In the movie “Enter the Dragon” starring Bruce Lee was the first time that we heard the phrase “The Art of Fighting without Fighting.” In the movie a martial arts champion that was bullying passengers in a ship in route to a martial arts tournament asked Bruce Lee what is your style? Lee answered “the Art of Fighting without Fighting.” When the bully challenged Lee to a fight, Lee advised him that there wasn’t ample room in the ship. Lee then pointed at a nearby island and suggested that they test their skills at the island. Lee told him to get into a small row boat that would take them to the island. As soon as the bully boarded the boat Lee let loose of the rope anchoring the row boat to the ship and the bully was stranded. Lee defeated the bully using mental martial arts.
Since I started teaching martial arts in Doral in 1998 I’ve been teaching children that the best way to win a fight is in a non-violent manner utilizing your mind to defeat the bully or what Bruce Lee called “The Art of Fighting without Fighting.” Yet to be able to use “The Art of Fighting without Fighting” you must have the confidence that if the bully does attack you physically you will be able to defend against the bullies attack and defeat him physically.
The Bully is usually a person with low self esteem that is being mistreated by someone else or is also being bullied. He/she then looks for a person that looks weak or with low self esteem to pick on. The perfect example is one of the top YouTube videos of a bullying incident in Australia. Casey an overweight, tall strong kid was being bullied by Richard a small, skinny boy for years. In the video that went viral Richard decided to have his friends’ film him punching Casey as he called him names, made fun off and danced around him like a boxer in an effort to ridicule him. Casey suddenly snapped, got a hold of him and body slammed him on his head. As much as I teach anti-violence I cannot blame Casey for his actions. How many strikes, punishment and abuse could he have taken? Yet, could Casey body slam a bully that is bigger than him? Also, if Casey was trained in self defense he would have been able to defeat the bully without hurting him as bad as he did with a body slam.
An anti-bullying program alone will not help you get bully proof. Just like a martial arts program alone without a functional self defense and an anti-bullying program incorporated will not help you defeat the bully mentally or physically. The key to defeat the bully is confidence which can only be achieved through a martial arts program that incorporates reality based functional self defense with the mental and physiological aspect of dealing with the bully.
For more information on our Bullying programs log on to www.AntaKungFu.com or call us at 305 599-3649.
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