Finding the Art in Martial Arts

I’ve been doing martial arts for over a decade, and yet I am still taken a back by how many new concepts and hidden meanings I still discover weekly, if not daily. Over time, I am seeing more and more connections and parallels between training in martial arts and life itself. The legendary swordmaster Miyamoto Musashi said “you can know 1,000 things by knowing one, well.” And I keep figuring out how on-point he truly was. I have discovered more ways to which everything is intertwined and not just literally but the metaphors are undeniable, it’s like the way that we do an activity very much is the way that we handle things in our life. The level of patience that you have to have in order to properly do martial arts for the long run is very similar to how you it is in a job or relationship. Anything you’re trying to get better at takes a certain amount of dedication and time and there’s no shortcut to success(other than occasional short-term success) you have to put in the time. There‘s so much to be learned about “the long haul” from martial arts that you can see the ebb and flow of progress and feeling stuck, and the excessive passion and then looking for excuses to skip class again. You’ll find yourself submitting everyone you roll with, to all of a sudden getting beaten from people who you were beating a week before. It’s a constant test of one’s focus, will, ego, and mind. It’s mathematical both in angles used and force applied(the understanding of keeping energy and momentum along the circle utilizing push-pull mechanics) which is pretty much a physics textbook on display. It’s art, as you string together movements and seemless techniques to compose sentences and paragraphs of functional strikes and grappling techniques to subdue or defeat your opposition. You learn to teach and to be the student, also learning to give and take, and build proper communication skills. It’s an ever developing platform for experimentation and innovation, allowing one to embrace their creativity. As your journey progresses, you start to adjust, adapt, and ultimately customize your style to suit your body type and personality; the ultimate self reflection and projection of who you really are. It is also movement meditation, and one’s connection to the universe. And combat allows one to test all of this simultaneously, with one misstep potentially ending in unconsciousness(or if on the street, your life). In other words, all of life is reflected in martial arts. But all of this I have known for sometime. My realization I’ve had is more along the lines of how truly different the person who started this journey is and who I am today. I was once told that “If the reason you start martial arts doesn’t adjust or change, you will most likely quit after a year or so. Which makes sense considering how rare it is for people to stay in it to black belt( usually 10 years at least for a good Brazilian Jiu-jitsu school) which I guess makes sense that is the case. I wanted to learn to fight, I thought it would be cool. I’ve done it for ego, attention, validation, being in shape, attracting the opposite sex, in honor of an instructor’s legacy, and I have thought about quitting several times over the years in frustration, but eventually overcame my hang ups and kept going. And here I am once again dealing with frustration, with another factor now taking it’s role; time. I am starting to feel my age, and I don’t recover or get going as quick as I used to. I’ve broken countless bones, fractured, torn, pulled just about everything you can in the body; yet I keep going forward. At this point, I’m not sure if I know what life is outside of it. For all the people who have come and gone in my life, the martial arts has always been there; the one constant. It has kept me from taking my life, choosing darker pathways and futures, and made me strong enough to handle various situations as well as help others. Whenever I don’t have the answer, a good training session usually clears the cobwebs away enough to get there. And all of my injuries and scars are almost like a mural telling the tale of my journey. I am certainty different than the person I entered as, but in many ways, I have that same fire inside that has gotten me through a rough childhood and coming to college broke and homeless and making it through to graduate. I used to think others had the keys to filling my holes inside, but martial arts has taught me that it’s up to me. No one can put the time in for you nor fight your battles for you. And you may get stuck(actually you definitely will)but keep at it and pushing forward, and you will eventually get through it. There is no shortcut to progress and the funny thing is the secret can only be gained by going through the journey: the struggle, blood, sweat, and tears; for the journey is the only thing that gives you the experience and language that is necessary to see, appreciate, and understand what life is truly all about. Until shaped and melded into a sword, the raw steel is unaware of what it could potentially be. All things are is potential. All things in the universe are made of the same stuff, just in different proportions; we are all stardust reworked into art. I’ll leave you with this: when you first begin your journey on the way to enlightenment, you will notice yourself, the tree, the car, the sky. After you start to get it, and achieve a sense of enlightenment, you realize there is no you, no tree, no car, no sky. Then at the next level, there is once again you, the tree, the car, the sky.

---