Pacifism through Combat?

I was talking to a friend at school today, and I mention to her that I'm not by nature a typically violent person.  She points out to me that I participate and train in a very violent sport...the title of "sport" withstanding, I took it at face value as an amusing point, and left it alone.  Later on I found myself thinking about her statement, and it amused me, but it also got me thinking.

Martial arts, specifically the traditional styles, have always expounded and advertised how they teach self-defense, and that we as martial artists should never condone or willingly be violent individuals.  I will be the first one to say that I do not in any way condone violence of any kind.  I stand by my statement: I am a pacifist.  Given the option I will diffuse confrontation peacefully and diplomatically every time, but at the same time, given no other recourse, I will resort to violence to protect myself and my loved ones.  Even Gandhi, possibly the most famous promoter of non-violence, was quoted as saying "I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence...."

You could make the argument that training in the martial arts, specifically sparring/kumite is by nature violent.  I say that it isn't, I say that kumite is competitive, it is testing, it is everything but violent.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, violence is defined as, "the exercise of physical force so as to inflict injury on, or cause damage to, persons or property; action or conduct characterized by this; treatment or usage tending to cause bodily injury or forcibly interfering with personal freedom."  By this definition, there is nothing violent about taking part in kumite; you can actually say that sparring is "practicing" violence.  Or better yet, pressure testing our ability to do violence.  We are training to do violence when violent intention is necessary, when life and limb are in danger.

So, back to the title of this post, can we have pacifism through combat?  Obviously we can!  Kumite is combat, but it is not an inherently violent situation.  I hate that cliched phrase, "we train so we won't have to fight."  It's a nice, poetic paradigm, but in the end it's utter garbage.


Kumite, just like the rest of karate training, is what you make of it.  If the result is violent, that's because we must create violence to overcome violence.  That is no different than being more competitive than the person standing on the line across from you at a competition.


We train to bring damage and destruction to those who wish to do us harm.  We train to be able to fight and win when no other option avails us.  In the end, we're really training to prevail.