I have been competing in Taekwondo for so many years after achieving the Black Belt, and every time I stepped to compete against my opponent, I felt like we are all puppets trying to test our strength and skills hurting each other to entertain the audience that came to cheer for us, or because we need to prove to the World that we are the best!!
I have won 20 Gold Medals.
Martial Arts have built my Confidence, Strength and discipline. The Traditional Powerful Teaching and Methods that the Martial Arts have are Timeless.
One time I was getting ready for a fight and my opponent came to say Hi and I couldn’t look her in the eyes.
I told her; You can’t do this!! We are about to fight against each other now. She said; So what?! We can’t be friends? I said; You don't Understand, I can’t hurt you if I become your friend. That was the hardest fight I have ever had after that talk we had in the changing room. I couldn’t hurt her in the match. My coach kept screaming and yelling at me to hit her, but I couldn’t turn into that Monster!! I just had a connection with this girl. How can I hurt her?! I took off my helmet that day and throw it on the ground announcing that I Quit!! The audience went on complete silence. I questioned the intention behind the competitions after that. Why am I competing?! To prove what?! and to whom?! I know I am strong enough and capable of defending myself. I will NOT Hurt others anymore!! When I used to step into a fight, I saw the anger in my opponent’s eyes before we even start the fight. Filled with hate and anger. Trying to focus on winning and forgetting that we are all Humans and we should never ever hurt each other. They turn people into Monsters!! People with their Bad systems Turn People into Monsters!! Thats Why when I created SheFighter, I wanted to teach a proper Martial Arts System where all the power and knowledge you learn from the training is used to EMPOWER yourself, spread LOVE and SERVE others. "Be aware of fighting Monsters for you might become the Monster during the process" Lina Khalifeh
Thanks Richard for sharing your valuable opinion. Thats why we need to watch our method of teaching. We have to remind kids that they are here to learn how to defend themselves and people they love against darkness and people who might have bad intentions towards them. There is always two sides of life and we have to accept both. How we deal with both sides is completely up to us. But kids needs guidance and good teachers in their lives. I just want the adults to question certain systems of teaching and change it to what suits humanity best.
I agree with your points regarding "becoming a Monster". Competitors in full contact MA - including Taekwondo - need to be "monsters" - that is, people who want to hurt the other part for fun. A certain degree of sociopathy and psychopathy is 100% necessary to enroll in competitive MA. You have to enjoy hurting people. If you don't, you end up like you in your narrative - questioning the point of the whole thing.
That's why I firmly oppose full contact MA to young people. It really transforms people into monsters. Young people destroying their health and the health of the others, causing braim damage and so on - kids that would be normal, nice kids, become amoral sociopaths,…