Martial arts in North America

While the native peoples of North America had their own martial training, these, like much of their culture, have been almost completely lost. However, the European colonists (and later, Asian immigrants) brought over their own martial arts such as boxing, fencing and wrestling.

The interest in Eastern Martial Arts dates back to the late 19th Century, as Americans became involved in China and Japan . This involvement was initially through trade, where the martial arts seen were recorded as eccentricities of strange lands. Relatively few Westerners actually practiced the arts, most seeing them as performances. This view held with many of the first Asians to demonstrate martial arts in America and Europe doing so as part of vaudeville shows.

As Western influence grew in the East a greater number of military personnel spent time in China , Japan and elsewhere protecting Western interests, and advising certain factions on military matters. Initially much of this advice was aimed at changing the Eastern way of fighting to a Western way of fighting, but gradually individual members of the western contingents began to see the value of Eastern martial arts and actually began training in them seriously. This training resulted in various techniques being incorporated into Western military training. This escalated to the extent that by the Second World War nearly all commandos received training in Japanese jujutsu.

After the War, with large numbers of servicemen stationed in Japan the adoption of techniques and the gradual transmission of entire systems of martial arts to the West started. It was in the 1950's however when this exportation of systems really began to gain momentum. Large groups of US Military personnel were taught Korean arts (Taekwondo) during the War with North Korea and many of these brought their training home and continued to practice and teach after their demobilisation. By the 1960s the Japanese arts like Karate and Judo had become very popular, the early 1970s saw martial arts in the movies and, due in part to Bruce Lee, the rise in popularity of Chinese styles.

The exportation saw an increase in the dilution of the arts with many of them being molded into competitive disciplines. Sport Karate for example became a major force internationally with professional fighters and big prizes, television coverage and sponsorship deals.

The later 1970s and 1980s saw a rise in interest in non-sport arts, especially those that provided weapons as well as empty hand techniques. This interest was fed by the media with magazines, books and movies embracing the supposed mysticism and alleged supernatural lethality of various arts (especially those claiming to be associated with ninjas and neo-ninjas). This in turn led to opportunistic teachers at one end of the spectrum exploiting the fashion by making many claims of the overwhelming superiority and rarity of their techniques to sell books, videos and certificates, yet providing little evidence of such superiority; to the other end of simpler black belt factory schools selling expensive long-term training contracts as well as a diverse array of uniforms and multicoloured belts to children of affluent suburban families.

Martial arts were unearthed and brought to America from Vietnam , Burma , the Philippines , Indonesia , South America , and almost every other corner of the Earth. Others were simply invented by the unscrupulous out of previously existing styles or out of whole cloth. Some gained a measure of popularity due to the novelty of their claims of effectiveness, in some cases justified. This in turn led to further exploration of disciplines from Korea , Japan and China for their historical and cultural value.

Martial arts internationally

Every village and tribe around the world had a few trained fighters who passed on their knowledge; however, it is difficult to pass on a fighting system, so almost all of these have been lost as their practical relevance has declined. However, a few have survived for one reason or another, and a very few of those have seen a recent boom in popularity, perhaps related to the world music phenomenon. Examples of this are Pehlwani( India )Capoeira and some related arts in Cuba , Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago , which were preserved partly through their relationship with Candomblé, Santería, Vodun, and other syncretic religions. Of these, only Capoeira has risen to worldwide prominence.

The 2003 movie Whale Rider featured several scenes involving Mau rakau, a traditional martial art of the Maori people. It involves the use of the taiaha, a 2-handed fighting staff.

Martial arts also developed among military and police forces to be used as

arrest and self-defense methods. One example is Krav Maga, a self-defense system developed by the armed forces of Israel . Another example is Kombato developed for the Brazilian armed forces.
lethal tactical arts for use in close quarter combat warfare, i.e. Military Martial Arts e.g. UAC (British), LINE (USA), ACCS Advanced Commando Combat System
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