What Is a Liberatory Martial Arts Practice?
Ask about the pedagogy
Note: This is an unlocked LMA module. If you want access to the rest of Liberation Martial Arts, upgrade your account. We send out learning modules almost daily. If you're no longer getting LMA updates, your payment information may no longer be up to date. Click on the table of contents above to see if you have access to LMA.
In therapy, healing, or education, claiming to be liberatory or radical means dismantling the Western paradigm and offering an alternative approach. It doesn't mean replicating the Western diagnostic model under the guise of catering to marginalized people. A liberatory therapist doesn't merely adapt the colonial biomedical framework to underserved communities—they reject the framework itself because it's the source of harm. The goal is to create an alternative that liberates and heals us from oppressive systems, not to repackage it for a different audience.
In martial arts and other movement practices, however, "liberatory" or "radical" often gets reduced to who is being recruited as students, while the underlying pedagogical approach remains unchanged. This misstep perpetuates the same harm and beliefs that marginalized people seek to escape. Rather than conforming the approach to marginalized communities, it still demands marginalized communities conform to the same approaches as before, to exist under the same paradigm as before, but as one concentrated group. Other disciplines recognize that being liberatory starts with transforming the approach—radical practice begins with rethinking how learning is structured and experienced, not just who you teach. But without a fundamental paradigm shift, you reinforce the same oppressive systems and conditions that created marginalization in the first place.
Transforming the practice, not the audience
"Liberatory" and "radical" in martial arts should mean the same thing they do in education or therapy: a deep reimagining of how practices are designed, structured, and taught. If someone is seeking movement training under the banner of liberation, they should expect a learning approach that is not only transformed but transformational. Transform the approach, and the audience will come. If you only transform the audience, it's no different than offering Black and POC capitalism as an alternative to capitalism—it simply shifts the players while leaving the oppressive system untouched.
A higher standard for bodily practices
When asking for a liberatory or radical therapist, the expectation isn't for a conventional therapist who caters to communities of color but for someone who fundamentally rejects and rebuilds the framework. The same standard must apply to bodily practices, especially given their potential for both physical and psychological harm. The stakes are high.
Ask about the pedagogy. If the answer reveals no thought has been given to the structure of teaching itself, it's likely because they assumed the Western model to be universal and unquestionable—and that assumption is the problem. It really does not matter if they call themselves a collective or horizontal if the approach remains the same. What matters is how the practice is lived and experienced, not how the instructors self-identify. Self-image does not always match reality; radicals are no exception. Even if everyone consents to something horizontal, that doesn't mean that's what it is in practice.
There's often a Western and capitalist magical assumption that the want of something will automatically get you the thing you desire. "If you want it, you will get it." Being liberatory shouldn't be about identifying a desire, nor should it mean the gathering of people who want liberation. Liberatory should mean dismantling the current oppressive structures and building a radically different, alternative, non-oppressive structure. Being liberatory should not be an assumption but a demonstration—it can't be a label for what it wants but for what it is and does.
Ask yourself these questions:
Is the goal of the practice to heal or retraumatize under the guise of preparedness?
Is it rooted in fear or hope?
Does it bring equanimity or anxiety?
Does it demand physical superiority, or does it meet you where you are?
Does the approach conform to you, or must you conform to it?
Does it bring joy to your life or make you dread your surroundings?
Does it reinforce the dangerous "Other" or dismantle it?
Since you are there to learn, how does it teach?
Does liberatory define the approach or the population it desires?
Marginalization is not rare—it's systemic
The issue with liberatory training isn't about "finding" marginalized people—marginalization is not rare; it's systemic. The goal cannot be to use "liberation" as a recruitment/marketing strategy to gather marginalized individuals only to further harm them with the same oppressive approach. If that's the result, the practice might as well aim its efforts at the privileged, who are better equipped to survive the harm.
"Liberatory" is a description of the approach, not a description of its demographics. Otherwise, what would that make the U.S. prison system, where the population is disproportionately marginalized? What is "horizontal" or "anti-authoritarian" if the facilitators act as corrections officers?
Responsibility before action
"Radical" and "liberatory" describe a change in the system. However, attitudes like "Why reinvent the wheel?", "Why fix what's not broken?", or "Why put in all that effort?" oppose change and define reactionary politics. Yet these beliefs persist even among self-identified radicals when it comes to learning and the body.
Just as with therapists, healers, and educators, "liberatory" or "radical" are not just buzzwords—they represent a responsibility. This responsibility extends not only to those you work with but also to ensuring you've done the work first. It is irresponsible, and the opposite of doing the work, to rely on the same old approaches and assumptions, take unlearning and transformation for granted, and assume that's all it takes to train the most vulnerable people—when training the most vulnerable requires the most work, unlearning, transformation, and responsibility.
If you want to truly be liberatory, transform the system before inviting people into it. A liberatory practice is not the superficial gathering of the "right" people but the profound commitment to rethinking and rebuilding the systems that shape our practices.
To access the Liberation Martial Arts curriculum and contribute to the sustainability of this project, consider upgrading your membership. As we deal with the economic impact of the LA wildfires, find other ways to support me here. – Sam
✊✊✊
(I write daily about martial arts and other topics from a liberatory perspective. If you like my work, upgrade your subscription. You can also support me on Patreon or make a one-time donation on Ko-fi. Find Southpaw at its website. Get the swag on Spring. Also check out Liberation Martial Arts Online.)