Why Classical Martial Arts?

There are, in our country, martial arts from just about every place in the world, taught in a bewildering variety of ways. They include every conceivable technique and every possible philosophy about the use of physical violence. Some of them are available in more places than in others. For instance, taekwondo is ubiquitous in the United States, while monkey style kung fu can only be found in two halls in California.

No matter which art a person has committed to, if you ask her/him, it is generally the best art, the only one, far superior to all others. The master of his/her system is the best in the world, and there are always dozens of technical explanations for why that is.

With everyone so sure of the benefit of the approach they have to offer, what would compel someone to choose a classical martial art as opposed to a modern or sport one?

To answer that, I have to define classical. I use the term in the sense that it is used in literature and music:

• It stems directly from a specific, multi-generational heritage.

• Each new iteration of it is a direct child of the previous generation, not a nephew, niece, or cousin.

• It changes by evolution, rather than by momentary whim or market convenience.

Classical arts are not just old and hidebound. If they are genuinely classical, they are always new because of the influence of the current generation of practitioners. Changes in classical arts depend, in an acknowledging way, on their antecedents and move forward in an adaptive, evolutionary fashion. This makes them seem somewhat ponderous, or inefficient for whatever the brave new world is at the moment, but they are always new in the practice of the people performing them.

It requires more patience, time, and discipline to be an artist in a classical form, because you are expected to master the discipline in a way satisfactory to the artists who have gone before you. Training to be a classical artist is a commitment to a heritage, taking part in a community over time rather than just getting discrete skills for one’s self.

All the extra time and patience required for a classical art have their payoffs, because classical also indicates an item that is axiomatic for all other items participating in the same medium. Without it, the others could not be what they are. What others claim to do better for us today, the classical does with quality for everyone, everywhere, no matter the era.

For instance, a well-trained classical musician understands what is happening musically and sonically in a rock concert far better than a typical rock musician understands the musical or sonic events in an orchestra. That does not denigrate the rock musician, it just says that they are qualitatively different experiences, one more deeply educating than the other. Classical is of enduring, deep, and flexible use to people.

Another aspect of ‘classical’ is that it indicates quality detectable by anyone who cares to experience it, and which is ever more apparent as one’s expertise in the medium grows. Understanding the difference is analogous to learning discernment in anything.  For instance, most people who do their first wine comparison can taste that a fine wine is better than a poor one, but that is about the extent of their discernment. But if they practice and pay attention, their wine palate becomes more finely attuned, and the more they do so, the more extensive and readily apparent become the differences between wines.

In martial arts, anyone who attempts some sensitivity to quality differences should be able to sense them like the novice taster can with wine. All they have to do is take the time and effort to experience an “American” karate style, as taught in chain-locations in just about every city in the U.S., and then a classical style, in which the teachers are accredited inheritors of a direct lineage of teachers going back at least a hundred years. A few weeks in each will illustrate the difference even to the novice. The depth that each artifact, each part of waza, can provide to the body, the mind, and the soul become ever clearer. Classical indicates and demands quality.

Perhaps most of us, as modern Americans, are actually not as gifted as I am proposing in detecting quality. After all, there are obviously plenty of Americans who thinks McDonalds is great food and Budweiser is great beer. These people will find themselves happier with the chain karate or taekwondo styles, with their contracts, clockwork belt tests, tournaments, trophies, and instructors with pep-talks about “add-i-tuude!” The classical experience will frustrate these people. It will move along slowly, will demand time, effort, patience, repetition. It will ask more from their frontal cortex and less from their adrenal glands. They will be left wondering just how long it will take to learn to kick someone’s ass and they will likely go back to their “efficient,” chain, competition system.

But for those who appreciate the difference between run-of-the-mill and high-quality in any experience of life, the experiment in martial arts should show the difference. When you put in the extra effort, patience, and discipline that is required, you will eventually be repaid tenfold in the gratifications that the classical experience provides. The person at the chain/competition, belt-mill karate place will know how to execute a punch, a kick, maybe a throw or a headlock. With sparring gear on, they will probably be able to beat you at scoring points for a few years. It is what they do. However, there is little to be sure that they will retain their skills in the moment they need them. There is much to argue that most of them will not. It is even less likely that they will get lessons that cross-access the ideas from their training into their daily philosophy, or the connection between their mind, body, and soul. Even if they do, the only lessons available are the cheap, trite ones that you will find in most pulp guides to a better life. When they talk about the life lessons of their art, they go back to the physical, or simple mental constructs like “can-do!” and “assertiveness!” or “keep going!” These are fine things, but they are the merest edge of the scroll of life accessible through martial arts training.

Classic arts provide access to far more. The head of my system says to us just about every time we finish a seminar: “Waza easy. Do – that’s hard!” (‘waza’ is physical technique, which seems anything but easy in his seminars, where ‘do’ is the journey of the art – ‘tao’ in Chinese).

So I chose classical because it has a genuine, high-quality do that makes training rich and meaningful for my entire life experience. As my sensei said on numerous occasions, “karate is about life, life is not about karate”. I do karate for my life, so the classical experience is the obvious choice.