Self-Defense With or Without Respect
by admin
People might wonder whether there are other components to martial arts other than defense. It is difficult to know how every person frames the individual experience of this practice. And even more debatable whether other more abstract concepts should be taught during the lessons. Some people say that respect should be a basic discipline, while others argue that martial arts is only about fighting.
The traditional martial arts that originated from the East incorporated both a psychological perspective, a spiritual component, and a set of offense and defense techniques for fighting. These lessons were deeper than just physical movements. The teacher was viewed as someone who had mastered all the holistic areas of one’s life. This person had mastery in learning to respect one’s body, one’s opponent, and nature. There was a mindfulness that the teacher had to be in the moment and almost at one with everything around. This meant that the teacher modeled deference to the student, and the student respected the philosophy behind martial arts.
Now as martial arts have come to the West, the practice is somewhat subdued. All of the same motions and movements are taught. However, the practitioners might shy away from some of the deeper lessons that the practice of martial arts once held. This may be because spirituality is different for people in different cultures. It is respectful to recognize that people have the right to their own beliefs. However, respect is a universal concept that has been shown to be positive. It is something that would be valuable to reincorporate back into martial arts.
People who know how to teach this skill should be given proper respect. This means that they can also give lessons to others in the class about the tradition of respect in martial arts. There might not be a space for spirituality, but respect is more of a psychological component of martial arts. Parents who have children in martial arts will appreciate this lesson because they know that their children need to be taught respect in order to function well in life. Sometimes it is better to give respect than to fight, and respect to others can often prevent physical fights.
Since martial arts is mostly about defense, people should learn how, in any culture, to take measures to avoid violence. This means mannerisms that display that a person does not want to have confrontation, and would like to respect the other’s dignity. Recent studies show that people often engage in violence when they feel disrespected. This is especially true in poor communities where the people have little left materially. These topics should be addressed in any form of self defense because violence should be a last resort. People should not fight with respect, but choose not to fight at all if possible.
In all cultures now, violent clashes might be unavoidable. However, people can try to respect the dignity of human life even when faced with violence. Martial arts teach people how to engage in conflict with the attitude that respect is always important. Even when fighting, learning how to take an opponent out while trying to respect their well being is valuable.
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