Martial arts training has traditionally served three purposes: fighting and combat, selfdefence;
body “health”, physical strength, suppleness and coordination; spiritual fulfilment.
The priority or the hierarchy in which you set these determines the spirit in which you
practice.

The origin of martial arts comes from combat, normally military or at least in some organised
fighting group, using martial skill for other ends than just to injure the other party: normally
political aims of takeover or defence. In this sense they were one of the essentials of military
training.

The other training starting from the Olympics is the use of martial arts for fighting; where the
objective is to injure the opponent and be rewarded for it. In order to limit this injury there are
the application of rules. The spirit governing the following of these rules is called,
“sportsmanship”.

While today special forces still practice martial arts for combat purposes, relatively few
practitioners work for the secret service or intervention teams. Then there are sporting events
such as the Ultimate Fighting Challenge, Wrestling and Bowing Matches. Yet of the
practising community relatively few are proper competitors, at least competitors to such a
point that partaking in competition could be seen as their primary goal in training.

It is important to note how the training of special forces and professional to semi-professional
competitors differs from the training of ordinary martial artists. Their training, deriving from
the spirit in which they train with its different hierarchy of goals has combat or fighting at a
much higher level than normal practitioners do. Precisely for this reason both groups will be
much stronger at combat than any normal martial artist. Indeed the goal of immediate selfdefence
and effective combat techniques is so important that the other aims such as health and
spiritual fulfilment suffer. Health because if you train martial arts realistically there will be
injuries, precisely because this is the realistic aim of martial arts if they are used effectively to
cause injury in combat. Spiritually because you will have to growth a real fighter almost killer
mentality so that you will not be afraid of and so that you will impose yourself on you
opponent.

This now explains why a lot of martial art training takes a long-time before becoming
effective. Injuries are limited by controlled sparring methods, agreement on attack and
defence roles; as well as far more protective gear than special forces or high-level sportsmen
use. At the same time, just as any good exercise pattern, when followed with both some
moderation and consistency, are able to maintain a relatively strong and supple body. Also
over a lifetime practise, even with this slow road to attaining effectivity, you will have a level
of self-defence high enough for the great majority of attackers, unless if you fall on the very
unlikely situation of a giant. Spiritually you will not need to develop the real fighter mentality,
just that you will in all likelihood not be worried about imposing your style because the
person attacking you unless if you look for fights will not know a lot about fighting.
This is precisely the opposite of a sports competition where the two people have a roughly
similar level of skill (at least this is the hope), and the bout is more decides by the ability of a
fighter to combine his techniques with his mind to impose on the other one.

The ability of the average martial artist to fight when compared with their special forces or
high-level sportsmen will be low; however when compared to the population as a whole it
will probably be quite good. This is the truth. My first advice to you is think of the hierarchy
of your goals and choose your training to coincide with these. You will not turn into a beast or
an animal as the result of normal training, but being a high-level fighter has a cost. And if that
cost does not make sense to you in your heart, you should not consider yourself to be a deadly
weapon. Otherwise you’ll be more of a deadly wholly, than a deadly weapon: At the party
when things get boring people will ask you to show some of your martial arts tricks.
We have so far explained how martial arts practised in the way most people practice helps
maintain a healthy, relatively supple and relatively strong body. We’ve also explained that
they provide the individual with a good level of self-defence and that they do not create
spiritual pressure the way practising very seriously for combat creates: but how do they create
not just no spiritual deterrents but also spiritual benefits?

If you want philosophy you’d certainly do better opening Aristotle than going down to your
local dojo. Certainly this is clear? So again, they would not be the best way of achieving
spiritual fulfilment if this was your most important aim. What we can say is that the body and
mind are one in martial arts. Relaxing your body helps relax your mind, but this can be said
for many sports; and probably yoga is much better for this. Do they do anything more than
this? Maybe reflecting about fighting helps make you more of a pacifist and a less aggressive
person? A lot of people claim that martial arts make you less aggressive. Although I do not
know of any good survey that has been done on it. Though from my experience of different
martial artists I would agree. I would say because as people associate combat techniques with
training they associate them less with anger. They also become more aware of the possibility
of really injuring the other person and choose whether they are really prepared to accept the
consequences of this before entering a conflict. So martial arts both have the benefits of any
mind and body exercises, and they foster a mentality of avoiding conflict. This avoiding
conflicts is like compound interest. Wherever you start doing it, it brings more and more
benefits. If you can live without being in conflict with those close to you, those you work
with, and your society, you will live a far happier life.
In this way martial arts are a hybrid, but you are free to give a different and changing hierarch
with time to your practise.