This myth is false in nearly all scenarios. I will address the one scenario where this can be true later on in this blog. This myth is false due to one important statement on how to describe martial arts. Martial arts is a vessel for developing and achieving human potential. Therefore, you are only at competition with your former self. This is why strength, age, talent, and gender shouldn’t be a reason to avoid practicing martial arts. Martial arts is a way to strengthen your perceived weaknesses and help discover your strengths.

I began my formal martial arts training in the early 1990’s, and ever since then I have told anyone willing to listen that they should train in martial arts as well. Some of the most common responses I get are, “I’m not strong enough…”, “I’m too old…”, “I’m not talented enough…”, and the list of negative comments go on. Essentially, there is a thought that the person isn’t good enough to train in martial arts.

I’m fairly certain that most that repeat these “im not good enough” statements know that it’s not really true. It’s just their polite way of saying, “No” to training. I’ve called people out on this and sited examples of past students who have overcome all of the same weakness excuses, but it doesn’t change anyone’s mind. The question I then have is, what is the real reason they don’t want to try a martial arts class? For some, they simply aren’t interested and feel it’s not important enough for them to put effort into. For others, I feel it comes down to fear.

This fear could be from many things. It could be the fear of their ego taking a hit as they will learn they aren’t as tough or skilled as they thought. They would rather assume they can handle themselves physically than to find out they can’t. The more honest fear is that of injury or fear of failing. I’ll discuss the myth of injuries in a future blog, and if you’ve read some of my past blogs you’ll know how important failing is in regards to success.

Another “not enough” excuse I hear is that of not having enough money to pay for training. While this is a legitimate concern, the fact is that most instructors I know will help find ways around it. As an instructor, I know the “I can’t afford it” excuse is usually a cop out and not really true. Therefore I usually offer ways around it, such as helping clean the studio or handing out flyers and other things that can help my studio that I will gladly accept as payment. Over nearly twenty years of running my studio, I’ve yet to have anyone follow through on this alternate payment option. Proving to me that it wasn’t really the issue. Yet, if it is a real issue, let it be known that most instructors will help you find a way to train no matter what your financial limitations are.

So what is the one scenario I mentioned at the start of this blog where physicality would need to be taken into consideration? Sport or competitive martial arts. As much as I’d love to claim that anyone can be great at martial arts related sports with enough training, it’s simply not true. Most martial arts tournaments and competitions have different divisions for this very reason. Age, weight, rank, gender, height, are all ways they may divide competitors up to make it as fair as possible. Even with that break down, the naturally gifted still have the advantage.

I competed for about a decade consistently and it was very apparent to me that the style means nothing, the instructor means something but not everything, and the practitioner/competitor is the
largest factor in who wins. Most of my competitions were point sparring tournaments in which I’ve found that height has a large influence on the outcome. I can only recall losing to one person who was shorter than I am during competition. Surprisingly, he had an extremely large wing span that lead to him winning. His arms reached farther than my legs.

On the opposite end of that, I rarely defeated a competitor that was taller than me. Even if their skill level was considerably lower than mine. The rules tend to favor the taller person with a longer reach in those style of competitions. Note that there are many different kinds of competitions out there in regards to martial arts. If you struggle in one, you may find another that fits your skill base.

It’s important to understand that proper martial arts training not only doesn’t care what your physical attributes are, but actively improves them all. Not only can martial arts training improve strength and health as well as teach you self-defense and all of the attributes that come with those such as confidence, but training can correct imbalances and improve mental and physical states beyond what most understand.

Many martial arts styles make use of stances. One stance in particular is known as the front stance (or bow stance or walking stance). I can watch this one stance slowly correct muscle imbalances in the body. These imbalances can, and will most likely, lead to injuries and health issues later in life. The body needs to be aligned properly in order to do the stance correctly. If the body has an imbalance, it cannot be done correctly to advance very far in the ranks. This leads students to placing effort into this correction to create a proper stance.

Specifically, I’m talking about the muscle imbalances that lead to toes pointing inward (pigeon toed), toes pointed outward (fallen arches), or walking on the balls of your feet little to no weight on the heel (tight soleus muscle). In order to perform this front stance correctly, the heel and blade of the foot must be firmly planted on the ground behind you with the toes pointed mostly forward. If you have any of the above listed muscle imbalances, you will not be able to do this without considerable struggles or even pain.

I’ve watched students slowly correct these imbalances that have held them back from strength and coordination, as well as balance issues. Aside from the physical, martial arts training can be great for stress relief and other mental and emotional issues that many struggle with. Many students meet new friends and a new sense of purpose in their life due to martial arts training. Another benefit that many overlook is their career. For youth and teenage students, having martial arts training and especially a black belt listed on your resume is a huge bonus for employers.

I went on just a few interviews near the end of my last year in college and every interviewer asked numerous questions about my martial arts training and were very impressed with it. I truly believe it’s one of the biggest reasons I got job offers before I even graduated college. For adults already in their careers, I’ve seen martial arts training boost their confidence, mental/emotional state and leadership qualities to the point of obtaining promotions.

To reiterate what I stated at the onset of this blog, martial arts doesn’t care what your physical and mental state is, it’s designed to improve them all if you’re just willing to take the time to train. This myth of not being (insert weakness here) enough is firmly busted. Now go sign up for classes!