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<title> Why practice martial arts? </title>
In this essay I will from a few aspects explain why I think practicing martial arts is highly recommendable. People who are against martial arts often make inadequate and sweeping statements about that kind of sports. I will here try to make clear what opinions I believe should be condemned, and why it is important not to generalize when talking about martial arts. 
	 One of the quite obvious reasons to practice martial arts is that it is very good exercise. It is an all-round training, that is, you use all parts of your body. Also, one of the main reasons why I have continued doing martial arts is that you self decide how much you want to strenghten yourself during a session and when % you want to grade for your next belt. As it is not a team-sport you do not have to do everything that your group do. Everyone practice the arts according to their own capacity. This, however, vary somewhat between different martial arts. Some might demand more physical strength than others.
	 The main reason why myself, I, started practicing martial arts six years ago, was to gain some knowledge in self-defence. I wanted my mother to stop worrying when I was out at night with my friends. I first did Aikido, but found that a bit too soft and started doing jujitsu instead. In jujitsu you first learn mainly techniques that could be used in order to protect yourself if you were assaulted on the street. Later on the training takes on a different character and is not that focused on self-defence. D Šuring my schoolyears, I have had the habit to try my newly gained knowledge on my fellow classmates. Most of the times it has not had the wished effect, mainly because they have been prepared on what I was going to do and also because many of the techniques are not that good in self-defence. Those techniques need the partner to cooperate to make the technique work without causing serious injuries. My classmates have however exclusively made the statement: "It doesn't work, so why do you practice jujitsu?". The point is that you, in a certain sense, get another attitude to violence when practicing martial arts. If someone would attack me today I would probably not use something I learned at the jujitsu sessions, but I would be more prepared. No matter how absurd it might sound, fact is that I am used to people strangeling and hitting me, and If something happened for real, I would hopefully not · just stand there completely paralyzed. I would do something, even if it was not a proper jujutsu technique.
	 The main argument you hear why people should not practice martial arts is that it increases violence in society. I, however, find that absolutely ridiculous. I would say that that argument is mainly used by people who try to blaim other people for their maladjusted children. I claim that the main reason to the violence in society is that many parents do not spend enough time with their children. Instead of teaching their children how to behave, they employ the TV and video as baby-sitter. The parents have no control over what their children are watching and many children nowadays grow up in the belief that you can kick someone in the head ten times without causing much damage. I admit that there are people who start doing martial arts in order to learn how to "beat the shit out of someone", but they are relatively few. These people are usually members of, for instance, karate- and tae kwon do- clubs (but the attitude in those clubs of course vary from club to club as well), and it is sad that they should damage the reputation of all martial arts. I have for instance never heard of any abuse of the practice of jujitsu in the five years I have been practicing that sport, and there are many other martial arts that do not have that problem, like Judo, Aikido, Kendo and Tai-chi, just to mention a few. To this aspect I would also like to add that practicing martial arts is an opportunity to give vent to your aggressions in a controled form, rather than going down to the city centre and "kick ass". 
	 Other opponents to the arts claim that the violence learned from TV and video can escalate when bei ng practiced at the martial art clubs. Unfortunately, that is somewhat true, but if it is found out that someone do have misused a martial art the person is supposed to be suspended from his/her club. I can, however, admit that this abuse could be hard to discover and prove, and I am not sure to what extent it is being implemented. Maybe there should be a stricter control of the clubs in order to make them look out more for unserious members and to control the policy of the whole clubs. Still, the point is that not many clubs have this problem of abuse. I also claim on the contrary that at the martial art clubs you are taught how dangerous the kicks and paunches really are. You learn how to take control of a person without causing to much injuries. 
	 To conclude, I would öonce again like to stress how important it is not to generalise when talking about martial arts. As there are so many different sorts of martial arts I believe that everyone could find something that would suit them (both from a physical and a philosophical point of view). People who argue that martial arts increase the violence in society should search themselves before making incorrect statements. They should be more specific and not speak of martial arts as violence-ridden sports in general.
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