Essential Skills

A quote by renowned science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein—he wrote, among other classics, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers and Farnham’s Freehold—has been circulating on the Internet for many years:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

That got me thinking: What would the list of essential skills be for a black belt? A few things immediately come to mind.
 
In addition to performing the various kicks, punches, one-steps and forms that your art requires for the rank, as a black belt you should be able to break a board, run two miles, choke out a man within five seconds, execute the same choke on the meanest student in your dojo and not hold it after he taps, use a knife, explain the history of your style, break an attacker’s arm, take a fall at the hands of a judoka without breaking your arm, drive evasively, barricade a door, calm a panicked person, shoot a gun, render first aid, withdraw money from an ATM without being a target, obey a senior, compassionately correct a junior, explain the fundamentals of good nutrition, argue a point on an Internet forum, breathe properly, wield a staff, concentrate in the middle of chaos, carry an unconscious person, have the intestinal fortitude to gouge an eye in a life-or-death fight, teach a seminar on your art, be a good student at a seminar on an art that doesn’t interest you.

A few of Heinlein’s requirements apply as much to the essential skill set of a martial artist as they do to human beings in general: “comfort the dying,” “cooperate,” “act alone” and “fight efficiently,” for sure. What about “die gallantly”? I don’t know. What do you think?

Post your comments—along with your top five suggestions, if you feel like it—here for all of us to see. I’m looking forward to reading them.

—Robert W. Young

Writer for Black Belt Magazine