Martial art

Martial arts, also known as fighting systems, are bodies of codified practices or traditions of training for combat, usually without the use of guns and other modern weapons. Today, people study martial arts for various reasons including competition, fitness, self-defense, self-cultivation (meditation), mental or character development, and self-confidence.

History

The history of martial arts is both long and universal. Martial arts likely existed in every culture, and at all classes and levels of society, from the family unit up to small communities, for instance, villages and even ethnic groups. One example is t'an t'ui, a northern Chinese kicking art, often said to be practiced among Chinese Muslims. Systems of fighting have likely been in development since learning became transferable among humans, along with the strategies of conflict and war. In some places, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, one can still see this plethora of village fighting systems.

Related Topics:
Chinese Muslims - War - Indonesia - Philippines

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Every martial arts system and every martial arts school has its own history. This generally falls into two categories: recent history and ancient history.

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Recent history, in this context, is relatively verifiable: who did the teacher learn from? Where did the teacher study? What other arts has the teacher studied, and how has the teacher incorporated them into their teaching? Was the teacher given permission to teach by their teacher? What are the teacher's goals in teaching the class?

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This last question deserves some explanation. Some classes are taught primarily to teach students to become effective competitors in tournaments. Some classes are taught to attempt to teach the students to defend themselves effectively against some class of anticipated situations. Some classes are taught to preserve an ancient tradition. The practical details of these distinct kinds of classes will be very different.

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Ancient history, at least in the sense used here, is much more difficult. In fact, for most systems it is essentially a legend — in the sense that it is propagated by word-of-mouth among students in the absence of verifiable evidence. This is not to say that it is not also true! But the importance of such a history does not depend on its truth: the effect of such a legend on shaping the development of a martial art is probably much greater than the effect of events two hundred years ago (at least five generations of passing the art on from teacher to student). So an art that is believed to be an art of warriors will focus on battlefield effectiveness and weapon use against highly skilled opponents, while an art that is believed to be for self-defense will focus on reactions to surprise attack and multiple opponents.

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The history of martial arts around the world is therefore quite complex; on the one hand, most groups of people have had to defend themselves and have developed effective fighting techniques, but on the other hand, most of those techniques have been rendered militarily obsolete over the centuries. Even at an individual, rural level, the threat to the safety of a village is now more likely to come from warriors armed with automatic rifles than from men with swords. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to preserve a martial art; doing so requires many years of teaching at the hands of a good teacher to pass on the art for a single generation. So it is relatively rare that a martial art would survive and become popular in today's culture, and each art that has done so has a unique history. Some generalities can be said, though, and the next few sections will attempt to discuss the overall rise to popularity of some martial arts.

Related Topics:
Automatic rifle - Sword

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Martial arts in Asia

The teaching of martial arts in Asia has historically followed the Confucian cultural tradition of teacher-disciple apprenticeship. Students are trained in a strictly hierarchical system by a master instructor: Sensei in Japanese ; in Chinese ??, (Wade-Giles) Lao Shih, (Pinyin) l?o sh? (lit., old master); Cantonese Sifu; ?? Mandarin (Wade-Giles) Shih fu, (Pinyin) Sh? fù (lit., the master-father), ??? Sabeomnim (Korean). The instructor is expected to directly supervise their students' training, and the students are expected to memorize and recite as closely as possible the rules and basic training routines of the school.

Related Topics:
Confucian - Wade-Giles - Cantonese - Mandarin

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Open speculation about training methods or the instructor's motives and personality is generally not tolerated in juniors, as they aren't considered familiar enough with the basic requirements of their respective arts to make realistic distinctions. They are instead encouraged to repeatedly train applications of the forms and techniques that they've been shown in gradually more complex scenarios.

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In this Confucian family-based hierarchy, those who enter instruction with the instructor before the student are considered older brothers and sisters; those after, younger brothers and sisters. The instructor's peers are considered aunts and uncles, etc. into other generations above and below. Such clearly delineated relationships, based on seniority, are designed to develop intangibles such as good character, patience and discipline in martial students. As a matter of safety for the instructors, the student body and the individual student, before they are shown anything beyond the most basic conditioning exercises, students learn their place in the school hierarchy. Students should learn how and why to clearly demonstrate respect for others and how to follow the directions of their instructors properly. The traditional schools are said by this reasoning to provide thereby a level playing field for all students, providing a relatively fixed framework for interaction with one's seniors, peers and juniors, so that everyone, not just the physically gifted, can have an opportunity to benefit from the training provided in a martial art school.

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Some method of certification can be involved, where one's skills would be tested for mastery before being allowed to study further; in some systems, especially in China, there are no such certifications, only years of close personal practice and evaluation under a master, much like an apprenticeship, until the master deems one's skills satisfactory. This pedagogy, while still preserved and respected in many traditional styles, has weakened to varying degrees in others and is even actively rejected by some schools, especially in the West.

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Martial arts in Europe

Martial arts in Europe do not exist to the same extent as in Asia. Boxing as well as forms of wrestling have endured. European martial arts have mostly adapted to changing technology and are truer to the English meaning of that phrase, so that while their descendants still exist, martial arts are focused on things like flying helicopters and infantry tactics for riflemen. These are generally not referred to as martial arts.

Related Topics:
Europe - Helicopter - Infantry tactics

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Martial Arts existed in classical European civilisation, most notably in Greece where sport was integral to the way of life. Boxing and Pankration (pan, meaning all, kratos, meaning power or strength) were represented in the Ancient Olympic Games. The Romans produced Gladiatorial combat as public spectacle based on a more martial sport.

Related Topics:
Classical - Greece - Sport - Pankration - Ancient Olympic Games - Romans - Gladiatorial combat

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Some traditional martial arts have been preserved in one form or another. For example, boxing, archery, and fencing were preserved by being made into sports; of course this has changed the practice significantly. Some historical fencing has survived, and some groups have attempted to reconstruct old European martial arts from a few surviving combat manuals. This includes such styles as sword and shield, two-handed swordfighting, jousting and other types of melee weapons combat.

Related Topics:
Boxing - Archery - Fencing - Historical fencing - Reconstruct - Sword and shield - Two-handed swordfighting - Jousting

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Another aspect of the reconstruction effort involves more historically recent martial arts and combat sports, such as those practiced during the 1800s and 1900s. A partial list would include bare-knuckle boxing, Bartitsu, quarterstaff fencing according to late 1800s rules, etc.

Related Topics:
Reconstruction - Bare-knuckle - Bartitsu - Quarterstaff

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Unarmed European martial arts that have survived in active form include English boxing, Olympic wrestling, and French savate. Some weapon systems have also survived as folk sports and as self defence methods, including stick-fighting systems such as the Juego del Palo style(s) of the Canary Islands.

Related Topics:
Boxing - Wrestling - Savate - Juego del Palo - Canary Islands

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Other martial arts were made into sports that we no longer recognize as combative, such as some kinds of gymnastics, where the pommel horse is called a horse because it simulates a horse: the art comes from the necessity of a cavalryman to be able to change positions and fight effectively from a the back of a horse. More ancient origins exist for the shot put and the javelin throw, both weapons utilised extensively by the Romans.

Related Topics:
Gymnastics - Pommel horse - Cavalry - Horse - Shot put - Javelin throw

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Martial arts in North America

While the native peoples of North America certainly had their own effective martial arts, these, like much of their culture, have been almost completely lost. However, the European colonists (and later, Asian immigrants) brought over their own martial arts such as boxing, fencing and wrestling. These have remained relatively less popular sports.

Related Topics:
Boxing - Fencing - Wrestling

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The interest in Eastern Martial Arts dates back to the late 19th Century, as Americans became involved in China and Japan. This involvement was initially through trade, where the martial arts seen were recorded as eccentricities of strange lands. Relatively few Westerners actually practiced the arts, most seeing them as performances. This view held with many of the first Asians to demonstrate martial arts in America and Europe doing so as part of vaudeville shows.

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As Western influence grew in the East a greater number of military personnel spent time in China, Japan and elsewhere protecting Western interests, and advising certain factions on military matters. Initially much of this advice was aimed at changing the Eastern way of fighting to a Western way of fighting, but gradually individual members of the western contingents began to see the value of Eastern martial arts and actually began training in them seriously.

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This training resulted in various techniques being incorporated into Western military training. This escalated to the extent that by the Second World War nearly all commandos received training in Japanese jujutsu.

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After the War, with large numbers of servicemen stationed in Japan the adoption of techniques and the gradual transmission of entire systems of martial arts to the West started. It was in the 1950's however when this exportation of systems really began to gain momentum. Large groups of US Military personnel were taught Korean arts (Taekwondo) during the War with North Korea and many of these brought their training home and continued to practice and teach after their demobilisation.

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By the 60's the Japanese arts like Karate and Judo had become very popular, the 70's saw martial arts in the movies and, due in part to Bruce Lee, the rise in popularity of Chinese styles.

Related Topics:
Karate - Movie - Bruce Lee

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The exportation saw an increase in the dilution of the arts with many of them being molded into competitive disciplines. Sport Karate for example became a major force internationally with professional fighters and big prizes, television coverage and sponsorship deals.

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The 80's saw a rise in interest in non-sport arts, especially those that provided weapons as well as empty hand techniques. This also fed the media with magazines, books and movies embracing the mysticism and lethality of various arts, especially Ninjutsu.

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Unfortunately, this huge expansion in popularity of the arts caused a sharp rise in the number of people trying to cash in on the trends. Teachers had to vary their offerings to keep the discerning public happy and some began to develop their own versions of what they thought people wanted. This led to the rise of the 'McDojo', a shopping mall outlet that offered all manner of instruction, often run as a franchise or chain with huge amounts of money being made for a select few at the top of the chain. The offerings were often very shallow and aimed only at high numbers of participants.

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In the last decades of the twentieth century, this interest continued but students began to realize that there were many more choices of martial art, and a tremendous diversity in martial arts appeared.

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Martial arts were unearthed and brought to America from Vietnam, Burma, the Philippines, Indonesia, South America, and almost every other corner of the Earth. They gained popularity due to their effectiveness and difference from the mainstream. This in turn led to further exploration of disciplines from Japan and China for their historical and cultural value.

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The mainstream today seems to have shifted away from sport back to practical self-defense. Unfortunately, in many cases this has meant the further dilution of styles with the tendency to take the best from any style but to discard the rest. Luckily there are still many 'purists' that maintain the integrity of the old systems to ensure that they will be available for future generations.

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Martial arts internationally

Every village and tribe around the world had a few trained fighters who passed on their knowledge; however, it is difficult to pass on a fighting system, so almost all of these have been lost as their practical relevance has declined. However, a few have survived for one reason or another, and a very few of those have seen a recent boom in popularity, perhaps related to the world music phenomenon. Examples of this are Capoeira and some related arts in Cuba, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago, which were preserved partly through their relationship with Candomblé, Santería, Vodun, and other syncretic religions. Of these, only Capoeira has risen to worldwide prominence.

Related Topics:
World music - Capoeira - Cuba - Haiti - Trinidad and Tobago - Candomblé - Santería - Vodun - Syncretic

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The 2003 movie Whale Rider featured several scenes involving Mau rakau, a traditional martial art of the Maori people. It involves the use of the taiaha, a 2-handed fighting staff.

Related Topics:
2003 - Whale Rider - Mau rakau - Maori - Taiaha

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Martial arts also developed among military and police forces to be used as

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• arrest and self-defense methods. One example is Krav Maga, a self-defense system developed by the armed forces of Israel. Another example is Kombato developed for the Brazilian armed forces.
• lethal tactical arts for use in close quarter combat warfare, i.e. Military Martial Arts e.g. UAC (British), LINE (USA), ACCS Advanced Commando Combat System