ChinaBoxer

Do we as martial artists focus to much on the "martial" side of the coin and not the "artist" side?

i mean, think about it, we all train very hard and put in alot of effort, time and money for years to improve our fighting skills. but out of the millions of martial artists how many actually have to use it to defend their lives in the street or the life of someone else? i'm not talking about "defending your ego" fights over spilled beer. i'm talking about someone ready to kill you, literally. maybe less than 1% of all martial artists in the world will ever have to face that situation.

so why do we train so hard and spend so much money for? this is a question i keep asking myself. and i think it's an important one.

so many people think that if you compete in the ring and do tons of sparring, you are "tough". but you wanna know who IMO are tougher? the father trying to raise a good family in a tough economy, or the single mother that has to work three jobs to support her children. now these guys are tough! why do i say this? because ultimately, it's "life" that will be our ultimate arena, it's "ourselves" that will be our greatest opponent.

and that's why i personally train so hard and spend lots of money on instruction and have been doing it for so long. to learn "how" to get through life without meeting force with force. so that when life comes at you hard, you have the training to get through it and continue on the journey.

this leads me to another question, why is it that every martial arts school has a "written" guide to the "martial" side of progressing from basic to high level or white belt to black belt as an example, but nobody has a "written" guide for the "artist" side? IMO this has to do with focusing too much on "technique" and the "if you do this, then i do that" mentality, which IMO is detrimental to a martial artist. but if you focus on the "concepts" and the "why" each and every movement works, then you are teaching yourself the "guide" to getting through life, such as "go straight", if you meet an obstacle don't meet it with force, go around it but always go straight, stay flexible but always go straight, this leads to traveling far on your journey.

i strive every day to be a "martial ARTIST" and not a "MARTIAL artist", because eventually when all of us get to the "top of the mountain", the view is the same for everyone.

take care and peace!

Jin

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Tokyo Kid

Myself, I train for excercise. If it's not fun for me, chances are I won't do it. The fact that I learn how to fight better is an added bonus I don't often think about.
apples and oranges. meaning, martial arts training has nada to do with raising kids.

Okay, so what do you mean by "artist"?

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ggg214

IMO, martial is the basis, and art is in senior level.
if you don't know how to kick, how to punch, how can you fight?
if you don't know how to fight, how can you know what's martial?
if you don't know what's martial, how can you know what's martial art?
it's step by step.
as my master said, when you are no in the level, never think the level's thing.

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Da Pope

The term martial art means the skills needed for war.

Art in this sense is not the same as Art in the Picasso sense of the word, rather a skill that can be learnt by study. The word martial derives from the Roman God of war Mars hence the term martial arts refers to skills learnt for war.

Not saying your wrong to better yourself by training martial arts, just that the original meaning does not imply that you are going to become a better person.

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Knackered shoulder - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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LuohanFist

I would think that in the U.S., the martial gets overlooked in favor of the "art" element. (As evidenced by belt mills and abundant TKD schools/Dojos who promote kata/poomise/technique memorization without pressure testing them in realistic sparring, often times resulting in empty hand waving.)

I could be wrong, but the "art" element got tacked on during it's transition to the West, to market it better. In their countries of origin (with the exeption of Western MA,) to the best of my recollection all these arts have a prefix of "fist, way, method," rather than art.

And sure it's tough being a parent, but that's the challenge of being a parent. If you want to be a martial parent, that's still different from being a martial artist. Just my opinion, for whatever it's worth.

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Buffalo Grove Taiji Quan

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eXcessiveForce

Although we call people martial artists, It is really incorrect.

It is the Martial Art. As in Martial Practice or craft. A person who does this should be called an artisan, not artist.


This is what results when you use words haphazardly and without paying attention to their meanings. It leads to confusion.

Although artist is a synonym for Artisan, in current language it implies an aspect of the fine arts which is not conveyed by using artisan.

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eXcessiveFORCE.

If you must use force, make it excessive.

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Da Pope

what he said^^^

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Knackered shoulder - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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LuohanFist

Phil Elmore is a "martialist." Who's right?

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Buffalo Grove Taiji Quan

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elizabeth

Hi There!
This is Elizabeth!
Im new in this site!
The term martial art means the skills needed for war.
Art in this sense is not the same as Art in the Picasso sense of the word, rather a skill that can be learnt by study. The word martial derives from the Roman God of war Mars hence the term martial arts refers to skills learnt for war.
I hope I can have some friends here!

Thanks!...
Good Luck!...

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Da Pope

Hi liz I love you x

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Knackered shoulder - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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LuohanFist

Well, I love both of you, but that kind of thing is only legal in Holland.

I also think that the words "art" and "artist" have been flaunted around to describe all sorts of crap.

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Buffalo Grove Taiji Quan

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