Martial arts

Demonstration of a Ju-Jitsu defense against a knife attack. Berlin 1924

Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat. They are practiced for a number of reasons ranging from self-defense, street fighting, military, and law enforcement to non-violent exercising, ceremonial, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and to preserve the intangible cultural heritage of a nation.

The term "martial arts" was originally used to refer to the traditions of East Asia, but has subsequently been applied to other practices which originated outside that region.

Etymology

The term martial arts itself is derived from an older Latin term meaning the arts of "Mars," in reference to the Roman god of war. Today, martial arts refer to "several arts of combat and self-defense (such as karate and judo) that are widely practiced as sport."

Some authors have argued that fighting arts or fighting systems would be a more appropriate term as many martial arts were never "martial" in the sense of being used or created by professional warriors.

The term martial science, or martial sciences, was commonly used to refer to Asian martial arts up until the 1970s, with the term Chinese boxing also being used to refer to Chinese martial arts. The term martial arts appeared in mainstream popular culture during the 1960s to 1970s, notably by Hong Kong martial arts films and martial artists such as Bruce Lee.

History

Historical martial arts

Detail of the wrestling fresco in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan

The martial art of boxing was practiced in ancient Thera (1600–1500 B.C.E.).

Wrestling is the oldest combat sport, with origins in hand-to-hand combat. It existed throughout human history in many different styles, as far back as the dawn of civilization:

Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions. Sumerians cast wrestlers in bold relief on stone slabs at least 5,000 years ago, antedating all other artifacts of ancient sport.

The development of modern Chinese and Indian martial arts was likely facilitated by early cultural exchanges between China and India. During the Warring States period (480–221 B.C.E.) in China, extensive development in martial philosophy and strategy took place, as mentioned by Sun Tzu in The Art of War (350 B.C.E.c. 350 B.C.E.). Legendary accounts link the origin of Shaolinquan to the spread of Buddhism from ancient India during the early fifth century C.E., and the coming of Bodhidharma, to China. Written evidence of martial arts in Southern India dates back to the Sangam literature (second century B.C.E. - second century C.E.). The combat techniques of the Sangam period are the earliest precursors of Kalaripayattu, an Indian martial art that originated in modern-day Kerala during the eleventh–twelfth centuries C.E.

In Europe, the earliest martial arts traditions date to Ancient Greece. Boxing (pygme, pyx), wrestling (pale) and pankration featured in the Ancient Olympic Games. The Romans produced gladiatorial combat as a public spectacle.

A number of combat manuals have survived from the European Middle Ages, and include such styles as sword and shield, two-handed swordfighting, and other types of melee weapons in addition to unarmed combat. Amongst these are transcriptions of Johannes Liechtenauer's mnemonic poem on the longsword dating back to the late fourteenth century. Likewise, Asian martial arts became well-documented during the medieval period: Japanese martial arts beginning with the establishment of the samurai nobility in the twelfth century, Chinese martial arts during the Ming era with treatises such as Ji Xiao Xin Shu, Indian martial arts in medieval texts such as the Agni Purana and the Malla Purana, and Korean martial arts during the Joseon era with texts such as the Muyejebo (Compendium of Several Martial Arts) compiled by Han Gyo in 1598.

Folk styles

Drawing of Indian wrestlers carrying vajra-mushti (1792 C.E.)

Certain traditional combat sports and fighting styles exist all over the world, rooted in local culture and folklore. The most common of these are styles of folk wrestling, some of which have been practiced since antiquity and are found in the most remote areas. Other examples include forms of stick fighting and boxing.

While these arts are based on historical traditions and folklore, they are not "historical" in the sense that they reconstruct or preserve a historical system from a specific era. They are rather contemporary regional sports that coexist with the modern forms of martial arts sports as they have developed since the nineteenth century, often including cross-fertilization between sports and folk styles; thus, the traditional Thai art of muay boran developed into the modern national sport of muay Thai, which in turn came to be practiced worldwide and contributed significantly to modern hybrid styles like kickboxing and mixed martial arts. The English martial art of Singlestick, can often be seen used in morris dancing. Many European dances have elements derived from martial arts, these include the Ukrainian Hopak, Polish Zbójnicki (use of ciupaga), the Czech dance odzemek, and the Norwegian Halling.

Boxing in England, 1811

Modern history

Boxing in 1943

Mixed martial arts championship in Russia in 2021

The mid to late nineteenth century marks the beginning of martial arts as modern sports, developing out of earlier traditional fighting systems. In Europe, this included the development of boxing, wrestling, and fencing as sports. In Japan, the same period marks the creation of modern judo, jujutsu, karate, and kendo based on earlier schools of martial arts which existed during the Edo period and which had been suppressed during the Meiji Restoration. In 1882, Kano Jigoro established the Kodokan School of judo, thus starting the sport of judo.

Modern Muay Thai rules date to the 1920s. In China, the modern history of martial arts begins in the Nanjing decade (1930s) following the foundation of the Central Guoshu Institute in 1928 under the Kuomintang government.

Western interest in Asian martial arts arises towards the end of the nineteenth century, due to the increase in trade between the United States with China and Japan. Relatively few Westerners actually practiced the arts, considering it to be mere performance. Edward William Barton-Wright, a railway engineer who had studied jujutsu while working in Japan between 1894 and 1897, was the first man known to have taught Asian martial arts in Europe. He also founded an eclectic style named Bartitsu which combined jujutsu, judo, wrestling, boxing, savate and stick fighting. In 1903, it was immortalized (mistakenly as "baritsu") by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories. Dormant throughout most of the twentieth century, Bartitsu has experienced a revival since 2002.

As Western influence grew in Asia a greater number of military personnel spent time in China, Japan, and South Korea during World War II and the Korean War and were exposed to local fighting styles. Jujutsu, judo, and karate first became popular among the mainstream from the 1950s–1960s. Taekwondo was developed in the context of the Korean War in the 1950s.

The late 1960s and the 1970s witnessed an increased media interest in Chinese martial arts, influenced by martial artist Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee is credited as one of the first instructors to openly teach Chinese martial arts to Westerners. A number of mainstream films produced during the 1980s also contributed significantly to the perception of martial arts in Western popular culture. These include The Karate Kid (1984) and Bloodsport (1988). This era produced some Hollywood action stars with martial arts background, such as Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris.

Also during the twentieth century, a number of martial arts were adapted for self-defense purposes and for military hand-to-hand combat. World War II combatives, KAPAP (1930s) and Krav Maga (1950s) in Israel, Systema in Soviet-era Russia, and Sanshou in the People's Republic of China are examples of such systems. The US military de-emphasized hand-to-hand combat training during the Cold War period, later revived the use of martial arts based combatives.

During the 1990s, Brazilian jiu-jitsu became popular and proved to be effective in mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions such as the UFC and PRIDE.

Variation and scope

Martial arts may be categorized using a variety of criteria, including:

• Traditional/historical arts vs. contemporary styles: e.g., folk wrestling compared to modern hybrid martial arts.
• Techniques taught: armed vs. unarmed, and within these categories
  • armed: by type of weapon (swordsmanship, stick fighting etc.)
  • unarmed: by type of combat (grappling, striking, stand-up fighting, ground fighting)
• By application or intent: self-defense, combat sport, choreography or demonstration of forms, physical fitness, meditation, etc.
• Within Chinese tradition: "external" vs. "internal" styles

By technical focus

Unarmed

Women's Muay Thai (Thai boxing)

Unarmed martial arts can be broadly grouped into those focusing on strikes, those focusing on grappling, and those that cover both fields, often described as hybrid martial arts.

Strikes: punching and kicking techniques displayed at the Banteay Srei (967 C.E.) in Cambodia.

Strikes

• Punching: Boxing, Wing Chun, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Karate
• Kicking: Kickboxing, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Savate, Karate, Kung Fu, Taekyyon
• Elbow Strike: Bokator, Kung Fu, Karate, Muay Thai
• Knee Strike: Lethwei, Muay Thai, Bokator, Kung Fu
• Others using strikes: Bokator, Lethwei, Muay Thai, Kung Fu, Pencak Silat, Taijiquan, Vovinam

Grappling: bas-relief of grappling techniques at Prambanan (9th century) in Indonesia.

Grappling

• Throwing: Hapkido, Judo, Sumo, Wrestling, Aikido, Shuai Jiao, Taijiquan
• Joint lock/Chokeholds/Submission holds: Jujutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Aikido, Catch wrestling, Judo, Chin-na, Taijiquan, Karate
• Pinning Techniques: Judo, Wrestling, Aikido
• Trapping/Clinch fighting: Wing Chun, Filipino Martial Arts, Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai, wrestling, Judo

Armed

The traditional martial arts that include armed combat often use a wide array of melee weapons such as bladed weapons and polearms. Such traditions include eskrima, silat, Kalaripayattu, kobudo, and historical European martial arts, especially those of the Italian Renaissance. Many Chinese martial arts also feature weapons.

Sometimes, the use and handling of a single weapon is considered a martial art, for example Japanese martial arts such as kenjutsu, kendo (sword), bojutsu (staff), and kyūdō (archery). Other similar modern martial arts and sports include modern fencing, stick-fighting systems like canne de combat, modern competitive archery, and practical shooting.

By application or intent

Military and law enforcement

U.S. Army combatives instructor demonstrates a chokehold.

Some traditional martial concepts have seen new use within modern military training. Perhaps the most recent example of this is point shooting which relies on muscle memory to more effectively use a firearm in a variety of awkward situations, much the way an iaidoka would master movements with their sword.

During the World War II era William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes were recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to teach their martial art of Defendu (itself drawing on Western boxing and Jujutsu) and pistol shooting to UK, US, and Canadian special forces. The book Kill or Get Killed, written by Colonel Rex Applegate, was based on the Defendu taught by Sykes and Fairbairn. Both Fairbairn's Get Tough and Appelgate's Kill or Get Killed became classic works on hand-to-hand combat.

Traditional hand-to-hand, knife, and spear techniques continue to see use in the composite systems developed for today's wars. Examples of this include European Unifight, the US Army's Combatives system developed by Matt Larsen, the Israeli army's KAPAP and Krav Maga, and the US Marine Corps's Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). Unarmed dagger defenses identical to those found in the manual of Fiore dei Liberi and the Codex Wallerstein were integrated into the U.S. Army's training manuals in 1942, and continue to influence today's systems.

Spirituality-oriented

Traditional Korean martial arts place great emphasis on the practitioner's spiritual development. For example, a common theme in most Korean styles, such as Taekkyon, taekwondo, and Hapkido is the focus on "inner peace," which is said to be achievable only through meditation and training. For example, taekwondo is a sport designed for fun, fitness, and self-improvement. Self-defense is concerned with physical safety and, while some taekwondo skills can be used for self-defense, they should only be used to apply reasonable force appropriate to the threat.

Japanese martial arts are called "budo." The suffix "-do" translates to "way" or "path," as the martial art is meant to lead the practitioner towards a spiritually fulfilling life.

Tong-Il Moo-Do is a martial art based on Unification Thought:

Unification Thought is the new worldview for unifying religion and science to solve the problem of materialistic and spiritual historical conceptions. ... Its view also unifies Western and Eastern ideas as well as the unification of South and North Korea, suggesting a new vision of life.

Founded by Joon-ho Seuk, Tong-Il Moo-Do is not only good for one's mental and physical health it is also a way to cultivate the thought of Love Heaven, Love People, and Love your country.

Testing and competition

Testing or evaluation is important to martial artists of many disciplines who wish to determine their progression or level of skill in specific contexts. Students often undergo periodic testing and grading by their own teacher in order to advance to a higher level of recognized achievement, such as a different belt color or title. The type of testing used varies from system to system but may include forms or sparring.

Steven Ho executing a Jump Spin Hook Kick

Various forms and sparring are commonly used in martial art exhibitions and tournaments. Some competitions pit practitioners of different disciplines against each other using a common set of rules, these are referred to as mixed martial arts competitions. Rules for sparring vary between art and organization but can generally be divided into light-contact, medium-contact, and full-contact variants, reflecting the amount of force that should be used on an opponent.

Light- and medium-contact

These types of sparring restrict the amount of force that may be used to hit an opponent, in the case of light sparring this is usually to 'touch' contact, e.g. a punch should be 'pulled' as soon as or before contact is made. In medium-contact (sometimes referred to as semi-contact) the punch would not be 'pulled' but not hit with full force. As the amount of force used is restricted, the aim of these types of sparring is not to knock out an opponent; a point system is used in competitions.

A referee acts to monitor for fouls and to control the match, while judges mark down scores, as in boxing. In some styles (such as fencing and some styles of taekwondo sparring), competitors score points based on the landing of a single technique or strike as judged by the referee, whereupon the referee will briefly stop the match, award a point, then restart the match. Alternatively, sparring may continue with the point noted by the judges. Some critics of point sparring feel that this method of training teaches habits that result in lower combat effectiveness.

Full-contact

Full-contact sparring or competition, where strikes or techniques are not pulled but used with full force as the name implies, has a number of tactical differences from light and medium-contact sparring. In full-contact sparring, the aim of a competitive match is to knock out the opponent or to force the opponent to submit.

Where scoring takes place it may be a subsidiary measure, only used if no clear winner has been established by other means; in some competitions there was no scoring, though most now use some form of judging as a backup. Due to these factors, full-contact matches tend to be more aggressive in character, but rule sets may still mandate the use of protective equipment, or limit the techniques allowed.

Nearly all mixed martial arts organizations, such as Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), use a form of full-contact rules as do professional boxing organizations and K-1. Kyokushin karate requires advanced practitioners to engage in bare-knuckled, full-contact sparring allowing kicks, knees, and punching although punching to the head is disallowed while wearing only a karate gi, mouthguard, and groin guard for males, or chest guard worn under the karate gi for females. Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo matches do not allow striking, but are full-contact in the sense that full force is applied in the permitted grappling and submission techniques. Competitions held by World Taekwondo requires the use of Headgear and padded vest, but are full contact in the sense that full force is applied to strikes to the head and body, and win by knockout is possible.

Martial sport

Several martial arts, such as judo, are Olympic sports

Martial arts have crossed over into sports when forms of sparring become competitive, becoming a sport in its own right that is dissociated from the original combative origin, such as with western fencing. The Summer Olympic Games includes judo, taekwondo, western archery, boxing, javelin, wrestling, and fencing as events. Practitioners in some arts such as kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu often train for sport matches, whereas those in other arts such as aikido generally spurn such competitions. Some schools believe that competition breeds better and more efficient practitioners, and gives a sense of good sportsmanship. Others believe that the rules under which competition takes place have diminished the combat effectiveness of martial arts or encourage a kind of practice which focuses on winning trophies rather than a focus such as cultivating a particular moral character.

Some martial artists compete in non-sparring competitions such as breaking or choreographed routines of techniques such as poomse, kata, and aka, or modern variations of the martial arts which include dance-influenced competitions. Martial traditions have been influenced by governments to become more sport-like for political purposes; the central impetus for the attempt by the People's Republic of China in transforming Chinese martial arts into the committee-regulated sport of wushu was suppressing what they saw as the potentially subversive aspects of martial training, especially under the traditional system of family lineages.

Health and fitness benefits

Martial arts training aims to result in several benefits to trainees, such as their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Through systematic practice in the martial arts a person's physical fitness may be boosted (strength, stamina, speed, flexibility, movement coordination, etc.) as the whole body is exercised and the entire muscular system is activated.

Beyond contributing to physical fitness, martial arts training also has benefits for mental health, contributing to self-esteem, self-control, and emotional and spiritual well-being. For this reason, a number of martial arts schools have focused purely on therapeutic aspects, de-emphasizing the historical aspect of self-defense or combat completely.

Bruce Lee viewed martial arts as an art form, emphasizing that it involves not only physical mastery but also emotional and mental expression. Through fluidity, balance, and spontaneous reaction, martial artists communicate emotionally, transcending mere technique and transforming combat into a deeply personal and expressive form of communication.

Equipment

Martial arts equipment can include that which is used for conditioning, protection and weapons. Specialized conditioning equipment can include breaking boards, dummy partners such as the wooden dummy, and targets such as punching bags and the makiwara. Protective equipment for sparring and competition includes boxing gloves, headgear, and mouthguards.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Applegate, Ron. Kill or Get Killed: A Manual Of Hand-To-Hand Fighting. Naval & Military Press, 2024 (original 1943). ISBN 978-1474539661
• Bowman, Paul. The Invention of Martial Arts: Popular Culture Between Asia and America. Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0197540336
• Corcoran, John. The Martial Arts Companion: Culture, History, and Enlightenment. Bdd Promotional Book Co., 1992. ISBN 978-0792457626
• Fairbairn, W.E. GET TOUGH!: How To Win In Hand To Hand Fighting. Naval and Military Press, 2017 (original 1942). ISBN 978-1783313334
• Fu, Zhongwen, Louis Swaim (trans.). Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan. Blue Snake Books, 2006. ISBN 978-1583941522
• Khim, P'ng Chye, and Donn F. Draeger. Shaolin Lohan Kung-Fu. Tuttle Publishing, 1991. ISBN 080481698
• Lee, Bruce. Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Black Belt Communications, 2011. ISBN 978-0897502023
• Reid, Howard, and Michael Croucher. The Way of the Warrior: The Paradox of the Martial Arts. New York: Overlook Press, 1991. ISBN 978-08795143340
• Vail, Jason. Medieval and Renaissance Dagger Combat. Paladin Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1581605174

External links

All links retrieved August 24, 2026.

• The MMA Collective
• The Real Meaning Of Martial Arts by Chatri Sityodtong
• Martial Arts for Kids: A Parent’s Guide Healthy Children
• Mental Benefits of Martial Arts WebMD
• Introduction to MMA UFC
• World Tong-Il Moo-Do Federation

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