Why I Chose a Weapons Based Martial Art

Uncategorized May 12, 2020

Originally posted on May 3rd, 2016 by Dustin B. Denson

"Fencing (Right honorable) in this new fangled age, is like our fashions, every day a change, resembling the chameleon, who alters himself into all colors save white. So fencing changes into all wards save the right. That it is so, experience teaches us, why it is so, I doubt not but your wisdom does conceive. There is nothing permanent that is not true, what can be true that is uncertain? How can that be certain, that stands upon uncertain grounds?" - George Silver, Paradoxes of Defense

When I was a kid, I loved watching any movie or television show that had fighting or martial arts in it, especially sword fighting. I watched reruns of the old black and white Zorro television series from the late fifties; I remember watching such movies as The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), Ivanhoe (1982), Conan the Barbarian (1982), and, of course, Star Wars. Other notable names that should be included in this line up are Billy Jack, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and old black and white samurai movies. There are many more I am certain, but these are a few I remember vividly. As a kid, I was enthralled, motivated, and inspired by these people, shows, and movies. I wanted to be able to move like them and fight like them. They possessed an ability that I also wanted to possess. I even remember having a hard plastic glow-in-the-dark toy sword that my parents had bought for me. Whenever I played with it, I tried to mimic what I saw in the movies and on television. Of course, the martial arts and sword fighting in the movies, as anyone who has trained or trains with swords (or melee weapons) knows and understands all too well, is fiction and fantasy. However, I still wanted to learn martial arts and how to fight with weapons.

 

My martial arts training began later (the summer before high school) with Taekwondo.  While learning Taekwondo, I met my first JKD/FMA instructor and my weapons training began. Despite the realization that the sword fighting I saw in the movies was only fantasy, the burning desire inside of me to learn how to fight with weapons and a sword did not die. Eventually, during the course of my martial arts training over those years, I happened upon Pekiti-Tirsia Kali and I have been practicing and teaching it ever since. As a weapons based (and sword fighting) martial art, personally, I have not trained in anything better.

It may sound like training in a weapons based martial art chose me and I did not choose it. But, besides being influenced by the wide-eyed wonder of a child, why did I choose to train with weapons and why do I continue to choose to train with weapons?

 

These are a few reasons why I choose to train in a weapons based martial art and what I have gained through my training over the years:

SKILL

It takes skill, plain and simple. In order to fight with weapons and do it well, requires developing expertise. This requires training to improve yourself and self-improvement should be a goal that we all have. Through weapons training you will develop a skill that many people do not possess and never will and this is something to be greatly valued. Additionally, as with anything you learn and any skill you develop, you will acquire knowledge and understanding that you did not have before.  Skill, knowledge, and understanding are some of the best things to possess, because they can not be taken away. They become a part of who you are.

SELF-DISCIPLINE and SELF-CONTROL

If you want to acquire a skill, then that requires discipline. There are no magic tricks to develop a high level of expertise in anything. It requires hard work; hard work requires discipline. The training required to become highly proficient with weapons can be both physically and mentally demanding, but that is a positive and not a negative. You will become a better person through this experience. You have to be able to control your feelings, conquer your weaknesses, put the time in to improve and get better, and avoid any excuses to be lazy. Consequently, through weapons training, you will develop self-discipline, if you want to acquire any level of expertise; that is, if you want to be good.

CONFIDENCE

If you are highly skilled in anything and it has required discipline to develop that skill, then you will probably be more confident as well. People who have a highly developed skill and are experts at doing something have a tendency to be confident with their ability to perform that skill. This confidence can permeate other aspects of their life, personality, and character.

RARE

People who know how to fight with weapons, especially swords, and do it well, are rare. The practice required to become highly proficient is challenging and the challenge of mastering something is highly rewarding. It is very self-satisfying to be proficient in something that not that many people can do. This makes it rare.

RELEVANT

Finally, it is not at all irrelevant to contemporary martial arts or fighting. You are probably never going to be in a sword fight. Who cares? All of the attributes developed learning how to fight with weapons readily transfer to fighting with the hands, short weapons, or improvised weapons. It is possible that you may have to protect yourself from an attacker wielding a knife, bat, pipe, stick, or some other improvised weapon. Knowing how to fight with a weapon becomes very relevant under these circumstances, whether it is a sword or not.

Granted, the practice of any martial art is going to develop skill, self-discipline, and confidence, but I enjoy doing something different and unique. The Filipino Martial Arts and Pekiti-Tirsia Kali in particular are becoming more and more prominent in the martial arts world (this is welcomed); but, even if it becomes less rare, I will continue to train and teach Pekiti-Tirsia Kali.

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