Why Practice Martial Arts?

Off Topic
41

Honestly, having that type of training is the best thing the people can have. For example, the government you are living under DECIDES to suppress you. Obviously this continues to happen and is STILL happening this very day. So youre government is supressing you some way or another, what the hell are you gonna do about it? Well im guessing your type would just sit there and reason ‘well why would we even need to be trained like warriors? wah wah wah’. While others will try to organize themselves and revolt.

Its up to you to decide wether you want to be a ‘warrior’ or not, but you should damn well see and understand the benfits of being one in any sense.

42

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Martial art is especially good for children – they learn to pay attention, follow directions, gain coordination, and many other benefits. They learn to control their anger and use force when necessary. If the teacher is a good one, they learn to respect other members of the class.

And they love to kick each other in the head. :)[/quote]

Agreed.
Good post.

43

I would like to hear it too, been doing martial arts since the age of 8. Never had to use it and still enjoy it.

[quote]lothario1132 wrote:
Good responses everyone! I ask the originator of this thread:

Why NOT practice Martial Arts?
[/quote]

44

FUN…and I secretly enjoy making friends tap.

45

[quote]redsol1 wrote:

Also, I train to protect myself and my family. NO ONE messes with my family.

La’
Redsol1[/quote]

You make good points, but I have to tell you that your last line sounds like a Jhoon Rhee tkd tv commercial from the 80s in the DC area:

Little kid #1: “Nobody bother me.”
Little kid #2: “Nobody bother me either.”

DB

46

[quote]kung_fu_king wrote:
Sxio wrote:

As long as you ‘know’ that, you’re putting yourself at incredible risk. If someone has a gun, you do what they say. Yes you have a chance of getting out of it, but there’s a much higher risk of becoming a paraplegic or being killed. It’s not worth it.

Bullshit.

A man comes up behind you, puts a gun to your back. What do you do?

A man comes up behind you, puts a gun to your back. You are with your girlfriend/wife. He tells you that he’s going to rape you and your girl. What do you do?

A man comes up behind you, puts a gun to your back. You are with your kid. He tells you that he’s going to take your kid and have his fun. What do you do?

A man comes up to you in a parking lot, points a gun at you and tells you to hand over you keys. What do you do?

A man comes up to you in a parking lot, points a gun at you and tells you to hand over you keys. Inside the car is your wife and kid. What do you do?

To give a generic answer like “do whatever he says” is nonsense. To say “it’s not worth it” also means nothing. What’s not worth it? Losing your life because you didn’t hand over your wallet is one thing, but would give in so easily if a loved was involved?

[/quote]

I actually scream Bullshit at this post.

We never know what will happen in any given situation. We don’t know how we will react.

I personally hate questions like this.

Why?

because there are too many factors.

For example:

“A man comes up behind you, puts a gun to your back. What do you do?”

How the heck did he get behind me? Which foot forward does he and do I have?

“A man comes up to you in a parking lot, points a gun at you and tells you to hand over you keys. What do you do?”

Gee…how come I let some dude approach like that and didn’t see that? I’m a pretty whack martial artist if I’m not aware.

I’ve been involved with MA for over 17 years and I know for a fact that there are too many factors to determine what our actions will be exactly in a scenario someone dreams up.

Besides, at higher levels (I don’t consider myself there…as any martial artist knows, it’s an ongoing process) we are to avoid these situations. AT that level, avoidance is actually locating the problem before it gets to a threatening situation.

47

We live in a violent society, we train so that we can confidently walk away when we can avoid the violences, but we have to be able to defend ourselves and our loved ones.
As for the peaceful society you seem to live in where is it? in the last 48 hours there have been 8 stabbings three of which where fatal and none of them involved robbery.
Why do I practices the martial arts? because it keeps me focused and has given me the skills that I have used in my life, both in life threatening situations as well as in everyday life.
Fluffy

48

[quote]Fluffy wrote:
We live in a violent society, we train so that we can confidently walk away when we can avoid the violences, but we have to be able to defend ourselves and our loved ones.
As for the peaceful society you seem to live in where is it? in the last 48 hours there have been 8 stabbings three of which where fatal and none of them involved robbery.
Why do I practices the martial arts? because it keeps me focused and has given me the skills that I have used in my life, both in life threatening situations as well as in everyday life.
Fluffy [/quote]

Fluffy, you are also trained in something else that could save your life in a sticky situation. You can give the assailant a sensual massage with happy ending in order to avoid combat.

DB

49

[quote]dollarbill44 wrote:
Fluffy wrote:
We live in a violent society, we train so that we can confidently walk away when we can avoid the violences, but we have to be able to defend ourselves and our loved ones.
As for the peaceful society you seem to live in where is it? in the last 48 hours there have been 8 stabbings three of which where fatal and none of them involved robbery.
Why do I practices the martial arts? because it keeps me focused and has given me the skills that I have used in my life, both in life threatening situations as well as in everyday life.
Fluffy

Fluffy, you are also trained in something else that could save your life in a sticky situation. You can give the assailant a sensual massage with happy ending in order to avoid combat.

DB[/quote]

LOL only if its a women, I aint touching any guys smecky(yidishi for dick)
Fluffy

PS I learned the foundation of massage from my martial arts teacher and was introduced to advanced tantra from a female Bodyguard (God must love me:)

50

  1. Fun. I really enjoy it.

  2. Competition. One of the best feelings in the world is to throw someone for an ippon in the last seconds with the crowd cheering. Also, making someone tap comes close second :wink:

  3. Self-awareness, self-growth, whatever. Something metrosexual.

  4. Enough experiences with physical pain to know that violence in the real world should be avoided.

  5. Putting all that strenght and conditioning to some use.

51

[quote]cymblmn wrote:
In a society where there is no warrior class and acts of aggression are punishable socially and legally, why practice something that trains people to react violently?
[/quote]

Because, Bruce Lee did.

52

My art is practiced by people who are old, injured and severely out of shape, in just 9 weeks I’ve seen one old man gain a huge amount of coordination, knots of muscle release, and tension ease. That alone is enough to practice my art for the next 50-60yrs of my life.

This guy is also as old as my instructor who is more limber than I am and is well able to defend himself against younger stronger people. The fact that I can hold my own with half the martial artists and most of everyone else allows me to walk on a dark night with no fear. This doesn’t even touch on the mental help MA has given me. As long as practice a few times a week my mind does not wander, depression cannot settle and stress is kept to it’s rightfull place.

53

[quote]cymblmn wrote:
In a society where there is no warrior class and acts of aggression are punishable socially and legally, why practice something that trains people to react violently? Most people in society will not have a violent life, and excluding service men and women (Military, Law Enforcement, Private Security), we do not have to fight for our lives on a daily basis. So why invest the hundreds to thousands of dollars, time, sweat, blood, and even broken bodies, into something that in the end is unusable on a daily basis?
Taking into considering that most of the philosophical thought behind martial arts and non violence developed during a time of peace in Japan, when the Samurai were united under the rule of the Emperor or Shogun (sorry if I misspelled), and sought to find ways of justifying their continued existence as a warrior / noble class.

I understand many of the arguments about Martial art being a tool for personal growth, fitness, and to some extent spiritual satisfaction, but do these reasons justify training like a warrior? Especially when there are others ways of achieving the same end that is less expensive? If the above reasons were the case to continue the practice of martial arts, we should just pursue the budo and not judo or jitsu forms of the arts.

I ask this question, as a fellow martial artist, and as a person that trains like a warrior would.
[/quote]

Why do you workout to get bigger and stronger? Are you going to use that in your daily life? No!

You train with weights or train your body with martial arts because you like it! You like the process of getting bigger, stronger, our becoming more skilled in the art. The fact that it is practical or not is irrelevant.

54

[quote]lothario1132 wrote:
Good responses everyone! I ask the originator of this thread:

Why NOT practice Martial Arts?
[/quote]

Dude, why not reread the original post?

[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
Also, at very close range, a gun is not much more effective than a knife.[/quote]

But a knife is pretty damned effective, no?

Isn’t that why police officers are taught to shoot anyone with a knife that comes within 20’ of them?

I do have to say that I get worried when I hear people respond with, “MA gives me an excuse to beat people up.” Are you guys saying that if it weren’t for the opportunity to go to class X times a week, you’d be jacking people in the back of a bar and/or doing drugs as one previous poster implied?

I know I’m a little late to the party, but here’s my list:

  1. I’m pretty lazy about fitness and find it hard to get/stay motivated - having someone trying to punch you in the head forces you to either stay on your toes (as it were) or go home.

  2. If you do decide to stay in the game, you need to push yourself harder and harder every time you come in - your classmates/partners are getting better with every week, so you’ve got to keep up or go home.

  3. As mentoined before, along with the physical aspects, there is the hell of a lot of mental toughness that one needs. I help teach at my school and it’s amazing to see some of the students in the beginning class come in and they’re great athletes, but don’t have the heart as it were to put the time in. Then there are some doughy people that show up, but focus like a laser and they quickly end up surpassing the more naturally talented athletes.

  4. There’s a definite feedback system for your progress. Not only in acheiving a higher rank, but also realizing that you finally tapped someone that you’ve ever been able to before or that you’re landing punches and kicks on someone you’ve never been able to before.

  5. Competition, whether at your school or another. I was thinking I was getting good enough that I could sign up for an amateur fight, but while on vacation recently stopped by another school and got tooled. Certainly bruised my ego, but now I’ve got a much better idea of what my weaknesses are.

  6. Self Defense. I certainly hope I never, ever have to fight anyone unless it’s in a ring (and under proper supervision), but in the fortunately few situations where I thought that someone was going to start swinging, I was glad to know that I could do something to defend myself. Could I have? I dunno and I’m glad that I didn’t have to find out.

55

[quote]AlphaDragon wrote:
kung_fu_king wrote:
Sxio wrote:

As long as you ‘know’ that, you’re putting yourself at incredible risk. If someone has a gun, you do what they say. Yes you have a chance of getting out of it, but there’s a much higher risk of becoming a paraplegic or being killed. It’s not worth it.

Bullshit.

A man comes up behind you, puts a gun to your back. What do you do?

A man comes up behind you, puts a gun to your back. You are with your girlfriend/wife. He tells you that he’s going to rape you and your girl. What do you do?

A man comes up behind you, puts a gun to your back. You are with your kid. He tells you that he’s going to take your kid and have his fun. What do you do?

A man comes up to you in a parking lot, points a gun at you and tells you to hand over you keys. What do you do?

A man comes up to you in a parking lot, points a gun at you and tells you to hand over you keys. Inside the car is your wife and kid. What do you do?

To give a generic answer like “do whatever he says” is nonsense. To say “it’s not worth it” also means nothing. What’s not worth it? Losing your life because you didn’t hand over your wallet is one thing, but would give in so easily if a loved was involved?

I actually scream Bullshit at this post.

We never know what will happen in any given situation. We don’t know how we will react.

I personally hate questions like this.

Why?

because there are too many factors.

For example:

“A man comes up behind you, puts a gun to your back. What do you do?”

How the heck did he get behind me? Which foot forward does he and do I have?

“A man comes up to you in a parking lot, points a gun at you and tells you to hand over you keys. What do you do?”

Gee…how come I let some dude approach like that and didn’t see that? I’m a pretty whack martial artist if I’m not aware.

I’ve been involved with MA for over 17 years and I know for a fact that there are too many factors to determine what our actions will be exactly in a scenario someone dreams up.

Besides, at higher levels (I don’t consider myself there…as any martial artist knows, it’s an ongoing process) we are to avoid these situations. AT that level, avoidance is actually locating the problem before it gets to a threatening situation.[/quote]

You’ve just proved the point i was making, which was that there are too many factors involved in any situation to just give a generic answer like “just run away” or “just do what they say.” There are many different stages in an altercation eg pre-fight build up, in-fight, post-fight aswell as many others in between. There are many factor that affect each of these stages and it’s impossible to use a one size fits all approach to dealing with them. What you must do is address each area in your training.

[quote]
Gee…how come I let some dude approach like that and didn’t see that? I’m a pretty whack martial artist if I’m not aware.[/quote]

This is a valid comment but as you said “there are too many factors.” Sometimes shit happens and you lose awareness when you’re out. No matter how switched on your are, and are keenly aware of your surrounding and potential dangers,i guarantee that there are times when this lapses.

Anyway, forget all that. Bottom line is if your training takes into account the 3 broad categories of pre-fight, in-fight and post-fight, then you’ll be in a far better position if the worst should happen.

56

[quote]kung_fu_king wrote:
AlphaDragon wrote:

Gee…how come I let some dude approach like that and didn’t see that? I’m a pretty whack martial artist if I’m not aware.

This is a valid comment but as you said “there are too many factors.” Sometimes shit happens and you lose awareness when you’re out. No matter how switched on your are, and are keenly aware of your surrounding and potential dangers,i guarantee that there are times when this lapses.

Anyway, forget all that. Bottom line is if your training takes into account the 3 broad categories of pre-fight, in-fight and post-fight, then you’ll be in a far better position if the worst should happen.[/quote]

Keeping in mind that avoidance can be such things as walking in the middle of the street when it’s late at night (to avoid lurkers in the alleys/bushes/etc), and such other precautions:

Your last statement is right on target, dude.

57

-Last chance to be the athlete I dreamed of being as a kid.

-progress is found through pain (both mental and physical progress)

-competition

-knowing that I’ll be able to defend loved ones if some shit pops off

-i’ve always been pretty aggressive and this allows me to use my agression in positive ways