In a traditional martial art, especially, the benefits may not be so obvious as a plaque, a trophy, a black and blue badge of courage or the praises of the pugilistic press.
For the sincere martial artist who seeks personal benefits from training, both accustomed accomplishments and, at a later stage, some advanced attainments are possible…and without satisfying a board of seniors who are less attuned to his personal values than is he himself.
The exercises used in the martial arts are movements which can also be used to defend oneself.
In the fertile soil of self-defense, martial artists toil with the tools of exercise.
The martial arts allow a person to feel good about himself by earning his way.
Self-Actualization: Mind-Body Harmony In the Asian martial arts, as in many other physical activities, conscious deliberation is too slow to be effective.
Zen-Buddhists may not advocate this, but I think it is essential to the development of a well-balanced martial artist.
A rigidly a-rational approach to martial arts training would be akin to making football players excellent tacklers runners, blockers, passers and receivers, but never giving them signals in the huddle nor playbooks to study.
Fear and pain, because they are basic to fighting situations, are dealt with physically in all martial arts.
ADVANCED ATTAINMENTS Holistic Emphasis For the experienced, more benefits await but, due to the lack of an holistic emphasis, many lifetime practitioners become disenchanted with what they thought were advanced attainments in the martial arts: strong determination and the martial spirit Feudal samurai were expected to blindly obey and to die even kill themselves, when ordered to do so.
I came to these conclusions rather early in my martial arts career, after about ten years, but did not want to lose respect for the ideals which had profited me in so many ways.
In times of peace, it is difficult to simulate a real life-or-death situation, but this is what many martial arts schools try to do.
Even Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido and a very religious man who taught a relatively defensive martial art, was not above mixing the hard and the soft.
The Martial Spirit That soldier on the battlefield about to face possible death holds everything as important.
If a martial artist experienced the hard-to-describe state of mind of the battlefield trooper, it is a desirable achievement, but it is useless unless properly understood and properly put to work off the battlefield and out of the dojo.
Determination hard and soft, stoic acceptance of death in order to live, and an appreciation of personal values can be the epitome of the martial spirit, reserved for those with sufficient experience, but it must be framed by a well-balanced philosophy of the martial arts which encompasses more than fighting.
The personal values of determination and the martial spirit are available to modern martial artists, but only if they use a little mu-shin, a little rationality, and do not see the goal too narrowly nor hold it too tightly.
Self-defense ability, coordination and health come from many types of martial arts training.
After years of sparring other black belts, repeating kata, or breaking boards, the traditional trainee regardless of belt-level, certificates, plaques or prizes, can attain a special sort of determination and the calm intensity known as “The martial spirit.” Training is the blueprint by which one builds oneself.
If the martial artist is to create himself as his own work of art, he will certainly set short-term, tangible goals for himself, but will not lose sight of those goals which he may never completely attain, the consequences of his own method of training.
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