Most people start martial arts because they want to learn self-defense, while others just wants to get in shape or lose some weight. Still, some people want to train in martial arts for competition, while other want to do it because it looks like so much fun. But just how safe is it is? First, its as safe as any other contact sport. Soccer and basketball are not the same as American Football, Rugby, or Hockey. The last three are far more brutal, even more brutal than most martial arts styles being taught today..

So are martial arts painful? As we know pain is felt in many different ways. Usually in the martial Arts the pain will be in the form of a weapon strike or thrust, a punch, strike, kick, joint lock, choke or throw. This would clinically be referred to as Acute pain. Acute pain usually moves an individual into fast action to relieve it. It is usually a sudden event, and is associated with acute anxiety and hope of recovery. It is generally short lived and easily localized to the part of the body affected. Like being punched in the nose or kicked in the stomach, or hit in the hand by a stick. This type of pain is the currency that tells you that your technique, or the technique being done to you, is working. After all, one of the primary goals of this martial arts training is to dissuade an opponent from attacking you and or to avoid an attack.

Training in martial arts can build pain tolerance. Pain tolerance is the amount of pain a person can tolerate before having to respond to it. As a martial artist you have to overcome certain pain and fear in order have to continue defending yourself or your family. For example, in free sparring you are most definitely going to get hit as its a light contact training activity . But just how hard was the actual contact made? Was the pain so much so that you needed to stop? Or perhaps it was the fear of the sound of the strike, and the fact that you got hit that was more a factor that actual pain itself. Most students learn to get past this initial stage of fear and of being hurt. They soon learn that yes getting hit wasn’t pleasant, but they overcome any pain that may be associated with the blow. It might even be painful but you learn to look beyond the pain and soon develop a sense of pain tolerance. In a real self defense situation there are no rules, no pads. Theres only violence.