Martial Arts

Archive for April, 2007

According to the FBI, four women die everyday as a result of domestic violence and about 130,000 women report that they’ve been victims of rape or attempted rape annually. Because of statistics like this, many women enroll in self-defense classes to learn the skills they need to defend themselves.

The thing is, a short-term self-defense class may not address all of the areas you need to be able to fully defend yourself. While martial arts classes won’t specifically train you for combat and fighting, they will give you the ability to defend yourself if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to practice self-defense. The best part is that this self-defense isn’t always physical. What most people don’t know is that in a good martial arts class you’ll learn a variety of skills to help you gain the awareness, peace and physical conditioning you need to be a stronger person, in all aspects of your life.

Confidence. All the physical defense skills in the world won’t help if you don’t have the confidence needed to use them. That’s the beauty of martial arts training. In order to successfully train a martial art, you need to have your mind and body in tune with one another. This self-awareness gives you the confidence your need to control and defend yourself if needed. You’ll be able to handle everyday and extraordinary situations without losing your temper. You’ll be able to stand your ground. You’ll appear to be (and will be) more confident – and people who appear to be confident are less likely to be the victims of violence because they don’t look like “easy targets”.

Focus and Awareness. While training martial arts, you need to focus and concentrate on what you are doing so that you don’t injure yourself or those around you. This focus and concentration carries over into other aspects of your life as well. Soon, you’ll find yourself better able to concentrate on work, school and home. You’ll even find yourself being more aware of your surroundings which can help you avoid potentially harmful or violent situations.

Peace. Training martial arts will also give you an inner peace that can change your life. First of all, to effectively train martial arts, your workout will always be changing. You’ll never get bored with your workout because it will always be challenging to your abilities (both physical and mental). In addition to that, training martial arts is a great stress reducer. You probably already know that regular physical exercise can reduce physical stress, but what you don’t know is that martial arts go one step further to reduce emotional stress as well. Activities such as martial arts that require you concentrate on your movements and your core strength can give you full stress relief in one activity.

Strength and Conditioning. When you train martial arts, you use your entire body. You cannot use just one muscle set at a time. The exercises are always changing and evolving to give you the maximum out of each training session. Martial arts also increase your flexibility which is great because people who are flexible suffer fewer injuries, have better posture and are better able to relax their muscles.

The two most common martial arts practiced in North America are karate and tae kwon do. Many wonder what the difference between these two styles is. This is especially the case for those who are just starting to look around for a studio. After all, most practitioners in both disciplines seem to wear the same type of white gi uniforms with various colored belts.

Modern traditional karate was developed in the islands of Okinawa in Japan after some influences from Chinese martial arts. There are actually different styles of karate but they are all commonly considered as Japanese styles today. The colored belt system was developed to show the various ranks of karate practitioners with white depicting novices and black belts (with various degrees) representing instructor levels and higher. There is a whole range of other different colors in between. Modern tae kwon do was developed in Korea after much influence from Japanese karate during the occupation by Japan. Indeed, tae kwon do is sometimes referred to as Korean karate. The Koreans adopted similar white uniforms along with a colored belt ranking system for tae kwon do. Today, there are two main styles of tae kwon do, one under the International Federation and the other under the World Federation. Many schools have added a black lining to their white uniforms for black belt levels. A V-neck top is often seen in schools affiliated with the World Federation. There are also older Korean styles including tang soo do and moo duk kwan. Some of the more Americanized schools also use uniforms with other colors such as red, black and blue in addition to the traditional white.

It can be generalized that in karate, one would use their arms or hands for 60% of the time for strikes or blocks while the use of legs for kicking will be about 40%. This breakdown is seen in the many forms or katas of karate which are set routines which simulate fighting against imaginary opponents using martial arts techniques. The forms from tae kwon do would have the opposite percentage breakdown with 40% hands and 60% legs. There is also more emphasis on higher kicks to the head level than in karate. Practitioners also utilize more jumping or flying kicks where one is airborne while executing kicking techniques. The Korean forms or patterns are generally a bit shorter and less complex than the karate forms. Some tae kwon do schools have been known to use the odd karate form in its curriculum as well.

In North America as well as other parts of the world, there are separate traditional competitions for karate and tae kwon do. However, the open martial arts tournaments in North America often have competitors from both disciplines competing together. Some of the larger open martial arts competition events will have separate forms divisions for Japanese and Korean style competitors but the fighting or sparring divisions will usually be combined. Many black belts end up studying both styles. Tae kwon do has received more publicity in recent years since its introduction as an Olympic sport. The style and rules used for the Olympic version fighting comes from the World Federation (WTF). Both karate and tae kwon do are considered as hard style martial arts in North America today (as opposed to soft styles such as the many versions of Chinese kung fu).