Becoming a fighter: phenomenological dimensions of personal development in beginner martial arts and combat sports...

Martial arts and combat sports (MA&CS) place practitioners in bodily and relational situations close to violence while being organized through the reciprocal structure of corporal fight. Understanding personal development in these practices requires attention to how practitioners experience, sustain, and respond to combative engagement. Disruptive situations are moments in which this structure is strained, exposing the limits of practitioners' resources without necessarily producing development. The aim of this study is to identify and comprehend how adult beginner MA&CS practitioners experience processes of personal development in relation to disruptive situations encountered during practice.

The study follows an empirical-phenomenological approach within a cross-national framework. Seventeen retrospective semi-structured interviews with beginner practitioners were selected from a database of 157 interviews conducted in Brazil and Spain. Analysis involved psychological, eidetic, and intersubjective reductions, supported by suspensive listening and intentional crossing.

The findings were organized into three interdependent dimensions. The Psychic dimension concerns the tension inherent to confronting an opponent, including fear, frustration, uncertainty, and difficulties remaining engaged. The Moral/Spiritual dimension concerns sensitivity to the partner-opponent's integrity and the regulation of force, intensity, and conduct required to preserve the reciprocal encounter. The Corporal/Technical dimension concerns the incorporation of embodied possibilities for attacking, defending, adjusting distance, and responding under pressure. Because corporal fight is lived through bodily engagement, this dimension provides the concrete medium through which psychic tension and Moral/Spiritual positioning are enacted.

When development is described, it appears as a progressive reorganization of these dimensions and an expanded capacity to enter, respond to, and sustain corporal fight. Participants also report avoidance, emotional disorganization, excessive force, injury, and withdrawal, indicating that disruptive experiences are not inherently developmental. Competition intensifies these demands, while developmental possibilities depend on practitioners' resources and on pedagogical and relational conditions, including instructor guidance, peer conduct, partner selection, and regulation of training intensity.