Leftwing Martial Arts Training Theory (Patreon)

Every Leftwing and antifascist martial artist needs some THEORY! 

By theory, I mean personal training theory. You will move, change schools, decide to train or stop, train virtually—your training is dynamic. If you think martial arts is too corrupt and you want to quit, cool. If you want to train for self-defense or for fun or to help to train others, then you need to define your own rules and ways to think about training. If you've never come up with theory or never even dealt with any political theory before, then in this one area, if you plan to train, you should. There is no one unified way to do this, you can't copy off a friend or try to skip it. You have to spend some time defining what you want, what your moral codes are, what your goal is, and ultimately reflect on everything that comes along with training. 

As much as you all are shocked by the culture, you should convert that energy into thinking about how you want to navigate this culture. Especially since unlike other sports and countercultures, there is no real left contingent as far as scope... yet. But it's forming, and we are it.

If you choose to train, then you have to accept at least one reality: that your hands will get dirty. The politics of training will be messy and there will always be bad elements. Don't fool yourself into thinking "Oh, I've been lucky and I've avoided all the bad stuff." Bullshit. The answer isn't ignorance, turning off your radar, or never developing your radar and being complicit. It means having a radar, having it on, and then learning how to live and train with that. But if you want the ideal full-time training environment with no reactionary elements ever, then don't train. It's better you not train than lie to yourself that it doesn't exist.

There definitely are progressive gyms which I've highlighted in the past, but there aren't enough in the world, and many are either free, donation based, or only take a small fee. Which means they can only offer supplementary training, which might be enough for some. But if you don't have a progressive or red gym near you and want to train as much as you want, then develop some theory. After all, theory is what the Left is all about. I do find knowing some Left political theory DOES make navigating this culture much easier.

Even if you're a Leftwing person who doesn't train but like watching combat sports, you still need to develop theory. Like any Leftwing sports fan, you have to determine, are you into the celebrity and hero worship? Or are you into the "game"? People of MMA, I mostly don't like. But MMA itself is extraordinary to me.