Fortitude
In my quest for Knowledge, Fortitude, Dignity, I decided the best way to develop fortitude is through the practice of a combat sport. Considering which of the many choices I'd select, I over time came to this list of criteria.
The sport should:
- Make you physically healthy and strong
- Improve your chances in a real fight
- Improve your body's coordination and control
- Improve your mental wellbeing, self-confidence and self-control
- Help you to learn how to deal with aggression and fight for real if necessary
So, which to choose? I tried various sports (very) briefly, and I rejected full contact sports like boxing and kickboxing early on because I didn't think they met criterion 4 (1 is also debatable, full contact can lead to nasty injuries). I also rejected all grappling sports like judo and wrestling as you cannot deal with multiple opponents. Then, considering that in the end it is dignity I'm aiming for, I chose to select a martial art rather than 'just' a sport.
Having limited the options in this way, I arrived at Karate (with semi-contact sparring) as my martial art of choice. It checks all the boxes, and I really like the diversity of it. Apart from a good workout, you'll work on technique, kata (choreographed fighting patterns), self-defence and sparring. Sometimes there's additional training in traditional weapon use, like the staff (bo).
By chance I ended up at a dojo that taught (semi-contact) Kyukushin karate, and I was lucky to have a very good sensei (teacher) and ambitious group of students. I trained hard and earned my black belt (first dan) after about four years. Reflecting on what I learned and what I set out to do, I can say with certainty: "Mission accomplished!". Karate has brought me a lot and I can recommend it to everyone.