Why is anyone in Dragon Ball Super listed as a master martial artist, when they can't actually use it anymore?

[Scumerage]

Every fight in Super, heck even most of DBZ as well, didn't actually involve martial arts (not regarding animation, just actual story). Because of the vast power growth, every fight has been decided by raw strength/speed/durability + sometimes general tactics (team ups, sneak attacks, etc.), not melee combat skill. The point of martial arts is to counter comparable strength opponents efficiently so as to have a physical advantage. But after 20 years of raw power fights, how could any of them maintain any serious level of skill? Goku (and the rest of the cast) has no way of knowing whether or not his melee technique is actually effective or not. Either he's holding back or he's getting dominated, even pretty equal fights come down to who can maintain their level of energy or use some hax Ki technique. He can't actually train with it since there's no standard anymore for "effective technique" vs "ineffective technique". Doesn't matter how skilled he was in original Dragon Ball or early DBZ, the past twenty years have been wasted (due to melee skill being irrelevant).

Just imagine if Bruce Lee, obviously a great martial artist, turned out to be a Saiyan, and was forced to do heavy strength training to beat physically stronger and stronger opponents. Would his skill disappear entirely? Course not. But would he really have much skill left to speak off after 20 years of that? I doubt it.
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[Antvasima]

Well, I am the wrong person to ask, but although you make a good point, officially they are still supposed to be skilled fighters who constantly train hard against comparable opponents, or at least Goku and Vegeta do. We cannot impose our own standards over that and speculate about their skill being low in our profile pages.

 

[Blackcurrant91]

Why wouldn't they be able to use it anymore? If Goku was a skilled Martial Artist as a child, he is a skilled martial artist now. Have you seen Ultra Instinct? it was almost entirely strong because of how Goku utalised it in melee combat. They still use martial arts techniques, they just attack so fast it looks stupid when they use them and they are fighting at MFTL speeds so the animators just depict it as them zipping around without you being able to see them.

Also we are talking about a saiyan not a human. I don't see why he would lose his skills over the years like a human would.

 

[Paul_Frank]

What black said basically

 

[Antoniofer]

Most Z Fighters are still as skilled in martial arts as they where at the end of the classic DB, Cell has their powers and skill so he also has martial arts, and since we treat unarmed combat as martial arts basically anyone specialized in melee combat have it, isn't the big deal in nearly everyone, but is still martial arts.

 

[Antvasima]

I agree with Blackcurrant and Antoniofer.

 

[Scumerage]

Well, I am the wrong person to ask, but although you make a good point, officially they are still supposed to be skilled fighters who constantly train hard against comparable opponents, or at least Goku and Vegeta do. We cannot impose our own standards over that and speculate about their skill being low in our profile pages.

Ah, I guess that makes sense, in series they're supposed to be extremely skilled, it's just weak writing. If anyone asked Toriyama "Hey, is Goku still skilled in martial arts after all these years?" he would obviously say yes. Or how any author can say "This character is a master martial artist" despite not showing much martial arts, because according to the author, that a part of their character.

Thanks for such a straight to the point explanation.

 

[Antvasima]

No problem. I will close this thread then.