The Role of Martial Arts in Modern Society: On Leadership
Joseph Grant’s hands grasp the leg just behind the knee of the stout traveler from Japan. His fingers closed around the cloth of the cotton pants. Grant ripped the legs out from under Yamashita and sent him to the floor landing on his back. But no sooner had he done this that he felt Yamashita’s arms wrap around his neck, tighten, and begin to strangle. The blood in his veins strained to reach his head and his lungs pleaded for air all while the President of the United States looked on. Admitting he could no longer continue, the catch-wrestling champion slapped his open hand to the ground and signaled defeat.
This was the scene in Theodore Roosevelt’s White House in 1904. One year earlier, all while working on the Panama Canal, fighting the biggest monopolies in history, and battling an energy crisis, President Roosevelt became interested in the Japanese martial art of judo. In three years time he went from learning of judo in a letter to taking lessons in the White House from instructor Yamashita Yoshitsugu to including the martial art in the US Naval Academy curriculum. When, at the end of the first year, Yamashita was not rehired, he wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, Charles Joseph Bonaparte:
“I am not satisfied about the giving up of the judo or jujitsu at the Naval Academy. It is not physical exercise so much as it is an extraordinarily successful means of self-defense and training in dexterity and decision. Naturally, elderly men of a routine habit of mind who have known nothing whatever of it are against it; but I know enough of boxing, wrestling, rough-and-tumble fighting, and of the very art in question to be absolutely certain that it is of real and on occasions may be of great use to any man whose duties are such as a naval officer’s may at any time become. I should like to have it continued next year at the Naval Academy.”
Why was Roosevelt so adamant of judo’s inclusion in the curriculum? And what could anyone with duties similar to that of an officer of the armed forces gain from practicing the martial art? In a word — leadership.
In times of crisis, shifting paradigms, and uncertainty, people look to their leaders for assurance, guidance, and action. In this age of pandemic, climate change, great power competition, and social injustice who can we look to? Our political leadership is tied up in partisan gridlock. Our scientific leaders are misunderstood or flat out ignored. Our financial and economic leadership are fending off bankruptcy and unemployment and our military and intelligence professionals are facing revisionist and revanchist powers. Where are our George Washingtons, Abraham Lincolns, and Theodore Roosevelts?
What we need at this moment more than any time in history is leadership from every corner of society. Or is that true? Maybe what we actually need, more than people to follow, is the ability to find within ourselves that structure and perseverance we desire. We need to become those leaders we are searching for by entering the arena of life.
To do so, we need a foundation to foster growth — in other words a methodology. I believe that methodology can be found in the martial arts. President Roosevelt recognized this and it’s what drove him to include the martial arts in the US Naval Academy.
I find myself uniquely positioned to comment on this matter. Before I worked on issues of national security and homeland defense, and before I earned a PhD in engineering, I started my journey in the martial arts. I’ve been a practitioner for 25 years and for over 15 I was an instructor and coach to adults and children. Starting out in the local karate and tae kwon do gyms, I eventually fell in love with grappling arts like judo and most recently Brazilian jiu jitsu. My most valued lessons came from the 2x Olympic Judo Bronze Medalist Israel Hernandez of Cuba. I was even his uke, or crash test dummy, in his 2014 judo instructional DVD (Click here to see me get flipped over my head!). Being able to work with both kids and Olympians has given me a depth of knowledge and perspective to share.
When the average person thinks of the martial arts, they may imagine rows of children letting out inaudible yelps while an instructor paces back and forth. They may visualize wood splinters flying during board breaking demonstrations or gloved competitors bouncing to and fro. These are brief glimpses of the striking arts which still dominate popular culture’s depiction of the martial arts. But this popular depiction excludes a spectrum of grappling and mixed martial arts (though the growth of the sport of mixed martial arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championship has noticeably influenced depictions of heroes in action cinema and television, especially in the martial arts genre). For an adult practitioner one envisions a very different scenario; you’ll often find them working on tattered equipment along with a stench and dampness permeating the air. This can be found everywhere from boxing rings to wrestling and Brazilian jiu jitsu matts. All of these images are representative of the martial arts. They are as diverse as the cultures and times they originated.
Whether a child or an adult, within the martial arts you can observe the evolution of a novice growing into a skilled combatant. That evolution requires three processes: regular training, competition, and mentorship and coaching of fellow practitioners. Eventually, communities take shape especially when children are involved. It is in this environment that the elements of leadership are fostered.
Leadership is ultimately the craft of coallition buiding and strategic decision making and certain traits or elements are ideal for this purpose. There are several environments where society’s leaders originate — the military, politics, business, academia, and more. Though these are examples of where leaders come from, these institutions’ primary focus is not on developing what I believe to be the essential elements of leadership: Experience or Wisdom (sophia), Discipline or Temperance (sophrosyne), Empathy, Ethics or Justice (dikaiosyne), Community, Courageous Optimism (andreia), and Proper Ambition. Bare in mind these traits are different from the skills needed to lead others (e.g., organization, public speaking, delegation, etc.). I believe the martial arts are uniquely positioned to develop these traits by utilizing the three processes above and to do so at an early age.
In regular training a practitioner will participate in a routinized regimen to familiarize themselves with the art and its physical and social practices. When the student is first introduced to these practices, they are met with their own limitations in knowledge, skill, and physical ability just as I was. As a beginner I had to trust in these practices for a time, but all the while expecting a return on my investment. In other words, the repetition of these exercises and drills had to pay back dividends in the form of skill and ability, had they not, my trust would have been lost. Unfortunately, a participant must endure physical adversity until that dividend is received, but in this way dedication and determination are cultivated.
Leadership cannot be cultivated without acheivement and acehievement in the martial arts comes via competition, advancing rank, or coaching.
Competition must be physical, one on one, and not based on pageantry — i.e., objectivity should be held in higher regard to subjectivity. Competition based on pageantry, like kata in the martial arts, is akin to a dance routine and leaves too much of the result in the hands of a third party — the judges (the same can be said of team sports, but to a much lesser degree being that they are very much based on direct opposition of their competitor as opposed to the product of their competitor as in pageantry). My own students have felt underappreciated or unfairly appraised when judge’s decisions do not go their way. This teaches us that a competitor in any sporting contest must enjoy an adequate amount of self-determination, but also experience its downsides; in other words freedom and responsibility for the consequences thereof.
One of those consequences is, of course, the risk of injury, but ultimately the arena of life is fraught with risk and martial arts gives practitioners the ability to practice what is usually a dangerous activity — combat — in a controlled environment. After repeated contests with fellow students, fear is eventually overcome and it becomes a practice of andreia — the Stoic concept of courage. As author Ryan Holiday would say, leaders are dealers in Hope and we need to practice our courage by overcoming fear with competence.
While going through the rough and tumble of live-sparring I have found that a novice will experience memento mori (i.e., a reminder of death and mortality) and a brief reflection or introspection. When I was choked unconscious it was a poignant reminder of my own frailty. These reflections are also a prerequisite of humility and catharsis. This humility is what Saint Bernard of Clairvaux would call,
“ the virtue which enables a man to see himself in his true colours and thereby to discover his worthlessness.”
This love for truth is required before individuals can judge their own skills with the least amount of bias. Catharsis, as we know, is the purging of emotional energy which can break down barriers and biases that stand in the way of personal growth.
Rreturning to competition — competing with opponents of varying skill, ability, and knowledge is required. A smaller, weaker practitioner must physically feel what it’s like to fight off a stronger or more skilled opponent. When I was competing I was 5’8” and 140lbs, meaning I have generally felt overwhelmed more often than not. When pairing larger or more skilled students with those of lesser ability, I remind students to be cognizant of their advantages and mind their aggression just as they would desire were they paired with a student larger or better skilled than themselves. In this way the student develops empathy for those of lesser ability or circumstance while recognizing we all have natural differences outside of our control. What they are really cultivating is a sense of dikaiosyne — what the Roman Stoics call Justice. These lessons are necessary to build a foundation for ethical and moral belief systems and without which value-based decision making can be inherently biased.
When some people hear the word ambition they think of striving for power or dominion over others, but what I mean is what Aristotle would say aims to achieve megalopsychia — a combination of honor, greatness, and self-knowledge. As skill and ability compound, experienced is gained and advancement through the ranks act as a rite of passage for students. Belts, sashes, and colored gis and rash guards symbolize those achievements which, in turn, build self-esteem and confidence rightly-earned (confidence not earned is nothing more than hubris and arrogance rooted in insecurity). As my students advanced, I saw their ambition grow. They desired to achieve higher ability or rank. They saw their peers get better at jump spin kicks or grappling holds and they gained an optimistic outlook based on the fact that goals can indeed be attained with diligence and proper focus — aka discipline. All one needs is sophrosyne — the Stoic principle of temperance — to manage the peaks and plateaus of martial arts training. With this knowledge courage can develop. But when belts or other symbolic artifacts are given away without the proper amount of obstacles or ‘friction’, then the symbols stand for nothing and no experience is gained and no amibition can be cultivated. Without these a person will not develop sophia — the Stoic concept of wisdom. Without wisdom you cannot become a true leader.
A participant does not start this journey alone; throughout the process they regularly interact with and against their peers. This socialization creates bonds and helps normalize the practices.
Leadership is likely most easily practiced by mentoring and coaching others. They require both parties, the giver and the receiver, to participate. Mentoring focuses on the emotional and mental journey of the student and aiding in times of self-doubt, reassuring the student that they are not alone in their journey, and that their journey not an impossible task. It is fundamentally communal in nature putting the parties on equal footing. Coaching affirms the skills, ability, and knowledge of the coach and solidifies their status as an elder within a group of practitioners worthy of the group’s trust and respect. At the same time coaching transfers these skills, ability, and knowledge to the student for growth. It is fundamentally hierarchical in nature, granting one party status above the other; but this is not inherently a ‘bad’ thing. My students had to demonstrate both mentoring and coaching to advance into higher ranks and I would often tell them,
“the act of teaching is simultaneously an act of charity, of giving back to your community.”
This is because both mentoring and coaching are fundamentally investments in others. They contribute to building community, without which empathy and ethics cannot fully develop in a student, especially children.
In totality, regular training, competition, and mentorship and coaching facilitate adversity, growth, and community which plant the seeds of leadership. These traits cannot be bought or transferred and the experience can only be attained through time and effort in the arena of life, much like any skill.
Once these elements are fostered in one environment, say the martial arts, I have found that, with the exception of experience and community, these traits can translate to other fields with the proper analogs. For instance, I needed to first recognize my own limitations in knowledge and ability with respect to one new field I entered — graduate school. Course work and time in the laboratory represented my regular training regime. Defending laboratory results with colleagues and reviewers and debating the direction of future research with peers and advisors were great analogs for competition. Training undergraduates to perform benchtop lab work and lecturing undergraduates as a teaching assistant were substitutes for mentoring and coaching.
So if these three processes are available to graduate students, or elsewhere, why bother with training in the martial arts at all? Because the martial arts is an area outside of our professional space where we can hone our leadership skills and embody those traits, especially at an early age. The experience of working with difficult personalities (i.e., children) and managing large groups after years of regular training and competition gave me the Discipline, Empathy, sense of Ethics and Justice, Courageous Optimism, and Ambition it took to succeed in graduate school. Some of my peers faltered in graduate school; I saw peers meander without direction, run potentially dangerous experiments carelessly, cut corners, lose hope and drop out, and even fail to look past their current circumstances and desire more for themselves — they failed to have a desire to graduate. Had they been better prepared perhaps their outcomes could have been different.
I wasn’t perfect, but I was set up for success in ways other folks in my cohort were not; most were fresh from undergraduate degrees and were stuck developing their management and organizational skills all while trying to become knowledgeable in their research topics and gain traction in their journey toward a degree. Without my exposure to martial arts, I would not have been able to mentor undergraduates in the lab, organize community outreach, foster lasting bonds amongst my colleagues, and eventually publish my thesis and graduate.
The martial arts are not the only vessel to develop these traits, but it is difficult to find a simlar system with each of the three processes in one place. Popular sports like American football, basketball, and baseball are often taught or practiced in youth leagues or schools where adults lead the instruction. Yes, they push the practitioner through adversity, but their methodologies often exclude mentorship and coaching of peers. Some does take place, but this is no more than what could be found naturally through social bonding and support in any practice. In these sports, the shift to coaching typically takes place after the practitioner is no longer actively competing. In the martial arts it is standard practice at the stage of intermediate experience and onwards. That is often not the case in team sports or even solo sports like golf. This is not to say that each of these traits cannot be developed in these sports, or that these practices couldn’t be integrated into a training regimen at a later time, only that all the processes listed above are not currently institutionalized within these sports. They are institutionalized within the martial arts.
So where are our future Washingtons, Lincolns, and Roosevelts? Perhaps they are on the wrestling mats right now as all three of these leaders once were. Perhaps they are hitting heavy bags and sweating in the ring. Maybe their future will consist of receiving lessons at the White House as Roosevelt had. Maybe they are us, signing up for their first free lesson.
The martial arts could fulfill a number of roles in modern society, one of which is the cultivation of young individuals with the traits becoming of a leader. Someone with the empathy to support a moral and ethical foundation. Someone with the optimism, courage, and ambition to begin an effort to change things for the better, and the dedication to see it through to its end. Someone rooted in community and the experience of life. As Roosevelt himself declared:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
This is what makes a leader. It is what the martials arts has done for many and what it can do for many more.
