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Old Buck Syndrome
From The Martial Arts Encyclopedia
Old Buck Syndrome is a term created by Neal Fletcher, Site Director for the Bullshido network of websites. It describes a phenomenon he observed where aging Martial Artists display resentment, bitterness, and resistance to change that affects or in some cases invalidates their previous training.
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Observation
The phenomenon was first noticed early after the formation of Bullshido.net's forums (originally McDojo.com). As discussion developed and more participants joined in, a trend became apparent that involved conflict between older members and younger members almost always along clearly drawn lines of age.
In most cases, the older members ("Old Bucks") displayed hostility to the younger members ("Young Bucks") who were training in the newer styles such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Mixed Martial Arts.
Conflict
Many forum discussions involving the two groups devolved into outright hostility and in at least 3 instances, real life confrontations. (See also: JFS_USA, KungFuDoesWork.)
Hypothesis
Phrost's informal hypothesis is that this phenomenon is similar to what is known as a "Mid-life Crisis" wherein the aging individuals look back upon the time they spent pursuing what they thought was effective Martial Arts training, only to have much of those training methods (and consequently, the time spent doing it) invalidated and demonstrated to be, essentially, wasted.
