Welcome to the word of Martial Arts.

 

Section 1:General stuff

Martial arts, arts of fighting or for some, "arts of ego boosting" are all basicly the same. In avery "art" your goal is to become good or better kicker, puncher, wrestler or all at the same time. Some of the "arts" were developed purely for war. Good examples of these are the Israelian Grav Maga and the US Army combat system FM 21-150. Others were developed for self defence (Judo, Aikido...) and there is the third party, "young arts" that were developed by merging few arts into a package and then giving a name to it. Most of the last group was created between year 1900 and the present time. Tae Kwon Do for instance was created some time in the midle 1940s. The creators were few masters of various arts like Karate and Hapkido. 2 other very new fighting methods are Grav Maga and Shoot Fighting, loads of more exist but I have no interest in describing them all here. From what I've read and heard oriental martial arts were originally created guite some time ago when the working class was forbidden to have weapons. They developed ways to defend with what they had, arms and legs. Okinava Te (nowadays called Karate) was developed then with some arts like some Kung-Fu and few others. Later Different arts evolved to different styles witch usually use heavily some area of tecnigues. European "martial arts" were few and far between. Most known is Greek/Roman wrestling. This is the one that is olympic sport nowadays. I just keep wondering what use was it against so often armed soldiers. Think, would you run towards a guy with a sword if you had only your hands and legs as weapons? Fencing is also one originally European and famous art. Later europeans developed Savate that was and is based on some rip off technigues from various oriental arts. Some other less famous european arts exist but this is where my knowledge on them ends. Africans had few styles also but I'd rather call them more or less just plain fighting and brawling than martial arts. Basicly everywhere in the world some way of fighting, no mater how elegant or brutal, has existed from the dawn of time. Only difference is that today the fighting skills have taken a name called martial arts and the before so random violence has taken it's shape as often so fine and acrobatic looking series of technigues. All arts and fighting styles serve the same purpose. To keep oneself unharmed when facing an agressor. Different styles just do it differently. Thats it.

Section 2:What makes martial art and what does not.

This is a mater of an opinnion. I think that MARTIAL ARTS are the ones with history, some purpose other than just maiming the opponent and have more in them than just the basic technigue. Karate and basicly ALL oriental fighting arts are Martial Arts. Capoeira, Kali and Escrima are perfect samples of non oriental Martial Arts. Kick boxing, Grav Maga, Shoot Fighting, Fierce Fighting (yes, some idiot created that too) and similiar are just ways to mindlessly bash the opponent to oblivion. Although some of the later have competitions with rules they all have this guideline:"Kick it to the groin, kick it to the face and then just kick, hit and wrestle it untill it's dead or atleast so badly hurt it does not pose a problem ever again. Never stop before the ultimate hurting is on the opponents side. Dont even think of stopping if the opponent is not uncouncious". Now this makes me sick. What really pisses me off is that some people come and tell me that Grav Maga and similiar mindless bashing styles are Martial Arts. I've got to admit that they are effective in real life situations but that they would be arts, HAH. Since when has a pile of dog crap been an work of art? This is exactly the same thing. Only change is that the world of martial arts is the dog and the crap is what is developed by nothing knowing novice students like the ones who developed Grav Maga and Shoot Fighting. Only defence the developers have against my "theory" is that the famous kick boxing is a sport rather than a martial art and grav maga is just easy to learn and the student does not need to be in fit condition to be good at it. Now if you have still something to ask about what makes art an art and not just pile of crap, email me and I'll andver the questions you have with the best of my ability.

Section 3:Something about some specific martial arts.

More coming soon.

 

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