Martial Tai Chi™

De-mystifying the Mysterious

Who's Afraid Of The Big, Bad Wolf?

by Julie Hinder

"I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man, since he is not a shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and runs away, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep."
The Gospel according to St. John 10:11-13

As I was listening to this Gospel reading at Mass on Sunday, the following thought occurred to me - "that's our martial arts ethos!"

"Safeguard Yourself, Protect Others"

As our motto states, the whole reason we practice and teach martial arts is for self-defence, and the defence of others. I believe that it is all of our responsibilities to take on the ethos of the Good Shepherd in our everyday life and watch over the rest of our flock. It is not the sole responsibility of those paid to protect us, like police officers and security guards; we should all be prepared to intervene to help another person, and as martial artists we should be especially prepared to step in.

Even when MTA instructor Ian was first learning Martial Tai Chi, he chose to help rather than to ignore or run away from a confrontation. While Ian was travelling by train, a young couple were asked by the ticket inspector for their tickets - as they didn't have any and had been drinking they decided the best solution to this problem was to threaten to beat up the ticket inspector. They were very aggressive and threatening, but Ian calmly stood in front of them and informed the couple that he was not going to let them hit the inspector. They begrudgingly backed down and left the scene swearing and issuing vague threats. We need to ask ourselves what might have happened if Ian had acted like the "hired man" and run away from the situation? This could have been another bad news headline.

Despite the rare incidents of good citizens being attacked for doing the right thing, I think we should refuse to be paralysed by the fear of retaliation. If we don't step in, the situation in society will only deteriorate. Like the Good Shepherd who will "lay down his life" for his sheep, we should be prepared to put our own well-being second to that of our fellows. We need to think about what would happen if we don't intervene - if we act like the "hired man" we are saying that we are more important than the victim of the attack. Sometimes a concerned "Are you OK?" or "Can I help?" or a swift call to the police will be the right thing to do, and is always a good thing to do if you can't fight. But I think if we can learn to defend ourselves and others, we should - after all, we may be all there is on hand at that time. Muggers and sex attackers don't normally attack when there are lots of people about, and most aggressive confrontations rely on that fact that no matter how busy it is, no-one will intervene.

It is also important that we are not deterred by our individual physicality when it comes to taking up the challenge of learning and using martial arts. David is one of the most famous Biblical shepherds - he was not intimidated by Goliath's size and blustering threats - he knew his own skill and prowess:

Saul said to David, "You cannot go and fight the Philistine [Goliath]; you are only a boy and he has been a warrior since his youth." David said to Saul, "Your servant used to look after the sheep for his father and whenever a lion or bear came and took a sheep from the flock, I used to follow it up, lay into it and snatch the sheep out of its jaws. If it would turn on me, I would seize it by the beard, and batter it to death."
1 Samuel 17: 33-35

The outcome of this encounter is pretty universally known - if you hone your skills you can use the right amount of force for the situation in hand. Practicing martial arts with the goal of self-defence equips you for this.

MTA Instructor Joanna is more a David in stature than a Goliath. However, despite this hurdle, she has been prepared to use her fighting skills to defend others in danger. As a disabled woman with a severely arthritic hip, she has often said that she needs to know how to fight because she can't run away, and sadly, personal experience has shown her that she couldn't rely on others to step in and defend her when she has been attacked - the friends she was with got frightened and, like the hired man, ran away from the danger.

Joanna has sometimes been the recipient of scornful remarks that as a disabled person she wasn't a very good advert for martial arts - any reflection on this shows it to be nonsense. Joanna shows just how good martial arts can be if properly practiced with the correct whole body power - you don't need to be fit and strong to be able to defend other people, and sometimes you might just need to defend someone who is physically much bigger than you.

One night after teaching a class, we popped to the nearby supermarket so I could get a few things before heading back home. Just after I had returned to the van, we became aware of an altercation between a group of young men (armed with bottles and a staffordshire bull terrier,) and the Asian supermarket security guard. The men were threatening to bottle him on the grounds of his race and things were starting to look very ugly. Joanna got out of the van, grabbed a stick and quickly made her way to the store entrance. She faced off the gang, one by one, shouting at them to "get lost" (or words to that effect!). The ring leader mockingly asked her what she was going to do about it and was somewhat surprised (to put it mildly) when she thrust her stick towards his face. He could obviously see her martial competence and determination, he could tell that she meant, and could do, business. So with a bit more blustering and posturing he made a show of throwing down his brandished beer bottle and beat a hasty exit - interestingly, his mates had already scattered by then.

This is just one of several occasions when Joanna has had to rely on her fighting skills and determination to take on the role of "Good Shepherd" and defeat some human "wolves".

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that we have the right to use self-defence as "it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life" (paragraph 2264). Notably, it also states that "Legitimate defence can not only be a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defence of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm." (paragraph 2265).

I would argue that we are all responsible for the lives of others, sometimes very directly like those of our families (the sheep who, it could be argued, "belong" to us), but also to our fellow man in general. I learn martial arts so that I have the skills to be a "Good Shepherd" and I am prepared to give up my time, energy and get some bruises so that I can do that effectively and appropriately. I think it is imperative that we do not act like the "hired man" and have "no concern for the sheep", but see even total strangers from the viewpoint of the shepherd: as someone we should be prepared to defend.