Martial arts have always fascinated me. I've spent a larger portion of my life training them than not. From practicing karate as a kid in the hopes of someday becoming the Green Power Ranger to my current routine of training muay thai and jiu-jitsu, the various fighting arts have truly been an integral part of my life. I would not be the same person today without them.
What they have meant to me over the years has shifted, though. As a child, they were a fun activity with cool rituals that let me feel like my favorite fiction characters. That is, of course, not how I view them today (though training to be the Green Power Ranger or Superman still makes up a small but not insignificant reason for why I train if I'm being honest with myself). As an adult in his mid-thirties, they mean a lot more to me than they did as a kid. They have given me so much and introduced me to countless wonderful people. The benefits go far beyond the basic benefits everyone knows come with training.
Someday I can be him
And yet... I wish that was the extent of my feelings about them. I wish I had no uncomplicated feelings here. I guess, in a way, I don't- the actual arts themselves bring nothing but positive thoughts and emotions from me. But the communities, business practices, and politics that have arisen around them do not often inspire such warm feelings.
If you had asked me "should I start training at a martial arts gym/studio/dojo?" a few years ago, I would've enthusiastically replied "yes!!" without hesitation. I would've gone on to gush about how much the arts have done for me like I did in the opening paragraphs above. But those days are gone. I just cannot, in good faith, unequivocally recommend training to people anymore because of how much more I understand the ugly sides of the martial arts world. And that actually makes me really, really sad. Because I want everyone to experience the joys and benefits I've gotten from my fifteen or so years of training. But things just aren't that simple.
This is one post, but really it's two distinct things. It's a celebration of all that is good about martial arts, but also a recognition of its limits. I won't be getting into the full dirt about its more toxic aspects, but I will be shedding light onto what training doesn't provide you- which will, of course, mean at least glancing at some of its worst aspects. I hope you find this useful.
WHAT IT DOES PROVIDE
1. The Obvious Stuff
There are some things martial arts give you that are pretty obvious, but still worth mentioning. So here I'll just briefly mention three of them- fitness, self-defense skills, and confidence (though two of these come with an asterisk, but we'll get to that in a bit).
I'll start with fitness, since it is the most obvious of the obvious. Whenever you pursue any physical activity, there are tons of benefits. Studies specifically focused on martial arts are limited, but there have been studies on both children and adults. And those studies line up not just with my own personal experience, but what I've seen from others in my years of training. Martial arts improve your cardiovascular endurance, strength, flexibility, balance, and pretty much any other physical attribute you can think of. Furthermore, just like other forms of exercise, it's also good for your mental health. Especially martial arts with an athletic and/or sparring component. For example, an hour of boxing can burn 700-1000 calories depending on your weight and other factors.
I am thirty five years old. While I take longer to recover from things like injuries or eating terribly than I used to, on any given normal day I feel about as good as I did in my twenties. I think a large part of that is because of my martial arts training. I'm glad it's kept me healthy, both for my own sake and for the sake of my daughter. Having became a father at thirty three years old, I'm glad I'll be able to keep up with her better than even most other parents who had their kids after their twenties thanks to how healthy and mobile my training has kept me.
Another benefit is self-defense. This is also self-evident, though does require a little myth-busting. First, because there are a ton of factors you don't know if you get into a random fight, you can't count on martial arts to defend yourself with when someone might have a weapon, or friends, or may just be able to get the drop on you in a way you're not prepared for. Second, not all martial arts are created equal when it comes to self-defense skills. Ironically, the martial arts best suited for self-defense are not the ones that market themselves as such. Rather, it's those that have some form of pressure-testing, with sparring being the most effective form (the reason being is without testing what you learn on a resisting opponent, you won't actually know how to perform your moves under distress in an active situation). Having addressed both of these myths, though, yes. Martial arts will still generally help you in a self-defense situation.
Finally, confidence. Simply put, building skills while getting fit and knowing you have a better chance of defending yourself if you ever need to is going to help you with your confidence. I know it's worked for me- in some ways to extent I can't even fully appreciate, considering I have done it so long that I have no idea how confident I would or wouldn't be having never trained.
With that said, though, there is caveat here. But we'll get to that in the second half of this post, because I think this caveat helps at least partially explain why there can be so much toxicity in the martial arts scene sometimes.
2. Perseverance
This one may be obvious too, but I think it deserves its own special spot on this list. Simply put: consistent time and effort in martial arts will make you better. Showing up regularly to class, actively participating in lessons, and exerting yourself when it's wise to exert yourself will improve your skills. It's not about special abilities or secret mindsets or life-hacks. You work hard, you get results.
It may sound funny, but this was something that helped keep me afloat in graduate school when I was working on my History MA. The workload was intense. On average, we read about one history book per week per class, with an average of three classes per semester. There were evenings where the workload so overwhelmed me that I would just freeze up in despair and stare at the ceiling for an hour.
I always had a two-step process to get out of that paralysis. First I would think about how I couldn't quit because I would have to admit to all my loved ones that the program defeated me. Then I would think about how, in all my years of martial arts training, I always made it through adversity by just being consistent and moving one step at time. In jiu-jitsu, for example, if I were pinned underneath someone, I would first breathe. Then move my hips. Then try to get a wedge between my partner and I. Again- one move at a time, step by step. I would take that mindset and try to apply it to my studies. I would pick up a book and get through it, page by page, until I finished what I needed to do.
In a world of cutthroat capitalism where wealth is a better indicator of future success than hard work, it's refreshing to know that hard work can pay off somewhere (though unfortunately, as I discussed in a previous post, that causes many in the MMA world to often think the same thing applies in the economy- but I digress). With enough time and effort, anyone can become proficient in a martial art. That's not to say it's an equal playing field- the more time, money, and/or energy you have to train, the better off you'll be- but at least there is a basic correlation between work and progress. Again, that's not really something you can say for other aspects of the world we live in. It's nice to know that, somewhere at least, there is a place where hard work really does pay off, and in turn allow you to build up perseverance in a way many people don't get the chance to.
3. An Outlet for Creativity
We don't talk about it much (especially in an age of economic precarity where people can't afford to spend too much time thinking about it), but human beings are unique in how creative we are, and benefit from flexing our creative muscles. It keeps us engaged with whatever activity we're pouring our creative energies into, it reduces our stress, and it helps reduce brain aging as we get older. As human beings we are not meant to sit in a cubicle all day, or bust our asses in a factory. We do what we must to survive, of course, but we're made for more than that.
Martial arts are great for expressing your creativity. You might be thinking "sure, clearly you can be creative by using flashy, creative moves in training. This should be in the 'obvious' category above." But the beautiful thing about martial arts is that your creativity isn't just expressed in the flashy, cool-looking spinning kicks or flying knee strikes. It's expressed in every movement and every decision you make.
Let's think about it for a moment. Pretend you're boxing, since that's a relatively intuitive martial art to understand even without any training. Let's say you want to land your punches on a sparring partner, but they're really good defensively. What can you do?
This is where the creativity comes in. You can try attacking a different target than the one you want (for example, if they're blocking punches to the head really well, you can try punching them in the body until they forget about defending their head). You can also try what are called "feints", where you act like you're about to do one move, but it's actually a fake to set up a different move. Or you could, counterintuitively, avoid throwing punches and keep moving away from your opponent until they get impatient and try to rush you because they're tired of you running away. There are so many ways to try to land your attacks. You have to get... well, creative.
There really is nothing like hitting a creative flow state in martial arts, which is where you enter a perfect place between being engaged and focused, without becoming overly tense or rigid. You can feel the creativity channeling through you. It's a wonderful experience and one of my favorite overall aspects of training. It doesn't happen every practice, but that's all the more reason to value it when it does come up.
4. Community and Teamwork
A picture from my gym.
In today's world, especially in the United States, people are increasingly lonely. In fact, some have even called it an epidemic of loneliness. There are a lot of reasons we suffer from such stinging isolation, including cars, suburbs, a lack of places beyond home or work for people to go (especially places that don't cost money), and of course every sort of technology that absorbs our attention, from television to video games to smartphones. Lower participation in every community institution from churches to volunteer organizations to labor unions has, overall, been a disaster for both ourselves as individuals and our society as a whole. We are social beings who are meant to be around others.
Martial arts gyms, at their best, can be a place of community in a time where people desperately need more of it. My gym, run by two Mexican-American former b-boys, is a great example. They have created a great, welcoming environment where anyone who comes in is treated with hospitality. Our gym often holds social events in places like parks and bowling alleys. Sometimes they'll even host parties in the gym, like during Halloween. Events for the kids who train in the children's' classes are held, too. This has helped make it so that a number of my training partners aren't just training partners, but friends. It's nice to have that. Especially right now, when as a parent I'm not able to see my other friends as often as I would like to. Whether joking around during training or making the occasional event outside of it, I'm grateful to be part of the community my gym has created.
It doesn't just stop at community, though. Alongside community is teamwork. That might sound odd when describing martial arts, considering any form of sparring or competition you do is one on one. The thing is, though, you need to train with other people to get better. From a short-sighted point of view, that could encourage a view of your training partners as obstacles to be overcome. What you come to understand, however, is that you do better if your training partners are skilled, happy, and able to come to practice consistently; even better if you have a good personal relationship with them, that way you can communicate and train comfortably and effectively. They say there is no "I" in "team." To get really cheesy, there is also no "I" in "personal growth." Because, paradoxically, to get better, you cannot just think about yourself.
All of this is intertwined. Working together with your training partners, rather than viewing them as obstacles, helps build a stronger sense of community. That strong sense of community, in turn, helps create a better atmosphere for people to train and get better. It's a positive reinforcing cycle. It is, like with the creative flow state I mentioned in the previous post, something I'd wish for everyone.
Unfortunately, though, not every martial arts gym reaches this level of positive community building and teamwork. Because not all martial arts gyms are welcoming, positive places. I've been to places with downright toxic environments. Which takes us to our next section.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVIDE
1. Good Character
One of the most popular beliefs among both the general population and martial arts schools in particular is that martial arts teach you good character. They certainly instill positive traits in you, some of which I talked about in the previous part of this post, but that is not the same thing as being a good person. Bullies can be creative, predators can be disciplined, abusers can have community. While some martial arts gyms really do create positive atmospheres geared toward encouraging people to be their best selves, that is a culture that needs to be specifically cultivated. Many martial arts gyms instead simply create bullies who are good at fighting.
Countless professional fighters have done awful things. I could link a hundred articles here about that. But as you read them you might think to yourself "sure, but those are professional fighters- what about instructors and other normal martial artists, who don't fight for a living?" Unfortunately, pretty awful things happen among their ranks, too.
Perhaps the most prominent example in the world of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, an art that I train, is that of Lloyd Irvin. Irvin created a cult-like atmosphere in his gym, which created a culture of fear and harassment, as well as a culture of ignoring sexual assault victims assaulted by his students. When things started coming to light, however, it was revealed that Irvin himself was brought to trial for gang rape in 1989. During the mid-2010s when all of that came out, Irvin temporarily disbanded his team. But now he is back to being full reintegrated into the world of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. No one even talks about it anymore.
Irvin is a particularly extreme example, most schools aren't run by rapists. But there is an entire spectrum between good and awful people in the martial arts world. I'm lucky enough to train at a place with great people, but I've trained at gyms where I saw firsthand cultures that encourage cruelty, selfishness, and strict hierarchy (which is absolutely a recipe for things like sexual assault, among other things). Of all the reasons I no longer recommend training martial arts to people as enthusiastically as I once did, this is the number one reason.
And this isn't even touching on those who revealed themselves to have pretty awful worldviews. I know such a thing can be subjective to a point, but some of the bad shit gets pretty extreme and unambiguously vile, such as UFC fighter Bryce Mitchell praising Adolf Hitler.
2. A Replacement for Intellectual Enrichment
A lot of martial arts instructors pride themselves on their wisdom and like to think of themselves as warrior-philosophers. One of the most celebrated jiu-jitsu instructors of all time, Renzo Gracie, once said that, "There's more philosophy in jiu-jitsu mats than in any Ivy League school in America." It's ones of those quotes that is the right combination of simple yet deep-sounding that makes it seem like a profound observation. Then you think about it for more than two seconds and it all falls apart.
Do you gain valuable insights about certain aspects of being human on the mats? Yes, absolutely. I talked about some of those insights you gain through pushing yourself on the mat earlier in this post. Hell, you could even say there are things that you have to learn through struggle that you simply cannot learn through reading and abstract thought. There is a real value to action as a form of learning.
Unless Renzo Gracie is secretly hosting seminars on Rousseau or Sartre on the jiu-jitsu mats after sparring, though, to say there's more philosophy on the mat than in Ivy League schools is just absurd. Are you studying questions about ethics, logic, free will, existence, and reality in jiu-jitsu gyms? Entire treatises have been written and discussed through human history by some of our greatest minds trying to understand these issues. Philosophy programs at colleges and universities, Ivy League or not, dedicate themselves to studying and dissecting those materials while creating new generations of thinkers. Partaking in that pursuit helps us understand ourselves and the world around us much more deeply. And we're supposed to believe all that study and thought people put into earning their degrees don't teach you philosophy as well as a bunch of sweaty guys pretending to strangle each other on foam mats? It's vain self-flattery by Renzo.
Again, there's real value to training as a way to gain philosophical insights- as part of a balanced intellectual diet, so to speak, that should include pursuing other forms of learning. But if you're going to directly compare training vs academic study when it comes to learning philosophy, then obviously the latter is better. And frankly, the fact so many martial artists think like Renzo Gracie and show so little interest in pursuing knowledge through other means goes a long way toward explaining why so many of them think platitude-filled inspirational quotes on Instagram are deep. This is not a community that produces insights up there with Confucius or Plato.
Also, in Renzo Gracie's case in particular, you'd also think all that mat wisdom would be enough to stop him from quoting Heinrich Himmler. But you'd be wrong!
3. An Understanding of Health Science
Within pretty much every fitness or fitness-related community, there is this idea that they understand health and everything related to it better than anyone else. Of course, when it comes to what exercises to do to be healthy, they definitely have a good grasp of best practices. Through experience they have figured out not only effective exercise routines, but also good practices for related routines like diet and rest as well. There is a lot you can learn from people in the fitness world.
But the other side of that knowledge of best fitness practices is entire industries of snake oil bullshit that thrive in the fitness world. There are just so many scams in the fitness world it's hard to keep track. Ironically, part of the reason they're able to proliferate there is because of how healthy everyone is. Most people at the top of the fitness world are in excellent shape, after all. So when they market a product to potential customers promising a sick set of abs while having a sick set of abs themselves, you're tempted to believe it. Often, however, those influencers are fit because of fairly standard fitness routines (plus steroids). The magic shortcut is usually bullshit.
In the martial arts world, which we can consider a subset of the fitness world, bullshit proliferates. Even the highest level fighters often link up with quacks, cranks, and bullshit artists- sometimes knowingly, sometimes being dupes themselves. Like with the fitness world, this is because knowing good general practices through experience is not the same thing as a deeper scientific understanding of everything. When you combine ignorance and confidence, you've got a recipe for disaster (and bullshit!).
This false confidence in how much people know gets even worse when you zoom out to things like public policy. There's a moronic meme that's been floating around on conservative social media with a picture of Robert F. Kennedy Jr next to a picture of Rachel Levine, who was Biden's assistant secretary of health. The meme shows a shirtless, buff RFK Jr and a not fit looking Levine next to each other asking "who would you trust more as secretary of health?" The implication is that RFK Jr makes better personal decisions about his health, therefore you should have him be secretary of health. It ignores the fact that Levine is extremely knowledgeable about public health policy whereas RFK Jr is a dumbass. If the question were "who do you want as your personal trainer?" I'd probably go with RFK Jr. When it comes to the person in charge of public health, though, I'm gonna go with the person who knows about public health.
But so many people in the martial arts world fall for this surface level bullshit, which is part of why so many of them support RFK Jr as health secretary. Their susceptibility to bullshit isn't just dangerous for them, therefore, but to all of us as a whole.
4. A Cure to Your Insecurities
Before I talked about how martial arts can make you more confident. That is certainly true. As I hinted at, though, there is another side to that. A lot of people come into martial arts with some sort of insecurity. After all, when you think about it, willingly going somewhere to take a beating from another person is not exactly a normal thing to do. Tons of people around the world fantasize about training martial arts and learning how to kick ass, but it takes a stronger driving force to actually motivate you to walk through those gym doors and seek instruction. Often, that driving force is insecurity.
I myself am not above this. Less so with my childhood training in karate, which was as much my parent's decision as my own. When I started training in muay thai toward the end of high school, though, that was all me. There were a few things that motivated me to start, ranging from having a bunch of cholos break my windshield and threaten my friends to seeing Tony Jaa movies and wanting to kick ass like he did. But on a deeper level, I'd never been a particularly masculine kid growing up. That gave me some insecurities. I simply didn't have the aggression, recklessness, or assertiveness associated with more "masculine" boys my age. Martial arts gave me an entryway to a masculinity not as defined by those stereotypical masculine traits. The fact I had been chubby in middle school certainly added both to that insecurity and the idea tht martial arts could help overcome it, too.
As you can probably tell by the fact I'm comfortable enough to share these insecurities in a public blog post, these are things I've reflected on and worked through as I've gotten older. They no longer bother me the way they used to. What's key here, though, is that while training generally made me more confident, it didn't resolve any of these underlying issues for me. What did it was a variety of things- finding better friends to surround myself with, having good male mentors who modeled more positive masculinity for me, reading books about mental health, talking to people about mental health, and just doing some good ol' reflecting and thinking that I felt comfortable enough to do thanks to everything else I just listed. Training gave me a bandaid, but it was nowhere near enough by itself.
I say all this because, quite frankly, a lot of men* who sign up to train are fine with the bandaid and never actually confront their insecurities. I've had so many training partners confide things in me, from loneliness to depression to just hating how their body looks when they take their shirt off. It's made me really sad to hear some of that stuff, but with my favorite training partners that has often been a way for us to strengthen our friendship and go beyond just being acquaintances. But for many men in the martial arts world, they don't even talk about it. They simply think they can train their way into resolving their personal insecurities. I've never seen it work out well.
(*I'm talking about men here because I've simply had magnitudes more conversations about insecurities with men I train with than women, but I'm sure women have their own struggles with confidence and insecurity relative to martial arts too)
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I can't help but feel like I just scratched the surface with this post. For instance, I could've also talked about how marital arts gives you exposure to other cultures, but doesn't necessarily give you an appreciation for them as they are. That's just one of a ton of topics I could've addressed, but if I started adding more to this post I probably never would've stopped.
Still, I hope reading this sheds at least a little bit of light about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the martial arts world. Overall it's still a world I'm happy to be immersed in, thanks in large part to two main communities I'm a part of. One is the gym I currently train at, which I mentioned earlier. The other is the Southpaw community, a collective of liberation-minded martial artists based around the Southpaw podcast and training program. In different ways, both of those communities have taught me a lot and helped me grow as a person. I hope the martial arts world as a whole can move more in that direction.
I hope this post was interesting!
