Caveat: This post is mine and mine alone. I the author of this blog assure you, the reader, that any of the opinions expressed here are my own and are a result of the way in which my meandering mind interprets a particular situation and or concept. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of other martial arts and/or conflict/violence professionals or authors of source materials. It should be quite obvious that the sources I used herein have not approved, endorsed, embraced, friended, liked, tweeted or authorized this post. (Everything I think and write is true, within the limits of my knowledge and understanding.)
What makes for a good MASD? Well, basically it is a combination of three things; training, experience and talent. In order to determine if one has the talent of a good MASD they first have to accumulate good training and experience. Then if they show “talent” that has to be built through other means then simply training and gaining experience.
This brings up the questions, “What type of training?, What type of experience?, and What is talent?” Interesting questions that like most topics of this nature will stimulate discussions of a heated nature for decades and even centuries.
Training will require adherence to the requirements of at least three different yet alike fundamentals of the physical, the mental and the spiritual. That is not all of it but at least at a novice level those most necessary for a modicum of proficiency. A modicum of proficiency may carry the day in a sport and in most ways martial arts are practiced in modern times but to achieve a true level of MASD, that takes more - a whole lot more. (Hint: that is why I have added in another set of fundamental principles of martial systems for self-defense)
Experience is not just about accumulation of hours in practice, in the dojo. It is about actual reality based training along with real life experience handling conflict and violence. Not too many get that kind of experience in modern society. This is the same obstacle that many military endure before their troops can actually gain what is often referred to as “combat experience.”
Training and experience both require an ongoing level of education and knowledge also not often found in modern martial arts dojo, training halls or practice halls. It is about taking it beyond the mere physical and providing every facet of MASD a level of learning that will appear daunting to the practitioner. The Principles of Self-defense along with the principles of theory, technique and philosophy contribute the foundational requirements of being a good MASD.
Talent is going to be one of the subjective concepts that is often about the individual. Some can acquire talent through the hard work, dedication and due diligence of simply working hard. It is not one of the things you can cut corners on to achieve that level of talent to make for a good MASD. It also is derived from the development of other aspects such as the spiritual - spiritual not religious in nature, a whole different topic of discussion.
In reality talent may be a product of training and experience yet it also requires something unique and mostly indescribable and that brings about the study of other aspects of MASD, specifically the terse martial art koan called the kenpou gokui (ken-po goku-i [拳法極意]). This is a personal endeavor to create and build experience that does not come from hands-on and physical and academic types of experiences.
It is about taking a path, the way, that many mistaken for a physical window dressing way that looks good, feels good and impresses a lot of the uninitiated but to achieve true good martial arts one must dedicate the time necessary without shortcuts to achieve good martial arts. It comes down to asking yourself, “How far are you willing to go?” Don’t look to anyone else be they sensei, senpai, kohai or organization to give you the answers, look into and rely upon just one person, yourself - that is the key, the cornerstone of good martial arts.
No comments:
Post a Comment