Fighting Is For Everyone

Don’t let fear stop you from taking the first step.

I don’t like golf.

It’s a topic of conversation that doesn’t come up often, but it did the other day while having lunch with my dad. We were sitting in a Buffalo Wild Wings, idly watching some random football game they’d put on — Premier League, I think? — and he asked me if I was a fan. I said I wasn’t, but I could generally enjoy most sports even if I didn’t fully get them, because I like watching games being played at a high level by talented, experienced players.

Except for golf. I hate watching golf.

It’s not that I think golf is boring or that I don’t consider it to be a “real sport”: I actually quite admire the dexterity and physicality required to play it properly. No, my problem with golf isn’t merely aesthetic, it’s philosophical. I find the game disagreeable at a fundamental level.

Golf is a game that can only be enjoyed by a highly exclusive group of people. As a concept, it demands the use of expensive equipment and vast amounts of carefully groomed land. Even at its most frugal, it’s locked down to the few that live in affluent enough areas to be near a course — and speaking of courses, this is without mentioning the colossal waste of resources that comes with setting up and maintaining one, something I also take extreme issue with, but am willing to accept is worth it “for the art”, if nothing else.

Just imagine how many gyms you could fit in this space. (via golfscape).

This isn’t to say that I don’t think golf should be played or practiced, mind you. If golf is your passion and you have the chance to play it, don’t let me guilt you out of it! I just don’t personally enjoy the concept of a sport where 99% of the potential competition is ruled out from the very beginning by virtue of not having been born rich enough.

I like games, and sports particularly, for their ability to be shared with other people: Most of anyone can grab a basketball or a football, set up their own little field and learn how to play in ten minutes. They might not play properly, they might get the wrong impression about the game altogether, but the ability to train, have fun and grow is right there for anyone to pick up and enjoy if they so wish.

Nowhere is this truer than with fighting.

Sure, we like to dress it up: We buy fancy leather gloves and heavy, 100% cotton gis; we make all sorts of complicated implements and contraptions to train with, from heavy bags to reflex bags to actually physically realistic dummies that you can throw around.

And in all due fairness, they’re pretty handy. (via Amazon).

There’s an entire market for supplements and dietary plans to help you minmax your physical ability, and much as these things do exist and do have a purpose, they’re as necessary to fighting as adding sugar is to soda. The truth is as long as you’ve got a body and some solid ground beneath you, you can learn and practice fighting in some capacity.

We hear it all the time, the “come up story”: Poor kid grows up in a bad neighborhood, has little to no life prospects, but finds a second chance at life in the ring. Mike Tyson, Roberto Duran, Francis Ngannou, the Diaz Brothers — examples are endless. Fighting is an equalizer, it allows all of us to compete in the same grounds, no matter our background.

“But I’m too short.” You’ll make one hell of an in-fighter.

“But I’m too fat.” That just means you have more mass to throw around.

“But I’m too lanky.” Take it from me, you can make it work.

“But I have no legs to stand on. As in, I literally have no legs, and cannot stand, therefore making me unable to stand and fight in any capacity.”

… You know what?

All that means is people can’t kneebar you.

Fighting doesn’t care about who you are; it doesn’t care about your name or where you come from, it doesn’t care about your wealth, your postal code, the car you drive, your ethnicity, your religion or if you think the earth is flat. All it cares about is how hard you can dish it, how hard you can take it, and how hard you’re willing to work in order to increase the prior two.

And sure, we’re not all born equal: Some will be naturally stronger, naturally faster, naturally more dexterous and adept at combat — but that doesn’t mean you can’t practice, and even if you fail, at least you can say you tried, and by exploring the depths of your potential you’ve already gone one step farther than most.

If you’re reading this and you’re interested in picking up martial arts, but you’re too afraid that you’re not in shape or don’t know enough yet, and thinking you need to wait for a bit longer before you really commit to trying anything out — stop. Go look up some shadowboxing videos on YouTube. Then get up and start copying what the people in them are doing.

All you need is the willingness to start.

Take care everyone, don’t stop training.

- Eidolon.