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The Best Martial Art
Peter Vermeeren
Many people send us emails inquiring about the best martial
art so we decided to write an article about the best martial
art in our opinion.
It is a very difficult task to determine which is the best
martial art so first of all let's take a look what a martial
art exactly is and what not.
The word "martial art" consists of 2 parts: "martial" and
"art" both of them are very important as you will see in the
following lines in the determination of what a martial art
exactly is.
According to the dictionary the word martial means:
1. Of, relating to, or suggestive of war.
2. Relating to or connected with the armed forces or the profession
of arms.
3. Characteristic of or befitting a warrior.
As you can see, martial has everything to do with war and
the ways of the warrior.
Art on the other hand gives the following definition:
1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract
the work of nature.
2.
a. The conscious production or arrangement
of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in
a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the
production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
b. The study of these activities.
c. The product of these activities; human
works of beauty considered as a group.
3. High quality of conception or execution, as found in works
of beauty; aesthetic value.
4. A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.
5. A non-scientific branch of learning; one of the liberal
arts.
6.
a. A system of principles and methods employed
in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.
b. A trade or craft that applies such a
system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.
7.
a. Skill that is attained by study, practice,
or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
b. Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive
faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified
to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
8.
a. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and
tricks.
b. Artful contrivance; cunning.
So combining the two gives us A system of war principles and
war methods employed in the performance of a set of warlike
activities as a useful definition for martial art.
In short; "the training of the methods and principles of war."
This is very important that we understand this completely
because most martial arts nowadays are not martial arts as
defined by the term above. War is not defined by rules, competition
or divisions. War has only one goal; the destruction of the
opponent by all necessary means in the shortest time possible.
The moment a martial art acquires rules of competition, divisions,
and rules of engagement or protection the martial part of
martial arts is lost and the martial art in question becomes
a completely different thing.
Now I am not going to write about the sports derived from
martial arts because the question in this article is "What
is the best martial art."
In my opinion the best martial art is the one that gives you
most options of survival in a true case of life and dead struggle
with a professional opponent.
This means that the martial art must be prepared and give
the practitioner the possibility and means to deal with both
armed as well as unarmed opponents, single or multiple attacks
and so on.
This is not only done by techniques because techniques and
the human capacity to perform them in the short period of
time (seconds) of a true case and in constantly changing environments,
situations and against different opponents makes it virtually
impossible to use only techniques overcome all kinds of attacks.
This is where the martial methods in Japan became an art.
Being aware of the limitations of training (limited time and
physical capacity) the Japanese bushi started to study the
underlying principles of war. They found out that all human
beings have similar reactions when they are to be found in
similar situations.
Let me give you an example to make this clear: When someone
touches a hot stove his hand automatically recoils without
even having to think about pulling your hand back. Or when
your head is pulled down, your body automatically will follow
and to prevent falling to the floor you will resist pulling
to the opposite side of the force pulling you down.
Knowing and understanding these concepts gave the boshi in
ancient Japan an enormous advantage over his adversaries.
It increased by no small amount his capacity to deal with
life threatening situations.
Today this is still useful and I think it will always because
humans today are the same as the ones of 600 years ago. We
still share the same fears and instinctive reflexes and the
principles of war have not changed, only the means by which
we engage in war.
So if you want to practice the best martial art first of all
you must be prepared to do a lot of hard physical training
(did you ever see a warrior with an overweight of 50 pounds?)
to prepare your body, next explore your fears and instinctive
reactions and adapt or change them to fit your needs as a
warrior so you will be able to use them in true combat and
finally learn to understand your opponent and use his fears
and instinctive reactions against him.
This will give you the best martial art.
Copyright © Peter Vermeeren - http://www.kamikaze-portal.com
Peter Vermeeren is a traditional martial arts teacher
for over 30 year. His websites can be found here: http://www.takaharudojo.org
and http://www.kamikaze-portal.com
Article Source: http://www.hotlib.com/articles
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