is Ernst interestee in martial arts?

I used to train Karate with my father and recently decided to pick it up again.

And as with all asian martial arts there are a lot of misconceptions and mystique surrounding it, mostly because of movies and such.

Fun fact, the "Chi/Ki" was never supposed to be a mystical inner energy you could draw from to get magic strength.

Rather it's a controlled breathing technique that once you train you can use to give your punches and kicks a bit of an extra oomph.

It doesn't substitute strength training at all.

Another thing people mix up is Zen buddhism philosophy and martial arts. It emphasises passiveness and self defense when in fact those martial arts were much morr aggressive in nature, born out of the need to subjugate, kill and maim other people.

During the Japanese Warring States period, an early form of ju jutsu was developed in in mainland japan, prioritizing joint locks and throws over striking because the armor would generally render striking innefficient.

After Toyotomi rose to power and started confiscating swords from peasants, they were still plagued by bandits and pirates so they needed to defend themselves without weapons.

In the japanese island of Okinawa, early forms of Karate have originated, heavily influenced by chinese kung fu.

After the Meiji Restoration, all forms of fighting were outlawed in an attempt from the Emperor to "civilize" Japan.

The only way the martial arts could still go on would be to distance themselves from a discipline of war and adopt a more passive approach to it. (Aikijujutsu became Aikido, jujutsu became judo) It heavily attached to the Zen buddhism philosophy, which was popular at the time, basically stripped the "fangs" of the fighting styles and adopted a more peaceful approach.

In karate, you can still see some of those "fangs" in some Katas, moves like eye goughing, arm and leg breaks, kicks to the groin, etc.