10 martial arts misconceptions mainstream cinema has told us

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A blow to the groin is harmless, you can kill a person with your finger, and pulling out the spine is generally easier than ever.

1. There are ancient ways to kill with your finger

In the film "Kill Bill", the main character cracks down on the head of the criminal organization and her former boss Bill with the help of a secret blow, which she was taught by the Tibetan kung-fu master Pei Mei. She touches five points on Bill's body with her fingers, and when he takes a few steps, his heart breaks.

Such techniques are often found in martial arts films and are called dim-mak, or, from the Cantonese dialect, "the touch of death." And in Japanese it sounds like kyusho-jutsu.

There is even a legend that the real cause of Bruce Lee's death is this secret blow, which he received from an assassin sent by the Chinese triads, a few weeks before his death.

But in fact, "delayed death" is just an oriental tale that developed from the teachings of acupuncture. The idea of dim-mak is that qi energy flows through the body along special lines and touching them can heal or kill.

But modern science has not found any qi energy in people and the effectiveness of acupuncture and related techniques casts doubt on it. It is impossible to make a person lose consciousness, stop the heart or otherwise harm a person by clicking on some “secret points”.

And although death, which did not occur immediately after the injury, but after a while, is quite possible, it is unlikely that it will be possible to cause it deliberately. For example, a hard blow to the chest can lead to a “concussion,” but this requires timing the heartbeat with precision. So you are unlikely to succeed - unless your opponent, of course, lets you measure your heart rate before doing it.

In addition, the myth of the "touch of death" could have appeared due to the fact that cunning fighters to the east (for example, ninjas) used brass knuckles, rings and thorns with poison in battle. Their blow can really cause "delayed death", and it does not matter where it was delivered.

2. Beats are accompanied by special sounds

Watch any film with martial arts, and hear what "juicy" sounds are emitted by human bodies when in contact with fists, boots and other instruments for beating. But real sparring is not at all accompanied by a cacophony of spanking: athletes sniff and stomp louder than hitting each other.

The blows to the human body do not make much noise and look unconvincing on the screen, even if they are strong and skillfully executed. Therefore, filmmakers resort to various tricks when dubbing films, making the sounds of the battle as effective as possible.

We beat chicken carcasses with baseball bats, smashed walnuts, threw pork legs, and then mixed those sounds. We've made an extensive library of beats.

Ren Klais, Fight Club sound engineer

So the next time you watch the beautiful fights in the movies, be aware that you hear the sounds of splitting watermelons and chickens, as well as the crunching of celery. The latter is most often used when it is necessary to voice twisting of the limbs.

3. A blow to the groin is unpleasant, but harmless

Many comedies with "below the belt" jokes feature punches to the groin. Funny characters regularly get hit on sensitive organs, scream in falsetto, make faces, grab wounded spots and curl up into a ball. And then they rise and continue their adventures as if nothing had happened.

In fact, a blow to the groin leads to very serious injuries, up to rupture of the testicles or even a fracture of the pubic bone - this means hellish pain and the need for surgical intervention.

It is unlikely that a lethal outcome will occur - unless the victim decides not to see a doctor and the damaged area will be affected by necrosis. But infertility and a decrease in sexual activity are more than likely. A blow to the groin is clearly not a thing that should be considered harmless.

And yes, contrary to stereotypes, an attack below the belt is dangerous not only for men.

If you inflict such a blow on a woman, then she, too, can be easily crippled and cause severe torment. Female MMA fighters suffer from accidental blows below the waist just as often as men, and the situation is aggravated by the fact that they are prohibited by the rules from wearing groin protectors.

4. From the throw, people fly five meters to the side

Big guys in the movies (the same Luke Hobbs from the Fast and the Furious series performed by Dwayne Johnson) just love to leave people. They grab it and throw it on the ground or against the wall like a sack of potatoes.

You will say that such a strong person like the Rock can easily do this? No matter how it is.

In the Swiss city of Interlaken, about once every 12 years, a strongman competition called Unspunnen takes place. Among other tests, there is a trick with throwing a huge block weighing 83.5 kg, which is called "Unshpunnen stone".

Strongmen prepare for a long time before throwing a stone, because it still needs to be properly raised. Then the thrower lifts the block over his head, makes a short run and throws it. The official record - 4, 11 meters - was set by the strongman Marcus Maire.

If throwing a simple stone with a running start is such a difficult task, then how much more difficult is it to throw people who are still resisting? Capturing, lifting and throwing the escaping man at any noticeable distance is only within the power of the Terminator. No wonder wrestlers don't do that.

5. An unarmed martial artist can easily cope with an armed enemy

No matter how champion you are, there is little chance of staying alive and well in the event of a stabbing, despite any preparation.

In the movies, villains use blade fencing, giving the martial artist plenty of opportunities to intercept and disarm them. But in reality, no one in their right mind will do this: a thug just needs to take a knife and stab,,, closing himself from the victim's blows with his second hand.

No sophisticated blade wielding techniques. And simple stabbing blows with a knife in the abdomen, chest or face area cannot be blocked in any way, unless you are a knight with a shield.

In this video, a US Marine demonstrates the perfect weapon against melee weapons.

Looks much more realistic than the guys get up in the movie "Raid".

6. A person can be turned off by a blow for several hours

The hero of the action movie does not want to kill his opponent, but he must be neutralized. What is he doing? That's right, famously hits the villain on the kumpol, and he falls as if knocked down. Either he grabs the opponent by the neck, squeezes the carotid artery, and the helpless victim is sent bainki. Hours of commercials for two, so as not to interfere.

And at the right time, the victim will wake up, rub the bump on his head and immediately rush into battle - without any harmful consequences.

In fact, if you knock a person out with an accurate blow, he will come to himself in five minutes. And if you strangle, then even faster - 10–20 seconds after the attacker stops holding him. There is no talk of any "reliable blackout" for more than an hour.

If a person does not wake up almost immediately after the knockout, then he has a serious injury - a concussion or cerebral hemorrhage from a blow. Or prolonged hypoxia and damage to the thyroid cartilage, hyoid bone, trachea and cervical spine from suffocation. Nausea, disorientation and dizziness are included. You will almost certainly wet yourself.

After this, you will not be able to jump up and rush into battle, like in a movie. You will have to spend several weeks in the hospital and recover for a couple of months. And such injuries do not pass without leaving a trace - it's not for nothing that Parkinson's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (dementia from permanent brain damage) are common among boxers.

7. A martial artist alone will defeat a crowd of enemies

In almost every action movie, heroes cope with superior forces of opponents. But numerical superiority is nothing against training and preparation! A group of cutthroats (often armed) often get rid of a lonely warrior, and can not oppose anything to him.

However, if in real life any MMA champion fights several opponents at once, then he will almost certainly be killed or crippled.

The thing is that movie villains sacredly observe the unwritten rule - to attack in turn. While the hero beats one of them, the others meekly wait, wave their arms and make menacing faces.

In a real fight, you will be attacked by a crowd - no beautiful alternate fights, as in the movie "The Dragon Exit". So the only correct way out in a one-against-all battle is to run away, no matter how martial arts master you are.

8. Punching full force on the head with your bare hand is a great idea

If the hero hits the opponent on the head with his fist without protection, it will be bad not only for the bruised, but also for the one who struck. He may even break his arm on someone else's skull.

There is a special designation for such a phenomenon - "boxer's fracture", when one of the metacarpal bones breaks from a strong blow with a fist. Even athletes with gloves or with bandaged fists sometimes suffer from this injury. What can we say about who will beat with his bare hand?

People are strong, but at the same time rather fragile creatures. So Hollywood punching through walls is ridiculous.

It is clearly not worth hitting the enemy on the forehead with all your might. And you also don't need to aim at the teeth - you can also injure your hand about them, and then get an infection if the enemy had problems with oral hygiene. In especially advanced cases, and close to amputation.

9. In "fights without rules" there are no rules

In fact, what we habitually call “ultimate fighting” is officially called “mixed martial arts”. And there are a lot of restrictions.

In professional organizations, for example in the UFC, it is forbidden to elbow and knee on the ground. Also inadmissible are bites, blows to the groin, throat, back of the head and spine, poking into the eyes, breaking fingers and tearing tissues - for example, ears, mouth and nostrils. Violation will result in disqualification.

In addition, fights have time limits and equipment standards that are strictly adhered to. So in "fights without rules", in fact, there are plenty of rules.

10. A strong person can rip out an opponent's heart or spine

Contrary to all sorts of creepy films where directors endow their characters with simply superhuman strength, it is simply impossible to rip out someone's heart or separate the head or limb from the body with bare hands. Fabrics do not like bumps and twists, but at the same time they have good tensile strength. If you don't believe it, buy a pork leg or a piece of tenderloin at the store and try to tear it in half.

The stretching of the spine, which the alien hunter from "Predator" likes so much, looks even more ridiculous: the ridge is firmly attached to the ribs and tissues around it, and without a long surgical operation it is impossible to get it entirely.

And yes, crushing your head with your bare hands, as Gore did from Game of Thrones with Oberin Martell, will not work either. Even if you are Haftor Björnsson. To this conclusion, the neurosurgeon Tobias Mattey, who tests bicycle helmets, and the biomedical engineer Cynthia Beer, came to this conclusion. But an ordinary skull fracture can be arranged without having the parameters of an Icelandic strongman.