Thursday 21 June 2012
Every time you practice Martial Arts, you will realize that you keep on learning more about the principles and philosophies behind the Martial Arts.
You may encounter repetitious hand movements, blocks, kicks, drills, and warm up exercises, that performing those drills and exercises over and over and over again start to get dull.
But after you start to reflect on the intricacies of Martial Arts practice, you will soon start to hone your body movements and take notice of the position of you arms, legs, hands, feet, head, etc. while performing each movement. It is only after recognizing and contemplating your body position that you will get to understand the philosophy behind the Martial Arts.
There is no other way around it. Martial Arts is a way of life. Once you commit to Martial Arts and get past the basics, you will start associating the philosophies you have learned in Martial Arts with your everyday life.
Motivating yourself to go to class is the same as motivating yourself to go to work. Doing push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises is like performing other day-to-day rituals.
And pushing yourself to do more push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises is like pushing yourself to learn more about your job and to handle more stress in your life.
This way Martial Arts transcends a typical workout and starts to become a link between what you are now and what you want to become.
The sooner you realize you can push yourself physically to do those 5 extra push-ups or 20 extra kicks, the sooner you will realize you have the power to do whatever it is you want with your life.
At first, it is difficult to associate Martial Arts and Martial Arts practice movements and techniques with art. How can you consider a punch or a kick or mountain block a form of art?
The answer becomes clear the first time you see someone perform a Martial Arts form artistically; taking care to make sure every movement is performed with exactness. Sloppy movements do not look artistic. Crisp, meaningful movements look artistic.
So what is a crisp, meaningful movement? When performing Martial Arts or any movement in Martial Arts, you need to think about every single body position in the form or movement.
Where should your head be, where should your eyes be looking, when do you snap, how should your feet be positioned?
These are questions that must be considered before and during a movement. The more you practice, the more the movements become ingrained and the less you actually have to think about them.
When you perform a long stance inside block, the line of your back leg and the forearm of the arm performing the inside block should both be on the same “line”, parallel to each other.
This type of thinking and care is what makes Martial Arts an art. When you position your body with “mathematical exactness” so that every line in your body is straight and every angle looks purposeful, you are creating art, with your body.
The artistic philosophy of Taekwondo and Hapkido is just an extension of the fact that Martial Arts is a way of life. The more time you take to think about your movements in Hapkido and Taekwondo and to perform those movements with an exact, artistic intention, the more likely you are to take care when making decisions in your real life.
Once you begin to understand and master this philosophy of the Martial Arts, you can start applying that understanding to your everyday life.
