Does karate improve your character?
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Cooperation and sharing are basic life skills that enable us to make friends, work successfully in groups, and get along well with others.
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Martial artists have many things in common – their values, beliefs, goals, and dreams….. and these common goals should bring each of us closer together.
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Instructors and teachers should support each other, raise each other up and empower one another to achieve these common goals. To learn from one and other, and eventually teach what we’ve learned to others, repeating the cycle.
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But mostly they don’t. There is squabbling between practitioners, associations, individuals and groups. Someone doesn’t like something you did, said or do. Politics everywhere. I started karate in the early 1970’s, it was there then, and it is here now. Nothing changes.
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There are those who say they want to help others, promote this and that. To be honest, most of it is BS. Most of these people are out for their own ends. There is so much jealousy and bickering over the smallest things. They want you to support them but ask for support in return….. forget it.
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The martial arts are supposed to build respect and self-respect. Self-respect is wonderful. It’s the healthy recognition of our own value as human beings. That knowledge gives us the mental strength to not be destroyed by every bit of criticism. Even more, it braces us against the pressure that comes from all sides of society to change or do things just so other people will like us. Without self-respect, we can be talked into all sorts of things, because many around us want us to do something for them.
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There are far too many ways a teacher can give students lessons in poor character, and sadly there are far too many people with a less than wonderful character teaching martial arts. Martial arts practiced in such a way teach students the physical aspects of the art without learning anything about character or maturity.
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I strongly believe the martial arts can be an amazing vehicle to personal growth. However, it’s far from automatic. It depends upon many other factors, and the martial arts can just as easily be negative. In answer to the question; “can martial arts change a person’s character for the better”…. I would say; “it depends”.
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I have seen instructors and students which at first seemed good martial artists, but when I saw how they actually lived their lives and treated others, I was no longer impressed by their martial knowledge or their character. They were not good instructors, not good students, and not good people.
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No one is going to learn a lesson that isn’t being taught. If a martial arts school advertises that they teach self-defense, self-respect, self-confidence and self-discipline, we shouldn’t be afraid to ask; “How do you teach that?”
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Unfortunately, despite the myths and legends, good character is not an automatic byproduct of martial arts training. 👊🥋
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Nakamoto quote from The Origins of Karate – Kensei Suchy
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