You’ve head of karate and Tai Kwon Do and you know the basic idea of what martial arts is all about by watching movies with actors like Jet Li, Steven Segal, Chuck Norris, and of course, Bruce Lee. But what is the definition behind the term ‘martial arts’? What is it really? In the broadest and most generic sense, the term ‘martial arts’ refers to a system of traditions and practices that have been handed down generation after generation that is used to teach students the art of combat. The single objective in any discipline of martial arts is to be able to defend yourself from physical attack and to defeat the attacker. Obviously people also study martial arts for other reasons, but this objective is the same throughout all of the disciplines.
The term itself came from the god of war, Mars, and simply means ‘the art of warfare’. It was originally coined in 15th century Europe for the form that is simply known as historical European martial arts. Today the term has less to do with the martial arts of 15th century Europe and more to do with the styles and disciplines of codified combat training that is found in Japan, China, and other Asian cultures. Yes, the term martial arts is used to describe forms from all over the world – French ‘Savate’, Native American open hand fighting, Hawaiian joint manipulation, African Caopeira, etc. – even though most people immediately associate it with the Oriental forms.
Each form has it’s own unique style and teaching method, but almost all of them have a systemization of fighting skills and each of them use sparring to simulate combat with another opponent and forms or ‘katas’ to help teach students series of movements. Katas are basically students going up against an ‘invisible’ attacker and each move that the student makes is in defense of the invisible attacks coming at them. These katas are more common in the Oriental forms of martial arts.
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