Do you think teaching some life skills such as orienteering and first aid are a good thing for martial arts?

very good point.i totally agree.the more skills,including moral, that we can all pass on in life the better.good for you.lata.

I teach unpaid about 12 hours a week on average. I have a full time job as a research professional in the electronic materials sciences. I used to get a little resistance from some in my family for spending so much time unpaid. I told them I get more back than I give. I get to train fo free, exercise, help others, keep a positive outlook myself Occasionally I see a student flourish and change their lives in a more positive direction. When you see that and know it was you that made a difference there is no amount of money that could buy you a better feeling. I'm also a Boy Scout leader and spend one weekend a month and one week in the summer as a volunteer leader. The rewards there are the same. My wife will tell you these things have made me a better more productive person. My family has done without some of the luxuries we could probably afforded if I were more dedicated to earning more money. I can assure you they may not have been any more secure or happier. We live comfortable enough. My luxury car is a Hyundai Accent. LOL On the other hand If you open a profitable school and can earn a living doing what you love it could be the best of both worlds or the worst. I do not believe in giving away what you earned in excess to the point your family suffers. Finding balance in life is always a challenge for us all. Shower your family with love unconditional. Give to your comunity freely as your means dictates. Do not deprive youself from enough to acomplish a good productive life and healthy family. This is a dificult enough task. I can only wish you well. Having a few luxeries does not speak badly of a person. God bless your efforts. I have a couple students that pay me a nominal fee for traveling to them to cover my fuel and lunch and a small token to let them have some "skin " in it.

Yes, absolutely Sifu. Many of the things that we learn as Martial Artists is to cause damage to people. Quite a few can also be used to heal or help them. The two are very closely related. The more you know about the body, the more you can affect them, in both positive (healing) and negative (attacks).

With the meridian lines and pressure points, many people will only focus on using them to disable an opponent. This is only a very small part of what they are capable of. The more you learn about how to use them in a beneficial way, the better you will be at using them for defense. I believe that this is a must for advanced level students to give them a better understanding of what they are actually affecting when they use their attacks. Plus they will better understand their own bodies and be able to tell when they are on the verge of causing injury due to over working themselves.

From a training point of view, there is always the risk of causing injury to your fellow MA on accident. It is very beneficial to know how to lessen or reverse such things.

As for CPR, I think that everyone will benefit from learning that. Especially MA instructors. Our school has been lucky that we have not had anyone seriously injured due to something in class, but we have had a couple of heart attacks in our Tai Chi classes, that were completely unrelated to class. Having an instructor that is able to keep their head, take control of the situation and immediately starting CPR helps show the students that MA is not just about hurting people.

So YES, teaching healing arts in my opinion is essential to creating an excellent martial artist.

The goal of (most) Martial Arts is to better yourself and others. You cannot do this by only learning to cause injury. You need to know how to prevent injury, and deal with injuries.

Definitely; especially with regards to basic first aid and CPR. Students that learn such things are better able then to handle the little nuance's, aches, and pains that they sometimes get while training along with the added benefit of handling situations that come up sometimes were they may have to render assistance until professional emergency care arrives on the scene. They also tend to be more knowledgeable then about how the human body works and better able to apply it to various aspects in their training. As for some of the other aspects I sometimes delve into those but no so much. I do make an attempt to relate their training to some of their education though by using and explaining terms like "parallel", "radius", "momentum", "odds", and those types of concepts that they also hear in school. This tends to re-enforce the value of education and learning and that of course carries over into how well they tend to learn in the studio as well and relate to various aspects and principles of the martial arts.

Absolutely Sifu.

I believe that training such as this would instill compassion for their fellow man.

Martial Arts is about Life Preservation.

I am AED and CPR HeartSaver Certified.

Something to realise is the life commitment old time masters made. In the current day, people don't have time to focus on non-martial arts training. Unless you conduct a camp, or seminar where such activities work on the basis of team building, then I'm sure you'll not have the best of success.

of course they are. If you check arts like ba gua or chi qong they start from a medical point of view. I always try to add a touch of philosophy, history and life view whenever I teach class. I have a good interest in the subject and believe that if you want to truly understand your art you must know where it is coming from and what your founders views into matters were. Plus that seeing things from a spiritual point of view does indeed aide in the physical part. I try to give part of my wisdom back to people who need it. I've never gotten any negative responses so I guess people don't find me too preachy or plain out boring. There's nothing wrong with helping people improve their lives right (wasn't that the entire point to martial arts????)

Old martial arts masters philosophy was to teach how to heal people first than hurt them or maim. The art of fighting is easy part but the healing part is the real skill in martial arts. answer is absolutely yes.

I think they are great skills to have. It is a good idea, but as the 2nd poster mentioned, you need to be careful. So... what if you invited the Red Cross to teach to your students? Many places will do that for companies, so if you have enough people, they should be willing to send an instructor. It sure would make your dojo a safer place wouldn't it? (That would be a wise business move... a nice special club benefit...haha.)

Do you mean Asian style healing techniques, or basic first aid as one would learn from the Red Cross?

I don't think there is anything wrong with it, however, from a business standpoint, you might be opening yourself up to some liability and you would want to make sure your insurance covers this.

You may also have to have a license or certification to do the basic Red Cross stuff.

James

I agree it is easy to hurt some, one but it is much harder to heal them. I teach how to heal, treat injuries,and herbalism "healing herbs" along with Aikido martial arts in my dojo.