The Martialist: The Magazine For Those Who Fight Unfairly

“Stay ‘unreasonable.’  If you
don’t like the solutions [available to you], come up with your
own.” 
Dan Webre

The Martialist does not
constitute legal advice.  It is for ENTERTAINMENT
PURPOSES ONLY.

Copyright © 2003-2004 Phil Elmore, all rights
reserved.

What Kind of Guy Are You?

By Phil Elmore

Are you an RBSD guy?  Are you a TMA guy?  Are
you an NHB or MMA guy — that is, a sportfighter?  Are you a boxing
guy or a wrestling guy or an ethnic stylist?  Are you a CMA guy, an
RMA guy, an FMA guy?

What kind of guy are you?

The alphabet soup of acronyms I’ve used corresponds to
camps within the self-defense and martial sports communities.  Reality
Based Self-Defense is one camp.  Traditional
Martial Art is another.  Sportfighting is a third. 
All have their ways of doing things and all believe themselves to be
right.  Some are more insecure than others and thus place more
emphasis on “proving” to others how tough their practitioners are — or,
more accurately, how tough they believe themselves to be.

There are poor curricula within all spheres of combat
training and combat athleticism.  The precise natures of these
failings in methodology and content vary from sphere to sphere. 
There are many good RBSD schools, but there are some whose training is
largely bravado and over-reliance on a few supposedly lethal moves. 
There are many good TMA schools, but there are many more devoted
exclusively to low-and no-contact “fighting” whose students fold at the
first show of resistance.  There are plenty of good sportfighting
schools, but there are many more whose teachers fail to keep their
curricula in perspective — thus falsely leading their students to believe
they are training for self-defense rather than sports.

People are political by nature.  They also tend to
flee cognitive dissonance — the discomfort created when we are confronted
with data that refutes what we want to believe.  Most people in
martial communities, be they sport or applied self-defense venues, are
very eager to categorize everyone else.  In this way they more easily
dismiss those with whom we disagree.  Few of us are immune to this
tendency,

As an objectivist and a martialist, I’m not
interested in following a party line or a school of thought.  I want,
in the most demanding Tom Cruise to Jack Nicholson shriek, the truth. 
I do not dismiss anything out of hand simply because of its source. 
I believe in maintaining an active (not “open”) mind — meaning that I
will evaluate anything fairly, but I will evaluate everything
critically.  Critical thinking is what separates human beings
from other animals.  At least, it should.

This approach has infuriated many and actually cost me
the good will of some people I previously considered friends.  By
daring to consider everything on its merits while never flinching from
reality, I crossed boundaries within the elaborate set of Venn diagrams
representing the ideological platforms on which the martial community
rests.

A few members of the RBSD and combatives crowd consider
me a heretic and an apologist for traditional martial arts because I find
value in some TMAs (and in components of others).  Some TMA stylists
consider me a hopelessly paranoid RBSD lunatic because I understand the
utility of weapons and because I believe in fighting unfairly. 
Certain testosterone-soaked segments of the sportfighting community
consider me either an “RBSD guy” or a “TMA guy” — they can’t seem to come
to consensus on it — and either way I must be a weakling who practices
“unproven” techniques without contact and at low speed.

What all of these malcontents have in common is the fact
that I enrage them.  I anger them because I do not agree — but I
infuriate them because I do not care what they think.  I am
beholden to no one and no one does my thinking for me.  I will not
let polity, piety, or popularity dictate my self-defense curriculum.

I am a student of one traditional and one contemporary
martial art who recognizes no rules and refuses no methods while seeking
success in realistic self-defense.  I’ve trained full contact
and I’ve trained for theory.  I’ve carried a gun and I’ve carried a
knife.  I’ve seen bad schools and I’ve seen good schools.  I’ve
written at length about the good, the bad, and the bizarre.

What I’m not is an “RBSD guy,” a “TMA guy,” a
sportfighter, or an apologist.

I’m a martialist.

This is not about me, however.  This is about what
I hope for you.  I want you to approach everything with an
active mind.  I want you to consider context.  I want
you to keep what you see and what you experience in perspective. 
Don’t be an RBSD guy; be a martialist.  Don’t be a
sportfighter; be a realist.  Don’t be a TMA student; be a
student of self-defense.  How you get to these goals is up to
you, but think while you travel there.  Use your mind
and refuse to choose a camp.

What kind of guy (or gal) are you?

What kind of man or woman would you
like to be?