Re: Very flashy, acrobatic martial arts styles?
A variety of reasons:
- there isn't always a good record. There's a lot of stuff that's lost to time because many aspects of the arts are passed down master to student via oral tradition. Often times, people don't realize what bits of history are important until it's too late and memories aren't always that reliable to begin with.
- even when there is a good record, things are often lost in translation, especially when dealing with foreign arts.
- lies and outright fabrication. All too often, histories are deliberately changed. Of course, there are also sometimes just honest misunderstandings and misinterpretations that never get cleared up.
- martial arts politics play a big part in all this. Even in small groups, human nature gets the better of the facts all the time.
- many people that practice martial arts aren't actually interested in the history. Those that DO have some appreciation for the history often do more harm than good because they frequently help perpetuate myths. Relatively few people do serious research about the martial arts (in part because few folks have the necessary resources, skills and background).