What is TMA?

Underground
1

What is TMA?

Is it a style that does kata/forms?

Is it a style that names techniques in a different language?

Is it a style that teaches weapons?

Is it a style that teaches one demention of fighting?

Is it a style that "point spars?"

Is it a style with a belt system?

Is it a style that teaches "self defense" tricks?

Is it a style that has been around for 200 years?

To me TMA is a lable that is used to degrade systems that generally don't fair well in "sport environments."

Please, share examples of what you feel is TMA and why? Also, lets be respectful...

2

What a tough question. 'Traditional' to me is like 'sexy'. You'd be able to easily find exceptions to any criteria I could try to lay down, but I know it when I see it, even if not everyone would agree with me.

Take BJJ, for instance. Most people on the UG use it as an antonym to "TMA". Why? It satisfies at least 5 of the requirements that you laid out in your list, which many would consider good indicators of a TMA.

I often think of a TMA as an art that is not afraid to define what it is NOT.
My gf's Sifu gets angry when his students spar like kickboxers. "Where is the Eagle Claw, streetfighter?!" If he walked in the school and saw two students doing groundwork, he'd completely lose his mind. Eagle Claw, for him, is a system of techniques, that no matter how extensive, is finite. He can look at a body movement and classify it as "Eagle Claw" or "not Eagle Claw".

It's easy to poke holes in that, of course. Just because wielding a rubber hose is "not Ruas Vale Tudo" doesn't make RVT a TMA. But, that's a start for me.

3

Good post Willybone, that is the stuff I am looking for...

I also like that BJJ analogy, to me BJJ sometimes seems very traditional...

Also, when I talk to NON-internet posting martial artists, they don't understand what I mean when I use the term TMA... maby it would be easier to define what TMA is not...