Forty youngsters, most of them under the age of 13, waited eagerly in the wings of the main auditorium. The occasion? A Shotokan Karate black belt awarding ceremony, which took place earlier this month at the Officers Club Hotel in Abu Dhabi.
One after another, in response to hearing their names called, each child made their way centre stage. Bowing respectfully to Ali Muhammad Renshi, a 7th degree Shotokan master, they ceremonially exchanged their old brown belts for new black ones. Emblazoned upon each new belt, in bold gold letters, was the child’s name.
This wasn’t just the “next belt”, it’s a rite of passage. Turning to face the audience – most of whom are holding aloft mobile phones – these newly belted martial artists took a final bow, then exited stage. Years of toil, tears and torn ligaments have paid off, these youngsters have gained much – far more than the ability to defend themselves from attacks.
Popular culture focuses largely on the physical and combative aspects of martial arts. Hollywood films, for example, routinely feature the high-kicking femme fatale, or the Kung-fu goon – strong, silent and invariably in the employ of a criminal mastermind. But this fixation on the physical, has obscured the psychological, and even the spiritual dimensions of these ancient traditions. In recent years however, psychologists have begun to rediscover, appreciate and even promote the mental health benefits of martial arts.
Recent studies suggest that martial arts are associated with a host of emotional, cognitive and behavioural benefits, including greater autonomy, more positive responses to stressful situations, improved self-esteem, greater emotional stability and decreased levels of anxiety. Most of this research, though, has only looked at people at one point in time, making it hard to know for sure if martial-arts training brings about psychological well-being or if the psychologically super-fit tend to gravitate towards martial arts?
But there are a few studies addressing this issue, assessing people both before and after the commencement of martial arts training. One such study, published in the journal Adolescence, followed up 60 schoolboys, all of them reported as having school behaviour problems. The boys were randomly assigned to one of two groups; one group received 10 weeks of martial arts training, while the other group – the control group – simply received schooling as usual.
After four months of follow-up, the boys receiving martial arts training showed significant improvements on a host of measures related to psychological well-being. Particularly noteworthy were reduced impulsivity and aggression as well as improvements in attention-focus and self-concept. Also, during the course of this study, six students had to be permanently excluded from the school – all from the control group.
In the Tao of Gung Fu, Bruce Lee’s posthumously published work, Mr Lee suggests that health promotion and the cultivation of the mind are among the key goals of martial arts. The obesity epidemic is well publicised, and there are growing concerns being voiced about the increase of common mental health problems. Martial arts potentially contribute to addressing both issues, providing physical activity as well as other less tangible elements, that seemingly promote psychological well-being.
Thankfully, the UAE has been energetic in its promotion of martial arts. Dubai, for example, has set its sight on becoming a global hub for mixed martial arts. Jiu-jitsu has become one of the fastest growing sports in the UAE, with the 2013 world championships hosted in Abu Dhabi. For this reason, there are no shortage of martial arts clubs in the UAE, some of which are free to the public. Perhaps the next step is to introduce training into the school curriculum?
After ascending to black-belt status, the students at the Officers Club Hotel put on a dazzling display of their skills. My 11-year-old-daughter, one of the newly-belted, played her part in the show by executing three successive backflips, demonstrating power, agility and balance. I sat in the audience as a proud parent, knowing that these external physical skills were complemented by their internal mental equivalents.
Martial arts are truly a form of self-defence, in the fullest possible meaning of the word “self”.
Justin Thomas, an associate professor at Zayed University, is the author of Psychological Well-Being in the Gulf States: The New Arabia Felix