Yes, I said it.
Training martial arts is the equivalent to developing super powers. This is an analogy that I occasionally share with youth students.
Allow me to explain:
Lets take Jiu Jitsu for example. The whole attraction to Jiu Jitsu is the notion that through superior technique, leverage, timing, and traps we can control and ultimately neutralize another person even if they are bigger, faster, or stronger than us. Doesn’t that sound like a super power to you?!
How about Boxing? It is quite literally the art of ‘Hit and Don’t Get Hit’. If you have ever had the pleasure of watching the pure defensive wizardry of the likes of Willie Pep, Floyd Mayweather, or the less famous but equally impressive Nicolino Locche, it’s like watching a magician perform. They cannot be touched. I can only imagine the horror their opponents must have felt at times realizing that they were going to be punching at air all night.
No, we don’t have x-ray vision like Superman but as a martial artist of 15+ years, I’ve had the opportunity to test my skills live against hundreds, if not thousands of people of varying skill levels. At a certain point in my development, I recognized that although I wasn’t a master, I reached a level of proficiency where I could neutralize training partners that had more experience than me and out ranked me.
The confidence that this gave me living the rest of my life was undeniable. If experts could not neutralize me at will, fighting someone that doesn’t know Martial Arts would be like child’s play. And it does feel like that sometimes.
I’m an instructor now. I have new students walk in all the time. Although I nurture the development of my students through technique breakdowns and drills, I regularly like to provide reality checks of the power of superior technique by going live with them. At a certain point, it becomes more difficult for me to dominate the student in which case they gain the same sense of confidence that I received. It is a pleasure for me to be able to pass this along to them.
Another approach I like to take when highlighting the similarities between training martial arts and developing super powers is the fact that they can both be used for good and evil. A Villian uses their super powers for evil just like a bully could use martial arts training for evil. A Hero uses super powers to save people just like you could use martial arts training to save someone.
Do you want to be the Villian or the Hero?
