Fighting

 By Peter King
United Kingdom

 These are my ideas today. Ask me tomorrow and they may be completely different.

Although fighting is a last resort, we must be prepared for it. However, without justice fighting is barbarism, so martial artists should have a higher moral code and greater self-discipline. One should not relish hurting others, but in order to survive one may have to embrace the exhilaration of combat. If you have to fight, you should not be uncomfortable with it, but treat the danger and chaos as familiar friends.

However understand the principles and mechanics of human movement potential will remain constant and this is where the value of a martial arts education lies. Understand other martial arts – their dynamics, how they use distance, their strategies and their rhythm. Always be open to an unexpected tactic and don’t be surprised. Be adaptable and let your response be dictated by your opponent’s action. Anything that is fixed is either dead or liable to be broken. Movement and fluidity are the natural order of life. In nature, those that cannot adapt become extinct.

Identify stylistic clues to how an opponent may attack. For instance, how might a boxer, grappler or karateka pre-empt an attacking movement. An attacker’s size and musculature may give such clues. One opponent may be prone to closing the distance into grappling because of his stocky build, whereas another who is leaner may prefer to extend his limbs to strike from longer distances. Also learn to judge the intention and rhythm of an opponent. If he is arrogant and aggressive, he may only be able to attack in one manner. This may be true, even if in those circumstances, it is a bad strategy for him. You may be able to manipulate or goad an opponent into making misjudgements and mistakes. The boxer Muhammed Ali was a master of this type of psychological ploy.

Move with feeling, not with thought or emotion. If you are troubled by conscious thought or emotion, redirect that energy into your lower abdomen and use it as courage and intention. Your intention should cut through your opponent, but do not be fixed in your plan and do not let him perceive your intention. Move in response to your opponent. Learn to create openings by using feints and combinations of technique. Be able to change rhythm, use sudden dynamic speed, alter and judge distance, use timing and utilise different angles of attack and defence. Be stable but also mobile. Be powerful at the correct moment, but don’t be fixed on power otherwise you will become slow and predictable.

Fighting is not glorious, it is messy, undignified and involves human suffering. If you are not prepared to be hurt or lose then you shouldn’t enter a fight. Understand that morality is your lifeline back to civilisation. Fighting occurs in a crazy place at the boundaries of human existence. You need to have the intelligence and ethics to see that and bring yourself back from there. This is why good martial arts are bound in philosophy, as it is the route back to sanity and decency. Sadly, sometimes people may get lost. Whereas martial arts are the defence of the body, philosophy and ethics are the psychological defence of the emotions and intellect. After fighting in China, Takamatsu Sensei balanced his life by entering a Buddhist monastery. On a much lesser scale, I have sought to balance my life by studying for a master degree at university and later becoming qualified in acupuncture and osteopathy. The personal benefits of compassion will always outweigh those of violence. Sadly though, extreme circumstances may exist where it is necessary to fight. Be aware that those reasons to fight are true.

Hatsumi Sensei criticised martial artists who act like they are dangerous animals. He said that man has been able to use his intelligence to be able to kill dangerous animals in the world. Such people will be defeated – in a way that they had not expected, because they were outwitted by brain and not muscle. When Takamatsu Sensei was in China he was known as the Mongolian Tiger because of his martial prowess. However on his return to Japan, a friend said that he was more like a Japanese cat. Takamatsu Sensei was happy to agree. He said that, in China, it was necessary for him to be fierce like a tiger, but that now that he was back in Japan it was not. He added that women like cats and would often stroke them. Although said in humour, it illustrates the need to be hard only when needed, and then be able to return to gentleness.

In my limited experience, when I have fought against other martial artists, they have been easier opponents. This was because they thought about martial arts and not fighting. I beat them because I always thought about fighting. Again fighting is chaos, you have to learn to exist in that chaos. When fighting you enter a separate realm. This is also like the Godan test, where there are no preconceptions or limitations.

When faced with the potential of danger, the body initiates physiological changes (known as the fight or flight syndrome). You must understand that these are natural and you must choose whether to read them as fear or exhilaration. However, don’t be blindly led by excitement or you will be easily defeated. Fear is natural and it can be either an enemy or a friend.

When I asked Hatsumi Sensei about punching, he said that the punch will always be different because the opponent will always be different (as will the timing, distance and angle of attack). This is why he said that he didn’t teach a basic form of punching, because there is no set formula. This is the application of martial arts, it’s like going to university. First you must read books, these are the kihon, waza and henka. Then you will write your own thesis and this is your personal interpretation and application of that learning. As artists (albeit martial artists), it is not sufficient to copy someone else’s work, otherwise you will be a counterfeiter or forger who contributes nothing new or creative to the world. A true artist creates by utilising his own unique creative expression, based on the foundations of what he has learnt.

I do not believe that fighting is the primary goal of martial arts in contemporary times. I believe that it has far greater potential. Hatsumi Sensei that it is to produce higher human beings and create peace. Although these may sound like lofty ideals, we have all witnessed the personal evolution of practitioners and seen the spirit of friendship flourish between countries. In many cases, the Bujinkan has created friendships between students even when their home countries were still hostile.

Martial arts provide a model of life. They teach us to be positive and resolved in the face of adversity. They teach us to seek truth (albeit at first through technique), they teach us to seek harmony rather than accord, they teach us cooperation (which is necessary  during practice) and they teach us the humility to know that we must act as part of nature not contrary to it. If we must fight, then we should do so with a pure heart. To harm an opponent more than is necessary is savagery and is unbecoming or an artist. It is better that we are judged on our dignity and humanity, rather than by how fearsome we are.

In Japanese martial arts, there is a saying, ‘The sword that kills and the sword that spares’. This is usually taken to mean that the swordsman would have such skill that he could choose whether to kill or spare an opponent. Hatsumi Sensei said that there is another meaning, that one action may have included both. An example of this may have been when faced with no other choice, a samurai would have killed an attacker to prevent him from taking innocent lives. Although regretting the taking of life, his one sword cut would have killed and spared life at the same time. To make such a judgement for the correct reasons, the swordsman needed to have had a highly developed sense of humanity and justice. Taking life cannot be compared with giving life. Hurting cannot be compared to healing and destruction cannot be compared to creativity. We are not just martial practitioners, we are martial artists and we should create beauty through the movements of our bodies and hearts.

Ends

This essay was originally published in the book, 'Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, Exploring the Essence of the Martial Arts' by Alex Esteve Shidoshi. If you found this essay interesting, you should purchase the book it came from. It can be found for sale online at www.budomart.com. Please do not copy or reproduce this essay elsewhere on the web. Specific permission was secured for its placement here.