Do you ever get the feeling that many people don't understand martial arts?

Question

I'm not refering to those who don't do any martial arts, but those who think it is cool to inflict pain and injury on other people. Also those people who pose questions involving who would win in a fight between Martial Artist and Wild Animal.

I study martial arts to increase my strength (both physical and mental), fitness, agility, confidence, control, and find out what my body is capable of.

How can responsible martial artists help to make people more aware of the fact that martial arts is not about showing off and hurting people?

in response to brookieboy88 try watching Fearless. It starts off showing the violent side of MA, then shows how pointless it is, then demonstrates how MA can be used to unite and strengthen people.

Answer 1

any physical sport or pastime attracts bad elements,because ma is a self defence or fighting physical element it seems to attract more than its fair share of dead beats and wanna bes.i think though that most ma instructers pick them out fairly quickly and dont teach them anymore.you only have to read some of the questions and answers on here to see how many ppl fail to understand the ethics and the physical ideas behind ma.75% of the ppl that ask and answer questions on yahoo answers ma would have to times there iq by 100 to even reach the level of moron.like some one else said mate save your breath.just ignore the morons on here it doesnt take long to work out the real ppl on here from the rest.a responsible ma just keeps doing the right thing with no deviations and hopefully the rest follow by your example.

Answer 2

Hi there

I think people don't understand martial arts because of what they see on TV and in magazines. There's nothing better than the old TV set to warp young minds. Most martial artists get into martial arts generally because of the crap they watched as a kid. Its not until you have been training for quite a few years that you really start to understand what its all about.

The best thing that could happen would be to separate the arts.

Martial sports for bbj, boxing, judo etc.
Martial arts for karate, iaido, jutjutsu, akido, kung fu etc.

Fighting is a very small piece of the puzzle! It takes intelligence to be able to work out the rest.

People in this world want a quick fix.
Martial Arts are long term and not the gym!


regards

idai

Answer 3

Honor Among, I guess you just dont get the Martial Arts. The "honor and code crap" is what makes a true martial artist. Martial arts is more than just fighting. There are many fighting systems out there. There is a difference.

There is really no way you can convince people that martial artists aren't out to hurt people. Just be humbleand use it when needed. When someone knows you are a martial artist they seem to look at you differently.

Answer 4

I agree with you.

"Combat is identified with fighting and killing and yet, through the practise of martial disciplines, exponents have found increased spiritual awareness. Thus a strange paradox begins to emerge: a concept of inner peace beyond fighting."
~ From 'The Martial Arts', Peter Lewis

"Martial Arts Are As Infinite As The Universe." Master Hironori Otsuka

"Violent action may be understood as the way of Martial Arts, but the true meaning of the Martial Arts is to seek
and attain the Way of Peace and Harmony." Master Hironori Otsuka

The Martial Arts teaches many things, but not all of these things are physical. As we study Martial Arts, we learn many
lessons that guide us through the journey of life. We learn how and when to use or not to use what we have learnt.
The "Ultimate Goal" of the Martial Arts philosophy is "Victory Without Combat", or that you can win a confrontation
without resorting to physical violence. It also teaches us the habits and characteristics not only just to reach Black Belt
excellence but also those things essential to a well-balanced life.

Answer 5

My guess is that most people posting here have never had a Martial Arts Class in their lives. Also, unfortunately there is no regulation of MA in the US so any thug can claim to be a Martial Arts expert & open a school. Their students only know how to fight not how to live.

Answer 6

I agree with you. I practise martial art for the discipline and increased concentration it brings in my life. I think martial arts are more a way of life than a way of showing off.
It give me confidence and strength!
One way is to make sure that people who do martial arts for the wrong reasons are not kept in the classes and don't get a licence. My sensei in London would kick out anyone with a bad attitude.
Other clubs insist that you do a lot of reading about your martial art and the martial art spirit and even go as far as asking you to write an essay for higher belts.

Answer 7

How can we do this? - "Lead by example" a weak offer of an answer but its the best I could come up with. I took a dislike to a show off but after time realised I was just jealous of the abilities that they had developed over more time that I had put in; wish I had come over to martial arts earlier, still the other philosophy I followed served me well at the time

Answer 8

Marshal Arts is designed to hurt people ,

Ballet is art and its not designed to hurt people.

Marshal arts has always been a defence and attack.

And what kind of question is

"who would win between a Martial artist and a wild animal"

Firstly you shouldn't inflict any harm on animals,

Secondly I'm sure an African bull elephant would wouldn't notice you kicking his legs.

And really in this day and age a skinny little kid with a gun and a crack pipe is the one to keep your eyes on.

Answer 9

I really agree you, many people start martial arts because of the things they see in films which isnt even what its all about, its giving a false impression of what martial arts are about, it makes me sad and a little annoyed when i see this, it is an art form and an excellent sport to take part in, enhancing every property of the body and mind

Answer 10

In all honesty I'm not sure YOU understand martial arts.

Martial arts is simply the art of learning to fight. Fighting results in hurting people. The purpose of martial arts is thus hurting people.

the notion that you should not use martial arts or fight uneccesarily is not a concept of the martial arts- it might be, and SHOULD be taught by a responsible teacher to warn students who don't understand society that they shouldn't take thier skills and go out and begin just hurting people for no reason.

The simple fact that martial arts is about learning techniques to more effectively and efficiently hurt your fellow man is indisputable proof that it is about hurting people.

I think that one should excercise self-restraint because they have superior knowledge of fighting and that by nature studying MA should take ego out of the equation. However this is not the teachings of the martial art, but the character of the student.

Personally I think it is the teacher's job to be selective in who they teach to and that they shouldn't teach to someone who is likely to just go out and hurt someone for the sake of hurting them. However, martial arts is also a business, so unless the teacher is just teaching for fun or privately, this is not a reality.

I don't think you are taking martial arts for the wrong reasons because all the reasons you listed are legitimate side benefits that may come with studying martial arts, I just disagree with your notion that the martial arts are not about hurting people, when the point of martial arts is in itself the study of how to make one a better fighter so they can more efficiently hurt people. I do agree with you that one should not "show off" pointlessly (I have yet to see someoene just break into a demo on the street- if they did I would die of laughter and tell them to go back to thier mcdojo) or that one should not start pointless fights, but those traits come from the student, not the subject matter learned.

EDIT: modern wushu:
Actually karate kid is the WORST movie to site. the "american" teacher was actually a better teacher because he actually TAUGHT his students to fight and encouraged them to spar (even if the movie was only crappy point sparring). Miyagi on the other hand is the exact example of what a crappy school would be. teaching useless excercises without a resisting opponent. True, the excercises done absolutely build stregth, but they wouldn't teach him how to fight.