 How many times have you heard somebody say well if XYZR is so good, how can we never see it captured on video? That's an excellent point and today we're gonna break that down and ask the question is using video footage an accurate gauge of a martial arts effectiveness Now we're not gonna cover any specific martial arts in this video today We've done that thousand times over and we've already done a video on mixed martial arts versus traditional martial arts So you can check that out There's the link in the description down below if you want to go down that road today We're gonna address this question and it's a very very fair question because let's be honest video footage is pretty telling You know the camera sees what the camera sees and sometimes it's hard to argue the evidence put in front of us I will be referring on occasion to specific video clips and I'm not gonna show them in their entirety because They've been shared all over the internet. They're very common. It's hard to find the sources So I'm gonna show glimpses but in the description below I'm gonna provide all the links of the videos I use so that way if you guys want to go check them out in their entirety They will be available down there But the goal today is to actually look at the concept of video footage and analyze why it's extremely accurate Why it's very truthful and then we're gonna look at some caveats So well there's some things to keep in mind when it comes to video footage and then at the end of this video I'm gonna make an observation and ask you guys a question that I hope supports this observation So let's get started Okay, let's start off with the obvious reason why cameras are dependable and why footage should be used to judge Infective of a technique or an art or whatever the argument is the main factor is it's visual confirmation It's actual visual evidence presented to us We can see a situation play out as it played out and video evidence shows us that just how fast a real defense Situation can happen how fast it starts and how quickly it ends video also shows us just how different a real-life fight is From anything you see in sparring or in a competition or in any rehearsed self-defense dojo routines We also live in an age where most people have a camera in their pocket It takes very little time to pull that phone out and push a button to start recording Not only that though as there are surveillance cameras everywhere So there's a good chance of a situation occurs in the public space that it will be caught on camera And in some cases caught on multiple angles It can also show you the harsh truth of what actually works and what doesn't work in the real-life situation Many times people try fancy things in a real-life fight and it backfires on them But other times they can show you some tried-and-truth pressure test methods that you can depend on in a real-life situation There's a couple of videos out there for example that demonstrate a basic throw that you would find in it You know in judo or jiu-jitsu or some sort of grappling art now one video the throw was Perfectly executed and the person was apprehended the second one It wasn't as perfectly executed wasn't as clean, but it still worked. It got the job done So it shows you that practicing methods like this if there are techniques out there that are tried and true And will work in real-life situation. It can also demonstrate the difference between a dojo version of a technique and a street version of a technique We always hear the term street version So for example in the jiu-jitsu school I train at our she hand will show us a technique You know say we're gonna do a basic throw and it'll show us how to do it to protect our partner You know how to do this throw smoothly how to make sure we don't hurt them when they land and then he'll Tell us on the street how it would normally be done where you just drop them on their head That's a valid excuse, you know in a real-life situation You're not trying to take a person and throw them and put them nicely on the ground You're using the ground as a weapon that should be the only defensive maneuver You have to take if you can perfectly execute a throw that person hit in the ground should end the fight and also it can keep Us honest in terms of video footage holds us accountable with cameras everywhere if you defend yourself You know you're gonna be held accountable for your own actions Even if you're not the one who started the fight and we've covered this in the previous topic on too much self-defense There is a line you can cross even if someone else starts a fight and you defend yourself you can go too far So unfortunately, we live in a time where legality is the thing You've got to take a lot into consideration and cameras are going to hold a lot of people accountable Okay, let's flip things around a little bit here and take a different perspective This topic usually comes up in a debate on whether or not a specific martial art is effective or technique is effective and people point to the Presence or absence of footage to whether or not to base their argument on the problem with that though is yes Well, that might be good for recent times Let's not forget that all this video footage is only a recent development within the past 15 years or so prior to that I mean think about thousands of years of history of stuff that was not caught on film because Video footage wasn't around or as common as it was today and that brings up my next point is most even today Most self-defense and most fight situations are not recorded. I repeat most situations are not recorded So to kind of emphasize this point if you spend a couple hours on YouTube searching for real-life self-defense situations You're gonna find a lot of stuff. There's a lot of there's a lot of footage out there But you're gonna start to realize maybe after an hour or two You're gonna start coming across the same clips multiple times and maybe if you spend an afternoon on it Maybe if you're really productive, you'll find a hundred maybe 200 clips Now that's a lot but think about it. You would say let's just say you find 200 unique clips I'm willing to bet in any given city large populated area any given day a lot more than 200 incidents happen Whether they be minor fights or fist fights or self-defense situations or real-life violence events think about the tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of incidents that happen and Why isn't YouTube filled with thousands of clips? That's because most of the time fights are not filmed They happen quick remember how we talk about how fast they are and think about it, too If it's in the public area and the situation happens, there's a good chance to get caught But how many self-defense situations happen in parking lots or in the home or in an alley or just walking from one building to another Where people might not have the camera out or just happen faster than people can record it? That is the norm. So whether you're arguing for one art or another it doesn't matter the art It doesn't matter the technique Just keep in mind that most situations are not recorded just a small sliver And that's what usually goes viral and gets shared because it's not as commonly recorded as we think it is and also I want to highlight again fights versus self-defense fights often have build up There's often a lot more opportunity to bring out self-ful footage That's why most of the footage you see out there is of a fist fight because that's usually got a little bit of Escalation where there's less footage of self-defense situations unless it's caught on surveillance camera because they tend to happen much quicker So there's a little bit of an imbalance between fight footage versus self-defense footage First let's address the elephant in the room most of the time this debate is between BJJ and any other martial art people saying You know BJJ is better and look because there's so much footage of it. That is a valid point There's a lot of footage out there of BJJ and MMA based sport fighting working in a real-life self-defense situation That's not a lie But to be fair and like I pointed out already this all the video coverage is new within the past 10 to 15 years and That's awesome. We saw a major spike in popularity of MMA and BJJ Jim So there's also a lot more likelihood of capturing those as well There's a mix of footage out there But I'm just saying sometimes and I'm not saying one way or the other but sometimes it's worth thinking about What's what's more popular at the time? What's more likely to get caught on camera versus what's not and also let's consider this too There might be even more footage out there And it's hard to know what's actually out there because there could be a lot of situations that were filmed But maybe they're not released publicly because of a pending lawsuit or a person doesn't want to be held accountable for something Or maybe just simply wasn't put online So that could factor in that there's probably a lot more footage and we're even aware of that's just not on YouTube or any other social media site and we have to take into account that a lot of videos are simply staged So not only do we have to think about the context of what happened now We have to discern and and try to validate whether or not it's even a real video at all So that's just something to keep in mind just because you see it on camera doesn't always mean it's real so gauging the effectiveness of a martial art or any given technique gets really fuzzy here because of what we just mentioned but not only that There was context is everything many times when the fight starts and it's recorded It's oftentimes not recorded from the beginning sometimes. It's already in process when people get their cameras out So we don't know always what happens leading up to that event Was it just an argument or were a couple of throw blows thrown beforehand that we didn't see or technique Were there any techniques that worked or didn't work that we didn't see or is this possibly a follow-up fight? That's something that happened five minutes earlier. We don't always know So you do have to be careful that sometimes when we look at a video sample It might not be a complete specimen of a situation. So as a disclaimer in my mind I have no question that BJJ is excellent I think it's one of the best starts out there and MMA gyms in general, you know Teaching the mix of stand-up, you know with Muay Thai, boxing, a mix of arts I think it's very effective and there's plenty of footage to show that but to be fair There's also footage showing traditional martial arts working as well There are some sample videos after that clearly show a traditional martial art working in the self-defense situation But again, we don't know the context. Was this pressure tested? Is this the first time this person's been in a fight? You know, we see traditional stances and yes You could argue whether or not it was performed correctly or if it was sloppy or not But at the end of the video at the end of the day the defender was able to walk away safely from the situation We also need to take into account the experience level of the people in the video We don't always know what their background is. We might look at a clip and be like Oh, well that art clearly doesn't work because he got his butt kicked Well, maybe he's a wipeout or maybe he's only had a week at the gym Or maybe he just sucks in general or maybe the other guy was just that much better We don't always have the context of their experience level and unfortunately that does play a role because you can't always judge an Entire art by one person because what if they weren't taught properly or what if they didn't pressure test? Maybe it's a good art, but they don't pressure test or spar in the school They don't know how to apply on a person or maybe it's just impractical There's a lot that goes into it So you have to also take into consideration the person's experience and their skill level and basing an art on a hole Is tough too because we don't always know what that person's art is There's clips out there of spinning back kicks and round kicks winning the fight So if anything it can show you that that particular technique might work But we don't know where they learned it Maybe it's taekwondo, maybe it's thongsudo, maybe it's karate, maybe a friend told them or showed them We don't know where that person picked that up So to judge an entire art by a video clip is that much more difficult because we can't always identify the art A lot of them are similar a lot of people learn mixed disciplines, too Also, there's footage out there of even great arts failing You know not every clip of BJJ or MMA shows person winning the fight that doesn't mean rapping doesn't good rapping's fantastic I think BJJ is again one of the best arts out there, but it doesn't win every single time So I don't think it's fair to look at a video of somebody failing with it saying Oh, well the art doesn't work because look it didn't work for him. No, but it's worked in other videos So, you know cameras capture arts failing as much as they capture arts working Especially when it comes to multiple attackers and once again We've covered that in a separate topic and I've brought this up many many times The dangers of grappling is when it comes to multiple attackers You're at a severe disadvantage and there is video footage of that as well But video footage of real-life fights can be a great learning tool There's a lot you can gain from it. Maybe you see how things actually play out You know, it's easy to get stuck into a drill in class regardless of the art. You get routine Seeing a real-life situation is kind of a reminder of you know Fights are a little bit scarier sometimes than what we practice for and you can see what often does work What often doesn't sometimes the face stuff works most of the time it doesn't but but looking at video footage It gives us a real-life sample of something that's scary and real and raw So in the terms of using video footage to judge an art or judge technique I think it's an incomplete tool. I argue that the sample size is just too small I don't think there's enough video evidence out there to solely base an arts validity on just what we see in video I mean, we can judge a particular practitioner We can judge how that person uses that technique or their skill level But I don't think it's fair to judge either condemn or praise an art Just because of what we find on YouTube or other social media platforms because I just think the sample size is far too small Most fights are simply not recorded on camera and if we disagree and let me ask you this For those of you out there who have defended yourself and been in a real fight And I don't mean dojo setting or in a competition, but I mean a real-life fight. How many of you have footage to show of it Let's try a different metric. Let's assume that this video gets a thousand views today And I'd be willing to bet that at least 20 to 30 percent of those viewers have had a situation in life That was a fight or a self-defense situation That's two to three hundred people and honestly, I'll probably bet a little bit more But let's just stick with 20 to 30 percent if I were to ask you right now Just today could two to three hundred of you provide footage of yourselves using your self-defense techniques just today alone We don't see two to three hundred self-defense clips or fight clips show up on YouTube every day So all I'm asking is just just be careful how you use the judgment video tells a lot of truth But it's not always the whole truth So in the end know the goals that you want to get out of a martial art and go and find an art That's going to push you hard with resistance to earn those goals guys. Thank you so much for watching I know today we covered a pretty hot topic and I understand there's gonna be a lot of debate I just ask again as always keep it civil we're a community here to share and support each other not disparage and insult each other So I would love to hear about any experiences that you have of any techniques or arts that did work for you And those that didn't if you guys by any chance have footage to share that would be awesome I understand if you don't but like I said, let's make this a productive discussion. I love to hear what you think Thank you guys so much for watching and we will see you next week