Do You Train To Fight?

[Steve Rowe]

Today's blog http://steve-rowe.com/2016/01/30/do-you-train-to-fight/

“The end result of martial arts training is to fight” – is it?

Mine isn’t. Mine includes the emotional intelligence to deal with confrontation in all it’s guises, to be able have resolve, determination and courage when needed, along with the patience, kindness, tolerance and compassion and their associated requisite skills when needed.

To keep the peace.

The calligraphy for ‘Budo’ and ‘Wu Shu’ is ‘to stop the spear’. The ‘Wa’ in ‘Wado’ means harmony and balance, as does ‘Aiki’ in Aikido, ‘Goju’ in ‘Goju Ryu’ and ‘Tai Chi’ means ‘Grand Ultimate’ as in the harmony of an enlightened mind.

‘Fight’ is contrary to all those ideas.

The 3 treasures of form and kata are ‘health’ as in both mind and body, brought about by good posture, breathing and an aware, focused and meditative mind. ‘Skill’, the construction of the form or kata is designed to combine ideas and movement to improve the skill level of the practitioner not necessarily in a combination that they would find in an everyday confrontation but would make them more than capable to deal with the lower level required at the time and ‘boxing’ being the physical application of technique in every centimetre of movement all the way through the form or kata.

It’s a fundamental difference that separates martial arts and thuggery. If you just want to learn to ‘fight’ you wouldn’t go to a traditional martial arts school, if you want to learn self defence of both mind and body along with the emotional intelligence to cope with all of life including ‘keeping the peace’ in all forms, a GOOD traditional school is a good place to start.

Martial arts is an alchemy that works on all levels. There is no quick fix, but each day you should be better than you were the day before. Transformation requires continual postural, breathing and mental training and daily technical study of the Art. Day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year with 99% input from student and 1% by instructor, the alchemy takes place.

Like I said, no quick fix, but like everything that takes effort, it’s life changing.

[Doc Stier]

Agreed. Thanks, Steve.

[johnwang]

‘Wu Shu’ is ‘to stop the spear’.

"武(Wu)" also means to "use spear to stop enemy's attack". Without martial, there will be no peace. Without martial, there will be no MA but dancing.

I train to fight and I have no shame to admit it.

If you just want to learn to ‘fight’ you wouldn’t go to a traditional martial arts school, ...

Sometime the TCMA teacher is the only teacher that you can find at the time you need it. If I can live my life all over again, will I take boxing over my long fist and Shuai Chiao? I think I would still take my TCMA (long fist and Shuai Chiao). I do believe that I can go to a TCMA school and learn to "fight".

[bartekb]

With all the noble aims - Ive got a funny observation; I observe so called TCMA students to be overweight much often than bjj, muay thai or boxing ones (or actually the ones that train more "external" TCMA styles). Actually the more "internal" or "health oriented" the stye the worse it seems to get.

[Doc Stier]

With all the noble aims - Ive got a funny observation; I observe so called TCMA students to be overweight much often than bjj, muay thai or boxing ones (or actually the ones that train more "external" TCMA styles). Actually the more "internal" or "health oriented" the stye the worse it seems to get.

That certainly isn't true in my case or in that of any of my teachers, probably because we all train for optimum athletic fitness and fighting skills, not only for health or self-cultivation purposes. Just saying!

[Bhassler]

Most martial arts schools (traditional or otherwise) are a very poor place to learn self defense in the legal sense of the term and often an even worse place to learn anything about how to behave with other people. It's easy to say "a GOOD traditional school will do all those things", but that really has nothing to do with the art itself, it just hinges on the character of the person running the school. I've seen admirable people who have their shit together who were great teachers and martial artists, but I believe they were great teachers and martial artists because they were admirable people, not the other way around. I've never seen MA turn a shithead into a good person-- it's just a tool set that people can use however they like, for good or ill.

Most of the cultural artifacts that people associate with MA, especially Asian MA, are artifacts of the culture the art comes from, not anything specific to MA itself. Your martial arts may be an alchemy that works on all levels, but that comes from you, not the art.

[wude]

[Steve Rowe]

I was a shithead until I found a good traditional club. My background was violent, my first clubs,were violent and it was only the neigong and training structure of a good system that changed me. I've seen it work for many others over the years. It works because of both parties not just one.

[dspyrido]

I was chatting to a chinese guy today who told me that he does krav maga. I asked him why not a chinese martial art and he said "because they dont like to do enough self defense".

[GrahamB]

Do I train to fight?

Once you're married it's the other way around - you have to fight to train. lol

[GrahamB]

I was chatting to a chinese guy today who told me that he does krav maga. I asked him why not a chinese martial art and he said "because they dont like to do enough self defense".

Only "special" people do Krav Maga in my experience....

[Bao]

I train to fight and I have no shame to admit it.

But you already know how to fight. You only need to keep up shape to keep up the skills.

IMHO, unless we are very immature, we all change our reasons for why we practice as we grow and get older. More or less.

[wiesiek]

..."we all train for optimum athletic fitness and fighting skills, not only for health or self-cultivation purposes. Just saying! ..."
Doc., if I may,
I would change it a little:

optimum athletic fitness = health
and
fighting skills are for protecting our self-cultivating process.
perfect pair, then

I was training with the "fighting only" in the mind by first 20 year of my practice.
But
Next 30 are from light to hard different,
However fighting aspect is always >handy, nearby <

[johnwang]

Once you're married it's the other way around - you have to fight to train. lol

You know you train to fight when you argue with your wife, you get into a fighting stance.

we all change our reasons for why we practice as we grow and get older. More or less.

The older I'm, the more that I'm interested in "fighting". The reason is simple. I no longer can afford to waste my training time. I do believe that I have wasted too much of my training time in solo form when I was young. Today, I want to develop an effective combat system.

The following are what I taught in my class yesterday.

- front kick knee stomping.
- front kick knee stomping count by front kick knee stomping back.
- front kick knee stomping count by foot sweep.
- side kick knee stomping.
- reverse side kick knee stomping.
- octopus strategy.
- double spears strategy.
- rhino strategy.
- zombie arms strategy.
- wheeling step set up.
- circular dragging set up.
- ...

What style do I teach in my class? From the above list, it's easy to see that I'm not teaching any particular TCMA style but "how to fight".

If my opponent

- doesn't do anything, I move in and finish it.
- attacks, I still move in and finish it.

What's the best way to achieve that? That's my "only" interest at this point of my life and I feel strongly about it.

[I am...]

Once you're married it's the other way around - you have to fight to train. lol

You know you train to fight when you argue with your wife, you get into a fighting stance.

we all change our reasons for why we practice as we grow and get older. More or less.

The older I'm, the more that I'm interested in "fighting". The reason is simple. I no longer can afford to waste my training time. I do believe that I have wasted too much of my training time in solo form when I was young. Today, I want to develop an effective combat system.

The following are what I taught in my class yesterday.

- front kick knee stomping.
- front kick knee stomping count by front kick knee stomping back.
- front kick knee stomping count by foot sweep.
- side kick knee stomping.
- reverse side kick knee stomping.
- octopus strategy.
- double spears strategy.
- rhino strategy.
- zombie arms strategy.
- wheeling step set up.
- circular dragging set up.
- ...

What style do I teach in my class? From the above list, it's easy to see that I'm not teaching any particular TCMA style but "how to fight".

If my opponent

- doesn't do anything, I move in and finish it.
- attacks, I still move in and finish it.

What's the best way to achieve that? That's my "only" interest at this point of my life and I feel strongly about it.

That is how a martial art should be trained. Anything that doesnt require a partner to develop is a good choice for solo training.