Conquest at all Costs: Drugs and the evolution of Martial Arts [Part 1]

There are a variety of recreational and performance enhancing drugs that are used in Martial Arts. For example, Cannabis has been linked with stress reduction, and is therefore used by certain martial arts practitioners. The therapeutic effects of cannabis are well known. In martial arts, when the drive for conquest is too high, the natural solution is to bring this down in some way. Otherwise, stress hormones, which are by products of adrenaline charged activity, soon build up. So in many ways, the build up of stress in the system is a symptom of overactivity. This can cause many complications, which often drives certain martial artists practitioners towards self medication. The best way to overcome this problem is to make efforts to stay mindful and engaged with appropriate activity, so that there is neither too much pent up energy nor too much stress hormone as a by product of such build up. That way everything has its place and is put to use.

Mediation, stretching, and breathing exercises, as well as various cool down phases of practice have been observed throughout history. They are all aimed at internally regulating the system. What has been built up must naturally come down in a cycle. This is so that everything can be transformed. For example, after you have filtered the coffee through the machine, there is a certain build up of waste product. In the same way, when the human system processes blood through the system, the kidneys filter out waste from useful substances. If this is not happening for some reason, there are various health problems1. This is why certain systems have always emphasised organ massage and internal practice, such as deep breathing and meditation. This is particularly the case in the East, where the need for personal glory has not traditionally been emphasised in such a way as it is today in many martial arts organisations.

There have been all sorts of stories in recent years about how Western fighters have gone over to places such as Thailand and beaten the Native Thai boxers. Many of these stories are undoubtedly true. For example, when the Dutch kickboxers went over to Thailand to fight in Thai boxing, some of them stunned the Thai’s with their emphasis on punching the head like a Western boxer. Fighters such as Ramon Dekkers did this effectively. It was therefore assumed that the Thai’s were somehow missing something, and that they didn’t understand that it was effective to strike the head and body using hard punches. But this is not the case.

There are so many different styles Eastern martial Arts, that it is impossible to pin down exactly what they did and didn’t practice. This rich diversity has always been celebrated, however because this diversity has not been unified into a single style the whole Eastern systems have been criticised heavily. However, the important thing is that styles such as Muay Thai and Kung Fu have existed for hundreds or thousands of years. This is because they have projected into the future what the want to happen, and adapted with the times slightly, rather than becoming defined by them.

Traditionally, the Thai audience preferred to see fights play out in such a way that the competitor did not steamroll into the fight annihilating the opponent. The modern audience is not like this. Personally I’ve been watching some older fights in the early days of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) recently. I had forgotten how different they were. At UFC 1 for instance, as well as elsewhere, there was a break after each round but no limit on the round. There were no weight divisions. There were three rules: No eye gouging, no biting, and no groin shots. Everything else was developed on the fly in terms of strategy. In the next event there was only one round which went on until someone gave up or was knocked out. It was a tournament format, and because it was in 1993, you didn’t know anything about your opponent. So the early years were characterised by no weight classes and no rules, as well as limited preparation. In those days you didn’t know who you were even fighting until a couple of days before.

When you know what the opponent is bringing to the table and how they are trained, it quickly becomes easy to adapt. There is then advanced preparations in terms of physical training, sparring, and tapering off at the end. In my own experience at UK competitions I never knew anything about my opponent, nor them about me. This was normal, even at national championship level. This was around 2008 -2011 at Taekwondo tournaments. Today, more tends to be known about the opposition due to enhanced communication and social media. Similarly, in MMA is is very easy to pick up any style you want, and to start coaching it at the gym. You just have to go on YouTube. When I was competing, I wasn’t even aware of many techniques which are now easily available online. Again, this was normal.

Once you know something, it’s impossible to unlearn it. So today, we see no such advantage from the Dutch in kickboxing, because the modern version of the sport has taken on the scoring system similar to mixed martial arts. They have all evolved together in many ways, coexisting. For example, one championship now showcases many dominant Thai fighters, who punch the head as much as much as the Dutch fighters used to. So over a short period of time, the system has adapted to include more punching to the head, for better or worse. This shows how quickly a system can assimilate new trends rather than being taken over by them.

In Japan, in the early days of mixed martial arts the Japanese audience preferred not to see the fighters punch the opponent in the head whilst holding them to the ground. Without going into the whole history surrounding this, as it would take too long, basically the fighter traditionally fought according to the audiences preferences to a large degree, and the organisations built various rules and unwritten codes of conduct in response to these preferences. I expect this evolved from the entertainment tradition in Japan, from which professional wrestling was developed. At the same time, due to the promotion of a certain form of sportsmanship, excessive deadly techniques have also been discouraged in traditional martial arts. This does not suppose an ignorance about their effectiveness necessarily, or an incompetence on the part of the martial artist.

Often, the one who restrains themselves from something comes closer to understating of it than the one who over accepts it at face value. This is because it is on their mind totally if they try not to do something. Only then is it possible to come full circle, realising that some powerful urge for conquest is the fuel for the rocket, not the rocket itself. For instance, try not to think about flying a plan and that’s all you will think about. You are also by association thinking about the rocket fuel, but not directly. In the same way, by seeing the urge towards conquest as part of a greater vehicle, it has its place. For the warrior, self restraint from certain forms of violence and gratification requires eternal vigilance and courage to face it, so that the rocket fuel does not blow up in your face.

In the end, there is a realisation that urge for violence can become fuel for something greater. In many ways, if you delve totally into self discipline as a single minded focus, it is possible for this to become a living reality, which is totally transformative. This is because when you energies have reached such intensity and focus, you no longer remember what the point was of conquest.

What does this have to do with drugs in martial arts? In many ways, when a martial artists rushes to get ahead of others they end up burning the candle at both ends. There is a growing tendency to compare oneself with others, particularly with social media. And so, naturally if several people are getting ahead in this way, then the ones who aren’t ahead try to catch up. In other words, anyone who is going at a moderate pace in todays world can end up looking as though they are behind in comparison to others.

The main problem today is that so many people are using the fuel of the body to go elsewhere and do something, rather than be something. This gives them a certain edge, driving them towards dominating others. As a result, they are driven by their own instinctive energies, such as testosterone. There is undoubtedly a medium to short term level of success when one is driven by the compulsion to be better than others. The problems often come later. To some degree, there is no avoiding this in full contact martial arts. But, traditionally this hard side of martial arts has made up only one dimension of practice. The other side of the coin has always emphasised respect, humility, and reverence for the martial arts. This was to save the fighter from themselves, from becoming restless, and hyperactive, by developing other dimensions within themselves.

1https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/03/31/from-knowledge-to-intuition-part-2/