1. Learning a martial art will save your life

Let’s be honest.  Learning a martial art takes time.  A lot of time.  It will add substance to your life and it will give you many tools to practice and think about.  When you practice a martial art, you discover so much about yourself including your physical strengths and your mental stamina.  A martial art is composed of many parts and pieces –  how to steady yourself, creating balance, hard movements like punches and strikes, and blocking fists and feet that may come your way.  But does learning a martial art mean that you can save your life?

Not necessarily. If you are a martial artist, how many times in class have you had to practice a new move or routine more than once?  How long did it take to finally feel comfortable with that particular routine?  A few days?  Several weeks?  A year?  When did it start to feel like second nature?

For me, there are many defenses that I naturally use when I’m rushed to defend myself in class.  I always fall back on the same ones because they feel right to me and because I practiced them for years!  Yes, they will help me defend myself if that particular strike comes my way in real life; but,what if it’s a different strike?  Does learning a martial art mean that I should be able to defend myself in every way?

The truth is that just learning a martial art alone will not save your life.  The physical aspects of the art can take a very long time to learn and internalize.  The other part of the “save your life” equation are things like believing in yourself, self-confidence, and a fighting will to overcome.  At a certain level in your martial art training, some of these things will start to feel second nature, too.

Just learning a martial art will not save your life, but it will help.  It’s one important piece of the puzzle.  Maybe it even has the most weight of all the other components.  Without it, surely you will have a lesser chance of saving your life. You will never really know until you encounter a situation what will happen.  Maybe you will pull a fantastic defense out from the depths of your memory.  When you look that attacker in the eye with all the fight that you have, and implement your martial arts learning and your desire to live, it will all funnel together in one defined moment.

2. Learning a martial art will change your personality 

You are who you are.  A personality is a difficult thing to change.  Your parents, whether you want it or not, sit deep inside of who you are.  Most of us come from good families where we were loved and taught.  Others struggled with abuse or violence, poverty or lack of love.  Whatever your background, there is nothing you can do to change the past or create a completely new you without some of those influences affecting you.  You can modify some behaviors or weak points like patience, for instance, but you cannot change some of the unique aspects that simply come with you when you were born.

I’m a type A personality in a lot of ways.  I am always going to seek efficiency and I’m always going to try to accomplish a lot at any given time.  I’m going to be creative in some way or another on a daily basis.  I’m going to contemplate life for a day or two before I get over a particularly difficult situation, and I’m going to get upset with myself when I make a mistake.  Those traits are hard to change. Even martial arts cannot change those things about me.  What I can do, is use those personality traits to my benefit while I’m learning martial arts.

Efficiency/Accomplishment= Learn quickly, fill each moment of class with something useful, work hard while I can

Creativity=Funnel creativity into my patterns; put my own spin on one step moves; think of creative warm ups for class

Contemplation=How can I teach better; how can martial arts make me feel better about a difficult situation

Mistakes=Forget the embarrassment or discomfort of mistakes while working out in class

Learning a martial art does not change my personality as much as it starts to complement it. Even the negative parts of who I am can work in a positive way.  For some, their negative side will never change.  I’m sure we have all seen certain people start class who have a self-centered and ego-driven focus.  Some are just grumpy and only are trying a martial art to bully their way through life.  They question every move or tactic they learn.

“That won’t work!” they exclaim; or “No one will ever do that!”  Their difficult behaviors, if not modified, will affect everyone around them.  Some will finally settle down.  Others will not because, well….a martial art can help you become a better person, but it cannot change your personality.

3.  Learning a martial art will teach you how to attack someone

Please do not learn a martial art if you want to attack someone!  It doesn’t work that way.  A martial art, in fact, is not about attacking.  It’s about defending.  It’s about someone else making the first move.  If your awareness and your persuasion cannot work, then you may need to defend.  That’s it.

Many parents are concerned that their children, if they learn a martial art, will become aggressive toward their siblings and use their holds, kicks and punches against them.  While this can happen, and on occasion it does, we always teach in class that striking another person first is never right, but defending yourself is right all the time.

A martial art is a fighting art.  It’s about fighting back, not fighting first.  If you become more aggressive and violent when learning a martial art, then perhaps you are learning it the wrong way.  It brings back thoughts of “The Karate Kid” movie, where the bad instructor teaches his students how to be downright hateful and aggressive, in their martial arts training.  Clearly, it’s the wrong way to be.  That’s why he made such a great character in the movie.  We all hated him and that is the very emotion the writer of the movie wanted us to feel.

I have no reason to want to attack someone.  I don’t think I even know how to do that.  After 26 years in the martial arts the best I can do is apply some of my skills and knowledge in a defense situation.  I can fight back to save my life.  I can punch, kick and yell as well as any one.  But attack? No. Not this martial artist.

Learning a martial art will not teach you how to attack someone.  It will teach you to fight back with every bit of strength and will that you have inside of you, in order to survive.

False, False, False

Martial arts have a lot to offer.  It’s a good idea to remember what it will not do for you.  Don’t have false beliefs that just learning one of the styles will save your life.  It takes a lot more than that!  Your personality when you walk through the dojo door does not miraculously change!  You may be able to change certain traits, but you are who you are now and forever.  Finally, don’t ruin the beautiful art by using it in evil or inappropriate ways.  Don’t give martial artists a bad name because you twisted the truth of martial artistry into something it is not.

You should take a martial art because it can help to save your life, it can help to make you a happier more well-rounded person, and it can give you the tools to fight back.  Those are the truths that far overshadow the misconceptions about learning the martial arts.

Andrea