Martial arts: Encyclopedia II - Martial arts - Martial arts as sport

Martial arts - Martial arts as sport

On the subject of competition, martial artists vary wildly. Practitioners in some arts such as Boxing, Taekwondo, Judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu often train for sport matches in those arts, whereas those in other arts such as Aikido and Krav Maga generally spurn such competitions. Some schools believe that competition breeds better and more efficient practitioners, and gives a sense of good sportsmanship. Others believe that the rules under which competition takes place have removed the combat effectiveness of martial arts or encourage a kind of practice which focuses on winning trophies rather than the more traditional focus of combat effectiveness, or in East Asian cultures, of developing the Confucian person, which eschews showing off (see Confucius, also renaissance man.)

Some martials artists, including Forrest Morgan, have criticized sports derivatives for being unrealistic and distracting warriors from looking at the whole art - instead concentrating only on techniques allowed in their competitions.

As part of the response to sport martial arts, new forms of competition are being held such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the U.S. or Pancrase in Japan which are also known as mixed martial arts or MMA events. While the financial success or failure of these events is not well-known, it is interesting to note that certain systems do indeed tend to dominate these full contact or freestyle competitions. Supporters of those styles which win time and again may argue that this proves the real-world self defense effectiveness of their art.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Martial arts as sport", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki