27/09/2026
yes. It’s true. Real fights DO NOT happen like an FMA drill. And Yes, we actually know this. We know that “this isn’t how a real fight happens” and I was recently lectured at length about this by one of the “be water my friend” people, who assumed that I didn’t understand this (even when I told him that I already knew this fact) and then explained at length to me that FMA was fake because it is just a bunch of “set moves” while on the other hand “real fights” are unpredictable and don’t involve “set moves”, adding furthermore that he himself was totally unpredictable and would “never do a preset move”. Then (while under attack from me in a certain position) he proceeded to automatically do the actual very next “set move” from the actual drill that I was attempting to show him, which caused me to laugh and point this out “you just did the set move that you said you would never do”. The move was what wing chunners call a tarn sow, or what arnisadors call a tetsulok, a triangular sticky block/shield shape with the outside of the forearm, which seems to be the quickest, safest, most economical and most obvious move to do in that particular circumstance out of the quadrillions of unpredictable possible moves that could be executed. Yes it’s true that “real fights” are nothing like an fma drill. But they are also nothing like a tai chi masters flowing slomo form, or the standing nei gong practices that build up his or her chi. They are nothing like bjj, or any combat sport with gloves and rules that disable you from eye gouging (well, they are something like this, but without cushioning matts and without rules) They are nothing like beating up a wooden man. Or breaking a giant ice cube. They don’t involve crawling along the ground feet first at someone on a soft matted surface that’s absent of furniture or people. All these things are great. But the same Be Water Bro who lectured me about the fallacy of drilling “set moves” also pointed out to me that, not only are real fights chaotic, but they happen at a much greater speed and intensity that what I was showing. Yes, they do. That is also true. But the dude who criticised my fma as being “way too slow” to accomodate the speed of a “real fight” was (wait for it…drum roll) A TAI CHI TEACHER. Yes, tai chi, well known for its practice of always moving at the actual true speed and intensity of a “real fight” 🤦♂️
Martial arts are various training methodologies that address various aspects of “real” fighting, and often specialise in one domain (pugilism, grappling, ukemi, nage, ne waza, sutemiwaza, evasion, kusushi, tai sabaki, deception, baiting, body conditioning, cardio and so on), martial arts are not “real fights”
