2024, Volume 20
Humanistic and pedagogical dilemmas in teaching and promoting combat sports
Jan Harasymowicz1
1Paweł Włodkowic University College, Płock, Poland
Author for correspondence: Jan Harasymowicz; Paweł Włodkowic University College, Płock, Poland; email: janharasymowicz@wp.pl
Abstract
The author of the article analyses the theoretical, ethical and legal foundations of competent and socially desirable teaching of combat sports. He does so in the context of a broad perspective that includes the origins and evolution of various systems of hand-to-hand combat, the theory and ethics of Olympic sport, applicable legislation, and the opinions of the creators of budo. The author specifies the axiological, ethical and pedagogical criteria that responsible sports coaches must follow. A competent teacher/coach in sports and hand-to-hand combat exercises and systems that do not formally meet the criteria for qualifying them as combat sports should not, according to the author, support the expansion of the culture of violence. He should promote the values of Olympic sport and the original health-promoting values of budo. In this context, the author critically evaluates the neo-gladiator and dehumanizing forms of competition propagated under the camouflaged name of ‘martial arts’ Therefore, he consistently uses the term 'hand-to-hand combat (or synonyms)' in the text, thus testifying to the intellectual resistance to this pathology.
Key words: budo, dehumanizing forms of competition, hand-to-hand combat, teaching criteria, values