Don't fool yourself...

Do you know people still wearing clothing styles from the 1970's or 80's? I know some people that do wear clothing styles from the 70's and feel very comfortable doing so. This is great for them. They understand that this is what they like to wear and that the current clothing styles are different and it doesn't matter to them.

Too bad martial artists don't have the same confidence in what they do.

The martial artists I'm referring to are the same martial artists that will tell you that the clothing that they are wearing (their one dimensional traditional style) from the 70's are too stylish (deadly) for the latest clothing trend (MMA).

I think they should stop lying to themselves.

How ironic.

Name a traditional martial art and look to see how it developed and you'll see that it developed out of influences of different martial arts. What I'm saying is the old men of China and Japan crossed trained to make them better fighters.

But today, the traditionalists will state, "we don't fight because the real fight is within yourself."

While I do agree with this propaganda to a certain extent, the philosophy can only be realized after you test yourself and mix it up. One of the attributes of training in martial arts is to help make you realize how tough you really are not. You can't do that if you never mix it up. It takes balls to step up and all those butterflies in your stomach is where the fight within yourself takes place. Working hard and testing yourself only reinforces that on any given day someone can kick your ass. Training properly actually humbles you. It quiets your ego. There's no shame in winning or losing as long as you step up.

Someone go tell the traditionalists. There's too many fat ass black belts walking around with their hands in their belts, teaching little kids and speaking in languages that they don't understand to create an illusion.

If you train traditionally and understand why you do it and what it is and is not, great. Just don't fool yourself and get out of the way of the guys that want to mix it up.