I’d like to see you write more. I enjoy your writing. Some of your topics, like this one, show that there are two versions of most martial arts and the approach to and extent used of each can be very different.

Personally, I prefer the traditional style of the martial arts but that doesn’t mean that I’ll bypass the sport side of it. I thoroughly enjoy the “confrontation” in the sport because it gives me a chance to apply much of what I’ve learned. The simplest and shared confrontational form of the martial art, sparring, provides reinforcement for the teachings and hard work. That is priceless.

Preferring the traditional form of the art by no means precludes me from enjoying the sport of it.

Michael

So while I would not encourage people to go through “unnecessary” pain I would suggest that being caught unprepared by pain could incapacitate them from carry on fighting and loose whatever fight they are in.

In the sport sense, you should never push your body through unnecessary pain. It’s just not worth it. The sport side of martial arts is about competition. It is not a life-and-death situation.

In the traditional sense, you have to think of your art as self defense. If you get hurt during an altercation that could cost you your life, pain is the last thing you need to think about. Your priority is dealing with the situation in the best way possible at the time.

I study at a traditional Tae Kwon Do school under a master that fought in hand-to-hand combat without a weapon during the Vietnam war. In our do jang, we don’t push ourselves through unnecessary pain while training but we’re also taught that there are times when pain is far less important than what’s at stake in the fight.

Life rarely matches the controlled and sometimes sterile environment encountered during our training or in competitions.