CONVERSATIONAL TOPICS

We all read the multiple slogans and taglines and descriptions when we explore martial arts dojos, clubs, websites and flyers when we want to send our kids or even ourselves to go and practice.

All of this literature and information tells us very clearly that martial arts are good for discipline, for courage, self esteem, and many other aspects, including eventually combat skills, depending on who is claiming it and how the training is done.

Which is true - to some degree.

Indeed, all of these elements are side effects of our practice of martial arts, but I think one very important, overlooked, understated, and sometimes even consciously unacknowledged benefit of practicing martial arts is how it can be useful in our reality, in our pragmatic day to day life.

What do I mean by pragmatic?

There are two different ways in which martial arts can pragmatically integrate within our normal, regular lives. One way is if in our life we have a constant flow of aggressive, violent situations and encounters. In other words, if we fight every day or if we fight every other day, or even if we fight a few times a week.

It doesn't matter if we live in a place where street fighting occurs and we, either by our own will or not, find ourselves involved and engaged in street fighting.

That is one pragmatic way in which martial arts practiced in a very specific way can be useful and potentially life saving.

However, there is a second pragmatic way in which martial arts can help, and that is “generating” a very specific armor. I'm not referring to the mythical or maybe less mythical Kung Fu iron skin and iron body type of armor in which we become invulnerable to spears and bullets.

I'm referring to a very specific kind of armor that we build over time as we practice against stressors. So basically, every single time we practice, if we practice correctly, if our practice is not pure choreography and dance, then in that case we are continuously building an onion-like armor (layers) based on the stressors that we inflict upon ourselves during that practice.

Let me explain.

If you are a swimmer, you will build extreme endurance to swimming. So the more you swim, the faster you swim, the stronger you are. And you can endure more and more - swimming. If you're a jogger, the more you jog, the longer distances you can cover and eventually - possibly - the faster and further you can jog. Basically you become capable of jogging more.

Invariably, each specific sport yields very specific results in terms of this particular kind of armor that I'm referring to.

Martial arts, on the other hand, have a very, very valuable benefit. "Stressors" actually hit you in multiple ways, from multiple places, in various ways, all the time and every time differently. What you build this way are layers of that armor.

Not one single very strong layer against one single very strong stressor. No, you build multiple "fluid" (adaptable) layers.

These layers emerge and shift as needed against particular stressors. In other words, we prepare ourselves by training in martial arts to have a very strong armor against one thing that we all do in life - FACE OBSTACLES.

What we do in our daily life - from the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep - is navigate a slew of obstacles. And it doesn't matter what it is. It could be a business obstacle, it could be an environment at work, it could be homework if you're in school, it could be the peers in school, it could be anything - crossing the street, managing traffic when you're driving. It could be absolutely anything.

We encounter a slew of obstacles and obstacles equal conflict, which means we are almost automatically involved.

By providing us with these layers of armor against multiple variables of stressors, Martial Arts yield this one particular amazing benefit. It helps our minds and our bodies to navigate these obstacles, to respond to these obstacles faster, more efficiently, and eventually overcome them every single day.

So the question is, can someone without martial arts training overcome obstacles in life? That's a really silly question, isn't it?

Of course they do. Of course, people who do not practice martial arts overcome obstacles quite well, but there is a however in here. While they do overcome them quite well, it is much easier when you have an armor, and I think that is the bottom line. That's the most important part that we want to fully express while practicing in martial arts.

You can simply become stronger at enduring these stressors. This situational conflict that appears almost probably minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, depending on how our life is, depending on our situation, depending on our reality, some people may suffer with chronic pain. Some people may suffer from a chronic idiotic boss. It doesn't matter which one it is. The point is, all of these are incredible social, emotional, intellectual, sometimes physical stressors in our real day to day life.

And the pragmatic aspect of martial arts, if practiced correctly, allows us to employ this multilayered armor of how we respond to these stressors.

Additionally, oftentimes these stressors are not just one at a time. There can be multiple stressors coming at the same time. Same happen like in martial arts when you practice Randori sparring with multiple opponents or simply doing one technique while at the same time you have to observe other things and at the same time...moving in horse stance position or something... So it doesn't matter what it is.

There are multiple levels in which we are stressed during our martial arts training, and that becomes part of our armor, that becomes part of our internal strength, internal skill at using mental and physical power.

To me, this is the true pragmatic, hidden “secret”, the treasure of martial arts practice - if it is done correctly, if it is not just a mere choreographed dance, sometimes just for fun.

It requires very diligent, very honest practice, but also very intelligent practice, not just repeating the same hard element over and over again until you're perfecting it. Then you become just like that one swimmer, incredibly good at that one element.

Intelligence in martial arts - and movement in general - is something much more complex than repeating 10,000 times the same thing. It has something to do with variables, minute changes, adaptation, flexibility of your mind and body, but mostly of your mindset.

The practice of martial arts, done intelligently and done with the purpose (pragmatically) to create a true practical internal armor is a very complex and very beautiful method and practice.

You can find it in certain places if you look for it, and you can find out very easy if a martial arts school or teacher has it or not, if they offer you that complex sphere of stressors with the purpose to create that specific internal armor, not just one particular response, one particular type of form, one particular type of style, one particular type of dogma or belief system. So you have to be very careful when you choose your martial arts.

When you choose your instructor, Sensei, or teacher or Sifu, you have to figure out first what it is you're looking for and to understand that you will find what you're looking for. So if internally, in your mind, even subconsciously, you would just like to look very good when you move around, you'll find that - very good looking form; you'll be attracted to it, and you'll fall into it and remain trapped into it pretty much for years.

However, if that's not your goal, you will find a much deeper level of martial arts, a pragmatic level of martial arts, either for combat, like I said, or for this internal armor, which has nothing to do with combat, has nothing to do with the need for skillful fighting even though that is one of the side effects of that kind of training, but it's not the ultimate goal of it.

Of course, the first pragmatic aspect and style - which is for combat, for true fighting - creates the same kind of armor, evidently. However, it eventually misses the mark on focusing on a few key aspects of humanity, of value or virtue or intelligence.

So I think the two pragmatic aspects of martial arts are both incredibly important and absolutely valid and somehow a little bit overlapping. Not much, but just enough.

Of course, you have a third possible practical aspect which is that you're practicing for health like Westernized Tai Chi for example, and your moves are in tune with your breath, posture, etc. and helps with your mental state and physical condition. I agree that is yet another way of approaching martial arts. I do understand and I completely agree that you can find movement and practice that slows you down and helps you recover from emotional stress or even from pain.

So yes, that is another pragmatic aspect of martial arts if practice varies specifically for that specific healing reason, but that also is included in the armor pragmatic approach because, you see, that is also one possible stressor. So in a very counter-intuitive way, when you're building the proper internal armor of martial arts, you already have that system of healing properties built-in, if we're to call them that, properties that help with your mental and emotional and physical balance, which is health.

That is my thought about the martial arts' "internal armor" pragmatic treasure secret, That's not so secret after all - just simply not "stressed" enough within the academic aspect of Martial Arts instruction and methodology.

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