“Man Who Catch Fly with Chopstick, Accomplish Anything”

What is it about?

A study of how the pursuit of excellence and personal growth relate to ritualised bodily training in the martial arts. I argue that martial arts training differs from many other athletic pursuits in key areas, since martial arts teachers and practitioners often employ vague definitions of their end goals, and hence approach those vague or plural goals through obscure methods. Inspired by concepts from Game Theory, I approach selected martial arts , and their representation in popular culture, as non-zero-sum games that employ ritualised bodily learning in the pursuit of excellence and personal growth. Finally, I propose that ritual(ised) repetition of physical movements changes the human body, leaving an imprint of the actions repeatedly performed deep in the performer, effectively creating an embodied echo of the individual’s ritual(isation).

Featured Image

Photo by kabita Darlami on Unsplash

Photo by kabita Darlami on Unsplash