Wow! So, you are checking out the mission statement. Hopefully that’s a good thing. I’m going to assume that you stumbled onto the site and found something interesting, at least interesting enough to get you to click over here to find out more.
I’ll try not to disappoint.
This site began as a way to share my love of the martial arts, to engage with other martial artists with different backgrounds and interest, and to encourage those who want to learn more about the martial art. Yeah, I know, that sounds awful touchy-feely for a site about fighting. That’s because this site is about much more than fighting.
Let’s start by defining what I mean by martial arts. It seems there are lots of different interpretations floating around, and it might be good to explicitly define what I’m talking about.
Merriam Webster defines a martial art as “any of several arts of combat and self defense (as karate and judo) that are widely practiced as sport.” That’s not exactly my favorite definition.
Here’s how I want to define a martial art. It is any system that uses fighting principles for the purpose of self-defense and self-improvement. That’s it, and although it may sound simple, there is a context here that I think is important. Why we study a fighting style is just as important as what we are studying. It is the difference between being a fighter or being a martial artist.
Now, here’s a truth that I think applies to a lot of us who see ourselves as martial artists. Most of us started out wanting to be fighters. Our focus was on how to punch or kick, throw or lock. We wanted to be the action hero in the movies. OK, maybe that was just me (and whoever is smiling right now). There were probably a few people who didn’t want to be a super ninja on day one.
Whatever the reason for starting in the martial arts, it got us to take that first step, and at some point in our training something changed.
We became more than just a student at the school. We became martial artists.
That’s why we are here now. Because, how we got started on our martial arts journey is not as important as the path we followed along the way.
Celebrating that journey is what this website is about.