Turning Challenges Into Triumphs: The Power Of Martial Arts
“My?style? You can call it the art of fighting without fighting”—A wide-eyed Jayesh Deshpande watches intently as his favourite action star, Bruce Lee, delivers the punch line in ‘Enter the Dragon’, a classic that he is enjoying for the sixth time!
Call it obsession or pure devotion, but only those deeply passionate about martial arts truly understand the commitment required to master its skills and perfect each move.?Each time, Lee takes a jump, 11-year-old Jayesh imitates him, sometimes injuring himself, but that doesn’t stop him from pushing his limits.
This enthusiasm is mirrored in a broader trend: martial arts are rapidly gaining popularity among kids as well as adults. As more schools and community programs offer martial arts training, hundreds of individuals are devoting time and energy into learning martial arts!
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Indian Martial Arts: A Proud Tradition
Before Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan enthralled and bamboozled us with their physics-defying fighting styles and moves, there were practitioners of great Indian martial art techniques, such as Kalaripayattu of Kerala, Silambam of Tamil Nadu, Kathi Samu of Andhra Pradesh, among many others.
With pop culture giving more limelight to Chinese, Japanese, and Israeli martial arts, the indigenous ones have come to suffer a possibility of being lost to history. However, there is a renewed interest in salvaging old knowledge, and many instructors are opening up Indian martial arts training centres in different parts of the country with the hope of teaching the latest generation the ways of the old.
Rise of Martial Arts Communities in India
In the modern context, martial arts, such as Karate and Taekwondo, started taking hold in India during the 70s and 80s. Other forms of martial arts like Kickboxing and Judo have also become quite popular in urban India, and there are a couple of good reasons why that is the case!
Fighting for Fitness
One of the most compelling reasons why parents are enrolling children into Taekwondo, or any other martial arts class is their increased focus on fitness. From a young age, kids learn the value of physical activity and the benefits of maintaining a disciplined routine. These classes not only promote physical health but also instil habits that contribute to long-term wellness and personal development.
Channelising Energy and Stress Management
Young people have no shortage of excess energy that they often end up spending on mischievous activities. Training them in martial arts not only gives them an opportunity to channelise that energy in a positive way, but also helps them with managing stress and anger. Martial arts instructors teach students self-defence and the virtues of remaining calm in an escalatory situation, not fighting—big difference!
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Martial Arts for Self-Defence: A Necessity for Women
An increasing number of women are embracing martial arts or exploring self-defence classes. This growing trend underscores a heightened interest in martial arts for personal empowerment, safety, and overall well-being.
Why? The following may shed some light on it—
Having to choose between safely going out and about or confining oneself in the four walls of a bedroom is a horrible dilemma and never should be the case. Extraneous factors not being favourable to women, many of them have decided to take matters of their safety into their own hands. However, a?silhouette of some silver lining is visible when we come across news reports like this:
A New Age: Mixed Martial Arts Madness
Shifting gears to a more light-hearted topic, let’s also devote some time to the latest fever that’s catching hold of a lot of people: MMA, i.e. Mixed Martial Arts!
There are dyed-in-the-wool MMA enthusiasts who just can’t get enough of UFC. Talk about a spectator sport!
Right from legends like Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo to India’s very own Bharat Kandare and Anshul Jubli, all of them have entertained audiences worldwide with their incredible MMA techniques and fighting styles.
Kickboxing, for instance, is scoring big with both men and women for their high-energy bouts and dramatic knockouts.
Interestingly, MMA has got so much popular that you now have dedicated YouTubers, podcasters, and streamers who watch, comment, review fights and even organise watch parties—it’s a complete ecosystem of hair raising- adrenaline-rushing-hooting-and-clapping fanboys and girls!
Unique Offerings
Whether you’re a martial arts movie buff like Jayesh or an aspiring MMA fighter, or someone who is learning Karate or Kickboxing just for self-defence, martial arts have something to offer to everyone. Instructors, Shifus, Senseis, and Gurus, teach us time-tested traditional knowledge of redirecting our energy in a constructive way and impart vital life skills to us, which not only help us defend ourselves but also drive us to lead a fitter and a more disciplined life.?
So, tell us in the comment section which discipline of martial arts is your favourite?