Is there something special about Martial Arts?

Budo.Judo.Kev

My opinion on Martial Arts has almost evolved full circle. Before I began training in Judo, I was under the impression there was something mystical and exotic about training in the martial arts. However, when I began training in Judo and started to actually investigate some of the other martial arts, the mystique of the martial arts evaporated. My opinion changed from the martial arts being " a way of living or being/ a guide to live one's life by etc." to being simply a sport, an athletic endeavour, a game, a hobby. I began to question anyone that through martial arts tried to apply any deeper meaning to their participation (spirtual enlightenment etc.).

However, recently, through conversations with some other martial artists and observations on this forum I've noticed that there is a lot of empathy between people training in the same martial art. Like, I've noticed a lot of people that train in BJJ and MMA have very similar attitudes to certain things, like, "see it to beleive it". I won't elaborate further but I hope you get my point.

So does anyone agree there seems to be something about martial arts that brings people of similar thinking together? Much more than other activites like rugby or soccer? Would you expect players in a rugby club to all share similar views on politics, religion, moral values? How about in martial arts clubs?

My point is, I've met some very liked minded people via martial arts.

pearsquasher

For the most part i feel that there are as many different types of people doing that martial art i study as there are different people on the bus in the morning. The only similarity is that were all going in more or less the same direction!

But because Dojo, gyms and the like are mostly like "clubs" these days its easy to see how you would gravitate toward like-minded people within your art but i reckon it'd be no fun if everyone was too like-minded at the same time. Also within an art you may need to associate yourself with people who are totally different from you to grab good training off of, so there's that to consider too. so in this respect, I don't see how a martial arts club would be particularily different to rugby, soccer etc.

But there is defo something unqiue to martial arts that is different to sports or being in a band or other physical/artistic endeavors. Something primal, maybe?!

Black Swan

Budo.Judo.Kev wrote:

So does anyone agree there seems to be something about martial arts that brings people of similar thinking together? Much more than other activites like rugby or soccer? Would you expect players in a rugby club to all share similar views on politics, religion, moral values? How about in martial arts clubs?

My point is, I've met some very liked minded people via martial arts.

Interesting question Kev. IMO there are a committed few in MA that pursue it for life, whereas there are many that come and go over time for sport, fitness, SD, or whatever. Not sure I can answer for other sports, given that I have been pretty narrowly focused on MA for over a decade (from child to adult).