Analysis and Classification of Martial Arts

Martial arts were usually created for the military, but veterans from the military brought those arts into civilization for self-defense at home. Then after, those national arts spread across the world and soon became in the Olympics. But because of time a lot of these arts became more civilized for the sport of it. Thus, changed some of the moves and techniques used for those arts for the Olympics. Fortunately, there are martial arts that the Olympics has not touched yet, like Muay Thai. With the difficulty of knowing which martial art is which; it may be easy for frequent watchers, but picking out what move goes to a particular art is difficult for people who are newcomers or people who don’t know the sport at all.

With classification, there are martial arts that almost everyone has heard before. These would be like karate, boxing, kick boxing, wrestling, and kung fu. Firstly, karate is one of the many iconic names of martial arts and there are four major types of karate. Goju-ryu, Shotokan-ryu, Wado-ryu and Shito-ryu in modern day karate. All types of karate have the same principals but, particular techniques are more concentrated in the different types. In modern karate, the students practice mostly kicks and punches. Grappling was/ is a part of karate but since tournaments were created and organized internationally, karate regulations and rules forbid some or all grappling.

Next, boxing is an art of punching and dodging punches. Plus, it is one of the oldest martial arts ever, that is still relevant. Boxing was made in ancient Greek times during the birth of the Olympics and considered a good foundation of any striking arts. Not only it is old, it is also the best pay-per-view sport with Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight that had 4.6 million dollars of pay-per-view buys! If boxing doesn’t seem too hard, kick boxing will be hard. Because not only punches are involved, kicks are also allowed in kick boxing. Balance in kick boxing is required, even if someone does a leg kick. With regular boxing, yeah balance is important too but, kick boxing is made for people with a phenomenal balance.

With the topic of balance, if a person can know how balance works and can balance on their own, then they are already ten steps ahead compared to an intermediate wrestler. Wrestling is the exact opposite of striking sports; it is all about grappling and going on to the floor. The problem between the striking sports and wrestling is that, wrestling dojos are nowhere to be found except for school wrestling teams. So, it is really hard to train for it, if a person is out of school.

However, there is one known martial art that is hard to reach for, Kungfu. Some might say that there is kung fu dojos everywhere but, they are wrong. There are exceptions of some dojos using kung fu but, the true way to train Kungfu is to go to the Shaolin Temple. Because the Shaolin Temple is where instructors need to go to be approved to become one. Even then, they have to spend many years to be able to perfect a single technique. Anyways, unlike with the other arts that are mentioned, Kungfu does not have physical combat tournaments. They have tournaments for katas. Katas are basically the equivalent of shadow-boxing but, with more than just punching. All Asian martial arts usually have katas but, in martial arts, katas are used to practice for tournaments. Kungfu on the other hand, only use katas for their art.

For the arts that most people know but, don’t really know concept of them are, judo, Tae Kwando, Jiu jitsu, Brazilian Jiu jitsu, and Muay Thai. Judo to start off with, is an art that was passed down from Jiu jitsu. Kano Jigoro, the founder of judo, took all the non-lethal attacks from Jiu jitsu and created the sport of judo. Some techniques from judo are no longer accepted in tournaments because of the influence of the Olympics. The Olympics regulated judo in a particular way because it looked too much like wrestling and also some techniques were too dangerous. Judo today is mostly consisting of throws and some ground techniques. There are four or five, technically, different types of throws: Te Waza, Koshi Waza, Ashi Waza, Sutemi Waza, and Kinshi Waza. Te Wazas are for hand techniques, Koshi Wazas are for hip techniques, Ashi Waza for foot techniques, Sutemi Waza for sacrifice techniques, and Kinshi Waza for forbidden techniques. All of these ways of throw categories have different moves but they are all the same type of throw.

Tae Kwando is an art consisting of head and body kicks, mainly. The art was made in Korea by Choi Hong Hi. He mixed the arts of Taekyun, karate, and Kungfu kicks to make Tae Kwando. Controversy of Tae Kwando has spread from the martial arts community, if the art is useful for mix fighting. This is because of two things, spinning kicks and the Olympics. In MMA, a major key factor is to not turn your back to the opponent, because that’s an opportunity of the opponent to attack, and Tae Kwando kicks have many spinning kicks that reveals the back to the opponent. Another factor is the Olympics, they made an electronic scoring system, which has resulted into a conflict that non-Tae Kwando kicks are better than the traditional kicks, in the Olympics. But outside the Olympics and MMA, Tae Kwando itself can be a foundation for sport tournaments that uses kicks. Because those spinning kicks creates a lot of power and looks cool as well. So, in the world of professional televised MMA, like the UFC, Tae Kwando is a plus in a fighter's resume, because of how entertaining and powerful those kicks are.

Now as mentioned before, judo became from Jiu jitsu. Traditional Jiu jitsu today is not practiced by many people, because of how much it died off. But the sport consists of striking and grappling. Jiu jitsu was the fighting style of samurais and it is the foundation of any other martial art there is today. Because of all of these different types of martial arts branched out of Jiu jitsu, the more and more irrelevant it became. Mostly because of the invention of the musket. Jiu jitsu in its original form was an art to defend yourself against swordsmen and Jiu jitsu became useless as a military fighting form, when the musket was invented, thus started the decline of traditional Jiu jitsu practitioners.

Next, Brazilian Jiu jitsu, unlike traditional Jiu jitsu is very common today. Made by the Gracie family, more specifically Helio Gracie, founded and started BJJ (short for Brazilian Jiu jitsu). The arts that Helio mixed was a mixture of judo, traditional Jiu jitsu, and wrestling. He bundled all them up and focus on the ground techniques mainly. He did use a couple of judo and wrestling throws to teach but, ninety-nine of the time he taught ground passes and guards. Brazilian Jiu jitsu wasn’t very popular before the start of ‘Ultimate Fighting Championship’, also known as UFC. In UFC one, Royce Gracie, one of the sons of Helios Gracie, was proving his art to be very effective. At the end of the event, Royce Gracie was announced winner and the want of knowing BJJ was on a high demand. Then, Royce Gracie and other parts of his family started to teach BJJ, then it spread across the world. BJJ today is the foundation of ground techniques in mixed martial art training. Unless like wrestling, choking and joint locking is a part of the sport and one of the reasons it is argued that BJJ is better than wrestling.

Afterwards, Muay Thai is the art of the eight limbs: fists, legs, elbows, and knees. Muay Thai is very brutal and effective martial art, mostly because of the knee and elbow strikes. The art was first introduced by a fighter called Nai Khanom Tom. Nai Khanom Tom was a prisoner in the Burmese country and the Burmese had a festival that included a fighting tournament where, the prisoners were the opponents. The tournament director handpicked the best fighters in Burmese then, Nai got into the arena and defeted all the Burmese fighters. The king of Burmese, at that time, was so surprised that he let Nai have freedom. In Thailand, Muay Thai is the nation’s national sport and is very heavily influenced by it. Like boxing and kick boxing, Muay Thai also have tournaments, around the world. But unlike those sports, Muay Thai fighters are able to use their knees and elbows. Knee and elbow strikes that are used by practitioners are very powerful and can be very lethal. Thus, most fighters and fans think that it is one of the best striking sport today.

Finally, the martial arts that almost no one has heard of. These would be like sambo and lethwei. Sambo is the Russian version of judo but with strikes, including headbutts, are allowed. It was made in the early nineteen-twenties and has a slight number of members, due to its lack of popularity. It was the nations martial art of police forces and soldiers then, like many sports, sambo became a form of martial arts to the community. Lethwei, another unfamiliar art, is just like Muay Thai but headbutting is allowed. Plus, the only way to win is to knock out the opponent. Lethwei was originally made one thousand years ago and considered the father of Muay Thai. But the sport was finally introduced, internationally, by Kyar Ba Nyein. He participated in the 1952, Summer Olympics in boxing. After a few years, in the early 2000’s, lethwei was finally recognize internationally.

All of these sports may have many differences and similarities between them. With differences by history, moves, and techniques. Plus, similarities like they are all martial arts and most of them came from military or police forces. After all of this, hopefully, understanding and knowing which martial art is which is a little bit easier.