Most people who don't do martial arts find it to be an odd if not a screwball activity. The typical image of a martial artist is not too different from the demented Rex Kwan Do instructor in “Napoleon Dynamite.” There are definitely a lot of martial artists who do fit that stereotype, or one of several other stereotypes. There's the morbidly-obsessed violence junkie who trains constantly for the urban warzone (generally while living in the suburbs!). There's the wannabe samurai droning on about “the way of the warrior.” There's the ethereal tai chi hippie who couldn't win a fight with a stiff breeze.

But there are also a lot of highly interesting, intelligent people, who practice martial arts for personal and often idiosyncratic reasons. Many of these people are in the world of the historical European martial arts or “HEMA”.

HEMA practitioners study a wide variety of European combative disciplines, from medieval sword and buckler fencing to Edwardian stick-fighting. A lot of these arts have no direct application to self-defense, nor are there significant sporting venues. People basically practice them because they find them interesting, and because the practice of the art is a compelling and rewarding personal experience. That's the same reason many martial artists practice Japanese fencing or Shaolin kung fu or Filipino stickfighting.

Very few martial artists have any direct experience with violence. Very few of them want to. The real reason to make a lifetime study of martial arts is not to prepare for a fight. Although most martial artists believe their training would help them defend themselves if they had to, that has little to do with why most of us train. Most of us train in these arts because it's a great experience, which is also why some of the most fascinating human beings I have ever met have been martial artists.