Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Brewer
That's the reason I drew a clear line between "practical" and "beneficial." Sword fighting is impractical. Look up the definition of "practical" and you'll see that's true. HOWEVER:
Beneficial is a different animal. Practicing sword arts can have a host of benefits, and that's for each individual to decide. I mean in the end, if the only thing a person wants to do is dress up in a hakama and wear a samurai sword around and they find true happiness in that - COOL! Happiness is a tangible, valuable benefit. More power to them. Where Bodhi and I agree completely and without exception is that it is dangerous to confuse "practical" with "beneficial." If you think that the practice of medieval swordsmanship, longsword and buckler, or samurai sword arts is going to have an immediate and direct practicality, you're functioning under dangerous assumptions.
I am not saying that practicality should be one's only consideration in choosing an art, mind you. I think personal fulfillment should outrank it by leagues. However, if you decide that practicality for modern combat IS your priority, then choosing a sword art to fulfill that need is a little, well, dumb.
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Yeah, I couldn't argue your point because of that fine line. "Benefits" and "practical for fight training" are very different.
Another place we agree completely is that if people ENJOY doing impractical martial art - then more power to them. I think people should do anything they enjoy - the world can be tough and if someone can find some pleasure or happiness doing something that doesn't hurt or infringe on the will of another - right on!
The place we disagree (I think) is I tend to hold it against instructors who teach some of those things as "martial art." I consider it a dangerous type of fraud. There is no telling what kind of dangerous situations some of those guys get themselves into..