Martial Arts A double edged sword

[Eng65 0]

I agree that Martial Arts does provide a certain amount of discipline and is a good way to keep fit and to some extent aide self defence. However it is not an entire solution for protecting oneself. Eng65

[Animator 0]

Okay... so what's the background behind your crit of the Martial Arts?I've been involved in Martial Arts on and off since I was 12 (I'm 36 now) and I don't go to "learn to fight" and all the other hairbrain reasons people associate with it. That's more of a side effect for me. I go because it's something that I can mix in well with... social in one sense... it's where my closest friends have tended to be.As for learning to defend oneself... I've been attacked a few times (one time by a gang of street kids where I looked at one the wrong way, another where there was this middle age creepy guy who though to make me his next sexual victim...) and, yeah, I got out of those situations with I guess you could say what I learned in my training. No need to hammer them exactly either. In the gang of streetkids, I simply (instinctively more than anything) blocked each puch and shove until they got tired and I was able to walk off home. With the other guy, he was on top of me pinning me to the ground... I lifted my leg up and around his neck, was able to throw him off without much effort. He didn't make any more attempt after that which suited me fine.So there you have it. I'm assuming either......you know nothing about the Martial Arts and are making some kind of review about it to get your wordcount up for free hosting....or you've been trying to misuse it and found it hasn't worked like you wanted it to.But as for your statement about it not being much use for defense... I never said it was, 'cept that I would also have to admit from experience it has been.

[Accure 0]

Martial arts is for defending, and not for attacking. This means 90% of the movies aren't based on the thruth (those flying kicks and karate ninja's).

Judo and Tae Kwon Do as well as western archery, boxing, javelin, wrestling and fencing are currently events in the Summer Olympic Games. Chinese wushu recently failed in its bid to be included, but is still actively performed in tournaments across the world. Practitioners in some arts such as kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu often train for sport matches, whereas those in other arts such as Aikido and Wing Chun generally spurn such competitions. Some schools believe that competition breeds better and more efficient practitioners, and gives a sense of good sportsmanship. Others believe that the rules under which competition takes place have diminished the combat effectiveness of martial arts or encourage a kind of practice which focuses on winning trophies rather than a focus such as cultivating a particular moral character.
As part of the response to sport martial arts, new forms of competition are being held such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the U.S. or Pancrase, and the PRIDE in Japan which are also known as mixed martial arts (or MMA) events. The original UFC was fought under very few rules allowing all martial arts styles to enter and not be limited by the rule set.

Some martial artists also compete in non-sparring competitions such as breaking or choreographed techniques poomse, kata or aka. Modern variations of the martial arts include dance-influenced competitions such as tricking.

Some martial traditions have been influenced by governments to become more sport-like for political purposes. The central impetus for the attempt by the People's Republic of China in transforming Chinese martial arts into the committee-regulated sport of Wushu was suppressing what they saw as the potentially subversive aspects of martial training, especially under the traditional system of family lineages.[12]

Edited August 8, 2008 by Accure (see edit history)

[mrdee 1]

A few home truths were posted here.Martial arts are indeed for defense only, and, in films, quite often nothing is further from the truth.However, it might not be 'an entire solution to defend oneself', it does help in some cases.While I agree no martial art will defend you when someone points a gun at you from a distance where you cannot immediately get to him and then pulls the trigger, there are situations which it will definitely get you out.As Animator says, in both cases he got involved in, martial arts was a godsend to him. It does help to know certain techniques when you are confronted by more than one opponent, it is also useful to master certain tricks when confronted by someone bigger and stronger than you. And yes, I have seen people with black belts in karate being hit to the ground, but that is not automatically a reason to assume that martial arts would be useless for self defense.After all, it can always happen you come across someone who knows more than you do or who knows something different than you.I would stil advise people who often find themselves in threatening circumstances (eg. such as people who do deliveries in rough areas of a city) or weaker people to take up a martial art. Not only is it going to boost their confidence, it might save their lives some day or it might earn them respect from bullies who will start thinking twice before making a pass at them.

[shadowx 0]

Ive been to karate a couple of times, one time the place didnt suit me and the second time the person i was going with, and getting a lift from (i dont drive) didnt want to go anymore so i couldnt. But i will soon have money and hopefully will be starting Wing Chun. My reasons for doing so are: Self confidence, always a good thing. Get fit, i currently have no exercise. Learn to protect myself, the people around me, my properties and my beliefs, im a fairly outspoken person and i need the ability to back myself up should someone get a bit cocky. I agree that martial arts arent the ultimate self defence skill, nothing is. If you get stabbed a black belt is only as good as a bandage. But in martial arts they dont go "right, this guy has a knife, i want you to run towards him screaming, kick him in the face, break his wrist and stab him in the eye" it will be more like "if a guy has a knife, get out of there, if you cant then do what he asks, if it turns into rape etc... or gets too serious to do what he asks then take his wrist, do this, do that and run"Martial arts ARE about defence, not about offence, or revenge. Some of the techniques you see, for example in wing chun, block the punch, throw them to the floor, stamp on their head and then choke them with your legs, might seem VERY harsh, but if that guy has a gun are you gonna punch him in the face and run hoping he doesnt put a hole in your back? Or are you going to make sure, that no matter how hard he tries YOU are going home in one piece. Martial arts can be violent, no doubt, but you wouldnt use the above technique for some cocky little kid that called you gay...You would have the discipline and confidence to let him laugh at your back as you walk away and not fall to his level and kick the turd out of him!So i would request that the OP does some research. I also realise he has only one post, two weeks ago... I dont think he will be responding.

[mrdee 1]

That is of course another factor, shadowx: finding a club which offers the martial art you want to go for, but, on top of that, one that is near enough to you, and/or one that is affordable.I, myself, for example, was never so keen on karate, I was more into Chinese martial arts (Tai Chi, Kung Fu and the likes), and I also liked things such as kickboxing or military self defence methods (such as Krav Maga).The thing is, I did find a few clubs which offered the things that interested me, but either they were miles away from where I live, and, if not that, they charged you an arm and a leg for membership.I must admit, though, since the time I took up karate, I have not regretted it, I do quite enjoy going to my sessions.As for the other aspect, if you want martial arts to help you defend yourself if needed, any knowledge you have about any kind of martial arts would give you an advantage in many cases, and some of the techniques that you master could one day save your life.And, as you say, "Martial arts can be violent, no doubt....", but it depends how you yourslef use them. If you just use (or rather, abuse) your knowledge to attack people on the street, well, I would say, "Think again", and most probably, any martial arts instructor in his right mind would ever let you through his door again if he knew that was what you used your skills for. However, fortunately, only a small minority of people take up martial arts with the idea of beating people up in the back of their minds. They do, however, exist. Shame.But, do go for the martial art that attracts you, and you will benefit in many ways, certainly not defence alone.Good luck with it.

[innosia 1]

The perfect Martial Arts is the combination of physical and inner power. There are two kinds of power, the physical like kicking/punching and the inner one which does not require to have physic power but can make target down with inner power.Inner power is the power to move the real 'self' inside our heart and move our spirit energy and bounce it like energy. Movie these days are not bluffing that it is true that a person can actually fly or jump higher than a tall tree, in my country this is not strange or weird. The current martial arts such as shaolin has much lack about the inner development. In old days, inner development is important key since the real objective to learn Martial Arts in old days is not for self protecting but it is used to awaken their inner self to achieve a higher consciousness state by combining physical and mental power to actually balance the yin and yang.Today martial arts is influenced a lot by western thought about what martial art should be, since that, martial arts has loses their real power to become only physical form or physical movement. That's a pity.In old days, a high martial art user, must meditate or contemplate to still their mind thus lower their brainwave from beta to alpha or even theta. In this state of stillness, a martial art like wushu user moves create their skill base on their etherical body's nadis to make all their nadis clean and perfect, this result in the perfect body, or human perfection.Thats why in all over the world, wether what kind of sects that teaches martial arts, all will actually have some inner and mental power studies.Inner power is a power that reside in human body that can be thrown outside of body in which we cant see. The cleanliness of our body from dirt or unseen object determines how well our inner power can move. While the more physical spirit we have then the higher physical power we achieve, the more still our mind is and our etheric body is then the more inner power we will have. The inner power is stored in our body below our belly about 2 inch. This nadi point is called Dan Tian.In old days, teachers will cultivate their students by training them in discipline so that both of their Ida and Pingala is clean to somepoint so that the teacher can awaken his pupils kundalini. Kundalini is an unlimited power that can be used to achieve mundane or worldy materialization. Materialization is a process to acquire any object in this world as we want in the spiritual form. If this spiritual form is maintained in our sub consciousness from time to time (we will get it without doubt) then the form will become real in this world (real object in our point of view), because our physical body will be drag to where we can actualized our determination. Thus this balance the yin (the process of materialization or visioning) and the yang (the process of let our self go into the condition where we can achieve it).This yin and yang theory is known in old time, thus old people live in prosperity, prosper means they always feel satisfy. While in our modern world, we have a lot of modern technology but our heart never feel enough. This lower our inner self, thus our kundalini is trapped in its place, and stay there so we are enslave by it.Martial Arts must awaken one trueself, their power, their will, and finally they will realise the reason of their own existence in this world. Its different from every single person, thus martial arts different skills are not actually suitable for every single person for all. The only things similar things for every person to achieve the self awaken is to contemplate, meditate, to find happiness without causing any looses from others, it must be a win win solution, thus these will mentally grown someone to be independent and reliable.Dan tien is the place where we can store inner power by cultivating oneself, thus energy is accumulated in dan tian, and somehow some sects reject to do that since the accumulated energy will bring harm by dirtying the etherical body with energy outside of our self.In inner power, there is a very perfect truth, that is if someone is striking or hitting us in full emotion, the inner power user must stay calm and zero, when they are in the state of Zero, the emotion of the enemy when striking will finally bounce back to them, in short when they are anger they suddenly feel powerless in their physical body.The Zero state is the condition where one's mind is blank and consciousness is focus in one chakra point, depends on how high they can reach their chakra, they just focus there. The full focus of one point, is to drag all minds into one condition which is blank, the key is to believe, to trust that the enemy is harmless, which means no fear at all. Because low emotion such as fear, will to fight, anger, hatred, will draw the same emotion into them, if one emotion is different from them then they will be bounce away.Research about soul, mental power, inner power and so on is actually being done secretly by US government.