Get Martial

by CP

Martial

Pronunciation: \’mär-shəl\
Function: adjective

1 : of, relating to, or suited for war or a warrior

2 : relating to an army or to military life

3 : experienced in or inclined to war : warlike

The martial arts world ranges from ’soft’ meditative arts, to intricate ‘forms’ demonstrations, to all-out combat. What the arts all have in common is that they are based on conflict, violent conflict. Punches, kicks, takedowns, chokes, locks and weapons-use are all techniques in the art of war. When a soldier or a police officer fires a rifle or pistol at the gun range, they are engaged in martial training. They may never get into a real firefight or shoot-out, and may not wish to hurt another living thing, but that is what they are practicing for. You may not want to become a bodyguard or a professional fighter (or go on Jerry Springer), but make no mistake about it, if you’re going to practice martial arts, you’re going to learn how to inflict pain. And damage. And sometimes worse. The dojo is in some ways your gun range.

What if I think fighting is wrong?

Ideally, combat training would be completely unnecessary because no one would mean you harm. But reality is less beneficent and less forgiving to our favorite selves when we are unprepared. If the concept of a violent contest give you the vapors, try looking at it like this:

* Nearly every country (roughly 170/193) maintains a military force, even if they have never gone to war.

* Most police officers carry a gun, but have never fired it in the line of duty.

* An unprotected house is about 3 times more likely to get broken into than one with a security system.

In short, we want peace, but someone has to be prepared for when things get less peaceful. If your heart and/or beliefs tell you that preparation is the other guy’s responsibility, you may want to substitute boxercise (or table tennis) for your hobby or fitness program.

What if I don’t want anyone to get hurt?

No one does. Sane people are not out to injure each other. But even a fat lip is too much for some. If your MA school promotes a lot of hands-on training and sparring, and that isn’t what rocks your socks, you may want to reconsider your location or your choice of art form. (For more, see: New here? How to get started in the martial arts by Mike, and Fighting and Fighting Schools by CP.) You can learn combat with varying degrees of contact. Just understand that your effectiveness is increased by the intensity of your training. In order for your skills to protect you, you sometimes have to get aggressive and ‘go there’.

How do I get my rumble on in the dojo?

MA is very much about control. If our brains worked right in a threatening situation, we would react instantly with enough fight or flight or reason to deal with it. Instead, without training we often are paralyzed in the face of danger. We freeze, cutting down our chances for any good outcome dramatically. MA is the practice of training both your body and your mind to become very awake in these situations by simulating them over and over. In sports, athletes learn to engage their competitive side and aggression without resorting to panic. Martial artists do the same, even though the stakes are higher on game day. They learn to play rough in practice without the need for gauze and paramedics.

When you train, remember to work your defense as if you were under an actual attack. That way you don’t freak out when the volume gets turned up. On offense, put the extra snap into the kicks and punches, even if you’re holding back on the force. When you spar, if your partners are game and you can trust them not to clean your clock, crank things up every so often to get used to the added speed and intensity. And work with your instructors when you can; their control should offset the terror and trepidation you feel. The results will be very rewarding.

I have had more than one student tell me that they planned to take their exit once they reached a rank where the training gets more combative. Thankfully, some have decided to stay longer and discovered that their fears were greatly exaggerated. Meanwhile, their wartime skills have made them that weapon that hopefully never gets used in the line of duty.

Are You Teachin’ or Just Yellin’?

By CP

Put someone in front of a group and tell them to speak, and more often than not they will freeze up, mumble incoherently or even cry. Make it a class of martial arts students and tell them to teach, and they will likely bolt from the room like a ferret. It’s an odd fact that more people list public speaking as their worst fear than death. What is truly odd is that once you do it enough times, the reverse often happens and you can get addicted to center stage and forget to get the message across. Many a guru has gotten lost in the labyrinth of his or her own babblings, or worse, let their grandstanding lead to impatient barking at the students. In short, they forgot to teach. You want to be teacher and not just a bigmouth right? So how do you know?

• Are you listening to anybody else?
  
  Students always have questions. Always. If they don’t ask any in your class, it’s because you have scared them into silence, hopelessly confused them, or are too busy blathering to notice. Maybe that right hook does look like the helpless flailing of a wounded gosling, but if you go right past “Does this move seem strange to you?” to “What the Hell is THAT supposed to be?” you’re not going to get to the real issues. It often works to start with a simple message, break down the move as you demonstrate it, then ask if there are any questions (not in a voice that promises punishment to any takers). This way, the newbies learn to speak up without fear of a pummeling. If there are questions, when you have answered them it helps to keep track of what they are. Once you start building a catalog of queries, you will know what’s missing from your 1st explanation. “Is my elbow supposed to be down when I throw a hook?” may mean you’re the reason your students are punching like parakeets.
  
  
• Your eyes should be working as much as your mouth
  
  A student attempts to throw a zealous thrust kick, slips up, and before you can wince, falls flat on his back. Repeated attempts at the kick look more like the Charleston than a useable defense technique, so now it’s time to for you to step in. Stop. Don’t go over to him barking “No, no, no!” or mumbling about his IQ. You know what is wrong, but not why. If you amble over and observe a few more times, then you may notice that his whole leg is coming up as a unit instead of the knee first. Maybe he’s leaning back too far or the base leg is injured. Those details will help you tailor your feedback to the individual and get much better results than “I’m doing THIS, and you’re doing whatever THAT is!” Admit it, your thrust kick was just as bad or worse when you learned it.
  
  
• Be Positive
  
  That’s not a blood type, it’s the cardinal rule of teaching. If your boss said a letter you wrote was crap, you might respond with a colorful hand gesture. If she said “The letter had a great introduction,” “It might need a few more technical details,” and “Keep up the good work,” you would be happier to make the changes. This praise-correct-praise approach is also true in a teacher-student situation at the dojo, and particularly helpful with adults. Grownups are awkward about taking instruction and quicker to assert their independence, so encouragement helps you to maintain their trust (and enrollment). Also, once they’ve got the technique right, they want to know it, so give it up. A little goodwill can make the difference between a willing audience and an empty class. For more on sensei-student relations, see Instructor Character and the Entitlement Generation by Greg.

At the end of the day, no one wants a tame and toothless guru. If you’re an instructor, there’s no need to throw out your megaphone or commit yourself to a year of sensitivity training. Discipline and obedience are a vital part of MA and keep a class on track. In fact, the extra-loud-and-spicy “Boot Camp” approach has become very popular in many training regimens. Just remember to balance your verbal attack. The blistering barrage is best for coaxing the extra reps out of your students, not to develop proper technique. Your students will endure, and even enjoy, your caterwauling and ceaseless ramblings if you pause to slip in some useful information now and then.

CC-licensed photo by mickthelowe

Fighting and Fighting Schools

by CP

“You go to the gym every week and deliberately hit each other. You are nuts!” Martial arts students are battered with this stereotyped view more savagely than by their peers, and probably more often. Once it’s known that you practice MA, some friends and co-workers will forever think of you as someone willing to pummel them over an insult, a minor argument, or miscounted change. Leaving aside these affronts to the discipline that is taught in MA, not all MA students are competitive fighters and some avoid combative training altogether. The instruction, school traditions, and the style of the art being taught all contribute to the amount of ‘hands-on’ training that a student gets. So, if you’re new to MA and not sure you want to feel a world-class right cross, or have your head driven into the mat like a fallen meteor, how do you figure the fighting part out?

When it comes to fighting, the dojo itself is the easier piece of the student/school combo. While the ‘martial’ in MA applies to all the arts, some disciplines are more dedicated combat training and competition. If you bring your gloves to a boxing gym, you know what to expect. Unless you’re the janitor, you’re gonna end up scrapping in the ring. Similarly, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu , Kick-Boxing or Muay Thai dojos are considered ‘Fighting Schools’. They are built on a tradition of full-contact competition, and so require students to train combatively. Dojos of other MA disciplines - including the broadly named “Mixed Martial Arts” - have different combat expectations, and can be identified by reputation and observation. In general, you should ask around and visit any MA school before committing yourself, but pay particular attention to how hard and how often they spar or compete (affectionately called ‘banging’ thumping’ ‘rolling’ ‘rumbling’, etc…). If it happens in more than 1 out of 3 classes, you’re courting a bonafide fighting school.

The secret to selecting a so-called ‘fighting school’ lies in your reasons for training in MA. If the thoughts that dominate your brain sound like “It only takes 20 lbs. of pressure to break my collarbone,” you may not be suited for frequent rough-and-tumble practice sessions. Conversely, if your inner muse shouts “I caught a good shot to the head, but once I got my eye back in the socket, it was on!” you’re ready for serious ring combat (and maybe a little less caffeine). Thankfully, most people fall somewhere in-between. Below are some of the more common MA student personalities and the reasons they may or may not want to rumble on a regular basis:

The Socialite

War Cry: “What a sweet hobby!”
Some MA students are forged out of nothing but a vague notion of boredom or a desire to get a life. A socialite may pick out a dojo in order to stay active, meet people, or just for bragging rights. They are not looking for combat, just a healthier way to spend time than in a biker bar. For an S, a fighting school is unnecessarily intense and risky. The same street cred can be had for the price of a Tae-Bo trial membership. Luckily, after the holiday parties, many S personalities get hooked on MA and evolve into focused practitioners.

The Fitness Project

War Cry: “6 months to get buff!”
Countless souls arrive at the dojo armed only with a New Year’s resolution or an ideal dress size. Ripped abs on the beach trumps a ripped hamstring from a grappling bout every time. MA is a great way to get in shape, but a fighting school should raise a yellow flag for an FP. If you’re looking at the scale or in the mirror when the bell rings, you’re gonna get KTFOd.

The Aficionado

War Cry: “Knowledge is power.”
At the onset of their training, aficionados may not agree with the fighting school philosophy. To them, MA is there to provide safety, confidence and/or a sense of tradition. “Why should I get beat up when I train to avoid getting beaten up?” is a reasonable question. The As can usually be eased into more contact as they begin to ‘round out’ their training, but some stay on a more academic path and become ‘technicians’ and leave fighting ‘For Emergency Use Only’.

The Alpha-Dog

War Cry: “Just win, baby!”
A-Dogs live to compete, so a fighting school is ideal for them right from the start. Victory is king, or a bloody nose earned in the attempt. Anything less would be like having an itchy butt and 2 broken arms. You have to keep a leash on the dojo’s dogs though. Big doses of honor and respect are required to keep them in balance. Over-hyped competitors can alienate the other personalities in the school, inflict senseless injuries, or spiral into depression when they discover that you can’t win ‘em all.

The Zealot

War Cry: “Hit first. Hit hard. Hit often!”
Some students carry an intensity and seriousness about MA that goes above and beyond. For them, each fight is not a contest, but a life-and-death struggle normally found in the animal kingdom. This uber-gusto can be born of traumatic events or an extremist personality in general. While the fighting school is well-suited for the Z type, Zs require even more watching than A-Dogs, as they can be surprisingly brutal. The most extreme, undisciplined cases have to be turned away from the dojo because hugs and I-love-me time will help them more than violent expression.

Real people are made with complex parts, so the appeal of an amped-up combat school will vary according to a combination of the profiles above. [For more on MA student personality, see ‘What’s Your Fighting Style?’ by Meredith below.] Marines say that nobody likes to fight, but somebody has to know how. There is plenty of proof that ‘hands-on’ training adds a practical side to your MA skills, but that doesn’t mean that you have to glove up and challenge pro fighters to a live bout every time you hit the dojo. Your own goals and needs should determine whether you belong in a school that invites you ‘turn it up’ once in a while, or blast away like a rabid gunslinger.