In modern martial arts training today, there is a lot of talk about how traditional martial arts techniques are completely ineffective for real world defense. Some form of structured martial arts has been practiced in China for more than 2000 years. For example, organized wrestling was already a well established martial art by the time of the first written records on the subject about 4000 years ago.
Only relatively recently has martial arts training taken on self-development and self-cultivation as a primary emphasis. This view arose about 400 years ago in China and Japan, once the arts were less essential to winning on the battlefield. At this point supremely skilled martial artists began engaging in structured, ritualized combat on a widespread level. This means that for the majority of its history, traditional martial arts were practiced specifically as war arts on the battlefield. On the battlefield there were no rules, no structure, on life and death; victory or defeat. This fact alone is proof of the effectiveness of techniques, training, and strategies. Soldiers, bodyguards, couriers, and other professional martial artists who fought for their lives on a regular basis, would not have continued to employ ineffective tactics.
During World War II traditional Chinese martial artists were employed effectively in encounters by Chinese guerrillas to resist the Japanese military occupation of their country. In many of these instances, they used only traditional martial arts and weapons, no firearms.
A more recent example is a master still teaching in Canada named Pan Qing Fu. Master Pan earned the name “Gangbuster” when the Chinese government recruited him in the 1960s to break the stranglehold the Triad gangs had over many communities at that time. He eventually brought 23 Triad leaders to justice; many Master Pan captured single handedly using only his Chinese martial arts and traditional weapons skills.
So why do many modern exponents of traditional martial arts seem so ill-equipped and ineffective in many self-defense scenarios? There is more than one answer to this question. The first has to do with the complexity of many traditional martial arts techniques. These techniques were developed over hundreds of years, resulting in very complex techniques. This evolution occurred due to the need of martial artists to be able to survive encounters with other martial artists who were developing their own sophisticated techniques.
Professional martial artists today are very different from professional fighters of the past. Today many professional teachers run schools part-time and maintain other work part-time, at the very least, if not full-time. Those practitioners who are able to run their schools full-time, usually work very hard to do so; spending a great deal of time advertising, talking with potential students, daily management duties, teaching, and so on. Unfortunately, this can often leave little time for personal training.
This was not the case in the past. Professional martial artists had no other distractions. Often they could practice honing their skills for sometimes as much as 10 to 16 hours a day. With the demands of long work days, family and friends, and the pressures of paying the bills, many modern practitioners may not even spend this much time training in one or two weeks! Martial arts has taken the position of an activity or a hobby, not as a serious endeavor and lifelong pursuit as in older days.
One should also not overlook the fact that martial artists in the past had greater opportunities to apply their techniques in the real world; they faced life and death scenarios often. Physical confrontations and violent clashes with opposing forces, whether they be individuals or enemy armies, were a simple fact of life for these warriors for thousands of years. They, and in fact their entire world, were conditioned by this reality. People fought, the weakest or least prepared combatants were maimed or killed. As a result of this, they had much more practical knowledge and experience than experts today. We live in a much more peaceful and stable society than the world these traditional warriors inhabited. The average, law-abiding citizen will probably never engage in a true life-threatening altercation. This is a very positive development in our society! However, it does mean fighters have vastly less experience in practical application than their predecessors.
How the martial arts evolved is also an important factor. When one practices so many hours daily, they will very quickly become quite proficient with basic punches, kicks, and blocks. However, if their opponent also practices many hours a day, simple hand strikes and kicks, in many cases, will not be effective to penetrate their defensive capabilities. As professional martial artists developed their arts and skills other fighters had to developed new skills, tactics, and deceptions to catch their opponent off-balance or surprise them, hitting in a place or manner they did not expect. This, in turn, forced fighters to further devise and evolve new tactics and more original ways to neutralize the attack and counterattack. This cycle continued in this manner for generations; thousands of years for some systems. The result is very sophisticated fighting systems, developed to conquer other complex systems and practitioners.
But today, finely tuned martial skills and personal fighting ability is not nearly as in demand as in the past. As a result, skills have gotten weaker. Many martial artists today try to use methods developed for very complex encounters, to respond to very simple attacks; using a tool in a way it was not designed. The vast majority of attacks will come from people who, if they have any skill or training at all, will most likely use only rudimentary boxing, kickboxing, or wrestling. These are simple attacks. You cannot counter them with complex techniques which are not designed to deal with them; you are using the totally wrong tool. Simple attacks only require simple counters and counter-attacks. This is the number one reason why traditional martial arts are often perceived as not being useful for modern day self-defense.
Another reason why many students have trouble in practical application scenarios is that most practitioners do not put in the time to fully master a technique. For the sake of argument let’s say that a jump spinning reverse type kick takes 100 hours of dedicated practice in order to effectively execute in practical application. Most students may spend only 10 hours total training that technique. This means that a student may only have 10% of the knowledge and skill when applying this technique. This is a huge gap! It is no wonder why the technique does not work properly.
In either case it is not the weakness of the martial system, but the improper training methods or application tactics of the practitioner. Critical thinking on your methods and techniques must be applied in advance. Proper preparation is essential. Traditional martial arts can be very effective if you undertake proper training and use correct tactics for the situation encountered.