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.