Being Proficient In Combat : By: Sifu Lee

Ultimately Martial Arts should be for health preservation and spiritualism.  But it is my firm belief that a Marital Artist MUST be proficient in defending himself from a violent encounter.  And with that expectation, it requires very much physical training, technique training, cardio training, strength training, flexibility training, etc.  Basically a true Martial Artist should train like a competition fighter but do not compete.  It’s very easy for a weak inefficient Martial Artist to promote mental and spiritual development over physical development because they have the luxury of skipping a very important aspect that requires years of development.  To me, they are not complete.   In order to be complete and balanced a true Martial Artist must go through hard physical training, become extremely proficient in self defense, and then come to the realization that there is no need to fight.  As mostly all fights occur within the mind between the ego and the true inner spirit.

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We must realize the clear distinction between a Martial Artist and a Wise Sage.  For example Lao-Tzu, Buddha, J.Krishnamurti, and Osho are not Martial Artists, they are great spiritual sages.  Mentally and spiritually strong but physically weak.  Now someone like Bruce Lee, is a balanced Martial Artist.  As a disciple one must decide for oneself which path he wishes to partake in.  Does he wish to be a Wise Sage or does he wish to be a Martial Artist who has become a Wise Sage?  A disciple can skip over the physical if he wishes and come to the realization that physical combat training is no longer necessary, but if he does so, then he would no longer be a Martial Artist.  As specifically what sets the difference between a Martial Artist and a Wise Sage is that a Martial Artist has continued to realize the importance of self defense technique development and invests a balanced portion of his time to develop himself in that respect.

~ Sifu Freddie Lee

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