The Historical Context of Contact

How did martial arts begin?  Without a time machine, we can’t be sure but we can make an educated guess that someone decided that it was time to sit down and think about fighting in a rational way – to devise a system of movements and strategies to protect themselves, their families and their tribe from violence.

Success meant survival.  Failure meant death.  These high stakes meant there wasn’t much room for frivolity.  Techniques needed to work.  Strategies needed to be sound.

Thus we as pracitioners should remember that this is our history: the need to survive and protect ourselves.  We try to honor this history by having drills that are a simulation of a life and death self defense situation.  And in addition to honoring our past in this way, we also happen to hone our skills, our spirit and our courage.  Who knew respecting history could have such great dividends?