Having watched Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan on television, everyone aspires to be just like them.
While it is easy to fawn over the stalwarts, one needs to gain full knowledge of the art, in order to appreciate it better. Read on!
Martial Arts
Martial art, in simple terms, is the collective battling strategy used for warfare or protection. It had reared its head in Eastern Asia first, before wading over to European warfare techniques. Since then, it has spanned into regional characteristic fighting styles. With its application in the modern sport and self-defence techniques, the various martial arts are here to stay.
Types:
Instead of categorizing martial arts by their regional styles, it is much more prolific to classify them according to their implementation. Martial art is, at best, experienced or taught, via the careful honing of traditional techniques. These include armed and unarmed styles, practiced by different Oriental and Western regions.
1. Unarmed
This form of martial arts depends on increasing physical strength and agility, in learning the perfect striking and grappling techniques. With no armament in use, the martial art practitioner must develop extreme concentration and focus, to manoeuvre their bodies into shape.
a. Striking
The first mode in the arm-less fighting strategy is to strike at the enemy. To do this, one must have strength in the body and mind, to anticipate an attack and counter it. The sports included best in striking are Boxing, Wing Chun, Capoeira, Kickboxing, Taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, Savate, Karate and Wushu.
b. Grappling
When the attack has been made, one must have the skill to defend themselves from the counter-attack. This tactic is called grappling, which involves physically manipulating the opponent in various throwing, locking, holds and pinning tactics, to fizzle their attack. The sports included among these are Aikido, Glima, Hapkido, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Wrestling and Sambo.
2. Armed
Weapon-based fighting involves more mental skills than physical. The martial art practitioner must exercise their mental agility while developing physical strength, to aid in being a nimble-minded lethal machine. With a wide spectrum of weapons at one’s disposal, different martial art styles have imbibed different striking and grappling techniques to bring these lethal accessories to use. Sports like Fencing, Archery, Sword-fighting, Kalaripayyattu and various Japanese martial art techniques employ the use of weapons.
Martial art is not a mere mode of self-defence. The most hardcore practitioners take martial arts as a disciplined way of life. Not only does it hone the body to physical perfection, it also leads to a balanced mind and improved focus.
