Training in the martial arts offers one major benefit that you can’t get in any other activity… or at least it should! In this video, I’ll tell you what makes the martial arts special and what every teacher and student should be trying to achieve.
You can watch the video below or scroll down for the transcript. Keep fighting, my friend!
Keep the Martial Arts MARTIAL!
Howdy! Ando here from Happy Life Martial Arts. Look—there are many paths that you can take in the martial arts—modern or traditional, competitive sport or spiritual journey.
It’s also true that people start out with different motivations: maybe self-defense, fitness, or just fun. So, whatever interest brings you to the mats, or the park, or garage, I say good for you! But whichever path you choose, I do hope at some point we all end up in the same place. Where is that?
Conflict resolution. Overcoming resistance. In other words, fighting.
Fighting is the only way to build self-protection skills, which is what makes martial arts special. Learning how to stand up for yourself and manage threats is what makes martial arts different from yoga, dancing, or climbing rocks.
In recent years, with the rise of MMA, many martial artists have criticized traditional martial arts training programs that offered limited or zero training against resistance—and that’s a fair point! But then a funny thing happened…
The foundation arts of MMA, like Boxing, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, discovered the same business reality that Karate, Kung Fu, and Tae Kwon Do discovered decades ago—most people don’t want to get punched in the face or choked out. Which means nowadays, you might find a boxing class with no sparring or a BJJ class with limited or structured rolling.
That makes sense—give your customers what they want… but the customer isn’t always right! As teachers, we should be leading students to new challenges. As students, we should be looking for new challenges. Specifically, facing fears and making the uncomfortable more comfortable.
So, good news: Today, it seems there are more martial art schools than ever. Bad news: If we’re not careful, there may be fewer schools offering the full benefits of martial arts, the benefits that go along with the practice of fighting, than ever.
To fix that, traditional schools need to keep it real and MMA schools need to keep it safe. If we all do that, then more people will get the full benefits that only martial arts can offer. If we don’t do that, then we might as well go play pickleball.
Of course, how a program incorporates fighting into its training can look many different ways. And I’m certainly not suggesting that anyone should be getting contusion and concussions on a regular basis. But I do hope that however you’re teaching or however you’re learning that you’re heading in the right direction—towards conflict resolution. That means verbal deescalation, shoving and running, breaking an arm, or knocking someone out—all of it.
The way I see it, the whole point of martial arts is to arm as many good people with the tools they need to fight for themselves, their family, their friends, and the common good as possible. When we toughen up the good guys, that doesn’t just make their lives better, it makes the world better. And that’s a goal I hope we can all agree on.
So, let’s keep the martial arts as martial as we can… and keep fighting for a happy life!
