What are some fitness benefits from taking martial arts? If it is done properly I think it can be one of most complete forms of exercise that there is. Depending on the school, the style of the teacher,...
Depending on the school, the style of the teacher, the whole bit. If it is done properly I think it can be one of most complete forms of exercise that there is. I know when you go to the gym most people don't work their balance, they don't work their agility, they don't work their speed, they don't understand what the difference between the strength and power is. Martial arts specifically teach you all of those things if it is taught right, and I am telling you 95% of the schools don't really teach that. Yet to think if you just punch and kick the air and do forms you don't have to be sharp. You are never hitting anything and if you do it in tournament fighting and never make contact with the person you don't have to be conditioned to take a shot or be able to deliver a good blow because you are not allowed to hit them. Tai chi is a very slow martial art, so you are not going to develop speed with tai chi. So I would say if it's taught properly it can be a great overall exercise anaerobically and aerobically strengthening, endurance, power, agility, flexibility, fine and gross motor skills. I think it is a really great exercise because it develops both the right and left side of the body and that's what I said about the art.
Right, you can go and play a sport and just throw a ball. Pitchers don't even really have to catch or hit or anything or even run, someone runs them. You can be a "professional athlete" at the highest level and make 10 million dollars a year throwing a ball with one hand..
You could be the most valuable professional athlete that year, MVP and that's the difference between that and art. That guy is on TV. He has got all the money and the glory. But the guy that practices the art goes, "I am going to learn to throw with the left hand too. I am going learn to hit with both the right and left and I am going to be the fastest guy on bases and the best runner and the smartest player. I am going to learn how to catch, and scoop and dive and do all these things." That's what the artists would do and then they would take all of these things and say, "how I can apply this off the field". So integrity would mean you don't just do the right, but you do in the right and left side. You don't just do the top; you do the top and the bottom. You do the outside and inside that's the integrity of an artist as opposed to just the technique of the sports.
