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What is the difference between a martial art and sports?
This is a question that someone asked me. It really is a common question and
a good one. So here is a essay at explaining it...
> I have been interested in Martial Arts since I was a young
> child but my parents could never afford to send me to classes. I have
> recently renewed my interest in the Martial Arts and was wondering if
> you could answer the following question? I would like to know what is
> the difference between sports and martial arts? If you could help
> explain this to me I would greatly appreciate it.
What is the difference between Martial Arts and Sports? This is a good
question. There are many differences and many similarities. To answer your
question I'm going to go back a little bit and think about the history and
think about the motivations for sports and martial arts. Then we'll do some
comparison/contrast between the two, and give a final kind of summary answer.
Historically the purpose for Martial Arts rose out of three classes of people.
Royalty, the military, and the peasants. The military of course needed
training to use weapons (of all sorts, including bare hands if they lost their
sword) to defeat their enemy. A lot of the Chinese Martial arts includes
training in many exotic weapons that were at one time used by the military.
Royalty trained in the martial arts for discipline, to develop their will,
learn strategy of combat, and to hopefully be better able to defend themselves
from an assassination attempt. Tai Chi was invented by a Kung Fu instructor to
a person of royalty. He had to find methods to teach his master, who was not
overly athletic or skillful. The peasants just needed to be able to defend
themselves against robbers or military attacks. For example the peasants in
Okinawa were at one time forbade to carry weapons. And the military (the
Samari) were really getting into roughing the peasants up. So they created
methods of fighting with empty hands and weapons available. Most of the
weapons associated with "Karate" are in fact agricultural implements that the
Okinawan's used to defend themselves. Numchucks were used to thresh grain, the
Kama was to harvest grain, etc. Actually there are also traditional forms of
fighting with a boat oar. But, not looking cool, very few people still
practice it today.
Anyway, the point of this is, that originally the purpose of martial
arts training was quite clear. Coming up with, and training in methods of
fighting that could be used in combat, or self defense against the military,
assassins, or thieves. They may have staged competitions as well, but the goal
was to learn to fight over learning to compete in a contest. Now a change that
occurred in the 1900's or so, was a focus more on the spiritual, mental goals
rather than the military goals. Most martial arts today, have as one of
the main goals of bettering the individual. And to emphasize this most martial
arts now have the name "Do" at the end. Do meaning art way or method. so
Judo, Karate-Do, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, Kendo, etc. The fighting only martial
arts in some cases have the Jutsu (at least the Japanese) at the end, hence
Ju-Jutsu, Ken-Jutsu, Aiki-Jutsu etc.
Now the purpose of sport is competition. To excel at the game bound
by the rules of the particular sport. To display (to the spectators) a
thrilling game well played. To improve ones own abilities, by learning to
compete to win, honestly, and fairly.
Now, some comparison/contrast. The purpose of Martial Arts, is to
learn/practice practical fighting skills to defend one-self against military,
or criminal opponents, and as a path to better oneself, mentally, physically,
and spiritually (by development of will). While the purpose of sport is to
provide thrilling display of competition, and while doing so to better oneself.
Ok, now. Martial Arts have a sport component, most martial arts now have
competitions. So most martial arts also have a sportive component. And at
this level they are no different from other sports. There's a set of rules and
people compete within those rules. The rules are set up for safety, to
emphasize the types of techniques they want to make it exciting, and for
fairness. Thus there are sex, age, weight and skill classes to make the
competitions as evenly matched as possible. There are also techniques that are
thrown out to make it more safe for competitors. And there are rules set down
to make to more exciting. Modern Tae Kwon Do has disallowed punching to the
face, and gives more points to kicks to the head. This forces the game to be
played with lots of exciting kicks. Sport Judo has rules which emphasize the
cool flips and throws to make it more exciting. Boxing has rules so that the
fighters are constantly throwing punches, as they don't have to worry about
kicks or low punches, or getting thrown to the ground, and again this is done
to make the match more exciting.
Now contrast this with martial arts training, where the point is to get
useful fighting skills. When fighting for my life the last thing I want to do
is to make it fair! I want to get as much advantage in my favor as possible.
And most likely if someone is going to attack me, they are going to want to
put as much favor on their side as well. So I'm not likely to fight against
someone in my own weight class. If I'm doing sport oriented fighting I want to
do most of my fighting against people in my own weight class, but for self
defense training I want to train against all classes. So martial arts classes
have you train against opponents that are much much larger or smaller and in
the whole spectrum of skill and ability. Now in fighting for my life I want to
learn how to get an advantage. So I want to learn how to fight dirty, and I
want to learn how to use as many available weapons as possible (including
things like sticks, sand, a knife, cane etc.), and I want to learn when and how
to get out without getting killed! In sports I have to obey the rules, I can't
use things unavailable to my opponent, and I have to stay in for the duration.
So while most martial arts have a certain set of "rules" for training, they
are also always considering the "rules of the street" (i.e.. no rules). And we
point out what works under a certain set of rules, but what the outcome is on
the street, and sometimes we change the set of rules to emphasize other
aspects. And we do different sets of exercises that teach skills that are
useful "on the street". We may practice kicking solo, at knee level, or groin
level, etc. While with our partner we obviously do not do the same. Or we
may practice eye gouge or throat strike, but not to our partner. So martial
arts training includes lots of different exercises that are intended to keep
training safe, but simulate in different ways actual fighting. While in sports
you are always look at how to take advantage of the rules and you never bother
with thinking about "what if the rules were different".
Now a secondary goal of both sport and martial arts is improvement of
the individual. Some of the ways this is accomplished is the same, by
development of athletic skill. Martial arts training also includes training in
respect, honor, integrity and a moral code. Obvious to the above statement of
learning "dirty" techniques is that I must do so only when my life is threatened,
we don't want to go around teaching criminals. So an integral part of martial
arts training is training in a moral code of ethics. When to fight when not to
etc. Funakoshi the father of modern Shotokan Karate, said "Karate is for self
defense only" and "There is no first strike in Karate". His point was that I
use Karate for self defense not to be a bully. Sports don't always include
moral training, martial arts by nature have to. Now another point of contrast
is that sports expect excellence out of people, and many times require meeting
certain minimum requirements before one can enter. For example, I have to be
picked to get on the team, and I have to prove myself to do so. Most martial
arts training has the attitude come one come all. If I was trying to get the
best team I try to start with the best athletes, but with martial arts I train
those that have an interest. And everyone, has a need to defend themself. As
pointed out under my Philosophy section on the web page...
"A Karate class is not a stage upon which the superior talent emerges and is
dramatized. The Karate class is a community of mutual responsibility where the
weakest are strengthened, not where the strongest are glorified. The sensei
creates within the class the commitment to cooperation and responsibility, and
in this atmosphere is the greatest learning made possible"
Sadaharu Kurobane (A Wado Kai Sensei in Denver)
The part about "stage upon which the superior talent emerges" is referring to
sports, the second part refers to martial arts.
Rank. Another difference between sports and martial arts is how rank is
recognized. Rank in sports is recognized as the number of wins. Rank in
martial arts goes back to military training and some of the same discipline and
formality is taught. Usually sports are more informal in this aspect. Rank in
the martial arts usually corresponds to time, and individual growth and
development, as well as formal testing.
So the summary in this short essay (and yes it is short we could write a whole
book) is that sports are about dramatizing competition, and martial arts are
about individuals of all walks learning fighting skills, and a moral code and
discipline.
You probably didn't expect such a long answer, but it really is a good question
and one that takes a lot of explanation to begin to carve out a answer to...
Erik Kluzek, Sep/12/1996
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