In addition to being an excellent form of self-defense, martial arts training can provide significant benefits in the areas of self improvement and physical fitness.
Health
– regular martial arts training provides a means to greater vitality and fitness for practitioners of any age. Teachers and students alike have trained actively well into their 70s and 80s and enjoyed good overall life balance, health and vitality. This training has helped practitioners avert the worst effects of illness and injury from accidents or falls. While martial arts is not a panacea, it is a useful part of a lifelong health strategy as it develops excellent posture, balance, flexibility, proper breathing, body strength, mental acuity, and graceful movement needed to live well at any age.Inner Calm – martial arts helps develop composure in the face of conflict. It instills a quiet confidence that is a natural deterrent to would-be assailants and highly-valued as a leadership quality. Keeping one’s mind in focus and peace is hard enough in sitting meditation. Martial arts teaches how to maintain composure and sharpness under all forms of duress and, thus, how to make good decisions and keep presence of mind in the heat of the moment.
Self Awareness – martial arts provides an invaluable physical education that reorients our assumptions about how our body and mind works and where our inner strength and centers of power truly reside.
Focus and Discipline – martial arts training helps sharpen the mind, improve concentration, and enhance our capacity for sustained activity.
Social Responsibility – martial arts allows us to deal with life’s challenges in a positive way without losing composure or resorting to aggression. It provides new approaches and strategies for managing difficult and contentious situations.
Community – martial arts brings people together to encounter themselves and others. It relies as much on self training as it does on working with others to uncover the practical application behind it principles. The martial arts ultimate goal is greater communal peace and understanding and its practice requires and instills an inherently social and compassionate disposition.
Improved Management Skills – martial arts provides an excellent venue for enhancing management skills in any organizational context. It helps one develop the key elements needed for success in business and in life: grace under pressure, execution, sound judgment, positive and calm presence, confidence, adaptability, and the ability to engage others from their perspective without giving up one’s position or losing a sense of one’s own self.
Respect for Individual Difference – martial arts places no constraints on body size, gender, age or natural abilities. It can be learned by anyone regardless of body type or physique. Its principles are constant but no two practitioners look alike as each is discovering and developing their unique style in accordance with natural principles of movement. Martial arts also helps us approach each individual and circumstance differently applying its principles in ways appropriate to the uniqueness of the moment and training partner. Martial arts principles are simple yet their application is highly contextual.
Properly applied, martial arts can provide an alternative method of fulfilling these needs.
Using the MMPI, Trulson (1986) studied the impact of a Korean martial art (tae kwon do) on delinquent adolescents and found that those who trained in the "old style," stressing not only physical but also the psychological, meditative, and philosophical aspects, demonstrated lessened aggression, lowered anxiety, and increased self-esteem. In addition, scores on the Jackson Personality Inventory revealed a significant increase in social adroitness and value orthodoxy. It is important to note that youths trained in the more "modern style," which emphasizes fighting and competition, showed little change. Apparently it was the combination of mental and physical discipline that resulted in reduced aggression.
Nosanchuk (1981) studied 42 youths and found that karate training did not increase aggressiveness. However, it was hypothesized that the more violent youths would tend to drop out of training, thus confounding the results. A follow-up study (Nosanchuk & Mac Neil, 1989) supported the traditional training hypothesis rather than negative selection as an explanation of reduced aggression. The researchers suggested that there are three key elements when working with violent adolescents. First is the role of the sensei (teacher) as an "exemplar of restraint," a parent figure, and someone with faith in the student. Second is the teaching of the do (the ethics and philosophy of martial arts) along with the physical training. Third is the use of the kata (noncombative physical forms), which stress technique rather than conflict.
The psychotherapeutic aspects of martial arts were outlined by Weiser, Kutz, Kutz, and Weiser (1995), and included a focus on enhancing self-esteem through the use of physical activity, group experiences, relaxation training, concentration, assertiveness training, and rewarding honesty in communication.
Windle and Samko (1992) drew parallels between aikido and Ericksonian hypnosis. Aikido's psychophysiological state of "centering"--a readiness for the incoming attack, a Zen-like openness to movement--was compared to a hypnotic trance. Saposnik (1986) highlighted the use of aikido principles in the mediation of conflict. The three stages of aikido defense (perception, evaluation, and decision/reaction) were found to be useful in verbal conflict resolution.
Fuller (1988) found that applying the principles of aikido led to a general improvement in psychological health, especially in terms of assertiveness and stress management. Rothpearl (1980), reviewing four studies, concluded that, despite problems assigning causality, involvement in a martial art helps students cope with stress in a less violent manner. Pyecha (1970) found that students who took judo, as compared with those engaging in other physical education activities, were significantly more warmhearted and easygoing. Back and Kim (1979) have theorized that the benefits of martial arts stem from building strong moral character and the promotion of nonviolent attitudes and behavior.
Guthrie (1995) found that martial arts instruction for traumatized women (survivors of rape, incest, and other forms of violence) helped them to heal. Feminist ideology was combined with martial arts training to improve the women's self-image and decrease their self-perception as victims.
Snapshot of the benefits of learning a martial art
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For Adults
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