If you don’t understand the ‘Art’ that balances the Martial, then you can never be a Warrior
Life Performance Through Martial ARTs
In the modern era of martial arts an exclusive focus on ‘effectiveness‘ of technique and its application has become the norm. People want not only to learn techniques that work, they also want to be able to test it for themselves. This expression of ‘truth’ in modern martial arts is one of the positive benefits arising out of the advent of mixed martial arts, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and reality based self-defense.
This shift from ‘tradition‘ and unsubstantiated claims of many old martial arts, to the modern approach of ‘prove that it works’ — has been a positive shift for many people who seek a ‘real‘ experience of martial arts that will actually hold up under pressure.
Historically martial ARTs has always been tied to achieving excellence in ones life beyond the ‘fight’. This excellence arose through not only understanding, but practicing BALANCE. Even the term itself ‘Martial Arts’ speaks to this ideal.
Martial - Clearly when we talk about training martial arts for self-preservation the ‘martial’ skills we learn must work. This speaks to the development of an ‘effective’ game.
Art - Speak to most people who practice martial arts and most cannot tell you (even those who teach it) why the word ART would be placed alongside the ‘martial’. Clearly most martial athletes don’t understand it either, viewing being called a martial artist as some kind of insult.
Practicing the ART is not really about fighting technique, but rather what that fighting technique can do for you beyond the mat. In this respect ART refers to developing excellence or the soft skills through martial art practice.
Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre distinguishes between the effective application of a skill and the embodying of excellence born out of the ‘practice‘ of that skill. Someone could be said to be extremely effective in applying their skill in sparring or the fight (the martial aspect), but just because someone is ‘effective’ in the fight does not necessarily mean they have achieved excellence (the art). Seeking excellence then in martial artistry implies becoming ‘good’ at the virtues embodied through martial art training. Aggressiveness for example is not a virtue, but rather valued for its tangible consequences (like beating the opponent in front of you). Virtue on the other hand is a character strength. Character strengths are the psychological ingredients, processes and mechanisms that define virtue. Humility is a virtue that comes out of balancing Art and Martial. Humility is morally valued in its own right, even in the absence of obvious beneficial outcomes to winning a fight.
While both effectiveness and excellence may share some common traits such as developing a higher level of confidence in a particular activity (i.e. sparring), only excellence can bring about the development of character virtues. For example confidence developed in isolation to virtue development, will likely only remain within the context in which it was developed (i.e. confidence in one’s effectiveness in sparring). Only character strengths tied to virtues action, are able to cross the boundaries from the experience of the martial into the ART of LIFE.
Simply been an effective fighter, does not prepare you for the Martial ARTs of everyday life!
This is not to say that there is anything wrong with pursuing the effectiveness of the game as a Martial Athlete. On the contrary it is necessary to be effective in martial art skill to be able to embrace ‘excellence’ and to have the skill to defend oneself if need be. However just because one trains in the effectiveness of martial athletic skill does not by default mean that one will be able to develop excellence in martial artistry. The very nature of seeking exclusivity in effectiveness of martial skill often prohibits the possibility of seeing martial arts as more than just its effectiveness.
In Crazy Monkey Defense we believe in balance. We balance martial effectiveness with the excellence of art. When you train as a Martial Artist first, who seeks to be excellent in their training, you naturally become effective. Here effectiveness transcends just the ability to be good on the mat, in the ring or able to defend oneself — but ties to excellence which leads to personal mastery in life.
In Crazy Monkey every time we are on the mat, we are practicing the martial art of everyday life — which means learning to deal with setbacks, destructive emotions, mental blocks, how to be resilient in the face of overwhelming odds, how to embrace chaos and impermanence. All these lessons and many others we then ‘purposively’ seek to exploit beyond the mat in life.