Extremes may be nice places to visit, but they are rarely good places to live in. The Buddha was thinking along these lines when he proposed “The Middle Way”. Briefly, the “middle way” is a practice of non-extremism. The middle way supported a path toward wisdom, morality and mental cultivation that excluded the extremes of austerity and self indulgence. We may talk more about that another time, but for now, let’s apply this thought to our martial arts practice.
At first blush, the words “martial” and “art” may appear to exist in a subtle state of mutual exclusivity. “Martial” tends to be associated with terms like war, combat, fighting, violence, aggression, etc. and while there are exceptions, the connotations generally lean to the negative. “Art”, on the other hand, usually brings thoughts of painting, sculpture, music, dance, creativity, and is generally thought to be a positive thing. When the two are paired together, something rare and beautiful can be created.
In training, I think beginners need to focus their efforts more on the martial side of the equation. They need to pay attention to details, fundamentals of movement, basics. They need structure and repetition to learn about timing, distancing and angling. As they become more experienced, they begin to exercise more creativity. Eventually their experience allows them to become artistic. This is true of many areas of endeavor. A cook may start out learning from others and following recipes (kata), but eventually they come to create new dishes on their own. Budding musicians often play songs they know and follow sheet music (kata), but may grow to write their own songs or just play appropriately with any music that is around them. In martial arts, advanced practitioners (3rd dan and above) need to start creating for themselves. Though, obviously, their creative skill comes from the years of experience that they are able to interpret in new ways.
As beginners, we must be careful to do our best with the basics, with the kata that teach us certain skills. And, we must be careful about trying to become too creative too soon. If we do this in cooking, no harm done – unless you have to actually eat the spaghetti and marshmallow sandwich. In self protection, being too creative too early may have more disastrous consequences.
As advanced practitioners, we each have to be aware of a scale and the extremes that exist on either end. One end I will call the martial end. We focus only on kata and repetition. There is a danger that our training may become rote, mechanical and imitative. We might learn to “perform” the kata very well but may lack appreciation and insight on how to translate the lesson into solutions for real-life conflicts. We may not even understand what lesson the kata is trying to teach. On the other end of the scale is the pure artist. At this extreme, our movement may be expressive and creative, but we may lack the technical, mechanical skill born from structure and repetition. Striving for creativity – to do it “our way” – we may forget the important foundation taught by ancient kata. We sacrifice centuries of experience distilled into lessons.
Living in either extreme, places a limitation on our experience and our potential to fully develop in the art we practice. In my own training, I sometimes remind myself of the “middle way”, that these extremes may be useful places to experience but unsatisfactory places to live in.
