Think about “martial arts”
and the mental pictures of Bruce Lee and Jet Li pop into mind. We know what
martial arts looks like, but where did this explosive display of power,
discipline, and execution get its name? Well if you look at it in the English
context word by word, you’d associate “martial” with some type of military
association. Arts, well, that would mean some type of display or talent. It is a
routine of a set of practices and traditions of armed and unarmed combat,
usually without the use of guns or modern warfare devices.
That’s the English slant
on it; however, the word comes from the Japanese words bu-gei or bu-jutsu “the
craft/accomplishment of military affairs.” The translations came in the early
1920’s when a group of Western scholars noticed the form and gave it a
translation. When they provided the translation, they also considered the
Chinese term, “wushu.” This Chinese term is pretty encompassing and means all
manners of Chinese martial arts.
The term is slightly
inconsistent in English usage. Strictly looking at it would mean “an art for a
military use” (think solider, pilot, or tank driver) but we commonly use it to
refer to the formalized systems of training to fight without using modern
technology. It is that distinction, the absence of modern equipment, which makes
martial arts an attractive sporting form and civilian self-defense.
Most of the martial arts
practiced today originated in Asia and by countries such as China, Japan, and
Korea. Today, there are hundreds of martial arts practiced, each are divided in
specific styles or systems. When choosing a martial arts to study and partake
in, it would be wise to practice a system that closely matches your goals and
personality.
Martial arts technically
fall into two categorizations: percussive and non-percussive. In percussive
martial arts, such as Karate-do and Taw Kwon Do, physical strikes are made with
the hands, feet, elbows, knees, and head. Non-percussive martial arts involve
systems that avoid physical strikes and rely on neutralizing the opponent by
throwing and locking. Two of the more popular systems that are non-percussive
are Judo and Akido.
Weapons do have their
place in martial arts and are often used in the more advanced levels of martial
arts training. Sometimes their use is limited to the advanced due to tradition,
but other system use some form of weapons as part of their basic training.
What makes martial arts
different from unarmed brawling is the organization of certain techniques into a
coherent system and a codification of effective teaching and training methods.
A common training
technique is the incorporation of “forms” which serve as a base guideline for
movement and essential techniques of the particular system. It is these forms
that provide the biggest differentiating factors of the different types of
martial arts available today.
People practice martial
arts for many different reasons. Some do it as a means of self-defense. Others
do it for the sake of sport and discipline. Whatever fighting style you choose
remember you use it to better yourself and the world in which we live.
