The issue of how effective martial arts are in a real world situation as a means of protecting yourself and loved ones is debated a lot and a bit of a touchy subject for most traditional martial artist , and since the popularity of cage fighting ( U.F.C PRIDE K1 ) has gone from strength to strength more and more people are trying out old and new systems
I would say that if you have just spend the best part of 10 years earning your black belt then you would be upset if some one came along and called your chosen system a waste of time and not very realistic you would be a little upset , this argument normally flares up between MMA and traditional martial artist .
MMA and traditional martial artist will always argue what system would work best , a few years ago I can remember this argument would normally be between different practitioners of the more stylized martial artist i.e “ my huang gar kung fu is a much better system the your tae kwon do “ and eventually the UFC was born out of this and then you could prove it in the ring !
if you watch some of the earlier fights from UFC you can see that there is a lot more devastating injuries then today . That’s not to say that fighting in the cage today is any easier then it was back then but now days it would be frowned upon if you palm slapped your cage fighting opponent in the ear and burst his ear drum , not because it would be classed as dirty fighting but because it would slow down the your opponents training regime for a few weeks which for a cage fighter would be a long time , eye gouging is no longer permitted in cage fighting , so does this mean that MMA is taking the same route which has rendered most traditional martial art’s un realistic by the means of turning it into a sport by applying rules ?


The second question I would like to ask is how realistic is cage fighting ?
again I not disrespecting any of the systems but I do hold a 1st Dan in a traditional martial art and train MMA and even some pure self defense styles .
and to answer my question I would say NO its no more realistic then tradition martial arts , firstly there are a the more obviously similarities , fighting bare foot , certain moves barred , a ref , and a controlled environment .
second thing that I would not call realistic is taken your opponent to the ground ! I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS A REAL STREET FIGHT !

Thirdly as in any self defense /combat / martial arts system if you apply rules at any point in training , such as not striking the eyes or no hits below the belt no elbow strikes then you will subconsciously not take these options into consideration as adrenaline will be pulsing thru your veins and you will be almost on auto pilot ! the mind and the body is very training specific , if you don’t train to use those striking areas then you brain will not allow you to use them ,
There are no rules in a street fight if you kick or get kicked below the belt in a street fight a ref is not going to come over and stop the fight till you can get your breath back ! just because you train in a discipline were elbows are not allowed t doesn’t mean your opponent in a street fight is going to play by the same rules