Karate quote

[kue]

“I come to you with only Karate, Empty Hands. I have no weapons, but should I be forced to defend myself, my principles, or my honor, should it be a matter of life or death, of right or wrong, then here are my weapons, Karate, my Empty Hands.”
- Ed Parker

[karlo]

Nice quote and really with a meaning , if you brush your skills to perfection you do not need weapons as your body becomes one !

[Empi]

I like this quote. It sounds like something from a martial arts movie. Then again, it's strong, but when it comes down to practicality, it's risky.

Weapons give advantage not because they're stronger or faster than a person, but because they extend and reinforce a person. An expert at unarmed combat can beat a novice weapon's user, but if both are equally trained in their art, it coms down not to skill or luck, but the effectiveness of the different styles. Weapons are an extension of the body, and if one person can extend himself while another cannot, the one that cannot is put at a disadvantage. That's not to say it becomes one-sided, but it can certainly tip scales in some fights. I won't get into ranged weaponry.

To play devil's advocate, reliance on weaponry can be it's own weakness. If I spend years training with a sword, only to be disarmed somehow in a fight, I'm at an almost automatic loss.

Toughts?

[Shirindo]

A weapon cannot be faster than a person. It still relies on a person to operate it. Is it stronger than a person? Well quite obviously in some ways yes; I wouldn't use a traditonal high block against someone swing a sword straight down at me noggin!! In some ways no; As Empi said to become reliant on the weapon itself makes it weak.

I personally have trained with weapons but have always preferred to be empty handed as this is how I will find myself 99% of the time. I love to train against weapons; finding their weaknesses, discovering which weapon threatens which areas etc etc. Predominantly I train against knife, stick/bat and gun and of course all round unarmed.

My ideal state to get to is to be able to react instinctively to whatever I'm faced with no matter how the situation develops. All this requires is to imagine all those infinte variations and practice each one repeatedly until I've got them down pat. Should only take me a couple of weeks, rofl.

[disgruntled]

it is funny that you mentioned the idea of acting right away with a reaction to defend yourself because i have developed that to a degree...... at my last class i was teaching self-defense and one of my students commented that the self denfence is hard because a persons first reaction is to freak out and flap their hands.... i looked at her puzzled and then i realized that yeah she is right.... i started MA when i was 12 so i just start doing the MA because it is natural to me.

and i like the quote too. it shows the balance that you walk being a MAist. you have the power to injure people the the duty not to.