Even though mostly practiced in times of peace, Martial Arts are meant to prepare us for the times of war.
Warriors would train diligently on daily basis while their environment was often peaceful and quiet. The practice itself was based on previous fighting experience, and as restless human nature always pushes us to devise new and more sophisticated weapons and tactics, it was in many cases outdated by the time of new conflict.
For that reason a martial art is practical only if it prepares us for the unknown and develops adaptability and creativity, otherwise we will find ourselves defending the Maginot line while enemy tanks roll through our land.
Today we are not faced with war, but with a health crisis of global proportions. As governments all over the world try to mitigate it as bast as they can, various measures are implemented that very often make our normal trainings impossible. This is the situation most of us have never experienced before, and it shows how capable we are of adapting, improvising and overcoming.
One can argue that you cannot teach someone a martial art over a video conference app, and it might even be true, but faced with a lockdown scenario where your students were confined to their homes, giving them a chance to virtually meet each other, rehearse the techniques (even with imagined partner) and inspiring them to be physically active has proven invaluable for their psycho-physical health.
As lockdown regimes gradually relaxed many Aikido schools rediscovered weapons practice as the way to train and naturally keep secure physical distancing. A lot of trainings moved from training halls, gyms and dojos outside to parks and forests, rebuilding our connection with nature.
In all those instances we proved that we indeed train martial arts capable of preparing us for the time of crisis and war and that our students can rely on it to get them through rough and unpredictable times.
Things that have just yesterday been cool and fancy look so outdated and out of place today.
This is the principle that moves this transitory and impermanent world forward, but does not comfort us much when something we put half of our lives into becomes dusty unfashionable granpa’s suit that no one wants to wear.
Things go in and out of fashion all the time, be it in clothing, food or car industry. The problem is that the nature of martial arts implies lifelong focus in order to master certain art. For someone that aims to become a teacher it makes no sense to change arts every time something new becomes popular. That is why often, by the time you become proficient enough to teach, there are few people that are interested in the exotic art that you practice.
But the truth is that even the most obscure of the traditional martial arts, teaching fighting with archaic weapons or highly formalised techniques, will carry qualities that can be applied to the modern world. These qualities are the reason why it makes sense to train martial arts today in the first place.
It is highly unlikely that someone will attack us with katana or naginata (samurai hallebarde) on the street today, but the skill and timing acquired through practice will help us solve situations that are more common today but no less serious.
So, no matter if our art is the most popular one today or not or how many students we have, we should always search for practical applications of what we teach. Of course, we have to do our best to protect the tradition and keep it intact – specific etiquette, vocabulary, technical intricacies – but to keep the art alive we must connect it with everyday life.
If we do that, our students will have something to carry out of the practice hall and into their lives. If we don’t, what we teach will be an exotic anachronism that will attract only those that want to escape the monotony of their everyday life and live in a fantasy world of samurai, ninjas and kung fu masters.
Spending large part of your martial arts training on strength and conditioning exercises is a waste of time. Why? If a martial art depends mainly on strength, speed and physical condition, it is a sport, not martial art.
But surely strength and physical condition can help you in a fight? Also, isn’t it good and healthy to be stronger and have a fit body? Of course! If you are training a fighting sport, you will train few hours a day, every day, and strength and conditioning will be a very important part of your daily schedule.
As the name says, a martial art is primarily an art, and that means the ability to solve conflict situations with specific skills. Learning new skills requires time, and if you spend most of your training doing pushups, burpees and the like, your instructor probably does not have that many skills to teach you – he is filling up the training time and making you feel you have done something important by burning your muscles. This does not mean that you should not work on your strength and stamina, as it will surely benefit your health and make your martial art techniques more effective. Just don’t waste precious time with your teacher on it. Go to the gym or something.
However, it is a good idea to integrate specific strength and conditioning exercises in your training. First of all, many martial arts have specific exercises and drills that develop the body for combat skills they teach, as well as build your muscle. Russian Systema has a set of exercises and drills that develop skills necessary to learn the martial art as well as work on your core strength and stamina. In fact they are so effective that some physiotherapists integrated them into their fitness protocols (Tacfit, Primal move, Ground force method). Also, in order to test the acquired skills under stress, there will be a need to increase the intensity of training and this can be done with explosive physical exercises. The goal of this is to get you into the red zone and see how you function there.
A good martial art will gradually strengthen your body and build stamina, but if your martial art training consists mainly of strength and conditioning exercises, and your techniques depend on brutal force, you are wasting your time. What you have learned will serve you as long as you don’t meet somebody stronger or faster, and eventually you will.
So, a guy attacks you with machine gun, what do you do? Or, this guy attacks with a knife like a Singer sewing machine, how do you defend from that? Ten people attack you, where is your fancy technique now? There is a way to train for special occasions of this kind, and for practitioners from specific professions or lifestyles it makes sense to do so, but for general trainee it is a waste of time and energy to realistically prepare for this kind of scenario. Why? How often will it happen in your life and can you avoid it?
I am a great fan of the story retold by Gichin Funakoshi of Shotokan Karate-do about an old master and his eager student. The master gets mad at his top student when he hears how the student skilfully evaded the hoof of a wild horse. When perplexed villagers present the master with same situation to see what he would do, the master simply walks to the other side of the road. Great thing about martial arts is that they develop the feeling for the situation, and you sense when you don’t have to be at a certain place. Of course, as I said, certain professions put you in dangerous places, and you will have to train accordingly. So, what is a realistic self defence situation and how to train for it? If we classify dangerous situations that can happen to a regular person in a civilised environment by statistical probability of occurrence during their lifetime we will get a pyramid.
At the very top there is your machine gun attack. Very unlikely. Automatic weapons are illegal, hard to obtain and there is not much you can do if you find yourself at the wrong side of the barrel (unless you carry a firearm).
Then a threat or attack with a gun – still unlikely, but could happen. Techniques are not complicated, but you have to train them on regular basis if you want them to work as this is an extremely high stress situation. It is important to distinguish a threat (robbery, kidnapping… ) from an attack (terrorist) as former gives us time to communicate and react and later requires immediate action.
Threat or attack with a knife is more common due to ease of obtaining the weapon. This should also include attack with any sharp object – rusty screwdriver, icepick etc. Generally this kind of threat can be prevented by avoiding dark alleys and shady places, however it can happen in unexpected places as in domestic violence. Almost any martial art has knife defence techniques, but often very formalised choreographies that have little if any practical use.
Fist brawl would be a common thing, but it takes time to develop and it is possible to talk your way out of it. If possible, do it, even at the cost of your ego. Most martial arts have some kind of fist fight curriculum – look for those with healthy dose of sparring. Grabbing and grappling are elements of rape and abduction scenarios that are more common especially for female practitioners and kids. Good self defence martial art has drills and techniques that permit a weaker person to defend from the attacker. However, beware of demos where kid throws a grown-up like a doll – this is only a show and is totally unrealistic.
Slipping on a wet floor or ice and tripping over are very common things and, while rarely fatal, can cause serious injuries. A good martial art should have a repertoire of fall drills that should be part of every warm-up, as this could prove to be a real life saver.
Now at the base of the self defence pyramid is your general health. There is a ton of super realistic martial arts that will train you for every kind of above-mentioned threats and some, but after few years of training, even if you do not suffer an in-training injury, you will begin to notice serious health problems. Knees, shoulders, elbows, and eventually spine, will be damaged through many micro traumas. If martial art training is not sustainable and does not benefit your general health, it can not be called a self defence art. Great self defence martial art will be something that enhances your health through lifelong daily practice.
This does not mean that defence from gun, knife, or fist should not be part of your training. Without those things it could hardly be called a martial art. However, those elements of training should be used to bring the training to a more “serious” level and thus speed up the learning process, not as a selling point for paranoia infested society.
You have done your research of course; asked Google, Youtube. Maybe a friend recommended a fantastic martial art he just discovered. He probably talked for hours about it. Eventually you decided which art to enter, and for a moment you have the feeling you know everything about it.
Still, the reality is a mystery. There are unknown people training there, a strange surrounding, unwritten rules. There is also matter of physical contact that we are not accustomed to, ways of contact that are socially unacceptable outside of the gym or Dojo – grabbing, hitting, grappling.
But you decided, after procrastinating and eventually called the martial art school, asked some questions and arranged for your first training. No turning back now! Well, not really. Out of 10 calls that end in agreement, about first training maybe three people actually appear.
However, it turns out you are one of 3 that show at the training. Even if your research showed the school is legit and the chief instructor has verifiable teacher lineage (and you would be surprised how many people don’t even check this detail), it still does not mean that he is a good teacher. There are so many excellent martial artist that are poor teachers and pedagogues. On the other hand, one does not have to be top in his art to be a great teacher.
The first contact with students of the art, even in the dressing room before the training, will tell you a lot about the school and the teacher. If you are greeted with warm welcome and offered help during the training you could be at the right place! Stay, and you will notice that in short time it will be you who will be greeting newbies and helping them in their first steps. However, if you feel looked down upon, treated coldly avoided during the training and physically mistreated by your fellow trainees, run! You have come into the arena of ego where the biggest ego is carried by the teacher himself. You are in for years of physical and psychical torture that you will endure only thanks to worshipper-guru relationship with your teacher. Guru instructors use insecurity and vulnerability of new students on their first trainings to create this kind of relationship.
The role of teacher is primarily to create positive learning atmosphere. Without it there is no possibility of learning and making progress. Of course, the person who can create such atmosphere will more often than not have a lot to teach you.
So do your research, open all senses on your first training, and choose your martial art school wisely!
