There’s a tendency in the online martial arts world to devolve into bullshido. To understand bullshido, you have to first understand the McDojo.

The basic idea behind a McDojo is to set up franchise martial arts shops, with the end run goal of sucking money out of innocent marks. The first (and only) goal of a McDojo is to get your money. The marketing is most important, while the skill development is secondary (if even that). The longer it takes for you to progress at a McDojo, the better.

Some signs of a McDojo:

• Needing to sign up for long contracts (a year or more)
• Guaranteeing black belts in an unreasonably short time
• Long training on forms
• No sparring of any sort
• Falsified backgrounds, such as lineages or history

Sites like Bullshido.net take on McDojos to help the more naive from getting taken. In that sense, they’re good.

However, they often end up in the same track in discussions: if it’s not mixed martial arts, it’s worthless. If it’s internal, it’s worthless. This is unfortunate, because it would strip the world of individual styles of martial arts in favor of, say, mixing Brazilian Jujutsu with Muay Thai. If they don’t use it in the UFC, it must suck.

This might come as a surprise to many on those message boards, but not all of us are looking to step into the Octagon. As it turns out, there’s a whole level of appreciation for martial arts that stands outside of how you’d react in a full contact ring. Martial arts just might be a little bit more than learning how to fight in a brawl. An odd concept, I know. Some people appreciate a martial art for the art aspect. Some people appreciate the history and philosophy. Some people appreciate the internal development. Yes, it’s about the fighting aspect too, mind you. There’s just more to it. I want to know more than just how to pummel some guy into submission.

One general rule tends to hold true: if you’re better trained than the other guy, then you’ll probably prevail. Nothing magical there. If you train in Okinawan Karate, and you train hard, you’re going to pound the tar out of someone who trains in Wing Chun lacksidaisically. Sure, you’re at a disadvantage if you only train Karate, and someone else trains BJJ and Karate, because they have better in fighting, but who cares? Do you really plan on getting in a lot of fights with trained fighters?

I don’t need to step into the ring with every yahoo I meet who wants to show me who’s boss. More to the point, I know that there’s always going to be someone better. Always. I’d have to have started as a very young child and trained throughout a long life for it to be otherwise. Even then, there still would probably be someone better. That being the case, why bother about trying to only learn the most perfect offense and defense?

I don’t go in for this whole king-of-the-pile attitude in martial arts anyway. Train in what you want, learn as much as you can, and develop your skill. Just respect others at the same time.

And take advice from Bullshido. I may not always agree with what they say, but they’re doing good work at debunking the scammers. If you’re going to study an art, at least make sure there’s some substance to it.