This is hopefully my last week as a ‘raw beginner’ in Degerberg Academy’s ‘blend’ martial arts system as I’m up for promotion to my gold belt. As I’ve progressed, I’ve often pondered exactly what it is that makes what I’m learning considered to be an ‘art’. Art, according to Webster’s, is a “skill acquired by experience, study, or observation”. From a more traditional definition of art (as in visual arts such as painting, photography etc.), art is a way to concretize one’s perception of reality (or in the case of abstract art, a way to concretize some concept that is in the artist’s head) so that others can see and ‘interact’ with the artist’s perception.
In martial arts, I see both definitions apply. First, martial arts is essentially a system of combat that is learned from observation and application of skills learned (experience) under the guidance of an experienced instructor. In my school’s system, we learn by repeated drilling in basic techniques along with exposure to more advanced techniques; basic techniques being basic punches and kicks and advanced techniques being ground grappling techniques such as those use in ju-jit-su. In addition, instructors have regular ‘mini-lectures’ where we discuss the mechanics of martial arts such as pressure points, how joint locks work, and the physics behind proper punching/kicking techniques.
The second definition of art is a little harder to apply to martial arts, but I still think there is a similarity. Consider again visual arts, where an artist combines knowledge of chemistry, materials, color theory, mechanics of lighting etc. to create paintings, sculptures, and photographs that bring his/her vision to life. In a similar way, martial arts systems are designed to integrate knowledge from seemingly unrelated disciplines (physiology, physics, and history to name a few) into a single concrete body of knowledge designed to incapacitate or otherwise overcome an opponent in a physical altercation.
What I find particularly interesting about these views of ‘art’ in martial arts is that they correspond very closely to the two common perceptions of martial arts:
* Martial arts is about learning how to perform aesthetically pleasing moves and how to break boards with your bare hands.
* Martial arts is about learning how to defend yourself.
Considering these two views, I’ve realized that it’s only the second view that is really going to drive a beginner into truly adopting martial arts as a sport and passion in their lives. Repetitive drills are excellent tools for learning basic mechanics, form, and developing muscle memory but drills are just no substitute for applying what you’ve learned in a competitive environment. It’s not until you really try to apply what you’ve learned that you really can gauge your progress.
I’m looking forward to the next Degerberg Ultimate Challenge where I’ll get another chance to compete in the ring and really get a feel for where I am in my journey to excel in my new sport of choice!
November 19, 2008 at 2:59 pm |
The definitions you provide are very specific and the views are very specific. Is your idea here to identify what would drive a beginner to START martial arts? I can guarantee you there are more reasons people participate in martial arts. Self-defense is only one of the number of reasons – you elude to one of them – competition. Self-defense would be secondary for someone training for the Olympics.
You bring up good points; however, even in competition, is not the correct context to test self-defense. Where to do that off the street? That’s up to the dojo to take those measure of mimicking urban or “real-world” (non-competition) tests. I know that styles like Krav Maga provide these types of tests and may be more suitable for those interested.
November 19, 2008 at 3:26 pm |
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November 20, 2008 at 10:49 pm |
Hi Ben,
Thanks for taking the time to read my post; it’s always cool to get new perspectives. After seeing your comment, I re-read my post because I think that I sort of jumped around with the main idea of my post. So let me clarify.
The goal of my post was to identify why martial arts is defined as an ‘art’. When you consider other sports or physical endeavors, the only one that I can think of that uses the term ‘art’ is martial arts. So I wanted to delve a bit deeper into why we classify martial arts as an art form. When I applied the definitions, it became pretty clear that the second definition of ‘art’ could be applied to martial arts. I then was trying to point out that the 2 definitions correspond to 2 common views held of martial arts.
I certainly agree with you that there are many different reasons to start martial arts that are not related to self-defense. However, I do think that self-defense is a major motivation for people to start. Would you agree with that point?
Secondly, it has very much been my experience that to truly develop a passion for martial arts and to motivate yourself to work hard to improve (and do extra work in the gym outside of classes to improve), you need some way to apply what you’ve learned. I strongly believe that dojos where you only practice forms and never apply what you’ve learned in some context (preferably competitively), you will lose motivation to continue rather quickly.
I certainly understand that not all martial arts are measured by combative (tai-chi for example) measures. But it’s still key to figure out some way to measure yourself to stay motivated.