Martial Arts – Or Not Fighting For Fun

Brian McCarthy (in white) teaching Ninjutsu while
 visiting Portsmouth, Hampshire.

If you’re under 50, you’ve probably tried a martial art at least once in your life, but what makes it a martial art?  To most people it means an oriental fighting system, often created as a sport (always check the history of what you’re learning, some are less than 100 years old).

But what makes it martial and how is it an art?  Martial is defined as “inclined or disposed to war; warlike”.  Well that makes sense, it’s about learning to fight.

But art is defined as “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”

There’s nothing beautiful about war, if you don’t believe me just watch the news.

So why is it called martial arts?  You’d have to ask someone more intelligent than me for that.

As for me I have spent many years and many hours in training although sadly I can’t train anymore due to injury.  The injury funnily enough is from doing the 100 metre hurdles, a non-contact sport.

Did I find beauty or aesthetic principles in what I did?  I’m not sure, I know I enjoyed the challenge of it as it wasn’t a sports based system, so the challenge was in being better than I was the day before.

Brian demonstrating how
to escape from the arm
bar.  The lock was fully on.

Most martial arts talk about self improvement and maybe they have become that, even if most people start them because they want to learn to fight.  There’s no avoiding that.  Some people will start because they have fantasies about doing what they see in the movies.

What you see in the movies isn’t martial arts. It’s entertainment.

What does seem strange though is why Europeans pay to learn an oriental system when there are already martial arts in our history? 

Every Knight of old studied the martial arts to become the best warriors they could be.  Even the peasants of Europe had their own fighting system, using the quarterstaff and the longbow, but only one of them is still around. 

Yeah, it hurts sometimes.

The European systems do have one thing in common with oriental ones.  They take a long time to learn if you want to be good.

If you’re thinking of taking up any martial art I have one really good tip for you.  Ask how much it costs to be graded.  If they charge you for it, how will you know if you earnt it, or if you just paid for a new coloured belt? 

Try a few different places, if it seems easy then you’re learning nothing.  If it’s hard then it’s probably a good place to learn. 

And if they hit each other, even if it’s controlled then they know what they’re doing.  There’s no point in training to miss with every punch, kick and hit!