Why hooligans should practice martial arts

I have been practicing martial arts for well over 30 years so the concept of striking other human beings without the need of being angry at them is well embedded in my subconscious. At the same time I cannot understand or tolerate any form of fanatism, being it religious, sport related or whatever else. I do not watch football and I truly struggle to understand how people can have a fight and risk their life in name of the team they support.

A few weeks back I watched a TV documentary about hooligans and how the culture has evolved over the years. More recently they got better organised thanks to technologies like mobile phone but also they have been progressively controlled by increasing security and video surveillance both inside and outside the football fields. When I see tens or hundreds of people whose only purpose in life is to organise a trip to another town and plan how to fight their counterparts it seems to me very much like a barbaric, irrational act which is hard to explain. I can even try to understand why hooligans have this rush to fight but when they use random weapons, fight many of them against one it seems way too dangerous, putting many lives at risk.

I am not stranger to violence and any person who, like me, is into contact martial arts might agree that fighting another human being can be a great challenge and pleasant adrenaline rush. However in martial arts we have a code of ethics, discipline, proper behaviour, we have rules, referees and judges, even medical assistance when needed.

This is the reason I am suggesting to hooligans to take up martial arts; some people might object that they are already dangerous enough without the training by here is my reasoning. Martial arts will:

• teach them how to be (more) fair toward their opponents
• that fighting one-to-one is fine
• that you need to train regularly and being fit
• that you need humility and respect for your opponents as much as for fellow training partners
• that if you train and spar regularly you might get the same adrenaline rush as when you fight other hooligans; perhaps if you do that 3-4 times per week you don’t need to do it on match day

That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Or… perhaps people that can be classified as hooligans will not have the discipline and the will power to take up a martial art in a serious way and stick to a regular training regime. That’s why we are martial artists and they are hooligans.