Get a grip!!! - Martial arts at its best

2009-11-13T23:26:00.000-08:00

Oooookay...

it's been quite a while since I've updated ANYTHING here. But it doesn't matter! Coz here comes another post! :D

Just to recap, last time I ended with this:

"That is why in the early days, Masters choose their students. Only those they deem worthy may undergo the training under them."

Some guy, Soke Yoshimi Inoue & Rika Usami

So now I'll continue to elaborate on that.

Depending on the history, martial arts were generally passed down to a successor; be it a family member or an apprentice, taken in for training. There are a few reasons to this tradition and two of those are:

1) To keep the secret of the martial art within trusted people

2) To make sure they don't hand down the art to the unworthy

Times were hard back then. Fights and wars happened almost everywhere. A lot of people resorted to violence; either to cause fear or defend against it. Either way, to survive. Therefore, the masters would look at the true intentions when one apply for apprenticeship.

Present day, martial arts are taught almost everywhere! At school & universities, as extra-curricular, small dojo, etc. Although this is actually good (in the sense of more opportunity for everyone to learn martial arts), there are risks of it being abused. Bullying, gang fights, uncontrolled rage, all combined with the knowledge of martial arts could prove to be very, very dangerous.

So, even though we can't fight the changes of time, we can provide new solutions. And that is also why today, there are certified and registered bodies for respective martial arts to observe, maintain and keep this activity in check.

All in all, I could conclude this post with, 'Martial arts, serious business'.

Misconceptions

2009-08-13T04:05:00.000-07:00

Skepticists often say that martial arts always lead to unwanted violence.

Like this one "Russia karate expert kills two over lice infection".

However, if you read the news carefully, the guy was drunk. So you can't really blame his karate lessons for the loss of the family. A drunk person doesn't even need a proper martial arts training to cause damage. I'm not trying to talk bad about him, but that's how it is.

I firmly believe that the statement is not true.

What makes martial arts different from plain brawling is that it is taught and guided by principles. While martial artists train hard to master the art, we are always reminded that the best self-defence is to avoid conflicts; Fighting as a last resort only.

But no matter how humble the principles are, this system has its flaws.....which happens to be us, humans. We have to admit, sometimes we make wrong decision. And some people have the tendency to repeat the mistake again.

That is why in the early days, Masters choose their students. Only those they deem worthy may undergo the training under them.

I'll get into more details in my next post.

Ja~

When to fight, when to not fight?

2009-08-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hiya!

I've mentioned before, that martial arts are created for defence. But for some people, this is very confusing. How can a fighting art, is classified as defence? It just doesn't add up!

A reason to fight back?

Well actually it does, when people stop generalizing 'fight'. A fight is basically a contest between two or more parties, in which the superior is the winner. And a physical fight or combat does seem to reek with violence. True enough. But what makes a fight different from another, is the purpose.

Why do we have to fight? When is a fight imminent? Until when do we keep fighting?

Those are the few questions martial artists often need to ask themselves.

Having the answers to these keeps true martial artists away from being some normal day thugs or even terrorists.

So it's all about purpose. Or rather, 'nawaitu'.

Keep your heart true, and your body will be too.

What is martial arts?

2009-08-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

So, I searched merriam-webster dict. and this is what they gave me:

Main Entry: martial art
Function: noun
Date: 1928

: any of several arts of combat and self defense (as karate and judo) that are widely practiced as ~~sport~~

Roughly, that is the idea, although I'd like to minus the 'sport' part.

Martial art deals with movements and techniques designed for defending one-self by means of physical force.

Ancient illustration of self-defence techniques

I bolded out 'defending', mainly because martial arts true purpose is self-defence.

In the older days, technology isn't as great as today and people relied on strength a lot more than we rely on KTM. =p So, to ward off evil do-ers, people back then decided to fight fire with fire, but minus the aggresion. From there martial arts grew according to custom, race and needs of the people with the basic principle of 'Fight not, unless needed to'.

I'll get more on this topic next post.

See ya.

Hajimemashite!

2009-08-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

First post!

After doing a lot of reading and watching and listening, I'm finally all fired up to put up this blog.

This blog is dedicated to martial arts, its meaning, benefits, fun & joys and so much more.

Since I train under Karate-Do, probably a lot of posts will be about that. Haha.

But I'll slip in anything related to the martial world here and there. ;)

So here goes~