Martial Morals

Many a famous martial arts master took on criminals as students - especially Triad gangsters in China being trained by Kung Fu masters, and Yakusa gangsters in Japan being trained by Karate masters. The most famous of these masters, Oyama, founder of the most influential of these traditional Japanese & Chinese boxing systems in today's sports world (Kyokushin Karate,) was known to believe that training in martial arts improved the character and morality of the trainee. These martial arts masters were essentially ministering to those who needed character and morality development the most - the criminal element. Professor Kano, the founder of Judo, was a leader in physical education and had similar beliefs about martial arts training, that it led to not only increased health, but increased morality:

Why would training to become better at hurting other people make you a better person? Why risk teaching delinquent elements in our society how to become more effective fighters? My hypothesis is that they witnessed first hand this moral development, and that this is a natural side effect of full contact martial arts training (as well as other certain types of athletic activities.)

In the documentary "A Mind to Crime: A Dangerous Few" explains that chronic criminal behavior is largely associated with an under stimulated prefrontal cortex, so that a recidivist has problems empathizing and forming long term strategies based on obvious consequences. Treatments that stimulate the prefrontal cortex - basically turning the life of a child into one big game of good behavior, or getting an adult to use a computer game to intensely focus their ability to concentrate their prefrontal cortex for extended periods of time - have shown to be effective treatments, stimulating the prefrontal cortex and leading to drastically less criminality.

In the classic Frontline documentary "Inside the Teenage Brain" explains that another part of the brain, the cerebellum, builds both coordination of ideas and coordination of the physical body. (I can't emphasize this enough: learning to coordinate your thought helps you coordinate your body, and learning to coordinate your body helps you coordinate your thoughts!) Teenagers mature not only as their cerebellum and prefrontal cortex grow and mature, but as the connections between those two parts of the brain solidify and strengthen.

Full contact martial arts demands your concentration. A brief laps in concentration while sparring leads to almost guaranteed physical pain, stimulating your prefrontal cortex. It also forces you to develop your physical coordination as it is an athletically demanding activity. No wonder boxing in the inner city of the USA and Mexico has been used to lead many wayward youth into a law abiding lifestyles as adults. No doubt wrestling has helped numerous middle class youth abate their own narcissistic tendencies, not only as the wrestlers learn to develop sympathy so that their sparring partners can avoid injury and continue to train with them, but also simply because of the stimulation of their prefrontal cortex and cerebellum!

We have assumed the YMCA created basketball primarily for fitness, but this achieved their over all goal of improved moral behavior, and basketball continues to be used throughout education systems today, partially because it is known to improve behavior of athletes long term. Fail to concentrate for even a moment in basket ball, and the consequences will be obvious - "keep your eye on the ball!" - prefrontal cortex stimulated, and all the while physical coordination is being developed.

I believe that full contact martial arts develops the brain's ability to coordinate and concentrate much more intensely than other athletics like basketball, because of the psychological and physical intensity of martial arts training. This is part of why martial arts masters have found martial arts to be an effective way of growing people into better human beings.