In what sense does fighting help one to know oneself? We ask Enrico Vivoli, Italian Champion FESIK, teacher of personal defense, master of tai chi chuan and authentic martial artist.

- Fighting each other is knowing yourself?

Growing up also means questioning oneself. The gods, by definition, are born perfect. Being men implies confrontation. This encounter of a cognitive nature is reproduced on the tatami : during the fight the individual learns to be present in relation to himself and to the other. To find the asynchronism that leads to the winning blow one must first perceive the synchronism; on an existential level, this means developing your own way of being in the world and then being able to "go together" with other individuals other than you.

- By practicing a sport different from the martial discipline, whether it is swimming or running or something else, couldn't the same result be achieved?

Martial arts allow us to accept atavistic fears (pain, death), which have always belonged to us. Sports lead to discipline and in this sense they can be preparatory. But in the martial arts one comes to terms with the possibility of succumbing and therefore renounces blind attachment to life in favor of a full sense of existence. This is the meaning of phrases like "first you have to kill yourself" which only practice can fill with meaning.

- How did you approach martial arts?

I was 16, at the time a certain tendency to exalt physical aggression prevailed. In the race all this was reproduced in the form of a kind of performance anxiety. In itself, however, the preparation on a physical level is not totally negative: it teaches you to develop the reaction even when the clash may appear to be unequal and therefore allows you to evolve your intelligence, that is, adapt without running away.

- Is the fear in front of an important choice similar to that of the shot that moves fast against your direction?

I prefer the term "emotion" to the word "fear".

- So, let's say that kind of emotion that if you don't manage it, it blocks you.

In the race it is a limit that arises not so much from the idea of ​​taking shots, but from the fear of not getting to give them and being governed by the panic of failure. From a possible defeat, cues must be drawn for improvement.

- Bruce Lee, martial athlete, philosopher, poet, man of great cerebral energy, says: Do not fear the man who practiced 10 thousand kicks once, but fear the man who has practiced a kick 10 thousand times.

What do you think is the deep meaning of the sentence?

The phrase goes beyond the preparatory concept, the fact that in training we want perseverance. Constancy is in those 10 thousand times. But there is something else, namely that football which is unique every time it is repeated. In other words, a kick lived fully and uniquely every time, for 6000 times.

- In the time span of 1997-2000 you were in the midst of your racing season and in the meantime you graduated in law. At some point did you have to choose between forensic activity and an athletic career?

I studied law with passion. But there was a time when the choice was a must. I was in Thailand, practicing tai chi chuan with a German teacher and meditating. This allowed me to have a clean mind to choose. And I chose a job that would guarantee me economic independence, a dignified life and the possibility of dedicating time to martial art, my passion, which is therefore also my life, in two words, it is me.

- If you had not procured that meditative space, would you not perhaps have had the silence to listen to an answer that you had inside you as often unfortunately happens?

The ability to change strategy when you realize that what you are doing is not contextual to you, this skill is very important. Sometimes we are blind, we become stubborn, at other times we intuit that it is time to change, but the courage to do so is lacking. Instead, there is a precise moment in which the fist must be launched, the choice must be made. Without fear.

- Martial art is often compared to the male world. Yet the tradition of martial arts is full of stories centered on legendary heroines, priestesses of extraordinary spiritual inspiration and physical ability. In your opinion, what is this deviation due to modernity?

People much more prepared than I in the sociological field would know how to answer this question. I believe it is the result of a social trend that obeys the urgency of making stereotypes and therefore sticking to precise roles on the different sexes, structurally imposing certain emotions.

* Editor's note:

In sports, such as in judo or karate, the tatami is the sacred place where training or competition takes place and is used as a mattress to fall into. Today the tatami used for sports are made with polymers, they have two surfaces of different colors and serrated edges to fit together better.