I haven't been in a fight since high school. I have been in altercations, but they were over so quickly and I had to do so little to solve them, that they hardly even count.So, if the chances of getting into a fight are so low, why should anyone even consider training in martial arts in the first place?
I've asked myself this question many times in the 22 years I've been training. As a child I hated martial arts. I hated getting pummeled or thrown on the mat. For years I begged my mother to let me quit, but she always refused. I didn't really understand why she was so adamant about my training, but as I got a little older the answer came to me.
Martial Arts are about Survival.
Every exercise, every kata, every drill found in martial arts is designed to increase a practitioners survival. This is most evident with the very foundation of martial arts, break falling. Break falling is a method of decreasing or mitigating damage taken from falling. This comes in the form of rolling, tucking in the chin or using limbs in such a way as to absorb shock and protect the head or chest.
Break falling has saved my life more than once and I have had to use it many more times than any combat applications I have studied. It is a core skill, but also a survival skill. Many people who do not train in the martial arts take falling for granted. Anyone can fall at any time. Although people spend their entire lives trying to stay on balance, a twist of the ankle or a soap in the shower or slick surface can easily cause a fall that could cause death. Statistically few people die from standing height falls, but very many people without training injure themselves severely.
This is one of the great benefits of the martial arts. Learning how to fall and turning it into an instinctual action that becomes muscle memory. I have taken a great many falls that should have killed me, but walked away unscathed. I believe this is a valuable survival skill for any human being.
Break falling also conditions the body. Science shows that repeated impacts to bone and muscle cause the body to harden to protect itself over time. A new student of the martial arts can learn to break fall in a few weeks, however their body can take up to seven years to be conditioned enough to take bad falls with limited damage.
The mind can learn martial arts quickly, but it takes the body many years to internalise what the mind has learned in hours.
This body conditioning doesn't only come from break falling. Many drills and techniques in the martial arts make contact with the body. Repeated strikes from fists, elbows and legs, over time, condition the body to take a hit and continue to function with limited disruption. There are limits to this training, such as strikes to the head which cannot be conditioned. In fact repeated strikes to the head decrease the ability of the body to take those hits the future. Knowing which parts of the body can be conditioned and which parts can't is an important part of training, but also shows the limits and weaknesses of the body.
Another type of body conditioning is physical training. Martial arts has a unique way of moving the body and relies on a holistic physical training regimen to achieve efficient movement. This physical training is also a form of body maintenance. A human body needs to move, joints need to work through their full range of motion and bones need pressure to maintain strength. Isolated exercises do not help in this regard, the body needs to move as a whole unit and has to experience certain stresses to maintain healthy function. This is another benefit of martial arts training and increases the long term of the practitioners survival by granting a healthier lifestyle.
Martial arts also trains a practitioner's perception. Perception is a human's ability to perceive the world around them with their senses. Perception is split into the gathering of sensory data (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste) and the processing of that data. Martial arts rely heavily on sensory perception and each exercise or drill strengthens the parts of the brain that process this sensory information. Whether it be practicing break falls in a room full of people or using peripheral vision to scan for danger when practicing drills when everyone is armed with long weapons, these activities put pressure on perception and strengthen them gradually over time.
Martial arts is more than just fighting, martial arts is about living and surviving. The ability to fight, wield weapons and disarm attackers is just a bonus. The strengthening of the body, the honing of the mind and the social bonds are the true benefit to training martial arts.
