I would say that it depends on your intent for studying them.

For example, I have been a fan of the soft martial arts like Tai Chi, Qigong and Zhan Zhuang. My reason for studying them is because I enjoy the peacefulness, clarity of mind and health-related benefits that come with them.

While Tai Chi and Zhan Zhuang certainly have within them their aggressive and defensive advanced techniques, it's not my focus, and the thought of engaging in combat with others (for attack or defence) has never ever crossed my mind.

My girlfriend, on the other hand, studied Kung Fu for a while. Her real intent with doing so (though she denies it when asked :) ) was to defend herself against any possible future attackers.

What's happening here is that there is a feeling of fear of some kind already, and from that feeling of fear, she has taken action to deal with it...signed up for Kung Fu lessons with the intent of defending herself. That kind of action taken from a feeling of negative emotion is really only giving more focus to the negative emotion.

It doesn't mean she is definitely setting herself up for future attacks, it just means that she is now vibrationally closer to them than before...it's more of a possibility now than before

I would say that it would have been better for her to deal with cleaning up the vibration first and then take any inspired action.

In other words, deal with the feeling of vulnerability first and once you no longer feel any need to defend yourself because you know you are safe in your everyday life then study the martial art that you feel yourself drawn towards. It might end up as a very different choice, or it might be the same one with a different background attitude, or it might be no martial art at all.

Summing up:
You can be drawn to taking inspired action towards things you don't want just as much as you can towards things you do want.

...think about the kind of food you are attracted to eating when you are feeling upset and sick, compared to the kind of food you are attracted to eating when you are feeling joyful and healthy.

UPDATE

Reading through this answer later, I think I may have given the impression here that before you take any action you should sit down and meditate (or something similar) to find alignment with your ultimate goal and only then take any action.

For the sake of completeness, I should probably point out that there is an equally valid action-based approach.

And that is to take the action first with the intent of achieving alignment with your desire. This is also a valid approach and is what, for example, action-based goal-setting is all about.

In goal-setting, you set the goal and then kid yourself into thinking that the actions you are taking towards the goal actually bring the goal about.

What is really happening is that the actions you are taking towards the goal are causing you to have more belief (alignment) that you will achieve the goal. So the means and circumstances to achieve it magically (through the Law of Attraction) come into place.

And the more actions you take that seem to be bringing you closer to the end result, the more your belief shifts towards alignment with the goal.

It's a bit like the vibrational matches idea in Manifesting Experiment 1

So there is certainly validity in studying a martial art with the intent of feeling safer, and thereby ultimately aligning yourself with safety...but it's a more cumbersome way of doing it compared to just feeling better first and following the inspired action.

I am a 6th dan black belt, yes it makes you safer in that if you are attacked you have the odds more in your favor of surviving an attack. Does it draw to me things to defend myself against? No because the goal of Karate is peace, when you know what you can do you do not fear, thus you do not have your mind focused on things of harm drawing them to you.

There is a flip side to this for low self esteem martial artist that feel they have to prove something constantly, they go out looking for fights and so are attracted to what they search for. They feel they have to always prove themselves to be better than others, instead of just having confidence that they can handle things if something were to happen they have to constantly test it.

This is like the difference between faith and doubt, if your faith needs to be constantly tested you don't have it, but if you don't need it, you have it. We only need what we do not have, we don't need what we do have because we have it already.

The greatest goal is to conquer one self, the founder of my style said that, Master Funakoshi.

When I took a semester of Karate for college, it was really empowering for me as a female. The class was for females, and we focused on releases and getting out of difficult situations- but more than that, we learned what situations to avoid so as to not be attacked. To this day, I check my car before I get into it at night, as an example.

I do not feel that knowing this information has attracted any negative attacks on the physical level. As I said, the class was very empowering, and I would go on in Karate if I could. I liked the mastery of self, and the focus on peace that my teacher taught.

Just a little commentary from a female of the species!! LOL!

Blessings, Jai

Considering the tags (law of attraction) nope it doesn't. A soldier won't shoot you if you don't have a weapon, generally. Similarly, a true martial artist won't attack you if you can't defend yourself.

If you're talking about physical integrity, yeah, martial arts help you with that, maybe keeping your body "safer" from other people, and definitely making it healthier. But I think you're talking about our mind, the feeling of safety. That can only come from inside and it doesn't depend if you even have hands to "protect" yourself.

Yes, you will be safer. Just knowing how to get in a quick elbow to the chops is all you'll ever need. Maybe one or two other moves in case you are grabbed, or grabbed from behind.

of course it does you are in better control of your self and other and also have more knowledge. has for attracting what you are defending against. i will say this it is more your hatitude or your lack of knowledge. think about it that you do martial art or not is not the problem. but if your hatitude towards other start from the ego i am better then all of you and i will prove it to you. then you are going to get in trouble. and if you have that hatitude you missed the essential basic course so you are lacking you did not even understand the basic. experience and enjoy.

Yes it makes you safer because you are more confident. I did boxing for a while and was approached by an aggresive drunk. I think he could sense my lack of fear and he never tried anything and I wouldn't have cared if he did. A nice feeling.