The Ideal Martial Artist

In the early stages of this type of endeavor, a clear understanding of what I intend to achieve can only make the decisions along the path easier, or at the very least less vague. Therefore, I have to pose the question:

What is my definition of a martial artist?

If my end goal is to be the best martial artist, I can't just sit with a vague idea of what those words mean. Do I want to be an Olympic gold medalist? Do I want to win an MMA title? Maybe I should be the hermit in the mountains, doing nothing but meditation and practicing all day, every day. In the end, it isn't so important to me that other people recognize my greatness, so long as I have an adequate appreciation of where my skills are, where I've come from, and where I have yet to go. So, to return to the question, I must define what a martial artist is in my mind. I've narrowed it down to three aspects.

The first aspect is simple: one must practice martial arts to be a martial artist.
Next, a martial artist must constantly work to improve their craft.
Finally, a martial artist is one who takes the craft seriously.

The next step is to understand what it takes to bring these aspects to their extremes. The best martial artist is not one who no longer feels the need to practice, but has built a solid foundation and routine that does not end. This naturally flows to the third aspect, that a martial artist is constantly trying to improve. This means that they are looking at all aspects of themselves and looking for ways to improve. This, in my opinion, is what leads to the second aspect.

The mindset of a martial artist is different than the mindset of someone who knows martial arts. Over the last few years, I transitioned from the former to the latter, a man who knows Tang Soo Do but never practiced, rarely thought about it, and hardly ever sought to improve upon it. Here, my friends, is where I am going to be focusing my efforts.

Another way of phrasing this topic is to say that a martial artist must have the mindset of a martial artist, and to be the greatest martial artist possible, one must never leave that state of mind.

That sounds nifty, but what the hell does that even mean?

For starters, that ideal is different for different styles of martial arts. Tang Soo Do is different than Krav Maga is different than Wing Chung. However, most of these styles do have a core set of values built into their teachings by which a student can seek to become the ideal practitioner of that style. As this particular post has gone on long enough, I will address the core values I intend to follow as a practitioner of Tang Soo Do in my Wednesday post.