What makes a good martial artist?

[wushu chik]

What do you think are the qualities of a GOOD martial artist? What traits do you think a martial artist should have that would make him/her a GOOD martial artist??

[red_fists]

"Try to be a better person tomorrow than today in all the aspects of your life, body and mind."

[wushu chik]

Good one, Red_fists!!!

Why not focus on being the best person TODAY, as tomorrow you might get hit by a car and be killed?

How many of us have walked through life wishing that we had trained harder or done more earlier in life instead of postponing our duties for the moment?

I'll stick with being the best I can be NOW - while being very mindful of both the past and future.

[red_fists]

Hi.

It is not about being the "best person", that is pure ego and is self defeating.
Also who defines "best" and it's characteristics.

It is about continous improvement to the self and your surroundings.

And in order to be better tomorrow I have to work on it today.

There is no finish line or goal where you say I am at my "best", but a path of continous improvements that will only end with your Death.

The same way it is said:
"For something to be perfect there must a flaw in the perfectness"

Some Chinese artist are capable of painting a flawless picture, but will always add a deliberate flaw or error.

In short nothing will ever be 100% perfect or at it's best.

Hope I removed all clarities.

I travel 3 hours to see my sifu, and that's despite my workload. When I'm there, I'm intent on giving him my "BEST" effort because otherwise I'm going to miss out.

I never want to go home from his house knowing that I could've gotten more out of the training but didn't because "better" was enough.

If this is the height of ego, then I EMBRACE IT. I need this kind of drive to become the "best" I can be in kung fu.

Every moment wasted in the acceptance of "better" quality is a permanently lost moment that could've been used to accomplish "best" quality with only little more effort. My time on Earth is limited, and I don't want to have wasted any moments.


On the other hand, I'm too busy LIVING to worry about the impeding death we all face.

When Death comes for me, I'll walk away knowing that I pushed myself as hard as I could've. I'll have absolutely no regrets about the way I lived even if I were to die in the next 2 seconds.

[Shaolin]

I just wanted to sayGood answer to the question Red Fist, It's nice to see some inteligence and maturity every so often.

[shaolinboxer]

An open mind.
An open heart.
An open hand.

[tomcat]

Hi everyone,
You all have listed some excellant internal qualities! So I thought I would throw in a few external.
1.strength
2. speed
3.reflex action
4.technique
Tomcat

[Crimson Phoenix]

Dedication

[dezhen2001]

thought

[KFQ Admin]

Give more,
Receive less.

[GeneChing]

So I've been reformatting my new one all week and have been jumping around the other terminals in the office here. Which is why I made a few posts as KFQ admin by accident. That account is our in-house webmaster's and I was using his terminal. Ordinarily, I always post under my real name, so forgive the oversight here.
Maybe it's a case and point of my post above. More likely, it's just a poor end to a difficult year. Hopefully the horse will be better.

[norther practitioner]

Yeah, but when all is said and done, we only rent stuff anyway.

Well, progression, value, and understanding are some qualities of a good martial artist.

[mad taoist]

Traits I think make a good martial artist

gentleman / gentlelady
doesn't show off
will risk own safety to help others
will share knowledge *responsibly*
will put his knowledge to use for the unselfish benefit of others