Martial Art is one of the classical arts of Mankind, existing since ancient times. To put it in layman’s terms, “Martial art is an art of learning to fight”. However, since the word fight is nowadays associated mainly with physical aspect, the scope of Martial arts gets limited to physical fight only and hence many who want to pursue Martial arts or are attracted towards Martial arts can sometimes get taken by its physical appeal which is to kick someone’s ass with cinematic style technique, or to build great fitness and health or to be able to defend oneself in survival scenarios like an action hero.
In reality, one might find it astonishing that Martial art which has so much value as mentioned above at physical level was never meant to be an art whose primary aim was physical development. Martial arts’ primary aim was always spiritual development through the means of physical and psychological development. This approach stem from inner realisation that human beings have a deep connection with conflicts in life. These conflicts or we sometimes refer to them as fights are mainly internal battles and not external battles where the real cause lies within us and only by fighting and overcoming that within, we change our external circumstances. This is the main goal of Martial arts.
Today, when you ask someone or search on internet about what are the types of Martial arts, you might find forms like Karate, Kung-Fu, Taekwondo, Judo, MMA etc being more popular ones. In reality, there are over 1000 Martial art forms which have been developed since ancient times. Some of them are restricted to selected traditions and are not shared with public at large. Some of them have lost its meaning and have taken different form than its origins. Some have been re-invented to adapt to modern age. Whereas as the name suggests, these are just different forms or styles with different emphasis to reach essentially the same goal of overcoming internal conflicts of life we face as human beings.
You might ask, ‘’Can I learn Martial arts with all my physical limitations?” or “Why should I learn Martial Arts?” To such questions, I would only say that Martial Art is an essential life skill and as human beings we should have basic knowledge of martial arts irrespective of whatever limitations we think we have in practicing it or whether we like it or not. The art is for all age groups be it a kid, an adult, a girl or women, middle age men and even elderly senior citizen. The reason for pursuing martial art needs to be align to the goal of martial arts as mentioned earlier which is to learn to fight at all levels of our being and irrespective of age or gender, because we as human beings always need to overcome our limitations, face challenges, overcome obstacles for peaceful existence and happiness.
In Addition, the benefits of engaging in an art form like this are plenty. Martial arts is one of the few arts which deals with all aspects of our personality; physical, energetic, emotional and mental. And there are tangible benefits one can gain at all levels.
At Physical Level: Development of Strength, Power, Balance, Agility, Flexibility, Hand-Eye Coordination etc.
At Energetic Level: Stamina, Endurance, Health, Well-being etc
At Emotional Level: Facing & identifying one’s fears, controlling anger & aggression, pushing limits of comfort zone, stability etc
At Mental Level: Strategy & Tactics for achieving a goal, learning to see wider perspective, mental toughness and strength etc.
To conclude, Martial art is complete form of Art of Life and its relevance can never be undermined irrespective of whichever time period we are living. So, to answer a very common question, “Is Martial Art for me?” I would say, “Yes, it is for you and all those you know as it is age old art form of learning how to live and in the words of legendary Martial Artist Bruce Lee, “To be a Martial Artist essentially means to be an Artist of Life”
-Vineet Lalan