Martial Arts Functionalism

Functionalist view point of Martial Arts as a Subculture
It is no secret that parents always want the best for their children, and wish to see them excel in various aspects of life. Of course this also means that parents will push their children into joining activities and clubs regardless of what the child says. This so happened to be my case with Martial arts. At a very young age I was pushed into martial arts by my father, since then Martial arts has been a part of who I am, and can be seen in the way I interact with people.
Martial arts, more specifically Goju Ryu, played an important role in my life and has taught me various things, both mentally and physically. Goju Ryu or hard-soft style in English, is a style of Martials arts and it

is the style that I practised for over four years. Not only does martial arts train you how to fight and protect yourself, but it also contains what I like to call a hidden curriculum. By hidden curriculum I mean values and morals like honor, integrity, compassion, and in general, ways of bettering you as a person. These are elements or teachings in martial arts that are often overlooked and taken for granted. The reason being that not many want to focus on the spiritual and historical aspects of martial arts. Achieving higher belts or ranks shows dedication, mastery of skills, requires very hard work. Among all the values, hard work is an extremely important value. One of the common phrases in my dojo was, hard work will always beat talent, if talent doesn’t work hard enough. These short phrases along with stories past down from Sensei served as ways to teach good morals and traditions.
In Martial Arts, it is common practice to refer to your teacher as Sensei, and to bow to the Sensei or senior to show respect. These are some of the elements that have been taken straight from the Japanese culture since the very beginning and have since become the norms of this subculture. Japan is just one of the many cultures that helped shape the foundations of martial arts, especially Goju Ryu. Techniques, warm up and stances come from various cultures and changes ever so slightly depending on the Sensei and dojo. This is one of the great things about Goju Ryu, this martial arts evolves as the generations pass. By evolve I mean, this form of martial arts utilizes techniques from other styles and develops it in a way that fits its unique style. The Chinese crane style technique which has been a part of Goju Ryu since the late nineteen hundreds, is an example of this.
Functionalism views implies that human behaviour is dictated by social structure (Brym and Lie 2012).

This is a fact especially in martial arts. When you are in a dojo filled with motived people, working hard, and striving to achieve greatness, it gives you a little motivation, and makes you want to work hard and work towards your goals. Martial arts also refines you as a person through simple tasks such as bowing to your seniors. Proper etiquette is enforced and monitored in the dojo. Proper etiquette teaches respect, good behaviour, and also good values. Functionalism also suggests that social structures are directly based off of shared values (Brym and Lie 2012). Shared values in terms of martial arts could mean working hard, trying to better yourself as a person both mentally and physically, trying to achieve higher belts, or simply learning martial arts in order to please your parents. Regardless, these all values or goals that most, if not everyone, training in Martials arts have in common, and define us as one social structure. Functionalist analyze how each piece fits in the puzzle to stabilize the system (Brym and Lie 2012). A dojo without respect and good morality is doomed to failure as this directly affects how a person performs. A dojo that inhibits poor etiquette and fails to train students properly, not only loses money, but also creates disconnect from the Sensei and the student, and among the students as well. This causes the student to want to learn less, and attend less which then causes the system as a whole to crumble. Functionalist theory also states that having an equilibrium within the group can solve a lot of the problems (Brym and Lie 2012). The opportunity is there for anyone to achieve a higher rank and earn greater respect, through hard work. The teachers are willing to show respect to those who work hard and show respect back. Therefore there is that sense of equality there that everyone can achieve greatness if they

try.
In Conclusion, sociology and the sociological imagination helps us to better understand this subculture, by analyzing the culture from a broader perspective. From a sociological perspective, martial arts in general can be seen as a tool to unite a nation or in smaller sense a group of people. Martials arts can also be viewed as a means to pass down traditions and knowledge through mental and physical training. Sociology also helps us to see how human behaviour is governed by the social structure and how a social structure can only be stabilized when all the pieces are present.