Who is a Martial Artist?

[ShotokanKid]

I think it's about the passion u have for your art

I think so too. I think when you do an art and love it, you can call yourself a MAist.

[kivikala]

No wait, I am Sparticus! ... err, ops wrong forum

[CagedWarrior]

Personally, I consider myself a fighter. I have no real desire to be a martial artist, and I wish more distinction was drawn between the two.

You can be a fighter and a martial artist. What style do you do?

The way I put it, I do striking and grappling. Specifically, BJJ (with some wrestling in it- real BJJ has wrestling in it anyway) and MT/Boxing. Call it MMA.

[BJJShotoshe]

Personally, I find that it is a personal journey that each individual that is participating in the Martial Arts has to take. They, and only they will know when they have truly become a Martial Artist.

[Adonis]

Its just a defintion that is open to interpretation. Besides the dictionary defination. Every one seems to have there own idea as to what a martial artist is to them. Thats fine doesn't mean they are or right or wrong or a peson with a diffrent opinion is right or wrong.

[lgm]

I would distinguish a "martial arts practitioner" and a "martial artist", since these two terms are so closely related and often interchanged.

A "martial arts practitioner" is one who practices or learns a recognized form of unarmed or armed fighting and can apply what he learned in self-defense or tournament situations.

On the other hand, a "martial artist" is one who not only practices martial arts like the MA practitioner, but one who knows the science behind his martial art, creatively contributes to the development of his martial art (this latter qualification is the reason why he is called an "artist"), and if requested or the situation demands, can effectively teach his martial art to others.

[White Warlock]

Well, first time i noticed this thread. Of the posts, i find Igm's closest to the thought, but i take it a different route.

In a similar thread, i stated i am me and that what i do does not define me. I am not a martial artist, a martial arts practitioner, a writer, journalist, artist, computer tech, or any of the other things i 'do.' I do things, and they are things i do, but they do not define who i am, nor am i comfortable with labels... for they are simple means to simplify. Stereotyping that many of us have 'accepted,' yet we should not. Someone should no more define themselves as a martial artist than anything else. Such labels are devised by laymen as a means to quantify a group of people performing, or practicing, one or more things.

The martial arts varies substantially. It does so because it is both science and art. A study of anatomy, of physics, mechanics, of psychology and of many other dynamics. It is this collage of studies that frames these studies as an art. With each creation, we have a different interpretation, a different presentation. Each style is unique, and each one is created by an individual. Some creations are timeless, while others are modified through the hands of many others practicing such arts.

Those who work with these arts, study them, memorize them... cannot possibly be considered artists. For they are not creating, but repeating. It is only through personal interpretation that one presents art.

Yet, with all that.. a true artist does not call himself an artist. Merely a man, or woman, of passion.