From: mary@Cayman.COM (Mary Malmros)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: What is a "fighting art", anyway?  (was re: other stuff)
Date: 31 Aug 92 21:21:42 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Cayman Systems Inc., Cambridge, MA


In article <ALEXJ.92Aug28145720@petruchio.juliet.ll.mit.edu> alexj@juliet.ll.mit.edu ( Alexander Jackl ) writes:

   In Message ID: <1992Aug28.162111.27107@PA.dec.com> Todd I. Stark mentions that
   Boxing works against kcks but has problems with low-line attacks.  

   I thought this wa sinteresting because most of the arts I have studied teach
   people that in combat you should always kick low-line and only sportsman
   and fools or REALLY fast people launch kicks anywhere above the waist.  

If the many arts you've studied only teach "low-line" kicking, well, 
then, of course you'd be a fool to kick any higher.  Just like I don't 
attempt joint locks.

If, on the other hand, you've been taught high kicks by someone who 
knows what they're doing, and you've practiced them a lot, well...you
might be surprised.  You might be REAL surprised, heh heh heh.

   I think people who think the standard kick is  head or shoulder level kick
   are people who are exposed mostly to Tae-Kwon_Do and Sport Kickboxing and not
   ummm... ahhh... real(duck, block!) fighting arts...  not to say Kickboxing or
   Tae-Kwon-Do can't be fighting arts (back pedal, back pedal) just that
   they USUALLY are taught as sports in htis country(U.S.A.).

They ARE?  You're kidding!!!

Look...the term "fighting art" doesn't mean anything by itself.  An art
for fighting WHAT?  Under what circumstances?  Fighting Iraqis in Kuwait?  
A rapist in a parking lot?  Ninja assassins?  An abusive spouse?  A 
crack dealer with a big magazine?  A samurai armed with a katana?  

There are different styles of martial art or self-defense training
that meet the needs of these different situations.  So which do you
call "fighting arts"?  

("The ones that deal with Real Street Stuff!  Yeah!  That's it!  Like
the Guardian Angels do!  Yeah!")

I don't know of anything out there calling itself a "martial art" that
doesn't, to some degree, consider the practical problem of physical
conflict and offer some remedies to it, in the form of offensive or
defensive actions.  In that sense, certainly, all are "fighting arts".  
The situation in which the conflict takes place may appear ridiculous
or contrived to some.  People don't routinely have to deal with katana 
attacks nowadays.  But, to be honest, I think most people studying 
self-proclaimed "fighting styles" are probably kidding themselves about
a number of things, including the amount of fighting they'll actually
run into, the circumstances in which it will occur, and the effectiveness
of their "Lethal Street Techniques".  

This discussion of what is and what isn't a "fighting style" returns
us to the question of why people study martial arts.  It's a highly
subjective thing.  To suggest that a "fighting style" has more validity
than a "non-fighting style" (whatever that would be) assumes that 
fighting is the only valid reason for studying a martial art.  WRONG.  
It may be YOUR only motivation for studying; if so, that's your loss.
Survival-based motivations can be very powerful, but they do have a way
of disappearing very quickly in the absence of convincing evidence that 
your survival is really at stake.  The situation of a contemporary 
American is not like that of a samurai in feudal Japan.  The samurai
who failed to practice diligently was putting his life at risk.  The
same cannot be said of a contemporary American who chooses not to study
martial arts; therefore, survival is just not a very compelling motivation
any more, and others must be found.  

What those other motivations are, as I said before, is very subjective.  
I have a rather stressful, chair-bound job, and one of the things I 
love most about martial arts is the way that the intensity of practice
lets me get rid of job symptoms.  Taekwondo is sometimes a blur of almost 
frantic activity, of being forced to move faster than your conscious 
mind can think, because if you try to THINK about what you're going to
do, you'll be too slow.  It's an intense physical effort doing those 
high kicks, a whole-body effort -- you're not just moving your leg, you
need to use your whole body, you need to use your whole SELF or it 
won't work.  You get tired, you slip, you trip, you get the kick off 
somehow anyway.  And when you fail and fall all over the dojang floor, 
then you have to get past the part of yourself that's ready to give up, 
and find the part that's determined to go on.  And then you find out 
what you've really got.  

Jodo is more like an Ansel Adams photograph, all deep blacks and strong
whites, loud kiais and the blur and whistle of a striking staff, punctuated
with stillness and silence.  It's fierce concentration, timing, attention
to detail.  It's the tiny smile I see in my kata partner's eyes when we
do it just right.  

Is any of that stuff worth pursuing?  Sure it is.  It is if I say so, 
because I'm the one doing it.  
--
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 Mary Malmros     | Cayman Systems Inc, 26 Landsdowne St, Cambridge, MA 02139
 mary@cayman.com  | Phone 617-494-1999  Fax 617-494-5167  AppleLink CAYMAN.TECH

Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts