Compulsary Martial Arts in PE

[Siyris]

William, I feel very sorry for you right now.

Perhaps it's the internet that takes tone out of words (no facial cues, or body language or tone of voice) but you come across as a bitter, disillusioned old man. Apart from that, I'm done arguing with you, as it seems to be similar to punching a brick wall repeatedly in hopes of knocking it down, ie pointless.

I hope that you are incorrect in your assumption that it will result in student deaths -- as for student injuries, there are far more dangerous things that Japanese students do/participate in on a daily basis. I also feel like you are giving very little credit to the schools -- I do not think it likely that the schools would allow such things to happen.... no matter what sort of statistics there are, there are always ways to make activities more safe. 100% safe, absolutely not, but certainly there are ways to prevent lethal injuries and I have no doubt that schools will take those steps.

[losdutchmen]

Ok, I'm out. The best comment on this entire thread is the stick figure pissing contest.

Most amazing is that now girls wearing pink is also harmful. Pure scientific fact. Funny stuff. I wonder what color is not harmful to girls?

[DjinnWired]

God, I hate martial arts. My hatred stems not from the art itself, nor anything about its practice, but because I've found that discussions about martial arts invariably, inevitably, without fail... ALWAYS end in something like this:



Seriously. No idea why martial arts discussions are so prone to this phenomenon. You know it's true!

So true. It would have been nice to discuss it from an educational point of view, but しかたがない。

[Moosashi]

Well as far as I know Judo is not jujutsu. Judo is a dumbed down non punching martial arts designed for competition. Jujutsu is way more aggressive. I've been doing jujutsu for 3 years, and it's roots are from Japan but developed in Brazil.

There you are, a samurai in feudal era Japan. The battle rages around you. Your katana (Japanese sword) broke ten minutes ago (a problem with high carbon steel blades in a battle environment), your yari (spear) is firmly lodged in someone else's horse, and your tanto (knife) is somewhere in the blood and bodies after it slipped from your grip. A huge enemy samurai is running towards you with a spear. You consider your options, punching would be pretty useless, the man is an armoured mountain and has a sharp pointy stick.
... it's times like that that you really wish you knew something about how to turn your opponent's momentum to your advantage, and preferably how to grab that spear in the without getting turned into a kebab. Killing him at the same time would be a decided bonus.

That's the real origins of Judo. Martial art means that it once had battlefield application. Kung fu was developed by monks to fight off bandits, karate developed from kung fu, judo likewise was designed as a weapon of last resort on the battlefield (or if someone had the bad manners to attack you when you weren't carrying a weapon - many places in feudal Japan, such as brothels, temples, etc, required you to leave your weapons at the door).

The thing is that while there is a more tournament oriented mindset in training these days these martial arts are all contain techniques designed to kill people. Sure it may not be the first choice, but it is definitely an option.

Aikido isn't designed to kill, nor are their tournaments, since these are both held to be too aggressive and focusing too much on competition rather than working with your partner.

As for jujustu being "developed" in Brazil... you'll find if you actually look at some of the historical documents that modern Brazilian jujustu is merely a return to the more martial (war-like) traditions of judo, with an emphasis on causing injury.

Anyhow I think it's an awesome idea whether it's a module or full course. It's a good way for kids to exercise and learn all the cool contributions japan has made to martial arts.

And personally I find the image of classes of school kids being required to practice for war very disturbing. Likewise I find the government requiring students to participate in martial art, where many students are sure to be injured and some will die, to be a completely irresponsible move. Most students already choose to participate in a martial art like kendo, kyuudo, archery, etc, or a healthy sporting club like baseball or basketball. Leave it alone, some kids simply will not be interested in or suited to martial arts.

Another factor that hasn't been mentioned yet is that this sort of physicality, particularly with immature students, will result in increased bullying, as the bigger students feel inclined to "try out" their new skills, and it will also provide a perfect excuse for the bully, if he breaks someone's arm all he has to do is look pointedly at the bullied student and say, "Oh, sorry sensei, he fell badly when we were practicing throws", and the bullied kid knows that if he opens his mouth to complain... well, he'll surely get paired up against that student in martial arts class again sometime and he'll definitely "fall badly" if he complains now.

It's an idiotic idea and is just set to compound existing problems with bullying.

You make some good points about the bulling and drill Sargent training. I actually didn't think about the bullying. I'd like to say teachers would be smart enough to pair the same sized kids together and keep the bullies paired together... But I know better than that. :/

I dunno if making kids do martial arts will open them up to having the teacher (intentionally or unintentionally) train or ingrain the kids with military culture of taking orders. I've seen the kids do Judo and Kendo, and I didn't get the sense that the teachers were being like drill Sargent and making the kids line up like soldiers.. I don't agree with the "Senpai" (Senior) "Kohai" (Junior) relationship kids have -- but that's more a school/society thing.

Anyhow, for the record, Judo is pretty tame as far as martial arts go. There is no punching, and I guess the name Judo literally means "gentle way" (Why I said it's a dumbed down martial arts more for competition than submitting your opponent)

[DjinnWired]

To Japanese kids who already tend to obey too much and question too little it is pouring gasoline on a fire. This is just one example of how one has to consider the cultural context in which this move is taking place and see how it is reinforcing many negative tendencies in Japanese education (there you go DjinnWired, I discussed the educational merits, happy?).

Ecstatic. You made my day. If I didn't know you were already married I can't say what might have happened when I read that

[DjinnWired]

Congratulations! That's great news! Please do send me the update... we're still waiting for #1 but enjoy reading about other people's experiences in the meantime.

[AichiPA_Kevin]

You make some good points about the bulling and drill Sargent training. I actually didn't think about the bullying. I'd like to say teachers would be smart enough to pair the same sized kids together and keep the bullies paired together... But I know better than that. :/

Even if teachers always paired kids appropriately in class, once you're not in class anymore, there's no one to supervise the "pairings."

[GunmaBrentPA]

To be honest I was apprehensive about this decision mostly due to the issue of safety. After looking into it I'm less so.

The way this has received press I was thinking something akin to elementary school English, but after talking with the Sports Division I learned that most schools in this prefecture are only going to do training for about 10 hours a year. Because of this most schools will limit themselves to the most basic forms and maybe some falling. Schools offering karate will also do punches and kicks but likely not targeted. None of this is etched in stone and there is a lot of leaving things up to the individual schools.

Still my main concern is that it seems to likely that in many schools a contact sport will be left in the hands of someone who really doesn't know how to coach it.