About Martial Arts and Combat Sports
The sport of Martial Arts and Combat Sports have become somewhat blurred as of late with the popularity of kickboxing, Wrestling, UFC, MMA and many other sports that are combining martial arts with boxing, wrestling and kickboxing. Martial Arts is a system of traditions and practiced for a number of reasons; competition, self-defense, fitness, physical health and spiritual development. The Martial Arts term today has become associated with the art of fighting from eastern Asia.
Some of the martial arts are traditional and have ethnic, religious or cultural background while there are others that are of a more modern basis that have been developed by an individual or association. Martial arts fall into many different categories which include traditional arts, contemporary styles, hybrid modern arts, regional origin, application or intent and many others.
Further classifying them they can be broken down into striking arts and grappling arts as well as those that combine the two which are known today as hybrid arts. Striking arts include Taekwondo, Kickboxing, Boxing, Karate, Choi Kwang Do. The grappling include Judo, Sambo, Kung Fu, Jujustu, Judo, Wrestling and Aikido.
The earliest history of martial arts is from the 1st century in Europe and Asia. The beginning was a blend of Indian and Chinese martial arts around 480 BC. In Europe the first contact with martial arts was in the ancient Olympic Games where gladiator combat that was made open to the public.
Throughout the world there have been different styles of wrestling as well as stick fighting. Many of the arts are based on traditions of folklore and they are not linked to a historical system from one specific era. They are just regional sports that coexisted with other forms of martial arts that were developed during the 19th century often crossing over between folk styles and sports.
In the late 19th century martial arts history started as a sport that was developed from earlier fighting systems. That included in Europe's boxing and Japan's karate, judo, kendo and others. The influence of Asian martial arts became more prevalent at this time dues to increased trade between China, United States and Japan. Few westerners actually participated in the arts thinking it was just performance.
With Western influence growing in Asia in the 20th century many military personnel in China combined their boxing skill with local fighting styles of judo and karate, this is when the first onset of kickboxing was started. All of this had an effect on what we know today as Mixed Martial Arts or Combat Sports.
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