Martial art

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A martial art , often referred to as a fighting system , is a system of codified practices and traditions of training for combat, usually without the use of guns and other modern weapons. Today, people study martial arts for various reasons including sport, fitness, self-defense, self-cultivation (meditation), mental discipline & character development, and self-confidence.

"Martial arts" was translated in 1920 in Takenobu's Japanese-English Dictionary from Japanese bu-gei or bu-jutsu "the craft/accomplishment of military affairs". This definition is translated directly from the Chinese term, wushu pinyin: wu shù ; Cantonese: mou seut ; Vietnamese: Võ-Thu?t), literally, "martial art", meaning all manner of Chinese martial arts.

This term is slightly anomalous in its English usage. Its strict meaning should be "arts for military use" (flying fighter aircraft, sniper training, and so forth) but in normal usage it is used to refer to formalized systems of training to fight without modern technology. It is nevertheless valuable to distinguish between fighting systems intended for soldiers in battle (even without modern technology) and fighting systems intended for sport or for civilian self-defense.

Overview

There are many styles and schools of martial arts; broadly speaking, they share a common goal: to physically defeat a person or defend oneself. Some Eastern martial arts have a tradition of being about more than simple fighting, which is perhaps why their practice has been seen as worth preserving in the face of their military obsolescence in modern technological culture. Certain martial arts, such as T'ai Chi Ch'uan, may also be practiced to maintain or improve mental or physical health.

What differentiates the martial arts from mere unarmed brawling is the organization of their techniques into a coherent system and the codification of effective teaching methods. One common training technique is to have a series of routines called forms (also called kata , poomse , ch'uan t'ao , kuen , tao lu , hyung , sequencias , or tuls ) which can serve as a dictionary of essential techniques to be memorized and drawn from at need. Martial arts are also characterized by the controlled, mindful application of force in ways selected for empirical effectiveness. In this sense, boxing, fencing, archery, and wrestling can also be considered martial arts.

Martial arts may focus on

striking (e.g. Boxing, Karate, Southern Praying Mantis, Wing Chun, Krav Maga, Bando)
kicking, (e.g. Kickboxing, Taekwondo, Savate, Capoeira, Lethwei)
grappling and throwing (e.g. Wrestling, Jujutsu, Judo, Sambo, Naban, Aikido, Kampfringen), or
weaponry (e.g. Iaido, Naginata-do, Bojutsu, Kendo, Fencing, Kali, Gatka, Banshay, Kalarippayattu, Kunst des Fechten).

Most martial arts include some study of all of these different styles and some explicitly attempt to be complete systems (Eskrima, many types of Jujutsu, many traditional Chinese martial arts).

Some martial arts, particularly the traditional Chinese arts, used to go beyond this to teach side disciplines such as bone-setting, qigong, acupuncture, acupressure (tui na), and other aspects of traditional Chinese medicine. This was a natural extension, as at an advanced level techniques can take advantage of a detailed knowledge of how the opponent's body works to drastically increase their effectiveness.

The martial arts, perhaps due to a half-century of dramatic portrayals in popular media, (particuarly in films starring the famous Martial arts stars such as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li; see Orientalism), have been inextricably bound in the Western imagination to East Asian cultures and people. Martial arts are by no means unique to Asia , however. Humans around the world have always had to develop ways to defend themselves from attack, often without weapons. Not all martial arts were developed in Asia . Savate, for example, was developed as a form of kickboxing in France . Capoeira's athletic movements were developed in Brazil by slaves based on skills brought with them from Africa .

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