I play rugby. I Play Hockey. I take Jujitsu. I know how to handle myself if a situation get hairy, and that makes me feel good about myself. I was wondering though, why does it make me feel good about myself? Chances are that I won’t ever have to fight anyone outside of Hockey/Rugby/Jujitsu. Wouldn’t it make more sense to feel confident being smart? or Rich? or Healthy?
Why should these be exclusive? Why not feel confident because of all of them?
Whether or not a particular attribute makes you feel confident depends on the situation. If you’re threatened by thugs, your skills in Jujitsu are more likely to give you confidence than your intelligence or wealth. If you’re sitting for a univerisity exam, your intellect counts more (unless you plan on bullying or bribing your prof).
I’d suggest it has to do with the manner of threats you consider conceivable.
Yes, wealth instills a type of confidence - knowing that there will be food on the table and a warm place to sleep. Intelligence can be handy (note, I did NOT say handy is intelligent!;)), as it helps one approach above-referenced wealth. Heck, good looks and wit might give us confidence that we don’t need to sleep alone, and personal health and hygiene may give us confidence that we don’t stink and are unlikely to drop dead in the immediate future.
But none of those attributes provide direct defense against physical assault by an assailant intent on doing harm to you or others. This is a potential threat many of us have little difficulty imagining. The threat of crime and violence, however significant in actuality, is a major part of modern news and entertainment. It is also a very scary type of threat. It can come upon one without warning. A victim of violence can feel incredibly helpless. And many folk fear physical pain/injury. If someone is hitting or threatening to hit you, the stress and fear is enormous, and your alternatives few.
I view it like insurance. Sure, I hope I don’t get sick, my car doesn’t crack up, or my house burn down. But should such events happen, it gives me comfort knowing the blow will be softened.
You will be confident about the things you understand and or have experience with. You will also be relatively confident with “related” tasks.
Take your Jujitsu, fine you’re great but you really don’t know jack about boxing. If you tried to learn boxing many things would come easily because you have already honed balance, eye hand coordination, and things like telegraphing by an opponent or assailant. These factors will help make boxing come easier to you than to someone without those abilities.
“Yea though I walk through the valley of death I shall fear no evil 'cause I’m the meanest son-of-a-bitch in the valley” 
Knowing you can handle a situtation brings confidence, it doesn’t matter if you are discussing how to build a computer, fix a car or beat the snot out of some mugger.
Quite the contrary. I’ve been studying martial arts for about ten years now, and every time I walk out to spar, my sensei or one of my fellow students remind me all too painfully that there will always be somebody faster, stronger, or just more willing to soak up some punishment before hurting me badly. If anything, learning how to fight has made me more cautious (my sensei says that this is actually my biggest problem…).
What would be regarded as the best punch?
Isn’t it also because our culture (I’m talking about the US here, but I think it’s fairly widespread.) glorifies and romanticizes violence? The movies tell us that even if we become President of the US or captain of a starship, sooner or later we’ll need to punch someone (for good, just reasons, of course). Even if we know it’s not true, we still associate the ability to throw a good punch with being the “hero”.
What gives you confidence? The knowledge you can handle certain situations. Being wealthy lets you handle a large number of situations. So is being smart. Knowing martial arts fills in the remaining gap rather well.
Spiked punch! hic
Besides, who wants to look bad in front of their girl?
Who wants to look bad in front of their mirror?
I’d say that the degree to which a person’s fighting skills gives them confidence is dependant on how much of their lives they live in the physical world, ie:
Being able to come out on top of a physical confrontation will give you more confidence if you’re a repo man or bouncer 8 hours a day, and spend the rest of your time walking around your local bad neihborhood hussling people in poolhalls. It will mean less if you spend 12 hours a day filing papers in a law office and your free time being driven to and from art exhibits and operas in upscale areas; a life quite detached from violence.
That being said, physical prowess does tend to give the average person more self-confidence than does expertise in other areas such as antiques knowledge or skill with calculus and physics equations. This might be because there are so many “man-made” disciplines or studies that we can safely say we won’t ever need to deal with… but regardless of whether we choose to be a politician, banker, surgeon, artist, we all have to live in the physical world and will always be susceptible to that world’s risks to some degree.
I can guarentee that I’ll personally never have to know criminal law well enough to outwit another attorney, or know how to program a computer better than the guy next to me. I can walk away from, simply ignore challenges from those areas, or have the time to hire someone else to do it for me. But neither I nor the millionaire real estate tycoon can choose to ignore someone once they start swinging a broken bottle at our faces.
Might be more of an instinctive thing; people have always faced physical danger, and still do regardless of laws (these will only help punish the guy who kicks your ass after he’s been caught and tried by someone else - there’s nothing stopping him from hurting or killing you right now), so you still have to deal with that possibility. Being a great interior decorator won’t help you at all, but knowing how to defend yourself will.
Violence and/or physical struggles are something that we’ll all have to deal with to some degree at some point in our lives (even if it’s just not letting someone push ahead of you at a crowded market or wrestling the remote from your brother’s hands), and sometimes the outcome of these struggles can have very serious consequences to your health.
OTOH, very few of us will have to be able to finish a wooden cabinet to perfection - and that will be 100% by choice, and failure to be better at it than someone else will have nowhere’s near the consequences as failure to be able to stop someone from strangling you in a dark alley.
So overall I’d say there’s a greater probability that being able to fight well will save your ass from more serious consequences than skill at doing most anything else, even if the risk is low that you’ll ever need to do it. Having an engineering degree might help you make enough money to drive a luxery car and look good, but knowing how to defend yourself might save your face from getting smashed in or even your life.