PUBLISHER’S LETTERSilvio Morelli, CEO of Blitz
Publications & Multi-Media
Group, co-founded Blitz
magazine in the late 1980s.
Morelli is a lifelong martial
artist and founder of Geido
Kai freestyle karate.
H
ave you ever been involved in a confrontation
that, in hindsight, would have turned out
better if your brain had been in charge, rather
than your emotions? I’m sure we all have. This
is the reason that one of the key aims of martial
arts training should be, firstly, to develop the
self-awareness to recognise such mistakes and
analyse where we went wrong. Taking this to the
next level, we must then learn how to correct and
control our behaviour in the moment, so that such
situations don’t get out of control, and we don’t do
anything we’d later regret.
Unfortunately, for some people, their first
mistake has life-changing — or fatal — results.
Whether society is really more violent today
than at any other time in recent memory, as the
media might influence us to believe, is up for
debate. Maybe it’s just the nature of the crime,
or the reporting of it that’s changed. Regardless,
one thing that all this graphic media coverage of
violence shows us is the randomness and pure
pointlessness — to a sane and sober person — of
most of these ugly incidents.
The thing is, many who commit the violence
will later see it that way, too. Not every late-
night brawler caught on CCTV is a serial criminal
offender; some simply lose the plot momentarily,
taking out their pent-up rage on someone while
uninhibited, due to alcohol, or are unable to back
down from a pointless challenge to their ego. Then,
as they sit in the police station, the hospital or in
the dock opposite a jury and the distraught family
members of their victim, it all hits home: what was
the point?
To be truly skilled in self-defence, we must
master our aggressive side. We must be able to
suppress it when it’s best to do so (i.e. most of the
time), and unleash it when we find ourselves under
physical, not emotional, attack. Mastering this
element of our personality also has positive effects
on our daily lives.
We probably all know people who can’t
control their anger and unleash it whenever they
feel it rise — at the driver who fails to indicate
or at an incompetent co-worker, etc. This type
of behaviour is largely the domain of children,the emotionally immature and those who fail to
recognise that with the rights and opportunities
that society offers come responsibilities and
expectations of behaviour. But during times of
stress, it can also happen to the best of us, when
we let our anger control our behaviour, instead of
the other way around.
Regardless of its cause, this anger doesn’t serve
us well. It may feel good to blow off steam in
those brief seconds of verbal or physical outburst,
but we have to ask, what are the consequences?
Does it solve our problems or is it likely to reduce
our circle of friends, our employability and our
personal security?
Aggression breeds aggression. By and large, our
behaviour toward others determines how we’re
treated in return. Buddhists call it karma, others call
it common sense. But how do we learn to control
anger and frustration? I believe it’s a combination
of releasing it in positive ways — for example,
into the heavy bag — and also learning how not to
cultivate it in the first place.
Martial arts training can offer an outlet for anger
but it should also teach us to control anger when
it first arises, and to direct our focus elsewhere.
This is true control. When we take early steps
to recognise anger building and direct our focus
elsewhere, we can achieve this feeling of calm
without having to go and pummel the pads or yell
at someone.
As well as using physical techniques such
as deep breathing, reduce your anger by being
empathetic toward the person who’s aroused it;
chances are, at some point in your life, you’ve
made the very mistake they’ve made. Even when
your adversary clearly has bad intentions, try to
think and act logically, rather than emotionally. This
will always lead to decisions that are better than
those we make when our emotions take charge.The violence that makes the news is very often fuelled by alcohol, but it’s
almost always fuelled by ego, regardless of whether drinking is involved. It’s
ugly, and it’s also a clear reminder of why traditional martial arts always aimed
for ‘mastery of self’. Self-defence begins with self-control, because without that
we’ll never defuse any conflict — and we may inadvertently start it as well.Are You in Control?
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