(no subject)

[dchenes]

I don't usually yell at the television, but I've been doing it for the last little while. I've been sort of watching XMA on the Discovery Channel, and arguing with about half of it.


XMA, for those who don't know, stands for Extreme Martial Arts. I took karate classes in college, and I was nowhere near mastering any of it, but I learned enough to be able to hurt somebody badly if I had to. One of my senseis asked us once whether somebody who had spent years learning the straight punch and nothing else could win a fight with somebody who had spent years learning every technique there is. I think so. I think any martial art can be extreme all by itself.

One of the things my senseis concentrated on, which I think a lot of people who want to take karate don't think about, is control. Martial arts is about learning the techniques to hurt people, and also learning the control not to unless absolutely necessary. Martial arts movies are choreography, not martial arts. I was taught that you only use enough force to be able to get away from whatever situation you're in. There's no need to keep fighting after you've disabled an opponent. Ignoring the fact that the point of movie fights is to look impressive and not really hurt anybody, these movies in which our hero winds up fighting one person for fifteen minutes are just silly. If you're really trying to put somebody out, you don't mess around. Do it, get it over with, and get out. People forget that part of the "martial" part is the sense of honor involved.

It would take me a while to get back into the level of control I had when I was taking karate classes. I miss that. I miss being able to come within half an inch of hitting somebody and not do it. I would feel terrible if I ever hit anybody by accident, and the three people who hit me by accident felt terrible about it. For me, it's a matter of honor. It's a matter of telling people "I could have hurt you, but I didn't want to." Honor is all I really have as a martial artist, because I've never had the greatest technique in the world and I've never developed the reaction time for sparring.

Maybe next semester I'll see about the karate classes I couldn't go to this semester, now that I won't have classes on Thursday any more.

Comments

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

So what was it about XMA that bothered you?

I wish I could do martial arts!

[dchenes.livejournal.com]

Mostly the fact that somebody thought it had to be "extreme" in the first place. It's not extreme enough that you can potentially kill somebody with just the normal basics?

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

So it was the label rather than the actual events?

[dchenes.livejournal.com]

It was both. It's hard to explain, though.