Do you think martial arts are more mental or physical?

[Cirdan]

I think most arts start off as more physical, even so it pays no to "leave your brain at home" from day one. After a while it becomes more 50-50 physical/mental, at that point simply pushing on doesn`t cut it anymore and you must really work to understand things. This may be why there are so many students who quit around blue belt level.

 

[mcmoon]

Those who train in MMA, don't grasp the mental aspects of Martial Arts just physical. The western world that provides Asian Martial Arts to the masses, don't teach the mental aspects of Martial Arts. If all of us do, then the world won't be filled with egomaniacs.

I think you are making very broad assumptions with what I have in bold. I used to train and compete in MMA and while the physical is very important for the sport I never once believed that that was all it was about. If that were the case then Royce Gracie should not have been able to win any of his matches because physically he was outmatched in every one of his matches. It was the mental aspects and the intelligence that lead him to victory not his physicality. Also to disprove your point is Lyoto Machida, he is a blackbelt in shotokan kartate and he still does kata as a Mixed Martial Artist. For physical reasons there is absolutely no point in this because he would get more out of training in MMA.

Also I am not trying to be disrespectful to you or anyone but comments like that are very broad and many times are not true. I enjoy MMA and may compete again someday but at the end of the day I want to be a martial artist and not just a fighter.

Oh and to answer the original question, I believe many do not understand the mental aspect until reaching blackbelt because that is really where the true in depth learning begins because so many people are so hell bent on achieving the almighty blackbelt that they are just doing the physical training to get there so really I think whatever keeps you going is the most important whether it be physical fitness or trying to learn the concepts and intricacies of your art.

P.S. I am not a blackbelt in anything and while I do plan on achieving one someday I just enjoy martial arts in general and love to learn all I can about them from the concepts the art is centered around as well as the individual techniques.