FAQ-Real martial arts answers to realistic questions

Are all martial artists' health nuts?

Not by a long shot. It's understandable that many people believe they will have to change their entire life to be a martial artist. Most exposure that people have to martial arts: movies, TV, UFC, etc. depict practitioners as spiritual individuals who only eat rice and vegetables and do nothing but stretch, workout and practice with their masters all day. In the old days this was more likely to be the norm. Today it's just like anything else in life. People are free to make it into whatever fits into their lifestyle. The best thing to do is to get started training somewhere and see how it suits you. After a while you can make adjustments that are comfortable for you.

Does it really matter which school my 5 year old goes to? They've got a short attention span anyway.

Martial Arts can be very beneficial for your little one and you as well. Don't worry too much about their attention span. If you find the right school with the right kind of instructors, they will be patient. At that age, the most important thing to focus on is finding a place where they will have fun along with their training. You kinda have to sneak the discipline in until they're old enough. Kids are more likely to stick with Martial Arts if they enjoy it. It also helps to find a place where they can learn life skills along with their training. If, for some reason, they don't continue training, they will have learned valuable information that will benefit them no matter what else they do. The single most important thing you can do is check out schools before joining. A lot of them look good on the discipline side, but aren't really geared towards developing children.

I thought Martial Arts was about fighting. Why do the pages have, "Peace, Friendship, Respect"?

Good question! After a certain amount of training, a person's confidence has grown to a higher level than normal. Once a person knows without a doubt that they can handle any situation, they might be less likely to need to resort to anything physical. Hopefully, at some point in a person's training, they would find themselves focusing more on Peace, Friendship and Respect rather than violence. Ideally, the goal of martial arts should be to not to need to turn to combat to resolve issues. The trick is knowing enough of it to realize it's better if you don't use it.