Survey

Discussion in 'Suggestions, Problems and Tests' started by Mugen Zero, Oct 19, 2014.

  1. Mugen Zero

    Mugen Zero Infinite zero

    Hey guys Mugen Zero here, I'm back and in college, just doing a short survey here it's for my thesis. The title of my thesis is the "usage of martial arts in daily lives" basically aside from self defense, or discipline, i was hoping to find out out what other usages of martial arts in our daily lives as a martial artist. It doesn't have to be a big difference in your life it can even be a minor one. And thank you to ap Oweyn for suggesting this: if you could do so kindly explain which parts of martial arts helped you which is either:-
    1. mentally
    2. physically
    3. spiritually.
    actually after reading this maybe i should change my reports title to why people take martial arts. What do you think? And pardon my english if it's bad in anyway.
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2014
  2. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    Honestly, Mugen, I think those categories do a pretty miserable job of describing the possible differences in training approach.
     
  3. Mugen Zero

    Mugen Zero Infinite zero

    Last edited: Oct 19, 2014
  4. Mugen Zero

    Mugen Zero Infinite zero

    but just curious how many of you guys training dojo has meditation part of training just curious
     
  5. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    I'll wager your training dojo has meditation as a central theme and you're wondering if that is in line with everyone else's experience.

    I'd say that depends entirely upon the training facility, the instructor and the expectations of the student body.

    Personally, I see many benefits to being able to enter the restful mind state - in and out of MA, so I would welcome it.

    I could also see someone else thinking "Ive no time for this" and be perfectly sound in their reasons not to want it.
     
  6. Mugen Zero

    Mugen Zero Infinite zero

    ahh well my dojo doesn't have that, and i was wondering based on the report i read that whether traditional martial arts training has different effects with training with modern martial arts training. But i was in a sense curious if meditation is the key difference between the traditional martial arts training and modern martial arts training, as it was stated in the report that the traditional martial arts training actually decreased the aggression of the delinquent whilst the modern martial arts training actually increased their delinquency. my report was supposed to be about the effects of martial arts in daily life. hopefully i was hoping to come across some stories about how martial arts has changed their lives that sort of thing. but thanks belltoller for your insight on the meditation routine.
     
  7. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    Mugen,

    When I was in school for my Master's in Counseling, I had this teacher who most people didn't seem to like very much. I LOVED the guy. Because he used to bang on and on about critical thinking when reading social science studies. He was a huge influence on me. And I'll be forever grateful for the couple of classes I had with him. So, keeping what he taught me in mind:

    This author has a clear bias. I don't get any sense that he's tried to delve beyond the most superficial possible picture of MMA for instance. We'd be fools to judge the potential benefits of MMA training solely on the shenanigans we see on Spike TV.

    His big conclusion runs like this: Students who have studied in a traditional setting (versus a modern one) experience feelings of less aggression. He concludes from this (and presumably from their self-reports) that they feel more confident. But my next question would be this: "How was their confidence measured? How was it tested?"

    His assertion is that it's because their MA education stressed self-development and self-control. As someone who came up in precisely that training environ, but is prone to ruthless self-analysis, I submit that his correlation doesn't lead where he thinks it does.

    I wasn't less aggressive because I had honed some sense of self-confidence. I was less aggressive because I had no real sense that I was actually capable of doing any real harm. I simply wasn't that good at sparring. Not entirely because of technical capacity either. There was a mindset missing. The ability to use aggression adaptively as a tool. The problem isn't aggression per say. It's aggression that spills over into other contexts. But if you work hard enough at "caging the tiger," you won't be able to turn it on when you need to.

    As for their self-reports of confidence, my feeling is that students in many such schools are told from Day 1 that that's what they're supposed to be experiencing. Is it any wonder, then, that they might frame feelings of uncertainty using rationales that have been fed to them all along.

    I'm not suggesting that my experience is everyone's experience. That would be ridiculously absolutist. But I'm not convinced by this article. It doesn't delve into the specific mechanisms deeply enough for me. And it doesn't delve into ANY specific mechanisms of what he broadly terms "modern" martial arts. It's agenda writing. That's fine. Everyone has an agenda when they write. Just don't take it as gospel and you'll be able to use it as one tool in a broader toolbox.

    Depending on how far you want to take this, I'd think about specific practices used in martial arts schools, stripped of their association with "competitive," "traditional," "RBSD," etc. What mental, physical, and spiritual interventions are being used?
     
  8. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    Read some accounts of Frank Shamrock's and Rickson Gracie's training approaches. Plenty of meditation to be found in these "modern" martial artists.
     
  9. Mugen Zero

    Mugen Zero Infinite zero

    Thank you ap Oweyn, umm just curious, has martial arts played a role in your life? doesn't have to be major one but any sort of uses at all to you?
     
  10. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    Oh sure. I started when I was 13 years old. And I haven't been nearly as diligent as some here. But I'm 43 now, so you can do the math. It's not so much that I made it a way of life. I didn't really. But it was there, chugging along in the background, through many developmental stages (if you want to get all Ericksonian about it. ;) )
     
  11. Mugen Zero

    Mugen Zero Infinite zero

    mhmm would label it as a skill on your resume? XD, anyways thanks oweyn for answering this survey, really appreaciated it and to all MAPpers out there reading this post, this post will be close to discussions at 24/10/2014 12:00a.m., so please do post your experiences here until then. Thank you.
     
  12. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    I have labeled it as a skill on my resume at various points. Though, as I've gotten older, I've gotten more strategic about WHY I'm putting it on there. A few years ago, I listed it because I was applying for a job at a college that involved teaching. My own teaching experience was solely from martial arts at that time. (Though I've been teaching a college class for several years now.) I also brought up the multicultural experience connected with the class, as my college has a very culturally diverse student body and I am almost absurdly Caucasian.

    Now, I might list it because what little training I do these days is done in connection with the college. And any job in Student Services values campus involvement. So I've been the faculty advisor for one martial arts club and a student in another credit martial arts (BJJ) class on campus. Breaking it down for the younger people. (Or getting broken BY the younger people, more accurately.)
     
  13. Mugen Zero

    Mugen Zero Infinite zero

Share This Page