Seven Benefits of Martial Arts for Adults

A previous article I wrote for the Zone Martial Arts blog focused on the benefits of martial arts for kids but you would be surprised at how much benefit an adult can get from martial arts. Maybe you have seen your child training and thought “Maybe I could do that?” or you are looking for a different fitness option than pounding away at a treadmill for hours. If you need some more incentive to try a martial arts class for yourself, I have put together seven benefits that adults can get from martial arts.

Energy

I know it sounds weird to some, but performing a form of exercise can actually increase the energy levels a person has. Martial Arts, not only helps burn fat and calories but it builds strength and gives you an outlet for the stress that you encounter during your day. What’s even better is that it is a much more interesting way to exercise. When you do martial arts training, you need to keep your brain active and thinking about the activity. That means you are training your body and your brain.

An interesting class can not only have you walking away from the class invigorated (yet probably tired), the blood is flowing and you have burned calories in a way that is more interesting than sitting on an exercise bike. Its more practical too from a self defence perspective and is definitely something we encourage at Zone Martial Arts.

Goals

As adults, we tend to forget the need to set goals in our lives. We also tend to forget that achieving a goal is a process in and of itself. When a person comes into Zone Martial Arts, they often have goals of getting fit or learning self defence. Most have a goal of achieving a black belt. When it comes to the last one, the program we offer is broken down into belt levels and a student knows what they need to learn at each belt level to progress to the point of testing for a black belt. The program itself takes the larger goal of wanting a black belt and breaks it down into smaller chunks.

The ability to take a large goal and break it down into smaller chunks is one of the keys to really achieving goals.

We take that a step further and set out goal targets beyond just getting the next belt colour or black belt because we see the benefits of setting goals. You should always make sure they are S.M.A.R.T. goals though (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based). You can read more about goal setting in a previous blog post (Blog Post - Challenges and Goal Setting) but when students start setting goals and achieving them in martial arts, it encourages them to set goals and achieve them in other areas of their life.

Self Confidence

Think this is just for kids? No way. Adults often suffer from self-confidence issues and this could affect them in their personal life and their professional life as well.

Martial Arts helps build confidence as you see the benefits of the goals you set and achieve. As you learn that the kick you thought you could never do becomes your best kick. As you learn to defend yourself and know that you could fight back in a self defence scenario.

Martial arts builds confidence by encouraging you to succeed and showing you the benefits and value when you do. When you have more confidence, you approach things with a can-do attitude and this will mean a happier you.

Focus and Discipline

Martial arts really does help your focus. For starters, you have to put your smartphone down to train in martial arts so there is no distractions from email or messages. To perform a lot of techniques you need to think about multiple things at once. Where are my feet supposed to be, what are my arms doing, where do I need to look? All of these things take focus and the repetitive practice of these techniques sharpens your focus.

Patterns are another great way to develop your focus. You need to not only make sure you are performing the correct techniques but you need to remember them in the correct order, at the right speed and with a focus on your breathing. Then there is board breaking. There is no point even trying to break a board if you haven’t worked on your focus skills.

To work on these things though ultimately requires discipline. You learn as aspect of that through the formality of martial arts training however a lot of the benefits of martial arts come from developing your own skills in self discipline. Pushing yourself that but further or even just making sure you get off the couch and get to training.

At Zone Martial Arts we work hard to make sure our students work at developing their discipline and focus because we see the benefits for students, not only in their martial arts training but in their professional and personal lives as well.

Self Defence

Violence is most definitely on the increase and it is important to make sure that you can defend yourself when you need to. I am not only talking physical skills to defend yourself either. You need to be able to mentally fight back and not just shut down. How do you do this? Martial Arts of course.

Martial Arts training is fun and exciting but it is also building self defence skills and a tougher mind so you can handle and cope with violent situations. It helps help you improve your agility, balance, endurance, flexibility, and even your strength.  It also teaches you how to avoid physical confrontations in the first place

If you are going to exercise, do something fun and martial arts can provide that fun while at the same time providing practical skills to protect yourself. That’s why at Zone Martial Arts we focus heavily on self defence. Its all great being able to kick fast, but if you can’t apply it in a self defence scenario it won’t be much help.

It’s a Great Family Activity

So often, I see parents dropping their kids off to martial arts class, or sitting next to a field while their kids play soccer or netball. Why sit on the sidelines? Martial Arts is for everyone and it’s a great activity to learn with your kids. That’s why we have family classes at Zone Martial Arts, just so parents can learn martial arts with their kids as a family. 

There are more benefits than just a family activity though. The kids see you doing what they are doing. You sweating just as much as them if not more. They become inspired by their parents to do better and work harder. They see that hard work pays off and they relate to their parents better through this. You have common goals and common interests to talk about over dinner. For some kids, they even start to see their parents as people they aspire to be like, not just the people who ground them, send them to bed and tell them to tidy their rooms.

We have so many families training with us at ZMAX and its so great to see them achieving together.

Leadership

There is a phrase I really love. “A boss says go and a leader says let’s go”. It’s easy to be a boss who tells other people what to do but when you lead, when you show others the way to go instead of telling them, that’s when you get real results.

Martial Arts develops leadership skills. When you have to teach someone else a pattern, the best way is usually by showing them. When you team up with someone for the warm up, and you help them by just doing it with them, you are showing leadership skills.  

As you progress through the years in martial arts training, you are called on to share your knowledge with other students. Share your skills and insights. I have seen many examples of junior students approaching senior students and asking them for advise or help because they have seen that senior student working hard and practicing their skills and that lead by example approach is what makes the junior student want to learn from the senior belt. It makes them want to follow the lead of that senior belt.

The focus on being a leader in martial arts will flow on into other areas of your life and I am not just talking professionally either. You would be surprised how often this skill will benefit everyone.

So if you are interested in trying martial arts, find a school local to you and give it a go. If you live in the Sutherland Shire, come and try Zone Martial Arts. We would love to see you benefiting from some or all of the above points.

Enquire about a trial at Zone Martial Arts - CLICK HERE

Mark Underwood

Mark holds the rank of Master in two martial arts, 5th Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo and 4th Dan Black Belt in Haidong Gumdo (Korean swords). He has also trained in a number of other martial arts styles. He is currently the owner and head instructor for Zone Martial Arts servicing the Sutherland Shire area from the Taren Point location.

Fundamental Theory of Haidong Gumdo and Martial Arts - Part 4

This final entry in the series on the fundamental theory of Haidong Gumdo and martial arts is about the body.

Body
Even though this is listed as the third point in the theory of Haidong Gumdo it is just as important as Spirit and Mind as it is through training the body that we can develop the other two components. By analyzing technique, pushing our body to (and beyond) its limits we learn more about our mind and our spirit. It’s the gateway to integrating martial arts into our life.

Power (Correct posture)
In martial arts we need to control and manage our power. We need to assess the amount of power we use in training and in any real life scenario. A punch can be delivered with breaking power but if all that is required is to warn someone away then using full power is excessive. The same with the sword, if we use too much power on our cuts then our sword will travel too far and leave us exposed for a counter attack. The other side of this is posture. If we overextend ourselves by applying too much power, then we can injure ourselves trying to stop the motion. Not to mention that correct posture and stance actually will deliver more power to the technique we are doing.

Speed (Swift movements)
Speed comes over time but it is something we should all strive for. It is important to know when to strive for more speed and it is only when you have gained control of the technique. Applying speed to early will just exacerbate bad technique and will be detrimental in the long term. I encourage all students to focus on the basic technique first before striving for more speed.

Balance (Stable stances)
Balance develops over time but it starts with the correct application of stance. People always want to rush to the fun stuff like punching, kicking and cutting and try to gloss over the benefits of good stance. Stance though is the bedrock of every technique we do. It’s important to make sure our stance and our feet are in time with our techniques. When we can think about balance in the martial arts moves we make, our techniques will improve and the more we will improve.

Sweat (Continuous effort)
Hard work pays off. No matter what happens in our journey, whether it’s hitting a plateau and thinking we are not improving, a technique we feel like we just can’t conquer or any of the other obstacles we hit while training martial arts, hard work and sweat will always help us get beyond it. When things get hard, a lot of people want to quit, find an easier way or just ignore that technique altogether but it’s those times we have to suck it up and keep training. Perseverance and hard work will always help us get through the tough times. So if things are looking difficult or you are getting frustrated, put in more time because sweat and continuous effort will get you though.

Fundamental Theory of Haidong Gumdo and Martial Arts - Part 3

I am continuing my series on the fundamental theory of Haidong Gumdo by looking at the second area that is covered by Haidong Gumdo, the mind. However these theories really apply to martial arts as a whole. So if you look at this and say "I am not a Gumdo student so its not relevant" you would be missing out in my opinion.

Mind

With any martial art, comes the concept of mind. Believing in yourself, pushing yourself and character building. Mind is the second fundamental theory of Haidong Gumdo but again I put to you that it is not limited to just Gumdo but applies to martial arts as a whole. It is something we practice without thinking about it during classes but it is when you stop and reflect on these aspects, you can learn so much more about yourself and really start to integrate martial arts into your whole life.

Courage (Ability to handle fear and danger)
Courage can’t be given to you in a rolled up parchment no matter what the Wizard of Oz tells us. It has to develop. I get a lot of students who come into the club looking to train and develop self-confidence. You will definitely gain self-confidence from doing martial arts but you gained confidence just by stepping through the door. People have a desire to learn martial arts and can be easily scared away by the intensity of training or the instructors or one of a hundred other things, but when you take that leap and get onto the floor and start training, you are showing courage. Through martial arts you learn to hand fear, nervousness and anxiety and those lessons of control and courage can then be applied to other areas of your life.

Judgement (Knowing oneself)Judgement is vital with martial arts. It’s the ability in the split second moment to determine how much force you need to apply in a self defence scenario. It’s knowing that even if you could fight back, you don’t need to prove it and can walk away from a fight. It’s being able to say I did my best and not listening to other people who say you didn’t try hard enough or you failed.

The subheading here talks about knowing oneself and to me that is difficult in itself. It’s hard to look at yourself honestly and think about our faults. It can also be hard to look at ourselves and not be overly judgemental and harsh. We have to take the time to reflect on ourselves and our judgement to ensure we are being true to ourselves.

Respect (Yourself and others)
We bow to our instructors, our training area and each other all the time in martial arts to show respect. We are showing respect to the people teaching us, the area we train in and the people who train with us. We show respect by standing still when our instructors talk to us, by looking at them while they talk and not fidgeting. We show respect by showing restraint and not fighting too hard with our fellow students during sparring.

Respect is a huge part of martial arts but I also hope that these lessons of respect are going home with you and being applied in other areas of your life. That you are showing respect to your boss or teacher by listening to them, even perhaps if you don’t like them. That you are showing respect to your elders (parents, grandparents or just older people you know) as this is a large part of Korean culture that we sometimes miss in western culture.

I know respect it is something I really want my students to think about outside of the club environment. It shouldn’t be like your uniform and you just put it on at training.

Temperance (Self-control)
Temperance and self-control are the final aspects of the mind aspect of martial arts theory. We need to be rational and calm in situations where it could be easy to get angry and riled up. We need to not lash out, verbally or physically, when something or someone upsets us. It is even more important for martial artists who learn skills that can severely injure other people. We don’t have the luxury of throwing a friendly punch at someone because our punches are more technically proficient that most people. We need to control ourselves.

We also need to have self-control with how we treat our body. Our body is one of the few constants in our life and if we abuse it we can’t replace it. So while that extra drink at the pub is nice and chocolate is awesome, we need to make sure we have these things in moderation, that we have self-control so that firstly, our body is healthier but also because as martial artists, we can’t have alcohol or sugar highs control us because it is too easy for us to hurt someone accidentally.


Mark Underwood

Mark is a 4th Dan Master in both Taekwondo and Haidong Gumdo (Korean swords). He has also trained in other styles of martial arts. He is currently the owner and head instructor for Zone Martial Arts in Sydney, Australia.

Fundamental Theory of Haidong Gumdo and Martial Arts - Part 2

Part 2 of my fundamental theory of Haidong Gumdo talks about the first of our fundamental parts of Haidong Gumdo/Martial Arts. This one is all about spirit.

Spirit

Spirit is a big part of Haidong Gumdo although sometimes it is the one people overlook the most as it isn’t something we directly train. Rather spirit is something that comes from the other aspects of learning martial arts (Mind and Body which I will talk about shortly). Spirit comes from being around people who show these traits, making sure we look up to people who demonstrate the below attributes.

Patriotism (Love of Nation)

This means respecting the country we live in and the ideals that are common to everyone, yet also showing respect to the cultures and beliefs of everyone. We are a multicultural nation and respecting others should be part of the way we show that we are all Australian.

You can also show your love of nation every day by being a person who treats everyone as equals or even by something as simple as picking up some rubbish you might otherwise ignore.

Filial Piety (Love of Parents)

Sometimes our parents drive us nuts but they sacrificed a lot to raise us and it is important to show them respect and love. Everyone makes mistakes, even parents so don’t hold that against them. Instead tell them you love them as often as you can as you never know when it will be too late.

This also means doing what our parents say, straight away without talking back. Even as adults, we need to show our parents the respect they deserve.

Propriety (Good and proper behaviour)

Be a person who behaves in a way that is respectful to yourself and others. Don’t pick on other people or bully them. Don’t look down on people or treat them as well than yourself. It also means standing still when people are talking to you, giving them attention by listening to what they say.

We need to make sure that our actions tell others about the sort of person we are and want to be.

Justice (Moral rightness)

Sometimes it’s tough to do the right thing when all we want to do is yell back at someone and sink down to their level. Yet as said many times in the world of comics, with great power, comes great responsibility and this applies to martial arts students. The techniques we learn, whether with a sword or with our hands and feet, are potentially lethal techniques. They can definitely cause injury and pain to others, so we need to be able to make sure we can control our moves so as to only to the required amount of force on an opponent.

However the greatest challenge is to avoid situations that would mean we have to use our martial arts skills. So if someone tries to pick a fight, or does something to make us angry, we need to try and walk away if we can.

We need to make sure we are setting a good example, to our family, friends and other martial artists and this aspect is one of the most important.


Mark Underwood

Mark is a 4th Dan Master in both Taekwondo and Haidong Gumdo (Korean swords). He has also trained in other styles of martial arts. He is currently the owner and head instructor for Zone Martial Arts in Sydney, Australia.

What is traditional Taekwondo?

One of the most compelling statements to make about traditional Taekwondo is that it has a tradition of change. Over the years, Taekwondo has changed and developed based on social and political environments from the original Kwan’s that opened after Japanese occupation ended and before and after the Korean War. Even today, the Kukkiwon changes the methods of techniques based on changes to the sport or the refinement of technique from a new persons point of view.

The art in these original Kwan’s was extremely close to hard style Karate, although they did have some unique training methods. They did have their own variations in their forms, but the techniques and much of the art was the same as hard style Karate. They had the same uniform, same rank system, same forms etc. The techniques favoured straight linear power strikes, and the art was very "simple" compared to today’s focus on high kicks, intricate footwork and acrobatics. The modern mainstream WTF Taekwondo is indeed something entirely different from the Taekwondo from the original Kwan’s from the 40s to 50s. In the journey from "self-defence combat art" to "martial sport" many traditional training methods have fallen out of favour or disappeared all together.

One of the traditional training methods from the old Kwan’s was a device called “Dallyon Joo”. It used to be an important part of training but has disappeared with the change of focus for Taekwondo globally. Dallyon Joo means “forging post” and is the Korean equivalent of Karate’s Makkiwara. It is a post that you strike continuously to develop power in your strikes, blocks and kicks. A lot of early books on Taekwondo mention this type of training and it’s important in developing powerful techniques. Today it is mostly forgotten.

Most mainstream Dojang’s today teach the basic techniques of Taekwondo, Poomsae (patterns) and sparring although the sparring is most likely to be competition style. If you are lucky, your club may also teach self-defence and breaking although breaking is becoming less of a focus for power and more focused around flashier demonstrations. The five main foundations of traditional Taekwondo though in my view are Basic Techniques, Poomsae, Sparring, Self Defence and Breaking. That is not to say that people who only teach two or three of the above are not teaching “traditional” Taekwondo. The whole phrase traditional Taekwondo is open for interpretation. These are merely my beliefs on traditional Taekwondo.

Maybe there is no "Traditional Taekwondo" left. Personally I think the tradition in Taekwondo is change. Maybe for the better or maybe not. I guess it all depends on what you want out of your journey. That being said, the label "Traditional Taekwondo" should be used only by those who at least as a minimum practice all the "foundations of Taekwondo" and whose practice methods are in line with the art as taught in the old Kwan’s.

Over the next few weeks, I will go into the foundations in more detail from my viewpoint.


Mark Underwood

Mark is a 4th Dan Master in both Taekwondo and Haidong Gumdo (Korean swords). He has also trained in other styles of martial arts. He is currently the owner and head instructor for Zone Martial Arts in Sydney, Australia

What’s my motivation?

I first became interested in martial arts in my early teens. After watching some fantastic martial arts movies I decided that this was for me. This added to the fact that my parents were getting annoyed with me breaking broom handles against the clothes line in my imaginary martial arts fights in the back yard.

I started in Karate back then and although the school didn't fit me (or me it) and I left after about 6 months, it didn't dampen my enthusiasm for martial arts.

I picked up martial arts years later when I started doing Taekwondo. The desire and motivation to learn martial arts had stuck with me and I am glad it did.

Means, Motive and Opportunity.
“In crime fiction a character needs means, motive and opportunity to be considered a suspect.”

These criteria also apply to taking up any new activity, such as learning a martial art. Here's how:

Means: You need enough time and money. For some, money may be a barrier; for others with significant work and family commitments, finding the time is the limiting factor. In both cases, when starting out, taking one class a week has the advantages of easing you in gradually, and should be affordable and possible to schedule.

Opportunity: You need to find an instructor whose class you want to attend and who is prepared to take you on.

Motive: This is the big one: Motive (motivation) is incredibly important, because not only will it get you started on new activities and expose you to new experiences; it is the main thing that will keep you going long term.


What's my motivation?
When I went to my first Taekwondo class, I was impressed by the abilities of the instructor and senior students and how they taught. I wasn't graceful or powerful like them, but my instructor reminded me that it was my best they were looking for and if I focused on technique, the rest would come. Soon I was making progress, and within six months I was hooked.


As a beginner, I appreciated that:

• The instruction was impressive, and different to what I was used to from school and University
• It was challenging, but I was able to make fairly steady progress

Over the next few years, as I started to attain some degree of proficiency, I began to appreciate the gains that I was making in technique and fitness, and my motivation changed. I had progressed from being a naive beginner to a slightly less naive student. By now I had some idea of what Taekwondo was about. Having scratched the surface, I was keen to dig deeper.

As a committed student, I enjoyed:

• The opportunity to keep refining and extending my skills
• The friendships that I was making through martial arts
• Learning realistic self-defence
• Improving my concentration, coordination and fitness
• The rush of competing in tournaments
• The challenge of trying to apply my martial arts training to non-martial arts situations

Now, as a more seasoned student of the martial arts, and also as an instructor, my motivation continues to evolve. In addition to the points listed above, I want to:

• Teach my students well, and learn through teaching
• Help popularize the benefits of martial arts, and promote quality teaching
• Learn something every time I train
• To find connections between different aspects of my training, between the various martial arts, and between my training and my life.

No matter where you are on your journey in martial arts, its important to find your motivation and also to keep reminding yourself of it, of the things you have achieved and what you have learnt. It will keep you moving forward on your journey.


Mark Underwood

Mark is a 4th Dan Master in both Taekwondo and Haidong Gumdo (Korean swords). He has also trained in other styles of martial arts. He is currently the owner and head instructor for Zone Martial Arts in Sydney, Australia