Now this particular thorn in my side has been going on at nausea for quite awhile and has seen little or no change except for the so called “Style-of-the-day,” which in this particular case happens to be Jujitsu and the grappling arts.
Now before all of you Jujitsu/grappling fans get your panties all in a bunch let me say that I have also experienced this attitude from individuals in Tae Kwon Do, wrestling, boxing, Jeet Kune Do, and some so called “Self-defense” styles.
Now as you may or may not know, my particular background in the martial arts is primarily based in the martial arts of Karate and Tae Kwon Do. This is not the Olympic style tae kwon do, but the traditional based martial art.
In addition to Karate and Tae Kwon Do, I also have some experience in the arts of Judo, Hapkido and Aikido.
One major point that was always stressed was this, “There are NO superior martial arts, styles, or techniques. There are only superior martial artists.” Now having said that, how can anyone in their right mind think that one style is superior to another? I mean if you wanted to put restrictions on it by saying that Jujitsu was a better grappling and ground fighting style than Tae Kwon Do, I would tend to agree with you.
If you put the boxer in the same situation with a Tae Kwon Do or Muay Thai fighter and only allowed kicks, then the advantage would definitely not be on the side of the boxer.
The same comparison could also be used if you put a Jujitsu practitioner in the ring with either a boxer or Tae Kwon Do fighter and then only allowed grappling.
Let’s take a moment here and take a look at the art of boxing.
Are all of those individuals’ superior boxers? No! Even though they all know the same punches, do they all punch the same? Again the answer would be, No! Now out of all of those people, how many Mike Tyson’s, Evander Holyfield’s, and George Foreman’s do we have? Not that many.
Now at their time, there is little room to argue that all three of these men were superior boxers with those four punches.
In order to finish this comparison let’s once again say that there are approximately 1,000,000 people here in the United States that practice Tae Kwon Do. Once again it is obvious that there are more than four primary kicks in Tae Kwon Do, but for arguments sake and ease of understanding we are going to say that there are only four.
Is every practitioner of Tae Kwon Do a superior kicker? No! Even though all of them learn the same four kicks, do they all execute them exactly the same? Once again the answer would be, No! Now out of all of those people, how many of them are Chuck Norris’s, Herb Perez’s, or Bill Wallace’s? Not that many.
Please note for all of you Chuck Norris purists out there that Chuck studied Tang Soo Do, not Tae Kwon Do. This is a perfect example of the non-superiority of any particular martial art or style.
If you look at all of the martial arts from an intelligent and mature standpoint, you would have to agree that every art has its various strengths and weaknesses.
Tae Kwon Do is an excellent kicking art, but does tend to lack a bit in the grappling area.
Although I personally feel that boxing is a much better art form to learn the basic punches, but that is just my opinion.
Jujitsu is an outstanding art form when it comes to grappling and joint techniques, but it does lack in the kicking and punching area.
Anyone would be hard pressed to say that Judo is anything other than perhaps the best art there is for throwing.
So what does that mean to the individual person, well and this is just my opinion, I strongly believe that you should pick one art form to be your core art.
Then after you have gained a significant understanding of your chosen core art, you should strengthen your knowledge by also learning the other styles so that you can further add to your arsenal of available techniques.
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