Wednesday 21 May 2014

On how practicing martial arts is like doings lab research

Waiting for buses can (!) have positive side effects. There's little to do apart from reading or thinking - although chatting with strangers may be an option. My thoughts drift easily towards training.
In a circular sort of reflexion, I came up with an interesting pattern.

Reflecting on what motivates me I have long known that 2 main factors drive me. These are very basic  and already in place in childhood, but they can still be powerful long after.

The first one is curiosity, the need to know "why" or at least "how" since the first one is often impossible to answer. The need to understand is probably the most powerful and has led me away from the clinic into the world of research.

The second one is the need to do things, myself. To simply do, create with my own hands, to make. That impulse has had an impact in my professional choices in the past.

Given these two factors, there are many career choices that could have taken advantage of such drives. Obviously, doing lab research is one. After all, you can choose the questions you want to find an answer to and sit at a bench trying to make it happen.

But how is that relevant to martial arts?
I admit to some generalization here by speaking of  "martial arts", and extend it from my own experience of Taiji Quan ( or tai chi chuan, TCC) and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). I do not restrict that to internal or external, since whereas TCC is an "internal" martial arts, BJJ  is not even classified. Some people debate whether it's a martial art or a fighting sport! I personally have no doubt it is a martial art, and more of an external martial art. Although there are internal characteristics in BJJ I think, which would make for an interesting discussion.

To answer my own question, I think the need to know "how" can be gratified by learning techniques and applying them correctly, and even in the strategy game. There are different types of learners, but the analytical learner (that I am), fits here I think. Both TCC and BJJ have a strong element of technique, even if only in the initial stage or a branch level. I will not say root as the core probably should be feeling in both, but that is more difficult to achieve and will still need the technique to express itself.
The second impulse, the love of doing, finds its outlet in the physical expression of the arts. You are after all making it happen, or trying. No passive observer, you are at the center of it.

So for me, doing research and practicing TCC and BJJ, are expressions of the same seeds, fuelled by the same fire. A true expression of myself. Is it a wonder I consider BJJ a martial "art"?

I wonder what motivates other people doing martial arts. How it fits with their professional careers. Not all people have the chance to have a career, as opposed to a job and that career may only be temporary, but that's where the heart is.

ps: I now have the privilege to accessorize all in blue in BJJ. Did I mention blue is my favorite colour? Blue gi, blue T-shirt, blue belt....


pps: my instructor never seemed to object to the solution I'd found for the stripes washing away every time. Since I do wash my belt every time (or almost), the tape stripes never stayed on. After a while I thought that tradition is all well and good, but should not get in the way of the spirit of the thing. so I tried embroidering the stripes. I'll have to wait a while now, but I liked it (thicker thread would be better). No hassle, stripes stayed put from wash to wash.