Discovering The Perfect Martial Art
David John Hall Is a Perfect Martial Art possible? I considered this question much back in the 70s, and there seemed to be no answer. The most I found was students making the claim 'My martial art is the best art.' I have no problem with people saying that their art is best, because people should believe in what they are doing. I was looking a little deeper, however, and I wanted a martial art that actually was best. Whether a person was squat or big or green-eyed or whatever, the art should be perfect, and should take the martial arts practitioner to perfection. One day I was in an Aikido class, and the teacher said, "The perfect art cannot be heard." His words impacted on me like an atom bomb. I walked out of the dojo with my head abuzz with new thoughts. He had been discussing rolling out of a throw, trying to get us to be more silent and efficient. So we rounded our hips, kept the foot from flopping, and slowly rounded our shoulders. This made me think that mayb