Martial Arts - Control.

[deejayspinz]

I am sure there are many RFD'ers out there that are in to some form of Martial Arts. I was thinking about my progress as a Shodan in Karate. I have my first degree Black Belt and am moving toward my 2nd. I was thinking about my teachings related to control in situations and how they would apply to real life situations and wondered what others in similar or different arts think about this... In class, we always practice control, so we know that each maneuver we make just takes us to that point of no return, without actually going there...

I think it is safe to say that if you are in a situation and the other person has a gun, you would control the desire to react, even if you thought you might have a chance (eg being close to the other person, waiting for them to look away etc).

What if the other person was hands only and they were the agressor? My question relates to knowing how much control to apply (or not apply). Eg, if you are threatened (other person is sober), and they make the first move and you see an opportunity to perform a maneuver. Would you do something that is less damaging at first? A warning of sorts... Would you break bones? Would you go directly for fatal spots? Be realistic.

I am pretty confident that I would make the right choice at first and issue a "warning" for the first round. Second time around would not be so nice. My concern would be if I found myself in a situation where there are >1 agressor. In this case, you would have to think that your life could be on the line, so how much control do you apply to each agressor? The trick being that you really want them all together and keep one between all of you and then simply try to get away to regain control.

I'm interested in other ppl's thoughts on control who practice Martial Arts....

[ullyeus]

I have a first degree blackbelt in Karate as well.

I don't really think much of it, especially in teh context of a street fight. I am pretty confident I would still get my ass kicked if there was more than one person, if there was only one I might be able to hold my own, but I am a short guy to begin with.

I would use as much force as needed for the situation, though sometimes...taking your lumps without fighting back is the hardest decision. But if you got 3 people jumping you how much do you really want to piss them off be breaking a thumb or giving them a blackeye?

If I was with someone, or defending someone else it would be all out, nothing held back.

[haowong]

When referring to control, karate was originally referring to control of one self, to be more precise, control of ones emotions.


In any situation, whether its multiple attackers, attacker with gun are whatever, if you cannot control your emotions, you will let fear, anger, hatred blind you.

When your head does not see clear, you risk doing something you'll regret later
(Either using too much force in case of anger or not moving fast enough because of fear)


That is what "control" is referred to. You probably heard it many times: the ultimate goal of karate does not reside in winning or losing but in the character improvement of the participants. - Funakoshi - (or a translation variant)

When training karate, you are training your mind to handle high stress situation with calm and grace.


Unfortunately, this aspect of karate has been lost to, well, Americans (and Caucasians in general) who started to talk about karate with their superficial understanding of karate. All they seeked was glory, from competitions, from demos and such...

This would explain why their understanding of control only applies to the superficial control of techniques.