where do you use your arts?

Nowadays, at least in New York there is a relatively low need for self-defense in public spaces. Street crime is the lowest it’s been in generations and if you are victimized, chances are good that the perpetrator will have a gun, negating the sensible use of fighting arts. Ruled out as a practical application in everyday life you are left with a few choices of application: competition, artistic expression, athleticism and personal development. But when do you make use of actual fighting capabilities? What considerations govern the path of their pursuit?

the streets

I grew up in the NYC of crack, guns and fear. You had your Guardian Angels and Bernard Getz’s but the average person looked the other way. I was taught in my public elementary school that if someone is being attacked on the subway “YOU LOOK THE OTHER WAY.” That never sat well with me, it didn’t jibe with the Christian values and mythology of America I had been fed growing up. What about helping the weak, being thy brother’s keeper and the rest of it? Well in my neighborhood we had Deceptacons. Not cartoon ones, the very real gang infamous for their use of Mack-10s. So I guess you look the other way.

Before class one day I asked an instructor about what it was like when he was coming up. He grew up in the South Bronx in the 70s. This was before crack and before everyone had a gun, but there were plenty of gangs, tons of street crime and of course the national karate craze. “So back in the day was everyone just training something?” “Ha, yeah… basically everyone (young) you met was doing something, any dude had at least 6 months of karate or something. And the thing is, people would use it! You’d see fights break out and dude would spin around and the kick the other guy in head. On the street!”

Another time, another city. For someone like myself it seems almost magical to have youth culture so inundated with martial arts, but like I said, the call for their application in a real life street setting is rarified in this day in age. This behooves one to ask her or himself, where do I use my training? The answer to this question informs the logical next: how and why do I train?

competition

The first obvious answer is competition. With the rise of so-called mixed martial arts one could argue that martial arts training is going through a revival. Taekwondo and Karate circuits, while perhaps not at the levels seen in the 70s and 80s are still healthy and other arts certainly have their competition communities.

Personally I have never competed. My school discourages it as we train in deadly arts that are not useful in a competition setting. Karate tournaments for example have strict limitation on technique and level of contact that are more sport rather than defense oriented. On the other hand MMA is certainly aggressive and requires tenacity but it is also reigned in by constrictive rules that make its true application suspect. The same can be said for Taekwondo, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and any other art that has developed into primarily a competition sport. If you train for the objective of competition then you only train those things that are safe enough to be allowed.

self expression

Many people overlook, or outright refuse to see the literal implications of the term “martial art.” Simply put, it should be an art form. One should feel that they are creatively expressing themselves through their chosen medium. The same as a dancer, acrobat, actor or other physical performer, I believe that a true martial artist should reflect some aspect of who they themselves are in their practice. At the same time, the practice of that discipline should teach the person something about who they are, helping to fully realize their personality. Again, this has strong implications for discipline choice and training methodology.

athleticism and self-development

Training in martial arts can be a very dynamic and stimulating choice for developing one’s physical body. However, while it may be effective at achieving these ends, is training a martial art strictly for physical benefit appropriate? A senior instructor once said to my class “we all have our different reasons for training, we come from different places and are looking to go somewhere else with this. That’s okay, just make sure you’re here to train, not work out.” What he was getting at is the fact that practicing simply to be in shape is masturbatory. You improve your general health but you do not develop as a person, the range of benefit is limited by your short view. If one instead fully engages, both physically and mentally and carries the meaning of their discipline with them through their daily life, not just during a “work out session” then they stand to receive much greater benefit. The meaning of the art- the physical rigor, the spiritual essence- can penetrate deeper and have not only a more profound effect on technique, but on all aspects of the practitioner’s life; creating a more complete person.

class and community

Many people serious about martial arts study cross-train. After they have developed a basis in one art or school they seek out complimentary styles. Perhaps they obtain rank in a stinking oriented system such as Wing Chun and then seek out a teacher in Shuai Jiao to round out their repertoire and make their fighting more effective. Well, as the article began, we are assuming the need for actual self-defense is limited in this day and age. So where do you use your arts?!?

I would say, within your martial arts community. For most that will mean their school or class. For others, it expands to their respective competition circuit. If one likes to compete, to test themselves and the limits of their discipline, to find personal expression within a performance setting that is okay. For everyone else, how do you bring Shuai Jiao training back to your Wing Chun class? With whom do you share this newly “integrated practice?” Personally when it comes to fighting, my school fights. Maybe not with the same intensity I might on the street, but nonetheless it provides a venue in which to practice and experiment with the application of what we’ve learned. As well, it creates a nurturing environment for both creative discovery of the self and personal development.

So that extra cross training? I don’t need it, I’ll take what’s in my system and train it thoroughly, attempt to live everyday with it in my heart that I might be a better person then I was yesterday.