Incredible Martial Arts!

I've been taking karate lessons for several years and really enjoy it. It requires discipline, focus, and lots of practice, but it's also very rewarding. It's a challenge, both physically and mentally, but the most challenging part is the fact that the learning never really ends. You learn the basic forms through simple repetition, then the intermediate and advanced versions of the same form. Along the way, you learn the individual techniques (grappling, striking, blocking, controlling an adversary without causing physical damage, etc.) to each move within each form. The complexity soars as you learn more and more. It's truly a life-long quest to improve yourself and your abilities.

There's also a lot of history behind most martial arts, and the version of ryukyu kempo I'm learning is no exception. Generally speaking, many forms of martial arts were developed by the lower classes to protect them and provide some defense against the nobles and upper class, often using simple tools as weapons. I think it adds an extra dimension to things when there is a real, historical component to it that also helps add weight to one of the main emphases of my particular dojo: that an increase in skill and ability should be accompanied by an increase in responsibility and restraint. Remember the line from Spiderman? 'With great power comes great responsibility'. It might be a cheesy movie line, but the sentiment behind it is nevertheless applicable in many areas of life, especially with something like martial arts.

Of course, there are other, more shallow reasons to enjoy it, too. It's good exercise. It's a skill that -- God forbid -- might someday prove useful for protection. It's fun. And oh yeah, what young boy doesn't dream of doing karate like in the movies? Now I'm doing just that. I gotta' tell you, there's nothing quite like the feeling of spinning a nunchaku, whirling a bo staff around, or slicing through the air with a hand-made Japanese sword that's older than I am.

The most recent form I began learning is one using a traditional long sword (katana) and a shorter sword (wakizashi) simultaneously. I can assure you that while it's complex and challenging to learn the proper use and technique of a single weapon, it's far more difficult to learn two. While I'm a true novice at this sort of thing, I have done it enough to have a whole new appreciation for the skill. So, it is with a gigantic amount of awe and amazement that I watch videos of people like Kalman Csoka, a regular fixture at extreme martial arts competitions around the world. He's learned a very different system than mine (deliberately more flashy, a much faster and almost frenetic pace - this is the kind of style that actually is used in movies), but his skill with these weapons is incredible. The beginning is just introductory stuff...for the jaw-dropping goodness, skip ahead about 40 seconds or so:

IMHO, 'incredible' just doesn't quite cover it...