Martial Arts Expertise Sure didn't Help this Guy

[Hardball]

Johnny LaCoste, whom many people think was the greatest, or at least one of the greatest, Filipino Martial Arts masters ever, was shotgunned to death. He must have misunderstood something. Unless, of course, I misunderstand your comment, Fanman

You gotta know your limits when you're a martial arts master. So many people invest major time in antiquated weapons. There are so many Bad Boys just waiting to make a reputation on martial artists. Know your limits.

[BadgerFu57]

Karate expert? That could mean he has his black-belt via an over the internet McDojo website. They don't really give any details. Most karate people don't spar full-contact either from what I understand..... if you aren't used to getting hit, it's a shock to your system when you get hit. Eh. Who knows.

[gregimotis]

So, I agree that 'karate expert' doesn't mean anything except that the teacher knew more 'karate' than the reporter. I also agree that anybody can get blindsided - you can't be on your gaurd and watching every direction at once.
What bothered me and caused me to make the comment I did was not that he got beat, but that afterwards he commented that he would have won if... blah, blah, blah. Guess what, I got knocked the f*** out a couple months ago in the ring - but, I woulda won that fight if only blah, blah, blah. Also, Mike Tyson would have killed that Botha guy (or whatever his name was) in his last fight if only blah, blah, blah.
Who cares how you think it would have been different if only blah, blah, blah.

Two questions which matter in fighting are: 'Did you win or lose?' and 'What are you going to learn so you don't lose next time?' If you're answers are "I lost" and "It wasn't my fault." Then you are cruisin' for yet another bruisin' (so to speak).

[Broadsword2004]

A lot of people spend time on antiquated weapons though because they just require skill to learn and they like them. For example, a Chinese broadsword is a useless weapon pretty much nowadays, however, if you like swords ,it could be a joy to train with it.

[aseepish]

martial arts expert or not, an elbow and a groin knee, those are like two killer blows to two very fragile areas.

Exactly! I think what this article shows is that these tools are great equalizers. A 5'7" eigth-grader took out a "6-foot tall, 200-pound karate expert ".

The sad thing is that if the teacher had even so much as touched the student, he would have been in serious trouble. The school would then be the target of a civil lawsuit.

T.