Well, tread lightly, as you might get caught by the deadly Crescent Kick!
No seriously, nothing wrong with TKD, just bad attitudes.
BBBWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA
you're kidding, right? yeah, the sport that pretty much MADE the olympics is not good enough. sounds pretty smart to me.
The word OLYMPIC invokes more awe than PRO but it shouldn't.Kids dream mostly about being pro athletes, not olympic ones.And money makes the world go round, not medals.
I knew a great wrestler that choose football in college over wrestling, because he could maybe be a pro and make good coin.This is a common story.PRO is the pinnacle.Not olympic.I'd rather make 6 figures winning the Pride GP than get a medal.People asume that olympic medals lead to big money.That really isn't half as true as people think it is.
synchronized swimming is olympic level. as we all know, synchronized swimmers would dominate the sport of MMA, but there's just not enough money in the MMA to lure them away from their lucrative synchronized swimming contracts.
It's called olympic politics. The Koreans managed to get to the comittee 1st and have it approved 1st. It's still not even an official olympic sport though, despite what tkd teachers say.
ttt
Troll Troll Troll
The top mma guys aren't even at the same level of a local TKD school, let alone a karate grandmaster like Sam Pie Kenpo.
"mixed martial artists train harder and longer than any other athletes in the fucking world" = I seriously doubt this is true.
Yeah...Pankration will make it to the olympics....(insert scoff here)
I can think of at least 3 men who have fought MMA who have won gold medals: Kevin Jackson, Kenny Monday, H. Yoshida.
Pankration Greek was the first and most complete style of fight go to the olympic games¡¡¡
I don't know if you've noticed, but the olympics are a little different now, they allow table tennis and curling for fucks sake.
Yeah, and ping pong is an Olympic sport, and so is synchronized swimming, half of the Olympic sports now are a joke, just like your Tae Kwon Do (kiyah!)...
KKM has returned
I don't really think MMA would ever be an olympic sport since most of this ignorant society think of it as being too brutal or something like that.
Concerning the Pancrase/Olympic FRAUD:
I originally posted this on Bulshido something like 2 years ago, nothing has changed.
-------------------------------------------------------
The Pancrase / Pancration Fraud
It must have been seven or eight years ago when I first heard the rumors about Pankrase (Pancrase, Pancration, Pankration, etc.) going to the Olympics. It was like a martial arts Messiah had arrived to save us from Olympic Tae Kwon Do and raise our respectability above non-Olympic activities like bowling and full-contact speed crocheting. There was shouting, praise for the organizers, and Kiai enhanced high fives everywhere. And then we waited, and waited, and waited.
Videos were released by "Olympic coaches", adds for seminars featured "Olympic coaches" and touted try-outs for national teams. Some instructors promoted their school or association through their "Olympic" association. And in the end where is Pankration? Who knows, but its not going to be in the Olympics.
The Pankration/Olympic connection is fraudulent. When the rumors of Pankration in the Olympics first surfaced they claimed Pankration would be in the Olympics as a demonstration sport, which was a lie – flat out, no excuses, dishonest, purposefully misleading LIE! I personally contacted the US Olympic Committee and was informed that there would not be any demonstration sports in 2004 or at any Olympics to follow. Women's freestyle wrestling will be the only sport to debut at the 2004 Olympics but it will be as a regular sport, not a demonstration sport. Demonstration sports are dead and will remain so until the International Olympic Committee says otherwise.
Now, some members of the Pankration committee are finally recognizing that their sport won't be in the Olympics but they make a stake to legitimacy by claiming the sport will appear in the Olympic Youth Festival. Well, as someone from a former Olympic city (SLC 2002) I could have gotten competitive barbecue into the youth festival. So BIG deal. And, to top it off, where is the verification of participation in the youth festival? If someone has it, I'd liked to see it (honestly, I'm not trying to be sarcastic about it, I would).
Matt Hume of AMC Pankration was interviewed about the matter and here is what he had to say:
Matt Hume being interviewed by James Hirth
(http://www.primetimefighters.com/in.../matt_hume.html)
[beginning of quote]
JH: It's not. Have you heard any recent speculation about it [Pankration in the Olympics]?
MH: I've heard speculation for years about it but when you contact the Olympic committees, they've never heard of it.
JH: Really? Nothing?
MH: As far as the Olympic committee's concerned there is never any Pankration planned in any Olympics.
JH: What would you attribute that to?
MH: Nobody's approached them with it and they've never taken it seriously. Nobody has made an effort really. I mean there are a lot of groups that say they have but the reality is that the Olympic committees have never heard of the people who say they're putting Pankration in the Olympics. (pause) So, it's not gonna be in there until the Olympic committees think it's for real and acknowledge it.
[end of quote]
Not only is there not going to be any demonstration sports in Athens, there hasn't even been an application made by Pankration's representatives to any known national Olympic committee, nor has their been an application to the International Olympic Committee.
Yet some people still claim a connection to the Olympics.
"Marr was also named to the National Coaching Staff of Team USA Pankration for the 2000 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece." Sheldon Marr: (http://www.grapplers-edge.com/instructors.htm)
Shamrock, Marr, and Hackney Olympic "Coaches" (image titled "Team USA Pankration Coaching Staff")
(http://www.grapplers-edge.com/images/dudes.jpg)
Jody Perry, a liar or just deceived? (http://www.perrysfullcircle.com/jodyperry/)
"...a certified Pankration referee for the 2004 Olympic Games, where Pankration is expected to be an exhibition sport."
Bart Vale still makes the claims in his adds that appear in most martial arts publications: http://www.2shoot.com/mag.gif
Honestly, if these people haven't gotten the message that Pankration won't be in the Olympics then they are morons. And anytime a moron makes a claim to legitimacy in the martial arts it is instant McDojo red lights. And if they know that Pankration won't be in the Olympics then their claims are absolutely fraudulent. They're liars and thieves who have exposed themselves by using a fake connection to the Olympics to rip you and their students off.
To be fair, I couldn't find any recent claim by Shamrock to any association with Pankration or the Olympics. Additionally, Hackney (who was very visible in early Pankration/Olympic promotions) does not list any association on his web site. The above image is from Sheldon Marr's site and is a few years old.
Additionally, any sport trying to get accepted as a sport in the Olympics has many hurdles that they have to crest before their application can even be considered (Please note that this is a partial list of requirements, there are many, many more. I am trying to cut down all of the rules to a concise list for this discussion).
A sport must be practiced by:
1. Men in at least 75 nations and four continents.
2. Women in 40 nations and three continents.
And, a sport must:
3. Comply with the Olympic Movement Anti-Doping Code.
Does Pankration as a sport reach these numbers? No, and there has never been any claim that they do. Additionally, where is the structure necessary for compliance with the Olympic Movement's Anti-Doping Code? Answer: it doesn't exist. Compliance implies enforcement. And there is no structure to enforce the anti-doping code.
Pankration will not be in the Olympics, not in 2004 and not for a very long time. Individuals and organizations that make claims to the contrary are either liars, con artists, or intellectually challenged and seriously misinformed.
Any honest, informed, intelligent instructor who has mistakenly associated themselves with the Pankration Olympic movement should distance themselves from said movement in a public vocal manner. Those who include claims to legitimacy through association to the Pankration Olympic movement need to remove those claims from their advertisements, websites, business cards etc. if they want to regain any legitimacy.
I can't guarantee that the above links will remain good for long; however, they were good as of the time I posted this message.
The above regulations cover all sports, including anytype of submission grappling or MMA.
Additionally, Sheldon Marr submitted a rebuttal to my article, claiming that I called him a "liar, conartist" . . . e.t.c. which wasn't true in the first place. I found it interesting that Mr. Marr removed his claims to be an "Olympic Coach" from his website after I posted my article on Bulshido and before he posted his rebuttal, where he claimed to have removed himself from any association with the "Olympic Pancrase" movement. Even more interesting is that the latest Grappling magazine has one of Mr. Marr's ads that lists him as an olympic coach.
Its a shame when someone, who is accomplished a coach as Sheldon Marr is, lower himself to a little hyperlink hyjinx.
One additional note. Apparently, Pancrase will make an appearance in the "Youth Festival" at the Olympics in Greece. And while that sounds interesting we should remember that competitive barbecue was in the youth festival at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. The youth festival is a cultural outreach and not a competitive arm of anytype.
Please forgive the roughness of the above article. I wrote it as a posting and have done very little editing outside of correcting some links that changed over time.
It would be great to see any type of MMA in the Olympics. The idea behind Rorion and Helio's IGJJF is to bring GJJ to the level of Olympic competition, but that will take decades. I honestly think Submission grappling has a better chance because it is not directly attatched to a family name (as in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu) or a country (as in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu) and that it can draw from the disciplines of wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and judo so the participation pool is much larger than Jiu-Jitsu alone. Additionally, the ADCC Championships have provided a legitimate world championship that even the Munduials cannot match for international participation and independence that the Brazillian tournaments cannot match.
The biggest problem with any other combative sport getting in as an Olympic sport is that traditional JuJutsu (as in Japanse jujutsu) already has a recognized world championship, huge international participation pools and are essentially a decade ahead of submission grappling in the quest for Olympic participation. And with the IOC's quest to downsize the number of actual sports, the possibility for getting submission grappling into the Olympics is fading rapidly.
What we need is participation and promotion on a local and international level. Support your local wrestling teams, suggest a cross-over workout with the high-school wrestling team and your jiu-jitsu club. Vollunteer to teach a class at your community center. If you want to see the sport in the Olympics then get off your a$$ and do something about it.