VIOLENCE IN THE MARTIAL ARTS
by Daniel Horchler, 1992

Martial ('mar-shel) adj from the Latin martialis, of Mars-the Roman god of war: of or relating to war or the warrior. Martial Arts therefore is the art of war and/or the art of the warrior. It is by nature an art rooted in force, violence and death.

The full-time occupation of the samurai was to train the most efficient way to immobilize and destroy an opponent. I was thirteen years old when I began training in the martial arts. Like many young boys my age, I wanted to be the toughest kid on the block. I did not want to feel intimidated by those who were larger and stronger than myself. Karate seemed an excellent way to develop skills that would enable me to quickly destroy an opponent with one swift blow. Somewhere along the way, things changed. After more than ten years as a competitor and numerous tournament victories, I came to realize that the violence I had become capable of was not an end in itself.

To the contrary, I found that it increased my appreciation for peace and harmony. As my skills sharpened and my sense of power over others increased, I felt my spirit becoming tranquil, more inclined to tolerance and understanding rather than conflict and confrontation. The one-on-one nature of competition made me appreciate the value of working together with people and enjoying a common goal with a shared sense of duty, responsibility and accomplishment.

Perhaps it was the student/teacher relationship or the encouragement of fellow students, but it is obvious to me that people working together can always be more and create more than can any one individual standing alone. The Brooklyn Bridge took years to build and required the work of architects, engineers, financiers, ironworkers, scuba divers, and many others. Think of the group effort it took to put the first man on the moon! The role of martial arts is not to produce more people capable of greater and greater violence. The world will always have too many violent people in it. Rather, the role of martial arts should be to reduce the total level of violence in the world.

Through our training, we become intimate with violence and learn to rise above it. Through violence we learn to value that which is gentle, kind and understanding. Secure in our ability to deal with violence, we can live with a greater sense of calm and personal security. This manifests itself in an increased capacity for reason and judgement in the face of hostility or crisis. A martial artist is not a person of violence. Rather, he/she is a person capable of violence, but who prefers peace.