Why Train In Martial Arts?

As the title says.... Why? A lot of people don't really really know what martial arts are beyond the high flying kicking and punching of various movies. With that picture firmly in your mind I hate to break the bubble, but we don't hover in the air and perform 10 blindingly fast kicks to a multitude of bad guys and we don't punch mountain sides to rubble. These are all tricks of the movie maker to suck us into their particular story. But what is shown in most of these movies, certainly the better ones, is that the martial artist puts in time, hard work and dedication to make him or herself the best they can be. A particularly good quote on this from the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon by the character Mr Han is "we forge our bodies in the fire of our will".

So back to the original question... Why? Nearly all martial arts have an element of discipline for mind and body and  this also reflects on the respect shown, not just for the instructor, but for your fellow students. In my own personal experience going back the early 1980s, this taught me that being a cheeky wee ragamuffin would get me a slap round the ear and excluded from training. These days the slap isn't there (unless Mrs H backhands me during sparring) but I do know that kids needing a timeout are indeed given that, and facing a corner while your classmates are having fun kicking pads, doing patterns etc is usually a good motivator for them to keep in line.

Fitness is another key factor, especially for us of a slightly elevated age level. In my first 6 months of starting Tae Kwon Do I lost 3 stone in weight. Through time and persistence I found I could keep up with most of the people there and without the fear of Mr Chahal having to phone an ambulance for me at the end of the session. Please remember that doing exercise is one thing but you need to balance that with a healthy diet. An hours session of Tae Kwon Do burns about 900 calories but its not going to do you much good if your having a 12" carryout pizza afterwards. If you're serious about using the training to help keep trim then try a calorie counter app for your smartphone or find one online you can use, even use old fashioned pen and paper to take a note of how many calories you're consuming or getting back through exercise. I'm trying the "stay off bread" test at the moment, although I don't know how much longer I can keep eating cous cous with mixed veg for lunch!

The social aspect is a big part of martial arts for me as I've met, and continue to meet, so many amazing people and not just through Tae Kwon Do. Through my writing I met karate sensei and writer (and mentor) John Clark and through him I've got to know Jamie Gray and Liam Gallagher, both karate sensei's who know and love their art. A few weekends ago, these gentlemen and a host of other diverse martial artists got together for a seminar in Ayr where internet sensation Master Ken "demonstrated" to us all that our own forms were a load of...... err..... rubbish :) We all had great fun and it was good to get all these sometimes very serious people in a room together doing the "Thrust of Freedom".... don't ask, just look it up on YouTube. So as you can see martial arts is a great way for like minded people to get together. Thank you again to Jamie Gray who organised the Master Ken seminar.

There are various competitions held throughout the year which are a great way to test your skills be it in sparring or patterns, both or, for the black belts, destruction. Its always a good idea to ramp up your supplemental training outside of your regular sessions, be it running or cycling or swimming or some other form for cardio work. This is particularly important if you want to maintain your weight for your sparring division. Nothing worse than having registered as a middleweight to turn up at a competition and be weighed to find that the 12" pizza you had on Friday has bumped you into heavy weight! There is also the social side of competitions and if you use FaceBook or twitter a lot you'll probably meet and speak to a lot of these competitors online, but at the competitions you actually get to meet and chat to them face to face.

Have I "forged my body"? Well... lets just say its a work in progress. I keep at it and I'm back supplementing my training with some cycling and daily stretching in the hope I can get back into 30" waist jeans like I could when I was 18. I could be pushing that a bit as I'll be 44 at the end of the year so I'm no spring chicken. However I'm not going to let age stop me getting to where I want to go and age shouldn't put off anyone wanting to take up martial arts either. Give it a go! You'll meet interesting people, get fit and enjoy it I'm sure.