Some people believe that martial arts is about violence and therefore would never study or practice it. In the movies or on TV shows, in many instances depicts people using martial arts techniques in an offensive, violent manner, so I can understand why people may think martial arts is about violence.
But this is not what traditional martial arts is about. In fact, traditional self-defense based martial
arts is more about keeping peace; it is not about violence.
As a reminder, first steps of self-defense are awareness
and avoidance. If you are aware of your
surroundings and avoid a physical altercation, then you have successfully defended
yourself. If those options do not work,
then you defend yourself physically. Miyamoto
Musashi legendary Japanese samurai and author of The Book of Five Rings said it
well when he wrote, “The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use
them.”
But to be able to defend yourself physically, you need to
be trained and be comfortable with going against aggressive behavior. You have to understand that behavior is not
about you and let if not affect you. Then you can stay in control and do what
you need to do to stay safe.
It is actually natural to go into flight or fight mode when
encountering violence. If aggressive behavior or name calling, for example, gets
you excited or amped up, this will not help you stay in control, stay calm, and
end an altercation quickly. It would probably
actually make the altercation go longer and the longer it goes the worse the
injuries could be for you.
And therefore, you need to experience it and study it. You need to be able to train in scenarios of aggressive
behavior in order to not overreact if you encounter them in a real situation. And in some cases, that calm demeaner can deescalate
a situation before it becomes physical.
So, while you may need to experience and study violence to
be effective in self-defense, it is not to learn to be violent or promote violence. It is truly so you can learn to avoid it and/or
defeat it.
Regards,
Kelly
“I am not teaching you how to fight. I am teaching you how
to control evil. That’s what we are really doing here.” ~ Masaaki Hatsumi (1931
– present), founder of the Bujinkan Organization and a Togakure-ryū grandmaster
