Battle of Backbone Mountain

The Martial Arts Portal

United States Marine practicing martial arts, 2008

Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the preservation of a nation's intangible cultural heritage. (Full article...)

Although the earliest evidence of martial arts goes back millennia, the true roots are difficult to reconstruct. Inherent patterns of human aggression which inspire practice of mock combat (in particular wrestling) and optimization of serious close combat as cultural universals are doubtlessly inherited from the pre-human stage and were made into an "art" from the earliest emergence of that concept. Indeed, many universals of martial art are fixed by the specifics of human physiology and not dependent on a specific tradition or era.

Specific martial traditions become identifiable in Classical Antiquity, with disciplines such as shuai jiao, Greek wrestling or those described in the Indian epics or the Spring and Autumn Annals of China. (Full article...)

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Selected biography

Jigoro Kano circa 1937
Kanō Jigorō (嘉納 治五郎, 10 December 1860 – 4 May 1938) was a Japanese educator, athlete, and the founder of judo. Along with ju-jutsu, judo was one of the first Japanese martial arts to gain widespread international recognition, and the first to become an official Olympic sport. Pedagogical innovations attributed to Kanō include the use of black and white belts, and the introduction of dan ranking to show the relative ranking among members of a martial art style. Well-known mottoes attributed to Kanō include "maximum efficiency minimal effort" (精力善用, seiryoku zen'yō) and "mutual welfare and benefit" (自他共栄, jita kyōei).

In his professional life, Kanō was an educator. Important postings included serving as director of primary education for the Ministry of Education (文部省, Monbushō) from 1898 to 1901, and as president of Tokyo Higher Normal School from 1900 until 1920. He played a key role in making judo and kendo part of the Japanese public school programs of the 1910s. (Full article...)


Selected entertainment

UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on July 7, 2012, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the seventeenth UFC event of the year. The card consisted of eleven bouts, with six televised live on pay-per-view, four preliminary bouts on FX, and one on Facebook.

The card's main event featured UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defending his title against Chael Sonnen in a highly anticipated bout. The contest was heavily promoted, featuring the International Fight Week, as well as the preview show UFC Primetime. Tito Ortiz was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame during the UFC Fan Expo in conjunction with the event, and fought fellow former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin in the co-main event of the evening.


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Yoko-Tobi-Geri performed by Toni Dietl.
Yoko-Tobi-Geri performed by Toni Dietl.
Credit: Claus Michelfelder

A jump kick is a type of kick in certain martial arts and in martial-arts based gymnastics, with the particularity that the kick is delivered mid-air, specifically moving ("flying") into the target after a running start to gain forward momentum. In this sense, a "Jump kick" is a special case of a flying kick, any kick delivered in mid-air, i.e. with neither foot touching the ground.

Flying and jump kicks are taught in certain Asian martial arts, such as karate, kenpo, kalarippayattu, kung fu and taekwondo. (Full article...)


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The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them.


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