The Golden One - Book Review： American Karate by Kyle Mitcham. A Note on McDojo's and Actual Skill

00:00:00.000 Greetings, Laddingtons. That was the Cuddle Princess, who sometimes make baby noises, 0.99

00:00:21.960 so now you know who makes them if you wonder what the sounds are in the background. So anyway,

00:00:29.220 this is my weekly book review and I've read American Karate by Kyle Mitchum as I showed in

00:00:38.580 the Wild Hunt video. So basically I have another notebook full of little notes I took whilst

00:00:47.100 reading the book. So I found it really interesting, the first part especially when he talks a bit about

00:00:53.100 the McDojo's unrealistic expectations, false sense of securities, etc. The second part is

00:01:02.460 more about you know proper technique etc. It has some Thai boxing as well so thumbs up from me.

00:01:10.780 Now I'm Swedish for those of you who are just stumbling upon this video and this is obviously

00:01:17.340 from an American perspective. So it was interesting to see the differences between the two. I've never

00:01:24.780 really been into Karate. I watched of course Karate Kid when I was small and thought they were cool,

00:01:29.660 etc. But I never really got into Karate. Thai boxing was more appealing to me when I came into my teens

00:01:37.260 and I think Thai boxing might be a bit more ingrained in Swedish culture over the last 20 or 30 years

00:01:46.620 or so because you know a lot of the Swedes have gone to Thailand for a vacation etc and it's a cool thing

00:01:51.580 to do. Whereas the United States have a closer tie to Japan because of war and trade etc. So I think

00:01:59.180 Karate came to America before it came to Sweden and thus it's more popular there. Karate is of course

00:02:08.780 common in Sweden too but I'm just pointing it out there. So basically what I really liked with the

00:02:14.380 book was the dismantling of McDojo's and when I say McDojo is basically you see a guy who has a club,

00:02:24.380 a martial arts club and he's a black belt and he thinks he's really good etc but then he maybe

00:02:31.420 he's fat etc he can't post physique and then of course if he can't really translate his skills

00:02:36.780 into action it doesn't really count for much. So yeah the author here is more focused on the

00:02:44.220 no-nonsense style of Karate. So here you can see two Karate practitioners both wearing black belts

00:02:50.940 for some reason and as you might see they have absolutely no clue what they are doing.

00:02:58.300 So I'll read a few quotes from the book to explain this a bit better. So first and foremost in regards

00:03:04.860 to the term self-defense I quote the author. Many people seem to believe Karate styles or martial arts

00:03:11.660 in general are only for self-defense. Martial arts isn't the way of self-defense, it's the art of combat

00:03:19.020 and warfare. Yeah this is completely correct and again if we're talking about self-defense I put

00:03:25.820 self-defense in the title of a recent video. When I say it it's because it sounds a bit better, it sounds

00:03:31.180 a bit more a bit less aggressive. Same thing if you want to market a martial arts or a club to parents

00:03:40.620 who will put their children in it. You don't want to put extreme violence, you want to put self-defense.

00:03:46.540 But of course if we're being realistic with ourselves you need to be able to attack an

00:03:51.180 opponent as well. Imagine if you're seeing an old woman being harassed on the street. If you want to 0.99

00:03:57.020 step in, yeah you need to be the aggressor there. You need to come in with some heavy blows or knees 0.87

00:04:02.620 or a takedown or whatever it might be. So when we say self-defense it's quite misleading because

00:04:08.380 martial arts is not about just expecting an opponent to come at you. You also need to take the

00:04:13.260 offensive sometimes. So that was a good clarification in the beginning of the book.

00:04:19.020 Then also he talks a bit about the the staleness of tradition in certain martial arts that you

00:04:26.220 stick to something just for the sake of it. But when MMA came into the scene you saw what worked 0.52

00:04:32.300 and what didn't work. So it can be a good idea now to cut out all of the things that do not really aid

00:04:38.460 you in you know self-defense if we were to use that term. But you know street fighting basically

00:04:45.500 or MMA fighting or whatever it might be. Then also you know different people they train for

00:04:52.060 different reasons. Some they really enjoy the traditional aspects of it because they're interested

00:04:57.100 in Japanese culture or history etc and it's completely fine. There is nothing wrong with it

00:05:02.940 at all. Some guys want to compete actively in karate or they want to compete in taekwondo.

00:05:09.420 But if you're there for self-defense, if you're there for street fighting etc or whatever we

00:05:14.940 shall call it, it's important to it's important to distinguish between the different techniques.

00:05:21.340 Will this work in a predicament or will it not? So yeah interesting and important clarifications right

00:05:28.620 there. Then the author talks a bit about belts you know giving belts to children basically. So you see

00:05:38.300 parents coming to pay the tuition for a club they want to see results and the results are that the

00:05:46.700 child gets a new belt and say like oh now I've trained here and here is my results. But doing this

00:05:53.020 gives, can give at least, a false sense of security. If you have a child who can get a junior black belt

00:06:00.060 and then he thinks he's good at defending himself, not really the case because he's still a child. Or if

00:06:06.460 you only know the techniques, only theoretical techniques and then you say oh I have this belt

00:06:12.380 or have trained for this long but you can't really apply it in practice and you think you're really good.

00:06:18.060 And then again as I said in my tough guys video, then an aggressive boxer comes at you and punches

00:06:25.260 you in the face and you're completely, you don't know what happened because you've only trained

00:06:29.420 the theoretical. So that's why you know sparring is important so you know what happens if an object

00:06:36.620 comes to your face, in this case a fist or something, so you learn how to deal with it. And this of course

00:06:43.180 it's something you have to train up so you don't get completely in shock when something hits you.

00:06:49.740 So the false sense of security, huge to point to, especially if you have this sort of belt system.

00:06:58.620 I'm not a fan of belts in the least. I think your skill is determined in how well you can actually

00:07:05.580 apply it into practice. Because martial arts etc, it is about violence at the end of the day. It is

00:07:13.180 theoretical to some degree but at the end of the day it's how well you can fight basically.

00:07:18.460 Then he also talks a bit about clubs and coaches etc. So for example, if you lead people will expect

00:07:25.980 to see your abilities. It's an unavoidable fact of being a leader of any type. You need not even be a

00:07:31.660 teacher, though all teachers are recognized as leaders. If others see you as a leader, then you are one.

00:07:38.700 Again, in terms of McDojos etc, you see a guy who's clearly unfit and he isn't really put to the test.

00:07:46.460 Yeah, why should others learn from him? I've competed, I've gone one MMA match and that was

00:07:53.340 primarily so I had more gravitas in teaching others because that's ultimately what I wanted to do. I wanted

00:07:58.620 to teach other guys how to better take care of themselves in a rough environment, which we are

00:08:05.180 now in Sweden for example. So you see, it is good to have that sort of experience. Now of course you

00:08:10.460 can be a great coach anyway, but it lends a bit more gravitas if you actually have something to back

00:08:17.820 it up. It's the same thing when I make Games Kitchen videos or training videos. Yeah, you listen to me

00:08:22.220 because I have, you know, clearly know how to apply it in practice. And then also in terms of technique,

00:08:29.580 and I touched briefly on this in my video, and I quote the author here, most of these vital strikes

00:08:37.340 don't work. Why? They might work against someone who is standing motionless in class, relaxed,

00:08:42.380 waiting to be hit. They don't work against another fighter who is not going to stand still,

00:08:47.340 much less when you get close to them. Very good point. Absolutely correct. You need to,

00:08:53.900 and this is also why sparring is good to do every once in a while, because you know what?

00:08:59.100 Hitting pads, it's great. Making techniques, et cetera, absolutely great. But you also need to be

00:09:05.660 able to get a sense of what it's like to translate it into an actual predicament. Same thing if you're

00:09:11.900 rolling in Brazilian jiu-jitsu or grappling nogi. Absolutely great way to just get a feel. Would this

00:09:20.140 work? Does it feel natural to implement this technique in a situation? So absolutely good,

00:09:27.340 good point as well. Again, he takes issue with these sort of nonsense secret traditional techniques. So,

00:09:34.860 yeah, it's a no-nonsense book. And then the author goes on to talk a bit about teachers, et cetera,

00:09:41.660 and he quotes, a serious teacher never teaches for money. I've never heard this quote myself,

00:09:46.940 but I'm sure someone might have had. And he takes issue with this, of course, as do I.

00:09:51.500 I'm sure you've heard that one before. Someone teaching for free must have a primary occupation

00:09:56.620 that is not martial arts instruction. And how serious can they be when most of their time is

00:10:01.900 spent working for their day job? This applies to anything in life, really. If you want to do

00:10:07.740 something professionally, if you want to do something to the best of your abilities, you need to make

00:10:12.140 money from it. It's commendable if you do it in the beginning. I've certainly coached guys for free

00:10:17.180 in the past, but if you want to do it professionally, you need to charge money. Simple as that. Then,

00:10:21.420 of course, exceptions exist. I've coached for free because I know the guys I've coached are the guys

00:10:27.100 who will probably need those skills if they stand next to me in certain predicaments. As I said,

00:10:33.900 we live in Gotham City, multicultural Gotham City, so you never know when it comes in handy. But if we're

00:10:38.860 just talking about this, doing something full-time, you need to make money. Simple as that. And there's

00:10:44.140 absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. So next point I wanted to briefly talk about is visualization.

00:10:53.420 He talks about it's good to visualize a situation. You know, Conor McGregor talks a lot about this as

00:11:01.740 well. He visualizes everything he does, everything, how he moves in the octagon, how everything will

00:11:07.100 develop. Then you will be more ready. If your mind is ready for something, your body will actually be

00:11:12.300 more ready for it as well. This is also when I train, you know, only in the gym. I try to visualize

00:11:18.460 the lift, the bench press, for example. And the same thing if I focus more on grappling. If we've

00:11:24.540 done a technique in training, I try to visualize it again to really cement it in my mind. Now another

00:11:30.940 note that is somewhat related here is that if you have a vision in your head, you can have an actual

00:11:40.380 physical response to it. So if you think about all the things that are wrong in the world, you get

00:11:47.020 angry and you get, you know, the opposite of relaxed, so to speak. And then you try to sleep.

00:11:53.420 Not a good combination. So point being, if you are on Twitter, it might be good to not scroll through

00:11:58.860 Twitter, see a lot of black pills before going to bed, because then your body will respond with,

00:12:04.780 you know, a lot of stress hormones, etc. So just a quick note, throwing it out there. And then a last

00:12:10.380 note as well is in terms of street predicaments, etc. Situational awareness is huge to, you know,

00:12:18.300 get out of trouble or, you know, stay on top of trouble in certain predicaments. So yeah,

00:12:23.980 the book contains more gems of wisdom, but I just want to talk about these things. So thank you for

00:12:31.260 watching XXO. Fuuu.

The Golden One - March 06, 2020

Book Review： American Karate by Kyle Mitcham. A Note on McDojo's and Actual Skill

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