Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

You walk into a martial arts training studio (in Japanese styles, a dojo) and you scan the room. Everything going on here looks, well, unpleasant. In one corner, you observe a group of students performing kata, choreographed sequences of kicks, punches, and blocks that simulate the experience of fighting multiple opponents. Sweat pours off them. In another corner, you see two students engaged in sparring exercises, or kumite. The sharp, smacking noise of one student striking the protective pads worn by another carries across the room. In a third corner, you notice students doing push-ups, working their muscles until their arms tremble and their shoulders twitch. Just when they think they’re done, their instructor barks out a command for more. In the fourth corner, you watch a taciturn master test a student for a belt promotion. He breaks his silence only to issue the next order or to offer a correction.

Comments

© 2024, Published in Litigation 51, no. 1 Fall 2024, by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or downloaded or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.


Share

COinS