What are the Benefits of Martial Arts?

“One light can light 10 thousand, which can become the power that illuminates the world. 

To create a better world, we must start with ourselves”

-Koichi Tohei

In this day in age, we find that many in our society fail to understand the basic concepts that lead to a productive life.   Some of these concepts include honor, justice, courage, loyalty, courtesy, veracity, benevolence and modesty.  If one does not receive the proper education in these concepts, he/she may fall through the cracks and exhibit criminal behavior.  Since studies have shown that most of adults’ social and mental outlooks are shaped during their childhood years, we as parents (and as teachers) have a chance to make a difference.  While no responsible parent wants to raise potential criminals or underachievers, situations often arise that might impair the progress of raising their children.  Divorce, separation, death of a loved one, inner insecurities or a host of other barriers may arise during the course of a child’s upbringing and put them at a disadvantage by the time they reach adulthood.What if you are a teen or an adult?  Is it too late for you to learn how to improve your physical and mental health?   Studies have shown that joining a martial arts program provides a stable and structured environment for any individual who is ready and willing to learn.  There are currently six benefits of karate: fitness, confidence, coordination, focus, discipline, and self-defense.

 Along with the positive mental and physical benefits that one obtains from taking USA Goju Karate-do, our system of martial art focuses on SELF-DEFENSE.  What is self-defense you may ask?  Self-defense is a countermeasure that involves defending one’s self, ones’ property, or the well being of another from harm.  Self-defense comes in various forms: armed, unarmed, avoidance, and de-escalation (verbal self defense).   In our system, a student is taught how to use these four types of self-defenses.

There are people who think that one has to be “in shape” in order to execute a self-defense technique against one or more opponents. This is true for certain systems of martial arts and not true for others. Our jujitsu instructors have always told us that an effective self-defense technique is one that can be used by any person regardless of age, sex, race, stature or physical condition.  Although there are many martial arts systems that stress physical conditioning as a pre-requisite for being able to defend oneself, our school focuses on the proper execution of the self-defense technique.

Not only do we focus on the art of self-defense, we also devote part of our curriculum to the art of fighting.  In our school, however, we teach fighting only as a sport. For example, our fighting or ‘sparring sessions’ usually lasts anywhere from a minute to three minutes and the participants are required to wear protective equipment. In addition, the participants are required to follow a set of rules in a controlled atmosphere under the direction of the instructor.  In this case, physical fitness is a necessity, but the focus is to improve ones’ health and fighting technique rather than trying to beat up your opponent.

Students in our school are taught to learn the difference between self-defense and fighting.  First of all a self-defense situation isn't going to be as long and drawn out as either a fight or a sporting match. Your only goal in a self-defense situation is to get out of there. That means instead of standing there trying to fight you only engage your opponent long enough to knock him down and run. In fact, the reason for physical fitness should be more for your health than its use in self-defense.  There really is no reason for you having to "get in shape" for self-defense. How good of shape do you need to be in order to knock someone down and run to safety? Yes, you should be in good enough shape to do a 100 yard dash in a reasonable time. But that is not all that hard. Again though, that is more an issue about your health than self-defense.