Dear Readers,
I have always been interested in the martial arts, in fact i have been studying them for most of my life. I wanted to do this project to further research the martial arts to better understand one third of modern martial arts.
As many martial artists know today the martial arts are much different than what they had been. With the rising popularity of martial arts for show, stunt men, actors, tournament competitors etc. the martial arts have been fundamentally split between the martial and the art. Perhaps this has also allowed the arts to be more popular in general, but it has given the martial arts a lot of bad publicity. The increase in popularity means the opportunity for money has increased, making the martial arts more business than education. This gives rise to martial arts schools that many good martial artists would describe as belt factories. These schools churn out belts not for skill but for money, pay your 2 month fee and you will be upgraded to your next belt. This style of teaching is counterproductive, lessening the quality of the martial arts.
But, there is also a great appeal for these schools, being able to earn a black belt quickly with minimal effort attracts many who don’t know what the martial arts is really about.
Martial arts are not about showy movements and flips that are seen in tournaments or movies; it isn’t even about being able to beat up people. It is about yourself, being confident, self-disciplined, and respectful. And to achieve these traits mental practices are paired with martial exercises to become the best we can be in both our mind and our body.
The ability to defend yourself is most important to your being confident. But self-defense is worthy to learn in any case, even if you don’t want to go through the arts side of martial arts.
My project will show what styles of martial arts are most focused around self-defense, and who most effectively teaches it. This project will analyze 5 styles and rank them on a scale of 1 through 10 for seven categories, for a total score between 7 and 70.
Thanks, keep reading,
Mason Waaler
Statement of Purpose
This project is an investigation of 5 Martial Arts styles. Self-defense is a major theme in martial arts today and to better understand how different martial arts schools and styles treat self-defense I am going to learn all I can (given time restraints) about each of the five styles. These schools will be chosen from a list of local martial arts studios, and the style will be the one that is taught at that studio. Many studios teach multiple styles, so in this case on of the styles taught there will be analyzed. At the end of the project all the schools I visited will be rated and scored to show in which areas they excel or by contrast, fall short.
No comments:
Post a Comment