE a citizen of that country then they might say "well you are not born and raised and currently living there". If you ARE then they will just go into regional specifications and say "well you are from a different region of that country". Basically, an endless moving of goalpost just to avoid discussing the problem and questioning their bias

A majority of classic martial arts are so deeply ineffective, anyway, because flashy, impressive bullsh!t used to impress people back when they had no media to saturate and desensitize them. Practical fighting styles win all the time, and when I hear someone defending a martial arts style that isn't practical, I just chuckle to myself. It's yet-another mall-ninja defending nunchuks.

I bash my head against the wall every day and now I’m the best street fighter in the world. I’ve won over 5,000 street fights.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a real player in this game too heh

Do you need to try it, no. Should you watch a few examples of different practitioners before judging the whole art, yes. I have seen absolute garbage practitioners mutilating incredible martial arts and if I didn't look elsewhere... So if anybody reading this is just starting their journey, trust your gut but also do your due diligence.

Yep, 100% agree, you don't have to be a cook to judge the flavour/taste of a dish. P.S. tune your guitar ;)

Like this man’s audience very logical and impartial unbiased folks! 👍🏾

I took karate when I was in high school. I got my green belt then I quit because I got my ass kicked by a boxer in the locker room. It was a waste of time and my dad’s money to learn katas and weapons that I’ll never use. I felt like I was taking a dancing class, not a fighting class. I learned more from boxing and grappling in one week than I did in a year from karate. The belt system was designed to get your money.

Your outro music is totally amazing! 11/10 I think about it every time I watch one of your videos, but I'm only just getting around to commenting about it. Sorry for that, and thank you for posting good information, getting right to the point in your videos, and again for the exceptional outro music!

I think there's a little more nuance to this. It's definitely prudent to judge martial arts before you try them to determine if they do what you want them to do, but I also believe there are certain aspects of a martial art that you can't make an accurate judgment of without receiving training in that martial art. For example, someone who has not been trained in how to properly strike with the elbow may have a negative perception of Muay Thai, and some who hasn't learned how to perform a kick may think that the techniques in kick boxing and taekwondo are to off-balanced to be considered safe. Training in a martial art also gives you a better perception of what they're trying to do in that martial art, and understanding the goal of a martial art is the first step in judging it's effectiveness. This can be learned through independent research, but in my experience, I can get a much better perception of a martial art after trying it for a month or so than I can get in a year of independent research.

A good teacher teaches both the advantages and the disadvantages of his MA: that’s maybe what counts most. A good teacher won’t sell you false sureness. This provided, the charismatic and well aware teacher, any MA has something good to offer for self defense.

OH BOY! I can’t wait to see how many people *THIS* pisses off! _Also yeah, I don’t need to fucking smoke,drink, or gamble to know how it’s probably not good for me._

Thank you for posting the terms you used that I want to google in the description! I think it would be valuable for the terms to be on the screen as you say them so that you can google as you go. Really enjoyed the video :)

It’s tough because I’ve always used the “free trial” to judge if I’d like it. That’s how I found BJJ and Kickboxing and loved it. But in the same sense, that free trial can leave you open to those cons you and Rob discussed. Luckily I went to an MMA gym that has active fighters. Some don’t get the opportunity. I agree with you in this video.

One thing I noticed about Aikido from my personal is that alot of Aikido practitioners tend to be for the part very nice and pleasant people whom in my opinion are by no means the worse type of human beings on this planet and because of this I don't think that a lot of people would really have the heart to go up to an Aikidoka and tell them that they most likely they are not a competent fighter and I also feel that they're are a fair portion of Aikidoka who do it as a hobby and know the limitations of there martial art yet would also never have the heart to go on record and say that a very large portion of Aikidoka are most likely not competent fighters.There are a large portion of Aikidoka actually seem either delusional or in denial in regards to Aikidos effectiveness but still alot of people would not really have the heart to try to burst most of those people's bubble and thus deprive them of the bliss of there own ignorance just because of the type of nice pleasant and chill vibe that many Aikidoka tend to give off.

good points made here. Been enjoying your videos lately, keep at it

I love your videos and your manner of explanation within. Thanx for doing this

I’ve always found that the “don’t knock it til you try it” retort isn’t about validity, and shouldn’t be used as such. It’s about enjoyment - how you will value your own experience with something - and how you can’t make a pre-judgment on what your experience will be. That has absolutely no bearing on whether something works, makes sense, or is reasonable; you can tell that from afar, and if you have to get up close and personal to see if something is or isn’t stupid, it’s probably stupid.

ok I used to like your channel, but now... I LOVE IT

Take this as a compliment. You look like Tom Holland Spider-Man

I think this is true up to a point. Some things can look functional but really arent or some things can be functional but only under certain circumstances but you wont really know how to use it until you try it. Hood example; an Aikido/jujutsu wrist lock works from a technical stand point but if you never roll with resistance you will never learn to apply it for real. In this case you absolutely should try it to know if and how it works. If you only mannequin train then suddenly have to use it in a real fight and it fails it becomes easy to think it is the technique that is the problem when in reality it was the training method.

Another video that I expected to be about martial arts but was actually about my workplace. "We're hiring you for your experience, but you aren't allowed to change or even question anything until you know why we do things the way we do. Nobody will tell you the why, you will learn it after 3 years. After that we may listen to you. Until then, follow your orders to the letter-no creativity, discretion, or thinking allowed."

Don’t mind me, I’m just commenting for the algorithm. Also, the outro song is still amazing 🎶

I love the ending song, sooo much xDD

I'm kinda sad. This comments section is pretty tame😂

Alright.. I gotta ask.. When do we get a full version of that outro?

I went on a big Bruce Lee binge recently. I feel like this video is related somehow... His sycophants are numerous. Everything bad ever said about him was a lie, everything good is gospel, and any criticism, including use of the LAWS OF PHYSICS, is brushed under the rug of "You weren't there".

Similar to sunk costs. We should not stay with something based on prior investment.

That song was amazing I’m subscribing

Many systems that haven’t worked for MMA fighter's up till now, will not do so in the future either and will probably vanish with their advocates all together. Is DefenceLab going to be one of them? Founder Andy might have some dirty tricks up his sleeve, nice elbow combinations for confined space brawls and solid training drills, but his franchise product - a limited sub-set of panantukan techniques - only gets more Ameridote-alike by throwing more esoteric sub-sets of other martial arts into the mix. It was fun to train though☺️

So is there a full version of the ending song somewhere? :)

what do you think of silat or pencak silat as a martial art? is it effective or not at all?

BRO YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW MY MENTALITY BRO IM BUILT DIFFERENT. Etc etc etc. Love the videos, dude. Keep up the solid work.

On a scale of 1 to scientology where do you place HEMA.

This is very true, i would also add... dont just follow the herd, many people think that just bevause something is popular it is good... I was utterly dissapointed with my experience of bjj because it was sold as some kind of crazy good magic style that was perfect for me... Found myself using the same things i had learnt in "less reputable styles" that literally taught mostly the same... Maybe with a few differences... Like... What to do if someone is mounting you? Point style karate class: bridge as you lock one of their legs and grab one or both of their hands to flip them over Ninjutsu class: same as karate Bjj: same as karate but they give more detail about how to lock or grab... What to do if someone gets you in side control? Pointstyle:push the neck and hip and shrimp out, maybe set it up with a knee strike or an elbow... Ninjutsu: same as point style but add pressing specific painful spots on the neck as you do it... Bjj:same as karate but with more detail on how to shrimp out and where to put your hands, dont you dare using elbows or knees and pressure points are frowned upon, just push the way the instructor tells you... How to escape someones closed guard? Bjj, stand up, peel their knee out and pass it Karate:lift and slam down until they let go... Ninjutsu:either of the other 2, or instead just go for a leglock... I lernt with like... 3 different bjj guys and it was always the same... I expected to learn something i had never seen, and it was what i alredy knew but in more detail 9 out of 10 times... The other time it had less detail

Your body language in 0:22 was spot on lmaooo😂

love this guy

Been dealing with a lot of comments like this after my recent Kali/Escrima video. I’m going to be sharing this video as a response every time it happens from now on.

So this group thing , is that like the the truck with the tape on his tailgate that spells out wake up sheep , while he flocks to a rally across the street and then be herded around town tooting his horn , may not be there of his own free will? How can that be? But I like may fallacies, and biases.

dud I remember going to my first BBJ class and being submitted by much smaller intermediate belts, and I went hard, I was like YESS BBJ for me please, I say go try it lol

Oh boy. I heard this many times. It's the thing fans say when they don't want to hear critisism.

yes yes yes, but have you heard of this revolutionary new thing called pressure points?

1 minute In and already laughing my ass off 🤣

Ive learned clinch escapes from Wing Chun... and they work in Muay Thai. Whole system, not so much. But almost every system has a few moves you can learn that will up your overall game in general, and lots of it can be used in MMA. Granted, thats with thai and BJJ training already.

It’s true, people do find excuses. I think it’s also true that any MA is better than none at all and one can always branch out later and improve his/her new system.

I need to know that outro song though

Your delivery in this vid reminds me a lot of Icy Mike - which makes sense cause you're friends lol

I'm a nerd and now offended.

"Come try it" is what I say to my friends when they say wrestling is easy

You should travel to China and Japan and challenge black belts there :)))

What are his qualifications?

I've never jumped into a tornado to see if I go to Oz. But I'm pretty sure it's not real.

You can judge college classes you haven't tried too, but what weight does your judgement carry if you haven't graduated college? You would have to get more specific in your judgement such as saying an English class in college isn't that much harder than an English class in 12th grade. Since you've taken 12th grade English you're probably somewhat accurate in your judgement. If you only took algebra 1 in 12th grade and you make judgements about high level calculus classes then your judgements aren't going to be as accurate since you have no clue about it. Now a person with a bachelors degree in mathematics would have a much weightier opinion on calculus than a person who's got a high school diploma with only algebra 1. In the same way your opinion isn't going to be as weighty if you've never taken a judo class as compared to a blackbelt in judo. Anyone can make judgements, but credentials to lend towards credibility.

My understanding of ad ignorantiam fallacy is that it is an appeal to lack of contrary evidence.

Lol Wehhhhhh! Try my martial art out. You can't know til you get no touch knocked out! Love your content.

While it is true that you can technically judge things without trying them I think the phrase comes from the notion that there are many things that you can Thank you understand but would change your mind about after you've tried

💀💀💀 the soyboy "self defense practitioners" couldn't last 2 seconds in a boxing ring with me let alone an actual criminal.

Mostly agree, most things can be tested prior to viewing. My only exception is Judo(le concrete) and that's because I've yet to see a sane man run down the road wearing nothing but boxers.

I mean just practically speaking you can "judge" anything at your own desire. Will it be the correct judgement to make is a bit less simple. Various arts differ but they also share alot and all originate from the same base concepts and principles, some individuals tho tend to focus more on certain aspects than others tho. But what makes the biggest difference is not so much in the art itself, and certainly not in it's fighting techniques but in the methods of training and how they are carried out and that individuals dedication to the training. And also acknowledging some things require more training than others

I really think most people who do that are arguing in what they see as good faith. I think they are true believers, and their egos don't allow them to rationally examine their positions. It's hard for me to imagine people knowingly subscribing to BS and trying to convert others as common

yeah.... I took a couple years of aikido. Part of me always though, man I can't JUST use this and this alone. The instructor and one of the senior students both seemed like they could handle themselves. But I don't believe that was due to the aikido alone. The instructor clearly had a rough and tumble path, and the senior student had taken other martial arts for YEARS. with plenty of sparring, and unlike everyone else in the class including me, he was fit, strong, and a fairly big person. It was frustrating because I do think aikido has use, but it has use to someone who already knows how to fight. I don't believe it's helpful to one who can't already fight, because there's not any good way to pressure test it. If you take a hypothetical aikido practitioner who is so good he can manage to pull of techniques against resisting opponents, then the resisting opponent (or sparring partner) gets his joints all busted up, so it wouldn't be sustainable. Applying the techniques aggressively enough to work and gentle enough to not damage someone? my god that would be a whole other level of movie magic skill. so this gets "solved" be having the people the techniques are being done on learn how to move their bodies and fall to avoid injury. but then you're back where you started with not having resisting opponents. If I'm not fighting you for real and I have no adrenaline and am very conscious of not wanting my wrist broken, and I know that if I don't go with the flow i'll get my shit snapped, you better believe that when you perform the technique on me I'll be leaping my happy ass off and rolling on the floor, how could I not? This comment is getting long but I'll also add that whenever I questioned certain techniques or what I saw as noticeable gaps in our training, my instructor would have me demonstrate to show how there was no gap. example: I said sensei, this technique seems great if someone is throwing a big haymaker, or other committed attack, but what about a jab? sensei says, "ok well you throw a jab at me whenever you think it's appropriate". As soon as he's in range I throw one, but because i'm not a boxer and have no jab to speak of, AND he expertly used distance to lure my jab he pulled off the technique perfectly. I wasn't satisfied that *I* could make it work, or that any of us students could, without having boxers come in to punch us, or muy thai guys come in to kick us, or wrestlers come in to grapple us etc. You have to train for what you'll be up against, and who's getting mugged by an aikidoka? the whole point is that you choose the way of peace and avoid fights so slim chance an aikidoka is the attacker you face. P.S. re-reading this comment it looks like English isn't my first language but I swear I'm just tired

I may disagree with soooome things u say, but overall I love your channel! And honestly the FACT that I disagree with some things is probably the reason I need to hear a lot of your advice. It is great to challenge your own beliefs after all... That being said... I still love doing my Krav Maga classes... heheh... i know there's a lot of BS schools out there, but its like that with a lot of gyms i suppose... even some boxing and MMA gyms i've visited have been a bit dumb... I don't wanna be THAT GUY, but I feel like my instructors take a fairly realistic approach to self defense. They advocate avoiding unnecessary conflicts, and when it comes to KNIFE AND GUN DEFENSE, they even ADMIT that its unlikely I would be able to pull off some flashy bullshit. (yes we pressure test, rarely u win, and a lot of the time u lose... haha) The one thing that bugs me is when ppl say "kickboxing is better than krav", or "judo is better" or "BJJ is better"... im like BRO, a good Krav school TEACHES most of that shit, its literally derived from those arts... and im not saying krav is better, in fact i actually ACKOWLEDGE that BJJ would most likely be better in a lot of ways... Also i think when a lot of people think of krav they imagine its like a 6 week crash course in fighting... that may be true for soldiers, but it can take up to 3 to 4 years depending on the school to get a legit black belt. Anyways... i'm just a random Krav fanboy... dont mind me haha....

Yes

Is that a Guild D-50? I play the same great guitar!

You make some great points here! I tend to disagree on your "more lessons" take, though. Sometimes (maybe especially in traditional martial arts?) advanced and beginner classes are separated because it's just easier to teach. So you won't see the complete picture in your first lesson. HOWEVER i think that it's a big red flag if the groups are completely exclusive. Beginners should definitely be exposed to advanced concepts and techniques as well. A good instructor will explain basic and more advanced variations in the same lesson. A good school will also have more advanced practitioners train with white belts, so that a beginner is even more exposed to advanced concepts, because the more advanced person will ask them to use the different hand, perform the strike faster, etc. So, many schools give you the first month free and I think you should at least invest that much before you form your opinion (unless it's obvious bullshit). Maybe even ask if you can participate in (or at least watch) the advanced class for once.

He told us to google it. Remember the look it up part? Nonsense alert! 🤣🤣🤣

Actually I had an argument with an aikido guy that believes that trash works saying that judo (that I practiced) came from aikijutso and aikido so if judo works than aikido works😬what a fool

3:27 "You want more information on that, Google it." He just told you to do your own research! TRIGGERED!!! 😂😂 Really enjoy the vids you put out, don't suppose you got one on Filipino Martial Arts? Curious about your opinion on it.

I love how much this guy calls out Eddie bravo lol

At least you have found the magic art! right? I think people can train in whatever martial art they want as long as it satisfies their goals and needs. Hanging out with likeminded people, fitness, self defense, competition or dressing up in Ninja outfits…..

while all that has been said is 100% correct i fear that this argument could be misconstrued and over generalized to those systems that while providing valuable approaches also have gotten a bad rep due to misrepresentation (wing chun, aikudo, kung fu etc. you know them), while getting involved in a martial art ofc exposes the evaluator to a biased perspective, it still carries value, after all most martial artist while they all know about fighting, they often specialize in specific domains of fighting: a striker doesn't have the tools and knowlege to judge a grappling technique and vice versa, each one should in fact try something in that domain and abstain judgement. to judge muay thay a karate background is appropriate, a wrestling or bjj experience isn't and pretending it is means not knowing about fighting to begin with. ofc this argument assumes most fighting domains are non specific, there is not the "breathing technique domain of fighting that only i know", "the pressure point domain" or such things.

I agree with Armchair Violence that the one making the claim something is good has to proof whatever was said. Sunk cost fallacy is also very real. However there is also something involved of checking out a student’s personality. If a martial arts teacher would teach his deadly art to a psychopath because he didn’t bother checking the students personality the teacher would be in hot water. In this regard Spider-Man chapter 1:1 a with great power comes great responsibility is true. Using only the basics of an arts will get you to some point after which you’ll need to go deeper into the art to progress, however esoteric this might sound. After all you don’t have the same body as your teacher, but you have to make the art work for your build and that process takes time and practice. Then there’s also knowing how your opponent moves and properly reacting to that. There are many components to martial arts. Take boxing for example I don’t see all boxers successfully using the Dempsey roll, gazelle punch or Mike Tyson’s peek a boo defense. You will see them all use jabs, hooks and uppercuts yet nobody will claim boxing is ineffective because they can’t use every move available in boxing. Can a boxer win against all weight classes? Can a boxer hold his own against another martial artist who doesn’t do boxing? That would depend on the experience of said boxer with other martial arts. Can a pro boxer win against a boxer used to street fighting? Again a case of the experience of said boxer being used to fighting bare knuckle opponents. Long story short don’t dismiss a martial art when you have had a bad teacher or because you haven’t had the experience to make it work against someone who uses a different martial art than the one you practice or someone bigger or smaller than you are to name other things. If it were that easy to find a good teacher and master all the intricacies as well as getting worthwhile experience everybody would be an expert martial artist. You’ll learn to distinguish the good from the bad as you go. Having said all that it’s good when a fraud gets exposed for what he is.

I said the heroin thing when I read the title of the vid lol. Good stuff

If you want more information on group think...do your own research

Heroin is pretty good though, just don't get addicted

I'd been wrong so many times in my life about all sorts of things, I don't dismiss anything entirely now. The universe of unknown unknowns is simply too vast to know anything for certain. That said, there is a lot of goofy looking wing chun. Does that make all Wing Chun a waste of time? I wouldn't put my money on it. I'm studying muay Thai and judo, two sport martial arts, and I'm fully aware of the advantages and more importantly shortcomings of each. I'm not some kind of top competitor and don't pretend to be, but from some of the content I'm seeing on RU-vid, there are legit practitioners of wing chun i would not want to find myself in a scrap with, as in they'd probably fk me up lol. Maybe this is really a broader conversion on two topics, really. 1. Efficacy of Chinese martial arts in general, in light of cultural revolution and political landscape in Qing dynasty China, and what it did to the quality of martial arts. In other words, the systems may have been watered down, defanged if you will. Kind of like what they did to Olympic judo. 2. The ability to judge systems probably comes down to one's level of mastery in the 3 categories of martial arts: 1. striking, 2. grappling, 3. joint locking. If a practitioner is a master level in one of these, they're likely able to judge in that category. For instance, a Muay Thai kru is probably able to judge individual techniques of say wing chun. Ie this bong sau, it's crap don't do it because xyz. Lap sau is ok in clinch, but you need footwork to make it work because angle or you're asking for elbow to your face. Whatever. That being said, master level, however you define it, does not make someone totally omniscient, obviously. Nobody knows everything, there are only those who think they do, or acts as if they do. This is not realistic. All of my instructors whether they intend to or not, are always showing me that they are always learning. My judo Sensei is always watching competition footage, and he will often pick some good ippon technique used in competition and we throw each other. Stuff he's never done even, but he is not opposed to learning from others to improve his athletes. So even though there are martial arts that "don't work", I'm not convinced that there are not things we can learn from them, or that the practitioners are demonstrating the strong points of a system adequately. Finally, this is important point, is that systems that generally don't spar anymore, for sake of safety were not that way to begin with. You'll probably find those who still do spar the traditional way before the mcdojo stuff became predominant. Does this mean this system itself is trash? Not necessarily. The techniques must've worked at some time in some context for them to have been preserved. Perhaps they worked on practitioners of other systems, or the techniques were an answer to other techniques at the time. So there may be some adjustments necessary for the same techniques to work today, in the context of mixed martial arts, which is always evolving and taking the best of every martial art. However the nugget of truth, or concept, of the techniques being passed down, however ineffective the practitioners of that style seem to be, must, or may hold valid in some way. I hope some of this is making sense. Several points are being made, and maybe it's hard to read. These are my thoughts, maybe I'm wrong who knows.

Here here way to say it me like

3:23 did you just say to look into it?

Well, to be fair, a conspiracy theorist doesn't really need too much evidence, since all they have are theories anyways, if they had a lot of proof they'd be conspiracy proven theorists,lol

Group think...look into it

Bro you train sports you need to train for DA STREETZ!!!!

Have you ever tried to watch one of your videos without sound? Not for everyone... lol

So I’m allowed to criticise this video when I’ve never tried to make any videos myself? Perfect: I agree with your main point but my only concern is that deciding a whole system doesn’t work without training in it, could mean you miss out training with an instructor who can fight and is a good martial artist. I’m a karate student and acknowledge that most karate instructors can’t fight for self defence and lots are bad martial artists for self defence but not trying karate would mean you’d miss out on instructors that would be valuable to you like Iain Abernethy or Peter Consterdine.

Sounds reasonable, but you don’t provide evidence in your other judging videos too, just using other youtube commentary videos, which is at best hearsay

I do think there are drugs you can't judge till you try lol

You may not necessarily need to train in the specific martial arts you are critiquing, but you do need to understand the martial arts you are critiquing in order to critique it; specifically the goal the martial arts is trying to address (competition? Self-defense? Ground fighting?), the purpose of their exercises they use for their training, and the logic of how that training intends to address the goals they are trying to achieve. It’s essentially basic knowing what you’re talking about. People often judge by the simplistic logic of “guy A kicked guy B’s ass, so guy A’s martial arts work, guy B has been learning bullshido”. Yes, that is an indication, but if that was the full picture, then by that analysis, gorillas are by far THE ultimate martial artist. For example, it could very well be that something unorthodox like Russian Systema is indeed hot garbage bullshido of the worst kind, but it’s hard to know for sure because everyone i’ve encountered who calls Systema bullshido (and they’re typically of MMA or MMA related martial arts background) don’t really understand Systema; and I know because I train Systema. Typically, these people’s argument (when it’s not utterly ignorant giving away that they have never heard of the system e.g: your friend Icy Mike) it boils down to “the training looks weird, so it’s definitely bullshido”. Of course it looks weird! Name something that’s unorthodox that’s not weird! Also, the assumption behind that is that if it doesn’t give them a massive edge in their martial arts competition; i.e: a relatively controlled environment with padded floors, rules, and a point system, it’s useless on the streets. And hey, like many bullshido practitioner, i could be just a fanboy, but if i need to have a reason to accept what I’m practicing is bullshido, at least give me a good argument that’s based on fair criticisms to make your case. And me, liking to think of myself as a reasonable person, i’m willing to reconsider investing in my alleged bullshido training if people can provide a reasonable case based on solid arguments & fair criticisms for my training being bullshido.

Very good points you have made in this video, however I feel a mistake is that you are judging from a rational knowledgeable mind, so you personally can judge martial arts you haven't tried with previous experience and knowledge on human physiology. I think it's pretty valid to tell someone to go try it when they are totally unbelieving. Hence why you see so many meatheads try and challenge bjj practitioners or MMA fighters , they don't have the knowledge or experience to obviously know that theyre gonna get beaten up or a choke or lock will work

Do not judge, or you too will be judged