Do you think teaching some life skills such as orienteering and first

[SiFu frank]

aid are a good thing for martial arts? Old time masters taught healing arts and other skills to their students. Do you think this is something that is worth persuing in martial arts instruction as well?
Yes of course to cover liability you need certified training. Red cross will do it for a nominal fee the will do CPR and other training as well. We also teach maridian therapy at our school as the counterpart to Dim Mak (death touch) pressure point fighting. To adult advanced students only.
Yes of course to cover liability you need certified training. Red cross will do it for a nominal fee they will do CPR and other training as well. We also teach maridian therapy at our school as the counterpart to Dim Mak (death touch) pressure point fighting. To adult advanced students only.
We requier our instructors to be CPR certified. I'm thinking more like first aid that would be required for first class Scout and CPR and enough compas and map to not get lost in city or desart. Not to deep but enough to be self confident. and get yourself out of a fix to where you can get help. Not the full SAS course.
I see many good suggestions. I hope instructors take these to heart.

[Melle]

Something to realise is the life commitment old time masters made. In the current day, people don't have time to focus on non-martial arts training. Unless you conduct a camp, or seminar where such activities work on the basis of team building, then I'm sure you'll not have the best of success.

[john]

Definitely; especially with regards to basic first aid and CPR. Students that learn such things are better able then to handle the little nuance's, aches, and pains that they sometimes get while training along with the added benefit of handling situations that come up sometimes were they may have to render assistance until professional emergency care arrives on the scene. They also tend to be more knowledgeable then about how the human body works and better able to apply it to various aspects in their training. As for some of the other aspects I sometimes delve into those but no so much. I do make an attempt to relate their training to some of their education though by using and explaining terms like "parallel", "radius", "momentum", "odds", and those types of concepts that they also hear in school. This tends to re-enforce the value of education and learning and that of course carries over into how well they tend to learn in the studio as well and relate to various aspects and principles of the martial arts.

[Nibita A]

Old martial arts masters philosophy was to teach how to heal people first than hurt them or maim. The art of fighting is easy part but the healing part is the real skill in martial arts. answer is absolutely yes.

[No Plans]

I learnt field orienteering, and I love it. It has led me to being a field observer of wildlife as well, to cool.......

[peter gunn]

of course they are. If you check arts like ba gua or chi qong they start from a medical point of view. I always try to add a touch of philosophy, history and life view whenever I teach class. I have a good interest in the subject and believe that if you want to truly understand your art you must know where it is coming from and what your founders views into matters were. Plus that seeing things from a spiritual point of view does indeed aide in the physical part. I try to give part of my wisdom back to people who need it. I've never gotten any negative responses so I guess people don't find me too preachy or plain out boring. There's nothing wrong with helping people improve their lives right (wasn't that the entire point to martial arts????)

[evo1971]

very good point.i totally agree.the more skills,including moral, that we can all pass on in life the better.good for you.lata.

[dzpmantis]

Yes, absolutely Sifu. Many of the things that we learn as Martial Artists is to cause damage to people. Quite a few can also be used to heal or help them. The two are very closely related. The more you know about the body, the more you can affect them, in both positive (healing) and negative (attacks).

With the meridian lines and pressure points, many people will only focus on using them to disable an opponent. This is only a very small part of what they are capable of. The more you learn about how to use them in a beneficial way, the better you will be at using them for defense. I believe that this is a must for advanced level students to give them a better understanding of what they are actually affecting when they use their attacks. Plus they will better understand their own bodies and be able to tell when they are on the verge of causing injury due to over working themselves.

From a training point of view, there is always the risk of causing injury to your fellow MA on accident. It is very beneficial to know how to lessen or reverse such things.

As for CPR, I think that everyone will benefit from learning that. Especially MA instructors. Our school has been lucky that we have not had anyone seriously injured due to something in class, but we have had a couple of heart attacks in our Tai Chi classes, that were completely unrelated to class. Having an instructor that is able to keep their head, take control of the situation and immediately starting CPR helps show the students that MA is not just about hurting people.

So YES, teaching healing arts in my opinion is essential to creating an excellent martial artist.

The goal of (most) Martial Arts is to better yourself and others. You cannot do this by only learning to cause injury. You need to know how to prevent injury, and deal with injuries.

[jamesf24]

Do you mean Asian style healing techniques, or basic first aid as one would learn from the Red Cross?

I don't think there is anything wrong with it, however, from a business standpoint, you might be opening yourself up to some liability and you would want to make sure your insurance covers this.

You may also have to have a license or certification to do the basic Red Cross stuff.

James