Читать книгу The Power of the Warrior - Néstor Galarraga - Страница 13

Martial arts come from East Asia and their introduction into the western world happened at the beginning and middle of the 20th Century. As part of the same package, inseparable from their identity, they were incorporated together with their principles, values, conventions, rituals and symbols, all of which is part of the martial art essence. Thus, they became part of our own culture. It is important to highlight that in its voice and practices reside the art, science, self-defense, sports, moral culture and religion.

Although martial arts are a passionate, entertaining and highly educational practice grounded in our inner self, the topic martial art or martial arts is quite complex to analyze; it is controversial, difficult to address and to understand, if it is not considered under the perspective of its practices. Since they have been little studied, academically, few are the serious investigations carried out in a responsible manner and, generally, statistics with their exceptions —of course, there are some— are prepared using insignificant numbers and the information comes from students all belonging to the same group, school, city or discipline, which considerably limits the global understanding of the martial art as a whole and the authenticity of the information. There are few anthropological, psychological, sociological studies and this constitutes the fundamental enemy of the martial art, the lack of information and seriousness of the sources.

When these investigations are carried out to cover a particular discipline, such as Judo, Karate, Taekwon-Do, etcetera, in most cases, I have noticed that they make small concessions regarding the history, the technique and the philosophy, changing or ignoring small parts that, generally, turn out to be fundamental to understand the guiding thread of the historical, ethnical, cultural, philosophical, religious and technical development of the different disciplines and of martial art as a whole. The same happens within each discipline; many are the differences in the narrative of the different styles of Karate. At the time of addressing the foundational process of the discipline, there is no common denominator between Jiu Jitsu and Judo, and it is worse when we compare Taekwon-Do ITF to WT.

This is fundamentally why the opinions and testimonies of the students, instructors and masters, regarding the different learning experiences, are so valuable when it comes to choosing a discipline or a Dojang to carry out the practice, or to conduct an investigation or analysis that would allow us to come to some serious conclusions. Instructors know that people come to our Dojang by the popular word of mouth and that this is the most effective advertising means for martial arts to be known throughout their history.

The reader will understand that, in general terms, it is still difficult for experts to reflect on a topic that offers few sources of information. Encyclopedias and dictionaries, as well as specialized bibliography of the different disciplines, cannot offer a proper acknowledgment but a subtle attempt to vilify the other disciplines. Even from a sporting point of view, there is little information, difficult to find and, generally, lacking solid foundations, with the exception, of course, of the Olympic disciplines, like Judo and WT Taekwon-Do, which have had the chance to be studied due to the interest of governments.

It is not my intention to make criticism; on the contrary, I am only interested in giving an objective point of view, when trying to describe the current status of the martial arts. The idea of martial arts being uneventful, not studied, investigated or acknowledged is in direct contradiction to the significant social contribution that these disciplines of physical knowledge provide, in general terms, through their practices. Needless to say, these are activities that bring together and embrace groups of people with diverse characteristics, abilities and social backgrounds; through martial arts, people are able to generate tools, resources and opportunities to improve their quality of life, their potential possibilities to grow and adapt to society. The aim of their practices is clearly social diversity in every aspect and, personally, the strengthening of the feeling of self-power and self-esteem. They teach and make people aware of the importance of living in line with a serious scale of values, promoting moral culture and personal ethics.

In Argentina, today, Taekwon-Do is the second most played sport —soccer being first— and martial arts in their entirely constitute, undoubtedly, one of the most solid foundations of the sport. But, of course, nobody says so… It is an open secret… This is mainly because parents chose this discipline for their children because it is a useful educational tool. They do not choose the sport itself; they do not choose WT, ITF in all its different forms or a version of freestyle Taekwon-DO. The choice is based on an educational reason and this is, indeed, really good for our discipline. People choose us because they recognize the seriousness, responsibility, effort and creativity that thousands of instructors, from the many varieties that Taekwon-Do has to offer, express in their classes and, fundamentally, because they recognize in the activity a significant educational power. This is why it is important for those of us who are truly involved with the discipline to try to sharpen our viewpoint about the actual status of martial arts, with the objective to keep building that general vision that society has of these disciplines and to communicate with responsibility the authentic values that are developed through their practices. Be that as it may, the essential part of these disciplines is not found in their history but within their practices.

With regards to the history, I would like to make a brief comment. In martial arts, as well as in many other activities, it appears that being first makes a difference; it grants an additional value. It seems that the old saying “he who strikes first, strikes twice” is fundamental and, following this criterion of alleged originality, it is possible to accommodate the past so that stories, theories, philosophies and techniques fit the present of every discipline. What nonsense to try to manipulate history! Taekwon-Do is one of the best examples: the government of South Korea tried this through the WT, World Taekwon-Do Federation, a sporting institution created by the political power of the 70´s with the only purpose of controlling Taekwon-Do, the Martial Art created by General Choi Hong Hi, between the years 1945 and 1955 and institutionalized on April 11 of 1955 in Korea. During that process, the government of Korea made an enormous effort to modify the original history, trying to erase the founder of Taekwon-do from Korean history; it manipulated the information and Korean instructors around the world with the intention to promote Taekwon-Do; the Korean government would make threats by telling them they would never see their families again if they continued working with General Choi; ultimately, they would threaten to kill their children who remained in Korea. I know this information may sound whimsical or coming out of a movie from Hollywood, but it really happened. From the 70´s onwards, information was tampered by the government of Korea, to a point where records were changed and investigations trying to show the truth about what happened in Korea during the period in which Taekwon-Do was originated were interrupted. It is important to understand that during that time in Korea, before Taekwon-Do was created, there was something different, another type of martial art, probably Judo, Karate, Kendo or, maybe, a mixture of everything but not Taekwon-Do. The discipline was developed by General Choi Hong Hi between the years 1945 and 1955 and Choi coined the name and, at first, only five patterns (tuls) were developed. With time, he began completing the discipline with the collaboration of his closest instructors. I have personally talked to all the pioneers, with the exception of Nam Tae Hi, and they all agreed that it was General Choi Hong Hi the founder of Taekwon-Do as we know it today and that on April 11 of 1955 it was officially accepted and established as the new Korean Martial Art.

Many have wondered, throughout its history, why Korea does not recognize ITF Taekwon-Do as the original Martial Art and General Choi as its founder, but this topic is a dilemma for Korea: if they were to recognize ITF Taekwon-Do as the original, it would mean that WT Taekwon-Do is a copy.

Furthermore, martial arts are built on imprecise historical stories and, of course, there are many contradictions within the disciplines themselves, which is why I believe it to be necessary to include this brief remark about it. As Grand Master Gichin Funakochi says in his biography Karate-Do, my way of life, when talking about what does not constitute a martial art: “due to the enormous amount of nonsense that has been written and said about it, when denaturing the essence of the martial art and explaining what it is not, it comes to light what martial art really is”. However, as I explained at the beginning, I will leave this topic for some other time, since this is not a book about the history of martial arts, but an attempt to express other aspects that I consider more relevant within martial arts and, particularly, within Taekwon-Do at this time.

Martial arts generally provide similar benefits. From the self-defense point of view, it develops a series of specific movements which, if subjected to rigorous training, will become an effective technique. Consequently, we will be ready to defend ourselves from any violent situation involving a physical or armed action against our own integrity. But it is important to consider that the technical aspect is only a part of the martial art.

Within these disciplines, there is a tangible contribution in the behavioral and psychological aspect as well as other matters which are more internal and profound. These millenary arts that survived changes and the passage of time became introspective disciplines promoting the constant search of the development of personal power. The struggle against our fears and limitations, on the one hand, and, on the other, matters connected with the development of personal power are our main challenge and the essence of martial arts today. It is very important to understand how these disciplines have been transforming from defense systems developed by the upper classes (many speak of systems developed by “peasants” but we should take into account that martial arts never belonged to the low classes of society) and by small groups of warriors to specialized training systems adopted by armies all around the world, used by special forces, by the police and by groups known as strike forces.

Simultaneously, they became activities closely associated with the world of amateur, Olympic and professional sports and, as of the 21st Century, they acquired a very strong educational profile. That is to say, we are now experiencing a new evolution of the martial arts, from which we can talk about topics such as personal transformation, awakening aspects of a constant improvement and helping, many times, to understand and positively change our own reality.

The teaching of martial arts begins with learning a series of movements that have nothing to do with external power. Repeating these movements, over and over again, makes us physically better, as we learn and perfect a technique and we start to understand a very important thing: willpower is an essential ability that improves with practice and introspection. It also allows us to discover the pleasure of feeling that we own our bodies. The opinions of others are no longer in command and they have no power over us.

When a child, an adolescent or an adult initiate the practice of a martial art, they discover the role of the black belt, of the instructor. It is someone who had to pass many tests and who has done much training, and —after a demanding and long learning period of acquiring knowledge and wisdom— that person is now ready to teach. Generally, the trainees discover a simple, charismatic, strong, wise person that conveys a feeling of much power. This is made visible in the way he or she walks, stands, talks, communicates, and the confidence with which he or she speaks to the students, the confidence transmitted in every movement and every one of his or her actions. That person, with ease and power, focuses on that student who approaches with uncertainty and knows not yet where he or she stands. While facing all that confusion, this role model provides certain relief and enthusiasm. It is someone that, little by little, will offer guidance because the instructor knows the steps that need to be followed in order to achieve the objective.

At the same time, there will be students from different training levels in the same group, a sort of ladder of knowledge, defined by the color of their belts and the different Dan tests. And a more or less defined path starts there: the trainee will try to follow instructions, to practice them, to work around them, to understand what it is about. The trainee has now everything in front of him or her; there is someone who will provide guidance and there is a group who will accompany the learning process.