Most traditional martial arts train their techniques in a symmetric way: every exercise is performed both on the left and right side. Boxing and some other martial sports, with little or no traditional martial arts background, tend to train on one side only: that’s why a boxer is either left or right sided. The advantages of training symmetrically are essentially the following:

• Better balanced body with muscles equally developed on both sides: this ensures proper posture and better spine alignment
• Double repertoire of techniques: in case a limb gets damaged the opposite side can still operate successfully
• Capability of coping with opponents fighting from left or right guard: in fact it can put single sided opponents in serious difficulty

None of them if possible. Street fights do happen: sometimes dictated by irrational behaviour, other times escalating from binge drinking, road rage or other unforgivable reasons: whatever the motivation, it can happen to you. With this post I am not trying to discuss how to defend yourself in such a situation: simply analyzing why a professional fighter is usually a more dangerous opponent than a street fighter.  An experienced street fighter, perhaps somebody who grew up in a rough neighbourhood, is a dangerous opponent to fight because:

• he is surely unfair, not playing according to rules (what rules?)
• he will be seizing any opportunity available, hit you first
• he would try to hurt you with a sudden move, perhaps while talking or arguing
• he will try to knock you down as soon as possible: probably once he succeeded he will continue to hit you while you are on the floor
• he will be ruthless, perhaps using weapons, in order to win the fight at any cost

Let’s now define a professional fighter: my definition here will be ‘somebody who fights full contact either in boxing, kickboxing, muai thai, K1 or MMA and trains for it several hours per week’.  I am convinced that you ever get to fight one of these guys (or girls) in the street your chances are much slimmer than in the other case.  The professional fighter will be:

• stronger, faster, fitter than the average man on the street and with enough stamina to be fighting at full power for several rounds lasting 2 to 5 minutes each
• with a good knowledge about what parts of the opponent to hit and the precision needed to deliver on target
• with a well conditioned body, trained to be hit hard by other professional fighters

From an emotional point of view the street fighter will be acting under rage, at full adrenaline burst: the professional will surely be affected by adrenaline rush but in a much more controlled and trained way so he will be more focused on his actions.

Considering that is unlikely we know who we are going to meet on the street and whether they are street, professional or non fighters my suggestion would be to avoid fights at any cost: in the mean time keep (or start) training martial arts, they might be useful one day.

Somebody told you that martial arts are good for everyone? What about children, are martial arts good for them? I would say most definitely yes so let’s see together how.

Martial arts, particularly the traditional ones (e.g. Karate, Judo, Kung Fu - this is a non exhaustive list) maintain a heritage of the master-pupil rapport that instils discipline and respect.  Teaching children in very young age, should be done like a game: movements and techniques are not shown or explained in their full expression.  In the mean time the young minds develop body awareness that help them with their balance and coordination.  The repetitive work of the same techniques tried, improved and mastered over long period of time allows muscles to be worked out and to be strengthened.   By the same metric joints, muscles and tendons are stretched and exercised in a way that develops a lean, strong, tonic and fit body.  When techniques are practiced or even during sparring (kumite, randori…) the focus goes toward competitiveness while at the same time learning respect for the opponent, for the referee and people around you.

Children that have tendency to be violent toward their peers learn to have a better sense of self control and to avoid excessive expression of aggressiveness.  The physical training causes over time, like in adults, an improvement of self confidence in every life situation, not just for self defence.  The perseverance that a child has to put in learning and mastering a martial art will not just be useful for itself: the same perseverance can be later in life applied to studies and work.

It is unlikely that anybody involved in martial arts doesn’t know who Bruce Lee was; even today, nearly 35 years after his death he seems a very actual character.  Personally I have read many articles and books about him or written by him.  I have also watched all of his movies and heard many interviews about Bruce Lee from people that lived, trained or worked with him.  All these documents agree on the same things:

• A great martial artist highly dedicated to express himself and his art.
• A very powerful fighter, somebody who learnt how to transform the body of a small size Chinese man in a deadly weapon that could deliver strikes so powerful that were unseen at that time.
• An innovator as he first mixed training methods from Oriental martial arts with methodologies taken from Western sports such as American football, boxing, weight lifting.
• A visionary, somebody who saw that martial arts, being free expression of the practitioner cannot be kept secret and segregated to a minority of people. That was the biggest innovation of his way of thinking: no borders or frontiers for martial arts. Before him many styles were kept secret and just taught to Chinese people.
• A philosopher that applied the way of living his martial arts in everything he did. In fact the depth of understanding of ancient philosophers and masters he had is one of the things that most amazes me when I watch his interviews. Aged just above 20 years he speaks with the wisdom of an ancient master.
• A great business man and marketer, as he soon realized that the best way of promoting the expression of his art was to make movies that many million people would have watched for many years to come.

Without intending to diminish the great fame of a man that inspired millions of martial artist to train and improve themselves (including myself) there are a some of doubts about this person and his skills, just by analyzing what was written, said and filmed:

• Wing chun, the martial art that Bruce Lee first introduced to the West is a very powerful, out of the ordinary style: it can very easily outfight Karate or Judo practitioners making them look clumsy and defenceless. Even nowadays a skilled wing chun practitioner can easily demonstrate this superiority against a number of different styles.
• Being the first person in challenging the traditions and cross training different styles from different countries (even non Chinese, kind of heretic behaviour in the ‘60ies and early ‘70ies) he was also the first to achieve these results that are nowadays reachable by a broad range of martial artists.

My conclusion is that although great and amazing he became so famous because he was a precursor, he was the first in most things he did: if he lived today he would surely be a good martial artist but one of the many that walk the Earth.

Well, in fact, if he did not live, perhaps, martial arts today would not be as well known as they are… or would they be?

Although martial arts are not team activities there are many elements of cohesion that motivate martial arts practice more that any other sport. Let analyse why this is true:

1. Practicing a martial art is a long time investment in your health and well being: the time to proficiency is often long enough to establish good habits in your life, those that last for a long time. If and when you stop training for a while you’ll miss it, both physically, mentally and emotionally.
2. Most martial arts teach a broad variety of techniques that keep you busy for many years just to master them all. In this you see a natural progression and having continuously new things to learn it makes it very interesting. Many masters state that perfection can be aimed but never achieved, therefore even after many years of training you are running after perfection while you keep adapting your knowledge and techniques to you ageing body.
3. As are you naturally going to meet people that are better than you it will be natural to have a sense of challenge to improve day after day, session after session. In general the progression is easy to monitor and to measure therefore it is relatively easy to compare results against effort.
4. The achievement of a certain level of proficiency, lesson after lesson will release endorphins that naturally make you feel good. At the end of each training session, with the natural tiredness you’ll have a feeling of well being that is quite addictive.
5. Although martial arts manifest in many different ways and levels of intensity the overall training will ensure the practitioner to be a well round, balanced athlete with a decent level of fitness, stamina, strength, flexibility and coordination.
6. Although martial arts are usually practiced in pairs and groups, some of the training can be rehearsed solo: that allows the practitioner to keep training, at least on some of the exercises, when she is on her own.
7. Martial arts practice involves a reasonably complete workout rather than concentrating on a single part of the body. Different styles will put more emphasis on different areas of the body while practicing a balanced mix of exercises.
8. Martial arts are a great stress relief: the aggression accumulated during work or while at school can be easily channelled and released in a controlled manner toward the practice of your techniques. It’s likely that after training the amount of aggression you had before starting is reduced or completely gone and you feel calmer and more in control.
9. Martial arts training ensures that your whole attention will be directed toward your training, with minimal distraction. Even when your feel at an adequate level of proficiency and most moves come naturally without the need of thinking too carefully, your partner / opponent is there to punch you, to kick you or to throw you. Self preservation will naturally motivates you to put full attention in what you are doing.
10. The sense of challenge and cooperation that can be found in many martial arts club I have experienced can foster friendship and social entertainment outside the training hall (dojo, kwon, dojang…).