Individuals tend to think of martial arts as being oriental, Kung Fu type fighting. However, the word 'martial' comes 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 as well 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 competency in fighting was literally a matter of life and death. Wrestling was in the Olympic Games over 2,000 years ago.
Likewise, many of the oriental martial arts are equally old and came into existence because peasants were not permitted to bear arms in the social structures of the times.
In spite of 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 dispatched to America at the age of 18 to avoid the anger 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 unwritten 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 famous Caucasians and even invented his own style known as Jeet Kune Do.
Jeet Kune Do used Lee's astonishing 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 regular 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 numerous different styles of fighting and numerous 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 fighting arts are more defensive in nature, but others are definitely belligerent: Judo and Aikido are examples of defensive styles and Karate and boxing are a lot more belligerent in character. However, all martial arts teach self-control and the students develop more self-confidence.
Martial arts are experiencing a resurgence in popularity at the moment, largely owing to UFC fights or mixed martial arts. You may not approve of the brutality of MMA, but it cannot be denied that many kids are learning a few fighting styles, Western and Oriental, because of these popular TV bouts.
Automatic blog by iAutoblog
No comments:
Post a Comment