Website Reality Check

One of the more common things we see on the Internet are videos and photos of various applications and movements. Naturally the author of the site wants their media to be informative and entertaining, but quite a few people make immediate judgements as to what they see, and then relate that to the skill level of those in the demonstrations. People forget that websites are many times like television: it might be informative, but it's also entertainment.

For example, in a demo'd movement, one practitioner will explode with great speed in performance, while his/her partner will not counter-attack. In counter-attacking, naturally the partner will offer a defense and/or counter-attack to the initial movement. Personally, I like both examples because for one, they're entertaining, and two, they're instructional and informative. The problem, though, is that when someone sees a video, they take what they see to be the "reality" of a situation.

A few years ago, I received an email from a visitor to AWCAOnline saying, basically, that because our photos and videos didn't show full-scale, all-out fighting, we didn't look "tough." He'd heard that Wing Chun was all "big and bad," so because he didn't see that on the sites he'd visited, then the art wasn't as "bad" as he'd been lead to believe. My response was basically one of logic.

Does someone really think that we'll demo every movement with full power and speed? Of course not. Why? Because who in their right mind would stand there and take it?! :o) Websites are for relating information, and a martial arts website is for relating what they do. Sure, sites "can" provide videos of full-scale sparring sessions, and even my site will eventually have videos showing exactly that. You'll be seeing all-out, full speed sparring sessions in both empty-hand and Chi-sau, as well as weapons demos and training sessions. But even then, naturally it's not "real life," and it never will be unless by pure luck someone happens to have a video camera running when a real fight breaks out somewhere (or it's staged).

So when you come across any website that depicts a physical skill, things to remember are:

1. What's the overall message being related?
2. Is it demo-only or is it illustrating a counter-attack?
3. Maybe the group in question wants to relate a bit of what they do without making everything fully known? After all, you have to take the legal ramifications into account when making information available to the public.

These are just a few things to take into account, but on the whole, someone that says they can do something? You should also be seeing a certain level of skill in any video or photo session provided. With that, remember: it's just a website. Enjoy them and have fun with them, because that's their only true value.