I have been thinking and come to the conclusion that the next MA fad will not be limited to a style or specific system.
Most fads are driven to a degree by movies, and with the current trend of action movies and soon to come samurai clones I have come to the following.
Also popularity for UFC, K1, Pride, etc has started to diminish, and people soon will start yearning for something new and better.
I think the next fad will be more about swords and acrobatic moves rather than any currently existing MA style/system.
We will also see more hybrid along the lines of kickrobics and similar.
Athletism and fancy jumps, high kicks, flashy sword works and similar moves will play a larger role.
Not that I think it will all be bad, TMA can and will benefit from the conditioning of the new and upcoming fad.
Nah. The average guy can do TKD, can do BJJ, can kickbox, can stick fight. The average guy can’t butterfly kick and land in a full split while swinging a floppy sword.
Originally posted by rogue Nah. The average guy can do TKD, can do BJJ, can kickbox, can stick fight. The average guy can’t butterfly kick and land in a full split while swinging a floppy sword.
I still believe that they will rather go for flashy movie style moves rather than San Shou or similar.
And I also forsee soon some schools that will allow students to make their own action movies using wires, CG editing and similar.
Perfect future hybrids for money making, teach them a few moves and than let them put it into digitally enhanced format.
Just look at how they made the fighting scene for Ep 2, Matrix or similar.
This is what the average joe will want and be willing to pay for.
But the average school won’t be able to afford to supply it. I think this is a good thing. With any luck all this wire-fu in the movies will make people forget about the real MA’s and think that all the movie stuff is just wires and special effects. That way, they’ll stop yearning to learn the stuff and schools can go back to their days of more quiet achievement.
Remember when movies used real martial arts skills without wires or C-Gen? The old Bruce Lee movies, Jackie Chan, Jet Li of old, etc? These movies made the martial arts (even the Wushu’d ones) seem fantastic and impressive, which they are, and people started looking for places to learn.
I think it’ll go full circle and with any luck they’ll start to make movies again without the special effects, then the schools will get a new influx of students that want to learn more realistically. Nobody is going to look at wire-work and C-gen and go, “Ooh! I wanna learn how to do that!” any more than people watch ridiculous car chases and rush out to find a driving school that can teach them how to do it so that they can make movies themselves.
Just rambling some random thoughts on the subject…
I agree that the focus change would be a blessing for the serious MA and we can go back to what we like to do best.
OTOH, technology has become so cheap and easy to operate.
Many places now offer rental rooms and dresses where you can record and take home your own music videos and similar.
Originally posted by T’ai Ji Monkey Also popularity for UFC, K1, Pride, etc has started to diminish,
Uh, what? Pride regularly sells out the Tokyo Dome, has recently started selling same-day-delay PPV in America, and UFC buyrates are at some of their highest levels. How is this ‘popularity starting to diminish’?
Uh, what? Pride regularly sells out the Tokyo Dome, has recently started selling same-day-delay PPV in America, and UFC buyrates are at some of their highest levels. How is this ‘popularity starting to diminish’? [/B]
It is STILL selling out Tokyo Dome, but the popularity in Japan is going down.
There have been quiet a few scandals in japan connected to K1 and pride.
There have been quiet a few scandals in japan connected to K1 and pride.
That doesn’t mean it’s less popular. Usually the ones that dislikes these types of MA is old people. Old people who would ban every contact to the head if they had the power to. Fortunatly, all the old ppl will die soon.
On the next fad? I also beleive MA movies will be more popular but people will still mostly go to what’s most well known at that time. And that will probebly be Karate just like it always has. (And is now)
Hopefully, tech-stuff will be cheap enough for the average guy to buy. That only means more people can try making their own MA movies, something that’s lacking now.
that’ where chefs drop quarters clenched in their butt cheeks into empty bowls and see who can get more in the bowl.
the cook fu will be several people striking postures while flipping eggs and braising lemons.
I was kind of hoping that the next MA fad would be that you could actually get a wider audience and set of practitioners. There aren’t enough of us frankly and if i have to say, “It’s not karate” one more time, I’ll make the next fad in MA, shooting people.
I dunno. Ill just assume any badness going on in japan is in part due to the yakuza. Nothing like an obtuse western mindset to keep things going.
:rolleyes:
Actually, I think Taiji Monkey is right on target. I’ve seen advertisements for “XMA, eXtreme Martial Arts,” which is supposedly a combination of dance, acrobatics, and some nameless generalization of someone’s idea of a martial art. In fact, I think Century is promoting/selling gear for this crap…err, exciting new trend.
On a semi-related topic, there’s an instructor in a local school who is also a film student, and he’s been doing his own wire-fu. On a very limited budget.
On a semi-related topic, there’s an instructor in a local school who is also a film student, and he’s been doing his own wire-fu. On a very limited budget.
See this is what I wish were more common. props to him
I e-mailed the X-TREME martial arts company with questions regarding how there products worked and how it was superior to using other products such as Under Armour for practice. They never responded. Maybe it was because I told them they were *******izing traditional martial arts too. I also told them how much they suck at marketing, displaying how there uniforms are so state of the art, blah blah blah but gave no support to why they are so amazing. I asked what there uniforms do, do they make me run faster, jump further, last longer? What do they do as far as heat and cold go, etc. I compared them to Under Armour’s heat and cold gear, etc. They never replied. Great customer service these peope got going. :rolleyes:
