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“Why should I learn Martial Arts ? I am a peace lover”. “I don’t need Martial Arts, I don’t wanna be a stuntman”. We have heard these phrases before. Common people can only have such a wrong notion on Martial Arts and why not, it is extensively used in movies for action and fighting and killing and breaking bones.
“Martial Arts” in the truest sense of the word is a way of expression, a way of cleansing the soul, keeping the body fit and kicking ass out of some bully poking his head in your face on a deserted road at night. Everyone should learn martial arts, at least one form, if they wanna master their life and achieve something great. Martial Arts teaches us discipline, helps us be grounded and be strong in the face of adversity come what may.
Many would argue that to learn any form of martial Arts, a good school or coach will be required. Well that is partially true, a good coach can literally change your life. But how many good martial arts coaches are present in the world as of now ? Getting a good coach is as rare as a black rose. You don’t need a school or class to practice, you only need to invest time in training at home or the local park maybe. However, if your goal is to be a professional martial artist and perform in pro matches, you may need a good school and a coach to be in that environment with fellows having similar goals. However, that is also not a must and depends on how motivated you are to learn. But if you are like me and training for day to day self defense or defense of your beloved, you don’t necessarily need a school/coach. Plenty of stuff is available online to get the idea of basic moves of whatever martial art you are interested in.
Mind you what we are training for is real life, there’re no referees, no tap outs, this is dangerous shit and may even be fatal. We have to train for whatever dangerous situation you can get into. Again people would argue that training at home would mean costly equipment to be purchased for practicing, but that’s just a limitation, an excuse that your minds fills you with. Pick up whatever is at hand. The enclosed images are some tools I use for my training. Old newspapers can be used as an exercise pad, the hanging piece of paper is a target so stubborn that it won’t let me make a hole in it, I will tear it in a few days though. And nun chucks come at a minimal cost online, you just have to browse through. This is how you can use your imagination and create your own training Dojo 😉 There are no limitations. As the great Bruce Lee once said “If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” Once you have an idea, you start to practice regularly till the time you are able to perform the moves effortlessly and powerfully, you can now prepare a template to master all the areas that are required in a fight. 1. Power 2. Strength 3. Speed 4. Endurance 5. Strength infrastructure(wrist and fingers / feet / core) 6. Defense 7. Breathe / respond, don’t react ! 8. Weapon training More on the above specifics later in another post. Point is that you can prepare your own routine and practice over and over and over.
Now how a real life dangerous situation would be simulated? Get yourselves in dangerous situations – in training and outside. Go for a dangerous rock climb, jump into deep waters from a high cliff(obviously with a jacket if you dunno how to swim ;)), do dangerous adventures. You may use a sparring partner and help and motivate each other to spar and train if you are lucky. But. If you don’t have a sparring partner put more emphasis on getting uncomfortable and being able to relax in danger. As Mike Tyson once said “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Doing dangerous shit will help you keep your cool when you get hit.
The Yin Factor – How can Martial Arts cleanse your soul ? If you have never tried Tai Chi, you have missed the purest form of mental peace any human could get. Yin martial arts like Tai Chi & Qi Gong are moves done in slow controlled rhythmic fashion. Some moves emulate the “Yang” or the regular punches, kicks and defense moves, others are a body flow wavy type moves helping you breathe, relax and enjoy the peace and calmness. Couple the above Yang training with the yin to be trained holistically and become a solid rock unperturbed, unmoved, unbreakable !!! More on Yin martial arts in coming posts. So let’s widen our imagination and prepare ourselves for combat with danger, with any adverse situation, let’s prepare to defend our hard work, our holy body and our beloved and become a master in life.
Cheers ! WT
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