The true science of martial arts
means practicing them in a way
that will be useful at any time,
and to teach them in a way that
they will be useful in all things.
Miyamoto Musashi
I get so many nasty emails from people for using the word warrior in the way that I do. When I get done trudging through the barrage of profanity and insults thrown at me, their basic message is that martial arts is only about fighting and the word warrior only refers to people who have been to war. They are wrong on both accounts!
Musashi stated that martial arts training should be useful in all things; this in no way means that they should only be useful in fighting. For martial arts training to be useful in all things, it must encompass much more than simply techniques. The instruction must include character training and instruction about how to live life in general.
It is shortsighted to say that the warrior is only someone who fights in a war or that martial arts is only about learning how to fight. The warrior is one who is engaged in a struggle or conflict. This includes a much wider range than being engaged in a war. And all of the original martial arts masters stated that the martial arts are about more than fighting.
It is for that reason that I teach that the warrior lifestyle includes much more than martial arts training and that your martial arts training is incomplete if it doesn’t include character training, de-escalation techniques, and more. True warriors know this.
