The Future of the Martial Arts

The Future of Martial Arts

Adult Martial Artists interested in self-defense training, traditional martial arts or even MMA should read Wim DeMeere’s Blog post about the future of martial arts. (Wim publishes one of the most thoughtful blogs in the martial arts world. Always worth reading.) What follows are my own thoughts about its future.

Fads: Not Dead Yet

There will be fads, but they will be fewer and short-lived. The Internet is making it more and more difficult for martial arts hucksters to market bogus martial arts styles. No more magical-martial-arts-schools-from-the-darkest-regions-of-the mysterious-Orient and similar hype. It’s becoming too easy to expose that kind of nonsense.

New martial arts styles will continue to grab the imagination of many, especially those gullible enough to believe that there is a quick and easy path to martial arts mastery. Nevertheless,   global scrutiny will wither the blossom of their novelty and martial arts practitioners who were seduced by the fanfare will return to tried and true martial arts traditions.

Bujutsu: The Return to Reality Continues

Call it self-defense training. Call it combatives. Call it H2H. Whatever you call it, it all began with bujutsu: the practical (armed and unarmed) martial techniques deployed against violence in the streets or on the battlefield.

Unfortunately, with the tsunami-like popularity of martial-arts sports as well as the prudent reservations many instructors have about teaching hard-core self-defense to those whom they barely knew and thus trust, bujutsu became diluted, even ignored.

Much of what passes for bujutsu in commercial schools is, as Charles Nelson used to say, the sort of stuff that will get you killed on the streets.

And, yes, it will.

With the greater availability and circulation of the work of combatives experts like Kelly McCann, W. Hock Hochheim, and the late Carl Cestari as well as others, however, true bujutsu will continue to grow. The bujutsu renaissance will invigorate not only self-defense training but traditional arts as well.

And speaking of traditional martial arts…

Traditional Martial Arts Will Return with a Vengeance (And Then Some)

Wim is spot on this point—but I wouldn’t be surprised if traditional martial arts become even more traditional than we have been accustomed to over the decades. Nor would I be surprised if as a result they gain more respect than they ever had before.

Here’s why…

Bushido And Budo Will Return With An Even Greater Vengeance

Ground and pound only goes so far.

Martial arts without bushido—that is, the moral code that informs the character of a martial artist and by which he lives and dies by—is simply thuggery.

Without bushido, the Samurai are gangland mobsters. It is their commitment to cultivate not only martial virtue but the arts of poetry, calligraphy, painting, and what we now call the liberal arts that has made them exemplars for generations of men and women both in the East and the West.

Without his gentlemanly Oxford education in Asian languages and sense of duty to God, Queen and England, James Bond is just a sadistic murderer for hire. But in spite of his roguish dark side, we know that he is a gentleman to the core and will never let evil triumph over good.

Bruce Lee’s career and life offered his fans not just a display of martial arts artistry but a code of conduct and philosophy that embodied the best of the Asian tradition.

But this is not merely the stuff of legend and literature.

Consider US Army Special Forces and, for that matter, other elite units. Read Dick Couch’s Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior or Dalton Fury’s Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander’s Account of the Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted Man. If nothing else, the Green Berets and Delta Force are a sublime synthesis of butjutsu and bushido and budo.

Still doubt me? Take a look at McChrystal Group, headed by Delta Force operative General Stanley McChrystal (ret).

So, yes, the future of martial arts is potentially bright. Whether these predictions—mere guesses in the end—prove to be nothing more than hopeful thinking only time will tell.

Even if they don’t come true or not at least as I think they will, there is cause to be optimistic. Most adult martial artists are enthusiastic and motivated students of the martial arts. No matter what the future holds for the martial arts, they will keep the flames of tradition and of progress burning bright.

Train hard, stay safe, live well.