Which martial arts systems are a scam?

There are a lot of martial arts, combative, and self-defense programs on the Internet. Books, ebooks, and DVDs abound. Which of these martial artists are promoting scams? In other words, how do you tell if your martial-arts purchase is bogus?

Bogus Martial-Arts eBooks

One of the main ways to tell how good a program is has to do with consistency. Does it promote one principle and then ignore their own philosophy?

Sometimes, you can get a clue in the sales-pitch page itself, before you waste your money. Let me give you an example of this from a Warrior world that doesn’t have to do with hand-to-hand combat:

From time to time I go to a warrior site directed towards “newbies” (my best guess, here) who want to market their ebooks and programs on … how to market. A majority of these experts have never sold anything except their marketing program. (Hmm. Is there a parallel in the world of martial arts?)

Anyway, most of them try to sell you with screenshots of their online accounts showing daily sales. The newbie thinks, “Wow, if I could only sell half as well, I’d be rich.”

Now, here’s were it gets funny … in an ironic sort of way:

Lately, I have seen these guys spewing out the recommendation to avoid anyone who tries to sell you with bank screenshots in the sales letter. And then, these very same marketers, a little later in the letter, try to convince you to buy this eproduct with … drum roll … screenshots of their own online accounts!!

Martial-Arts Scam Clues

I don’t think you’ll find such a blatant clue in the world of self-defense. And unfortunately, sometimes it takes buying that money-back guaranteed ebook or video (you did make sure that there was a satisfaction guarantee, right?) in order to find the contradiction in advice.

Then you compare the actual advice with the sales letter. It’s the inconsistencies that I have found can get you in a world of hurt during an altercation. And after all, you are trying to learn to defend yourself better.

An easy-to-find example is any program that claims to teach JKD and then it’s filled with hard blocks that take your momentum of your opponent’s center.

Another, similar clue would be a system that claims that it teaches a hit-first (or kick-first) response. Then you buy the ebook or video and the first instructions include slowing down an enemy’s attack (punches or kicks) with a block AND THEN counterattacking.

Do you see the inconsistency?

It’s probably not entirely accurate to call these martial-arts promoters scammers or scam artists. Many of them don’t even realize that they’re being inconsistent.

Still it’s these “snags” that will get you into trouble in a real fight. Most of these spots have some faulty (hindsight) logic going on, but we can talk about that in another post.

Just think: When you do find programs that are faithful to their philosophies, you’ll be able to beat these inefficient fighters who can’t even practice what they preach.

Tags: bad martial arts, centerline theory, fighting logic, hit first, jkd, martial arts scams, self-defense ebook warnings, training devices