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Hi,

first, the polls options have been chosen very poorly. When doing such a thing at least try to cover the major groups of martial arts (For example it lists no single chinese martial art, although this is perhaps the largest group of schools). Wikipedia has a nice list.

Originally Posted by King Of All Cosmos

I'm just wondering, has anyone ever heard of Bagua? It's not a widespread martial art and isn't taught in many places (5 places in the US maybe?). I'm fortunate enough to live nearby one and my friend trains there. On a pure fighting theory level, he claims it to be the most complete of martial arts (meaning that if you master it, the best fighting style). The idea behind "most complete" is that it includes the most effective way to deal with any situation. It's purpose is to kill/defeat the opponent and therefore it excludes any unrelated development areas that many other martial arts use.

I once took part in a short beginner weekend bagua seminar and found it very interesting, its a bit like the opposite of taji quan (I train chen-style taiji quan). Claiming that it is the best martial art puts a very dim light on that master: good teachers dont say things like that, because they know there is something to learn from every school. Perfection is something to strive for, not something you "have", while others "haven't".

Originally Posted by King Of All Cosmos

Interesting tidbit: When both asked how they would describe their martial art, the Tai Chi master answered "flowing and beautiful" while the Bagua master laughed a little and answered "vicious and hateful". He just was pointing out that martial arts isn't necessarily about looking good or dancing, it's about fighting skills.

Oh, BTW I know at least two masters, who do both, taiji and bagua.

Originally Posted by King Of All Cosmos

It IS hard to prove that any martial art is the best and I'm not the one with the necessary knowledge to argue it. Still, on a technical level, the most humanely effective move in a given situation is the best move, right?

Well, yes, but... Evaluating what would be the best move in a given situation requires considering the follow-up situation it puts you in and what follows from there and different fighting schools favour different follow-up situations and by all of this the question wether a certain move is "optimum" is difficult to answer. It depends on a lot of things, including the fighters health and character (are you willing and able to kill someone, if necessary?) etc.