The reality is that most of our lives involve fighting and other physical activities. We can’t deny these activities but they are often done without much thought. These activities have us put into motion in all sorts of ways and the most important thing is to avoid the negative side effects of these activities.
If you think about martial arts, you’ll likely recognize how much physical self-defense is involved. Because this is the most common activity for most of us, it is also one of the most common reasons to take it too far. Most people don’t have the self-assurance to say, “I can’t take this anymore.” We don’t actually go out of our way to avoid these negative physical side effects.
When you have to fight someone, or even when you have to fight your friend, you will most likely end up injured, bruised, or even dead. Because martial arts can cause many of these injuries, we sometimes think of them as a “self-defense” activity. But they are actually a way of getting into trouble. Because of this, martial arts are often considered a form of “self-abuse.
The unfortunate truth is that martial arts are a form of mental health. A person who doesn’t have the correct mental health can easily get hurt if they lack the proper training. When our bodies are in trouble, our brains respond by sending a message to our muscles to do everything they can to help us. This is where the body responds to the mental health of the person that is in the training.
Of course, there’s the flipside of this. If you dont have the right mental health, you’ve done the training, but you may not be able to do it anymore. Our bodies don’t like to do something they’ve been trained to do, so they punish us by making us feel as though we’ve failed. This may sound like a small thing, but it’s actually a huge deal.
Sure it means we cant do the work, but it also means we cant train. If our body is not doing the work, then you have to do it yourself. Our bodies were built for what we do, and if we dont do something its not gonna happen.
I know a lot of martial artists who still feel like they were trained to do something theyve been trained to do. They can’t find the muscle to lift a weight that’s too heavy, or if they do, they cant make the lifts work. The same with martial artist who feel like they were trained to do something theyve been trained to do. They can’t find the muscle to lift that weight, either.
This is a bad idea. Most martial artists are trained to use their physical strength, not their mental strength. I once had a martial arts student tell me, “I’ve been training for 12 years, and I’ll never get it right.” The thing is, the best martial artists are the ones who can use their mental strength to not only lift heavy weights, but to use the strength of their mind to think rationally and make good choices.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard martial arts students say, “I just had this idea in my head earlier today, and I just had to do it.” Well, you can’t just go out and do something without thinking. I can tell you this though, it’s a good idea to train to be a martial artist to develop your mind, because it is so much more rewarding to actually put forth effort towards something.
Because of this, martial arts should be taught as a second, supplemental discipline to the other arts that focus on physical training. Many martial arts are taught and practiced simply for the sake of teaching and not because they are great. This is why the vast majority of martial arts are very poor in quality. It’s not because they are bad teachers, but rather, they are poor teachers because they are not focused in their instruction.
