Do Martial Arts Really Teach Discipline And Not Violence?

By Author: Fred Daitatt
Total Articles: 30
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Martial arts seem to be very popular these days. There are so many forms of these arts. We know them generally as Tae Kwan Do, Judo, Kung Fu, Karate, Aikido and other more obscure ones, each one has as many different styles as there are masters.

The proliferation of different styles are normally the result of former students who open up their own school, possibly because they have created their own style and not too happy with their former sensei or masters.

I took up Karate when I was a kid after being influenced by violent films and action stars like Bruce Lee. The instructor was a good man who actually taught the philosophy of martial arts and that was to refrain from violence at all times. I remember asking him why do we learn such deadly efficient techniques of maiming or even killing someone if he have to refrain from violence. His answer was that if we had enough practice and knew how deadly they were, we would be disciplined enough not to use them.

I did not understand what he meant by one could be disciplined by learning to be violent. I am no way clearer about it now. The whole point is that martial ...
... arts exponents today do not really know why they teach the arts at all. All they know is to teach physical techniques. Only my first Karate teacher taught me to restrain my violent tendencies. My later teacher never did. While some teachers teach students to restrain one's violent tendencies and only execute the moves for self-protection purposes, most teachers do not teach that. In fact most of them encourage their students to be aggressive and win tournaments so that they can strut around showing off how good they were as teachers.

I have given up martial arts training actually for I cannot find a real genuine master. It is easy to find one who is very skilled and can make me a really good fighter, much in mould of Bruce Lee. However what good did Bruce Lee's films convey? They were mere blood-thirsty sagas of revenge and aggression. Is this what we want of our society? I hardly think so.

Also within the martial circles, there are a lot of backstabbing and ridicule of each other's art. Each sensei or master will say that the important things in martial arts are discipline and humility. Then the master will usually go on at length talking about how genuine his art is and how fraudulent the others are.

Now I'm not saying that martial arts is bad, is it good to learn it as self defense purposes however, whether you agree or not, most if not all, teach violence. Although they will violently deny it, I have not yet met a martial arts teacher who can really tell me the true meaning of the whole thing. Maybe such a person does not exist. So for most students and teachers, martial arts is just another ego-building activity - a trip into violence.
Apart from writing, Fred also enjoy building websites on subjects that he's passionate about such as Proform Elliptical Trainer. Come visit http://www.ProformEllipticalTrainers.com for more information.