A General View Of Martial Arts

By Owen Jones


Individuals tend to think of martial arts as being oriental, Kung Fu type fighting. However, the word 'martial' derives from the Latin word 'mars, martis', who was the Roman god of war. 'Martial', consequently, means 'to do with war or fighting'. As a result, martial can refer to Western methods of fighting too such as boxing and wrestling.

These martial arts have been around for thousands of years at least and originated on the battlefield where one's competence in fighting was literally a matter of life and death. Wrestling was in the Olympic Games more than 2,000 years ago.

Similarly, many of the oriental martial arts are equally old and came about because peasants were not permitted to bear arms in the social structures of the times.

Despite the age of these martial arts, they did not become popular in the Developed world until Bruce Lee made them famous with his Kung Fu films in the early Seventies. It is a little known fact that when Lee was sent to America at the age of 18 to avoid the wrath of a local Hong Kong mafia chief, he hoped to teach traditional martial arts, but was forbidden authorization by the local Chinese community.

There was an accepted law that non-Chinese were not to be trained in Chinese martial arts. Lee ignored the rule, and he claimed to have been sent death threats from powerful Chinese underworld leaders from America and Hong Kong. Lee taught martial arts to a small group of well-known Caucasians and even developed his own style called Jeet Kune Do.

Jeet Kune Do used Lee's amazing speed and power in its moves. Three of Lee's most famous moves were:

The Power Side Kick: with one kick, he could kick a 300 pound sack to hit a standard ceiling

The One Inch Punch: he could knock a trained fighter down with a punch that had travelled only one inch

The Lightning Snatch: with his arm by his side, he could snatch a nickel from an open palm three feet away and leave a penny behind in 5/100 ths of a second.

Individuals wished to be able to do the same. However, there are many different sorts of martial arts and many countries have their own individual style of fighting.

China has Judo and Kung Fu; Japan has Karate; Brazil has Brazilian Jiu Jitsu; Thailand has Muay Thai.. There are numerous other, mostly oriental styles, too, like Tae Kwando and Aikido but also French Kick Boxing.

Some martial arts are more defensive in character, but others are definitely aggressive.: Judo and Aikido are examples of defensive styles and Karate and boxing are far more belligerent in nature. However, all martial arts teach self-control and the students develop more self-assurance.

Martial arts are undergoing a renaissance in popularity at the moment, mainly owing to UFC fights or mixed martial arts. You might not approve of the violence of mixed martial arts, but it cannot be denied that numerous kids are learning a few martial arts, Western and Oriental, because of these popular TV bouts.




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