I Am Dedicated to Making Martial Arts a Different Place
by An shu Stephen K. Hayes
Two men train to win fights. One of them fights to beat other men and receive glory and treasure. He fights for himself. The other man fights when forced to defend those who are wrongfully endangered. He fights for others. Both are fighters. Which is the more noble? It depends on the state of elevation of your culture.
There is certainly a place in martial arts training for testing yourself to taking martial arts to a different place. In my remaining years on the planet, I am passionately committed to teaching a method of intelligent personal combat that can be used effectively by a compassionate protector to make peace with the brutal and cruel wish to dominate for their exclusive pleasure or profit.
Some ask how we can tell how good we are without testing in the ring or cage? In my schools, trained instructors in padded armor simulate real world type assaults to let students test their techniques and spirits under high pressure. As a protector school, we train for situations very different from a contest ring.
Our goal is not to defeat competitors, but to develop the fighting skills and knowledge to establish peace when others might choose bullying, violence, or murder. We teach the kinds of awareness, attitudes, and techniques you need to end a fight with a larger attacker, or several attackers, or a surprise attacker, or an unfair fighter, or an armed attacker, and then get everyone to safety —very different from skills needed to win a prize in a mutually consented fighting contest.
I feel it is crucial to teach a code of ethical living right along with an elevated fighting system, and to be able to demonstrate that code of ethical living to my students in every move I make.
I would not hand a loaded rifle to a child who had not been taught to respect the power of the bullet. I will not teach skills of bone breaking, joint damaging, and organ injuring without teaching wariness for the potentially seductive, corruptive power of being able to dominate another man.
Tags: Newbury Park Martial Arts Center, Ninjutsu, NPMAC, Tatsujin, To-Shin Do