My wife regularly reminds me of an old adage her father used to subscribe to. It goes something like this: “If a job is worth doing, then it’s worth doing properly.”
Never a truer word was spoken by my late father-in-law, God rest his soul.
According to the Western Christian calendar, it is now Lent. Traditionally, it was a period of fasting and abstinence. At various points in history it has been observed in many ways, such as: giving up all meat and dairy products; only eating and drinking after sunset; and only consuming bread, water, herbs and salt on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
The history of Lent is a little complicated, but once the Lenten penance was widely adopted, people were always hungry during the run-up to the Easter festivities. Apart from on a Sunday. Why? Because at some point in the distant past, the Lenten period was extended to start from Ash Wednesday and finish (as it always had) on Easter Saturday. Easter was now 46 days away from the start of Lent. So Sundays were officially days off — as there should only be a total number of 40 days of self-denial in this season, as per Christ’s preparation in the desert. I could go on, but for more information, please start by referring to a large set of books referred to as “The Bible”. Specifically look at the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke.
Why carry out penance? 1) To subject the flesh to the will. In other words, to stop wanting to satisfy the wants of the body and foster detachment from earthly things. To think of the supernatural; “of heavenly things” 2) To express contrition for sin.
Healthy Christian adults were required to fast during the whole of Lent for many centuries. These days, people do a little bit here and little bit there, if anything at all. So Lent is no longer hard. It no longer concentrates the mind. It has very little effect.
The same is true when it comes to martial arts teaching in the West.
Not so long ago, think the 1980s and 1970s, training in a martial art was usually very demanding. You would push your body to some limits. You would get hurt a lot. You would experience pain and fear and have to overcome it. You would be regularly humbled. And guess what? It made martial artists tough. Which is kind of the idea. Because fighting is horrible. And if you’re not hardened up a bit, then you can’t even begin to fight, let alone win one. Before a confrontation even starts (unless you are a psychopath) your body is screaming at you to run or freeze. Traditional training helps you overcome this.
My old Taekwon-do teacher used to tell us about how when he started training there was no water allowed until after class and how the sparring was usually very intense. You quickly learnt to protect yourself or you would get hurt. He didn’t stop his students from drinking water (that’s probably not a good idea especially when it’s hot and you are training for some 2 hours a session as we did), but he did make us train in a traditional manner. We would condition our bodies to get used to impact. We would get humbled when we were shown up by a superior opponent. And we were under no illusions as to just how tough it is to win a fight, or protect yourself and your loved ones. In fact, you eventually realised that the last thing you want to do is engage in serious hand-to-hand combat. Because it’s brutal.
So, in a sort of similar way to the Lenten penance, your were not just training your body, but your mind and in some ways, your soul too.
In The Dojang and Redemptio, the characters who train to be vigilantes do so by used old school training methods. Tried and tested drills that kick into effective action when needed on the street. In fact, the vigilantes in the novels train so hard, with one specific (and noble) goal in mind, that they find it difficult to recruit new members. The Dojang, for example, briefly explores how some young men are only prepared to subject themselves to that sort of hardship for some financial reward.
Nowadays, people train in very safe environments and for very different reasons. Striking contact is low-to-minimal, sessions are short and well, things are just… easier. Many martial artists have become “soft”. That’s why the MMA and boxing communities have such a laugh at traditional fighting arts. There they are busting their faces open and breaking the bones in their hands and then down the road there’s some “Karate” school where the only thing the students ever hit or face is fresh air.
OK, people have day jobs, they can’t always go around with busted knuckles and black eyes to work. And some people practise martial arts for fitness reasons alone. And children should obviously have some level of protection when they train. But, quite frankly, as an adult, if you’re not going to train properly, then there’s no point in training at all. You can get fit on a treadmill at your local gym.
Just as with Lent, you either do it, or you don’t do it.
Otherwise you’re wasting your time.
Progress report:
Through Open Doors is pretty much good to go. I am going to get a cover sorted out and then publish it.
The Man Who Wore Hats (working title) is at 43,656 words. Another slow couple of weeks. But it’s taking shape.
Take it easy and thanks for reading.