Looking through the local alternative freesheet, there are ads for many martial arts studios. They all seem to specialize in one or more Asian martial arts - judo, karate, kung fu, ju jistsu, tae kwon do, hapkido, kenpo, and a bunch of others.
This got me wondering … are there any forms of martial arts that are native to countries outside of Eastern Asia? I know there’s krav maga, which is supposed to be some badass martial art invented by the Israelis, but is there something else?
Fencing?
Boxing.
How about capoeira? I’ve seen it demonstrated. It seems a lot like dance.
Here is a definition:
A style of martial arts developed by Brazilian slaves in the 1700s. Capoeira was developed surreptiously, with practitioners pretending that they were taking parts in dances, when in fact they were practicing their kicks and blows. Thus, there is also a whole style of capoeira music which goes along with the martial arts culture.
Google it, there are lots of websites dedicated to the culture.
Depends how you define your terms. Are you limiting “martial arts” to weaponless combat? If so, you can include the french savate (i.e. kickboxing) in there. Styles with weapons are numerous, including as mentioned, fencing.
La Savate, invented by the French;
Capoeira, invented in Brazil;
I think other forms of unarmed combat (which appears to be what you’re really asking about) are derived from, modeled on, or copies of Asian forms, but I’m no expert.
In terms of European martial arts, other than boxing and wrestling, there was a Greek martial art called pankraton, which is sort of experience a rennaisance today. There’s a French form of kickboxing called La Savate. There are also a number of European fencing styles. including some now extinct, plus jousting and the use of other weapons. There are probably a bunch of other extinct European martial arts I can’t think of right now.
Krav Maga is an Israeli art. I’m not sure about it’s historical roots, but it’s certainly a tried and tested martial art.
Sambo is a Russian wrestling style.
There are several Indian styles including Kalarippayat and some weapons systems similar to Silat.
This might help. www.completemartialarts.com includes these:
American: American Kenpo Karate, Boxing, Kickboxing, Shootfighting
Brazilian: Capoeira, Brazilian Ju Jitsu
French: Savate
Indian: Kalaripayit, Silambam
Israeli: Krav Maga
Russian: Sambo, Agni Kempo
I would Greco-roman and freestyle wrestling and I believe there are African martial arts out there as well
Thanks all!
Interestingly, American Heritage Dictionary (via dictionary.com) defines “martial art” as:
(emphasis mine)
Jeet Kune Do was developed in California.
Of course, there’s the ancient Lancastrian martial art of ecky-thump.
Escrima is Filipino stick fighting method.
Then the dictionary is wrong – somebody should probably email them and let them know. I wonder what they would call arts like sambo or krav maga, if not martial arts. Hmmm… now that I think about it, Russia and Israel are in Asia. But France, England, and Brazil definitely aren’t.
More to the point, even the SCA swordfighting training, if somewhat more decorative than practical nowadays, is a martial art.
My martial arts teacher (of years gone by) made me learn stuff like this (I guess he wanted me to know there was more out there than traditional Japanese martial arts). Any who, I don’t remember the names any more, but one of the arts that was not of oriental extraction (to the best of my recollection) that I most enjoyed learning about was a Hawaiin art (yes, in the Pacific Ocean, but not oriental) whereby the practitioners would lull their victims in to calm/trusting/relaxed states by dancing (can you say hula?) and reasonable applications of alchohol, and then disjoint them from fingertip to toetip, making sure to hit every joint in between. Should the lucky participant/victim survive, they would continue by trying to put them back together again. Something about not landing on my island and taking my woman kind of thing. Go figure. :eek: Any way, there are many, many of them.
Fencing (esgrima in Spanish… wonder whether escrima comes from esgrima or the other way 'round) includes many different styles.
For example, Venetian Style is when you use a rapier and a dagger, or a stick and the dagger that acted as its pommel (not the sword that acted as its pommel). The “long” weapon acts as defense, the dagger is the one that you bite with. Completely different from using a broadsword or two scimitars.
FEAR NO MAN!
LLAP-GOCH–the Secret Welsh ART of SELF DEFENSE that requires NO INTELLIGENCE, STRENGTH or PHYSICAL courage.
WHAT is LLAP-GOCH?
It is an ANCIENT Welsh ART based on a BRILLIANTLY simple IDEA, which is a SECRET. The best form of DEFENSE is ATTACK (Clausewitz) and the most VlTAL element of ATTACK is SURPRISE (Oscar HAMMERstein). Therefore . . . the BEST way to protect yourself AGAINST any ASSAILANT is to ATTACK him before he attacks YOU . . . Or BETTER… BEFORE the THOUGHT of doing so has EVEN OCCURRED TO HIM!!! SO YOU MAY BE ABLE TO RENDER YOUR ASSAILANT UNCONSCIOUS BEFORE he is EVEN aware of your very existence!
-gwen dibley