Bad Martial Arts was created to promote critical thinking and rational thought in the martial arts. Few subjects are so poorly understood and as widely misrepresented in the mass media, with the line between reality and nonsense heavily blurred. This site isn't designed to teach martial arts per se, but to provide the prospective student, practicing student, or curious person a foundation whereby critical thinking can be used for self-defense, training, and fitness. Most martial arts teach some form of self-defense, so the ability to distinguish real, effective techniques vs. nonsense is critical.
The "Bad" in Bad Martial Arts extends from the tradition of Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy and Ben Goldacre's Bad Science web sites. These excellent web sites examine the good and bad of astronomy and science, and help shed light on myths, misconeptions and pseudoscience. Because the martial arts are so steeped in tradition and history, few martial artists stop to consider the underlying reasons for doing what the art teaches. Most of the time, it's for a good reason, but how would the martial artist know without some way to validate it?
The answer is critical thinking.
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