American Martial Art.

[stonecrusher69]

Just woundering what people thought about why America and most of the western world with a few exception why we have no real martial art in our culture like the Chinese,Japanese ect. We have lots of sports and sports arts like Boxing,but that is no real martial art.Every martial art that we have has been an import.If there is a demand and a need in our culture for a martial art then why have'nt invented one?Yes a long time ago there where M.A. before the invention of the gun but know everything has been sportized or made fake like the WWWF on T.V.

 

Like to get some feed-back on this ..

[tessone]

I think martial arts are fairly closely tied in with Eastern philosophy and history in that part of the world. So it doesn't surprise me that there is no truly American martial art (just as there is no German or Russian or French martial art). We have baseball, they have martial arts--it's just a cultural thing.

 

 

[ZR440]

Why try to invent something that was developed 1000 years ago and has been reliable ever since? That would be like re-inventing the wheel.

[KickChick]

There are so many cultural aspects to consider with regards to the beginnings of the different arts.

 

The Japanese martial arts were governed by their principal weapon, the sword. Sword fights usually lasted one or two exchanges. That has influenced the Japanese viewpoint so that they emphasize the "one punch kill" coming from the one cut kill.

 

The Japanese took over and ruled Okinwa. Only the Japanese were allowed weapons so the Okinawans had to develop a martial art that could go against someone with a weapon and armor. They only had one chance (the one kill concept) so they developed their fists to be as hard as stone so they could break through the armor and kill their attacker.

 

In Korea, it is an insult to punch someone in the face, but ok to kick them in the face!. This is where the kick oriented arts began.

 

The art originates from a culture and this stylizes the art.

 

In America we take what works and apply it. We are not bound by any cultural tradition, that is to say, doing it a certain way because that was the way it's been done for years.

 

We have taken some of the Oriental arts and molded them them to our own culture ... Some of the "Fathers of Martial Arts in America" are Pat Burleson, Bruce Lee, Anthony Mirakian, Jhoon Rhee, Allen Steen, George Matteson, Ed Parker, Tsutomu Oshima and Robert Trias. (...this going back only 40 years or so)....

 

Burleson is known as the founder of the American Karate system. "Americans had never heard of karate. They only knew the mystical aspects of it. We took it out of that realm and made it an effective fighting method. That was part of martial art's evolution in America. And that's why we did what we did." "But," adds Burleson, "in doing that we neglected 90% of the character building aspects that go with it. We were so busy fighting and showing that it worked that we neglected the emphasis the true martial spirit and the mental aspects that go with it. But I'm proud of what we've done in this country. We've pioneered a rugged art, one that's respected anywhere in the world. I hope that we are now coming a full-circle and emphasizing the philosophies that should go along with any martial art, even an American one."

 

 

[three60roundhouse]

I would consider Brazilain Jiu-Jitsu a Western art...I know it evolved from Kano's judo, but most of the techniques are unique to the style. Also, boxing is a western "martial sport". And savate...that comes from France.

[Slider VI]

 

Ed Parker Kenpo Karate is an american martial art...and quite effective. Kenpo is an american system taught in english, but has chinese roots. Look it up sometime

 

Hasta!!

 

Slider

 

3rd Degree Black Belt

 

Ed Parker Kenpo Karate

 

http://www.fuziontek.com/koldsteel/

[tessone]

I think what stonecrusher was saying is that America (and Western countries in general) has not produced a truly pure American martial art. Everything we have in the non-Eastern world is a synthesis of several Eastern arts or modified versions of Eastern systems.

 

I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, though.

 

 

[stonecrusher69]

Thanks for the feed back. I think everyone has a valid point.A lot of you said that why we don't have a M.A. in our country is due to cultural thing.AS far as development of a martial style I agree that culture will play a part ,but any culture or society needs a form of self defence to survive.In our society we have the gun but how many people walk around with a gun all the time.In England you can not even own a gun so what do you do? you learn Karate or something else. All my point was that even in todays society there is still a need for everyone to defend your self so why has society not insitutionalized a system of M.A. that reflects the needs of our culture.One that is not imported but one that is our own.

[Taikudo-ka]

I would disagree...

 

There is French Savate (a native European form of kick-boxing), English Boxing, Greek Wrestling, Fencing, Archery, not to mention all forms of gun-shooting, as the gun was originally a European invention.

 

I think many more traditional European martial arts largely died out because of the long period of firearms war-fare (and other heavy artillery) rendered most hand-to-hand arts obsolete "in the field", and the time was not yet ripe for these arts to emerge as more public sports oriented forms.

 

There are still groups that revive and practise traditional European arts like quarterstaff fighting, spear and pike, longsword. No doubt there is still some individual somewhere studying Norse axe forms and methods, and still knowing the right characteristics for a good battle-axe... It's just not as popular as Oriental forms.

 

Before these Oriental arts became popular, the phrase "learning the art of self defense" in America or Britian meant learning boxing.

 

I believe boxing actually evolved out of much nastier forms of unarmed combat in Europe... remember in the near past it was all bare knuckle and I'm sure at one stage they practised something more like Thai Boxing with full use of the body, elbows, headbutts, etc, at least as training for real soldiers. This form was just never used in publicised sports matches, and probably nearly died out when soldiers became full time rifle-men relatively early on in European history.

 

 

[Taikudo-ka]

A few extra thoughts:

 

If you want to look at some sort of historical cultural integration of western martial arts in the same way eastern martial arts seem to have, look at something like Sherlock Holmes.

 

In the original Conan Doyle stories, Holmes, as a late 19th century private investigator of course needs self defense skills. For the time period (around 1890 London) we find this means he's an expert at the noble arts of bare-knuckle boxing, greco-roman wrestling, and fencing. (striking, grappling, and weapons - a complete self defense system)

 

Of course, as an English Gentleman, Holmes has a certain code of ethics he must follow. It's interesting to note that at one stage the European gentleman was bound by a code of ethics just like we imagine the ancient samurai or monk.

 

So of course, he'd never kick an opponent while down, say, or recklessly slaughter them, but rather use minimal force necessary for self defense and to apprehend the criminal.

 

Also he'd use a psychological trick like bending a steel bar to intimidate an opponent, rather than engage in actual combat.

 

Although an expert in violence, he would prefer to live peacefully and only use his skill to apprehend criminals. Also the mind is held as the highest weapon, and resorting to physical means the last resort.

 

Of course the idea that western society ever had any idea of honor, discipline, respect, etc, seems to have died out lately.

 

I think America never really developed unarmed combat artsof its own because it was a gun society from day 1. Eurpoean arts like boxing were imported wholesale as sport.

 

If the art is a mirror of the culture that created it, then as much as I hate to say it, I'd have to say that WWF is the ultimate American martial art. It's flashy, obvious, obnoxious, appeals to the lowest common denominator, is spread worldwide through video and syndicated television, and totally fake.