According to many, the origin of martial arts can be traced back to man’s need for warfare. This is not true for the simple reason that the skills involved in the practice of martial arts are far more refined that simple warfare which would depend more on physical strength. It is believed that martial arts could have originated from ancient individuals who had to master the skill of self defense to protect themselves from animal attack and other humans for territory ownership.

The subsequent refinement, re-structuring and systemization of this ancient art carried on for many centuries in various parts of the world. During the process of development, many aspects of our lives like spiritual enlightenment, religiosity and the sheer nature of our existence came to be closely linked to the martial arts.

According to many, the history of martial arts is as old as human existence and civilization itself. Research into martial arts history shows that martial arts has its presence in Mesopotamia, otherwise referred to as the cradle of civilization.

It is now known that martial arts existed in some form in China and the Far East, even before civilization reached these countries. Many of the principles of this ancient art are practiced even today.

Communications between different countries in Asia existed through channels of trade and conquests. Thus it was not long before it reached India where it spread with growing popularity and got mingled with concepts of health, philosophy and religion.

As martial arts spread its wing, a lot of secrecy also started to get attached to it. The more people knew its strengths, the more it was shrouded with layers of mystery and secrecy. This has resulted in much of the origin or martial arts remaining unknown to the general public. It is known that the origin of Buddhism as a religion, started to spread from India and monks traveled far and wide especially to China.

Travelers were believed to have used martial arts as a way to defend themselves during their travel and helped the art to be introduced to China. Once the art was introduced in China it really blossomed. Of course the popularity of this art took centuries to grow and involved plenty of practitioners and maestros.

According to the Chinese however, the credit for the development of this art is attributed to Bodhidharma (an Indian name) who left India in search of enlightenment and reached a monastery in China around 520 A.D. The monastery situated in the Songshan mountains is the modern day’s Shaolin Temple. Bodhidharma, who was known by his Chinese name Ta-Mo introduced Zen Buddhism to the Chinese. He aimed to help the Chinese monks to retain their physical strength and health and taught them physical exercises which were essentially martial arts.

As is evident, martial arts became an essential component for the maintenance of physical health, philosophy and also religion. as the art grew in China, which soon came to be known as the home of martial arts, gradually spread to other Asian countries like Japan, Korea and Philippines. In modern times, all these countries have their own individual traditions of martial arts, though heavily influenced by Chinese principles.

No matter their origin, the essential objective of learning and practicing martial arts is to defeat an opponent physically or for self defense from any physical threat. Additionally many martial arts and closely linked to various religious and philosophical beliefs of Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism or Shinto, Confucianism, and even Islam (by Chinese Muslims).

What To Look For When Choosing A School

Choosing The Martial Arts Style

Why Martial Arts School?

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Many people who are keen in martial arts often seek out the latest and greatest martial arts techniques. What all of them hope to achieve is to master some secret martial arts moves that will enable them to fight better and more effectively than their rivals.

Here are a couple secret martial art techniques which are difficult to find on the internet or anywhere else. Though all of these tricks and techniques are practical, remember to use them after diligent practice and after thought:

Secret Martial Arts Techniques #1 – Time and Eye Contact
When martial arts are used as a form of self defense, the most critical component is time. If only you got a bit of time before the attacker made his next move, you could easily win the fight.

You can gain such a gift for time if you start to watch the opponent’s eyes during the fight. The direction in which your attacker is looking would be a determining factor in the speed with which he is going to act and you could effectively use the opponent’s gaze to your advantage.

For instance, if your attacker is looking directly at you, it indicates that the attack would come very fast, but if he is looking away from you, this means that you can get a few seconds to prepare for your strikes. Though simpler during a competition when there are a lot of repetitions of moves, this can be tough during a street attack.

If that is the case, make an attempt nevertheless to study his eye pattern. What you are essentially looking for is his blinking pattern. Try and gauge the time when he would next close his eyelid. This is the time when you have to plan your strike and make contact with the attacker. Essentially, when you can predict a blink, you can be ready to strike.

People not only blink, their eyes also wander, even when they are on the attack mode. Simply bide your time till the attacker even takes a glimpse at the door and you could attack him at that instant. Even when he looks at your feet, you can grab that short time lapse to your benefit.

With some practice, this secret martial arts technique can be put to some great use and you can even track and control your own eye motions to your own benefit.

Secret Martial Arts Techniques #2 – Breaking Momentum
When you see someone moving aggressively towards you, have you ever wondered how to put a break to the momentum, redirect him and make the potential attacker pass you by?

Well, there is a very practical yet little known and lesser practiced secret martial arts technique that is to execute a stop kick on the shins or a jab on the eye. That could stop the first impact of the attacker on you.

Your attacker has to stop to give a counter attack to you. You do not have to aim at being successful with your eye jabbing, but the whole idea is to stop his forceful forward movement. As soon as he has stopped for a while, step on his or her foot.

Find the top of the opponent’s foot without even looking down. If you do look, then your move becomes obvious to the attacker. The art of finding the opponent’s foot can be perfected with practice.

Your next move is to push your opponent as soon as you have pinned down and trapped his or her foot. Imagine what the impact is going to be on his body when you have mastered the perfect art of pushing down someone when his foot is trapped.

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If you are in a street fight, it is important that you remain calm and don’t become overwhelmed with anger or emotion. You should also have the attitude that you are definitely going to win the fight. Losing is not even something you should consider.

I personally don’t like it when I see street fights where people are just wailing on each other but nobody goes down and nothing happens. Just a bunch of punches to the face that leave marks and bruises and break knuckles. Stupid. Why not strike your opponent with a proper strike to a sensitive pressure point that hurts terribly and may even end the fight?

Some of the most painful (and vital) pressure points are in the head and facial areas. These are not to be taken lightly, you can severely injure and/or kill your opponent if you strike these vital areas hard enough. You don’t want to go to jail for murder just because of a street fight, but on the other hand…if you need to use a technique to win the fight and save yourself from serious injury or death, then you better use it and use it right!

The top of the head is a vital and sensitive pressure point in between the cranial bones. Right at the top of the nose is another one. If you strike someone at the top of the forehead you can give them whiplash which is a surefire way to end a fight and injure somebody pretty badly.

The temples are another sensitive and vital area as important arteries and nerves are located closely under the skin. Also, the bones of the skull are relatively weak in the temple area. These are all pressure points that hurt and also kill. There are many other pressure points that aren’t as dangerous but still hurt terribly and it would be to your advantage to learn about them if you are looking to further your street fighting skills.

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Martial arts workouts are not only popular with those who want to master the art of self-defense; it is also practiced by those who have chosen martial arts as a means to shed those extra pounds. The reason for this phenomenon is understandable.

Martial arts workouts are well known for their high energy consumption and are great exercises to help those stubborn calories to burn. Not only that, one gets to learn the art of self defense during the process too.

If weight loss by burning calories is your only concern, then you do not really need the help from any martial arts instructor should you choose to use martial arts as a strategy to lose weight. In fact, you could easily design the work out program yourself.

Here are some tips which can help you get started with creating your own martial arts workout program:

Why Use Martial Arts?
You have to ask yourself before you design your own work out program as to why you have chosen to go for martial arts. Is it to lose weight, build your strength and stamina or generally become more flexible with your body? There are plenty of such reasons why people choose martial arts – you need to have your own reason.

Which Martial Arts Style Should You Go For?
Your next job is to decide on the particular style of martial arts. Once you are decided, you ought to start with some of the basic moves involved in this style. Can you do them in the right way?

For instance, if you have chosen karate as your preferred style, see whether you know the right way to do straight punches, mid blocks and front kicks. Slapping blocks, chain punches and snap kicks are the other moves which you need to do pick up during your workouts.

Keep On Moving
The whole idea of martial arts workouts is to remain active and in motion. Keep on your feet all the time with the legs placed at a distance apart so that you can bounce your body while on your legs. Keep your muscles tight and be on guard all the time. The trick of martial arts is to always keep on moving.

Practice The Basic Motion
You would need to practice the basic motions of your chosen style. Take a striking posture as an example. You need to repeat this as many number of times as you can, bring your stance back to normal and then again striking. Then switch sides once you are tired. This means that if you were practicing using your left fist and foot, change to right foot and continue. The duration of this workout is to do two sets for each side with the usual alternative workouts.

Increase Difficulty
You need to increase the level of difficulty once you become comfortable with the basic moves. This is to keep you motivated with the workout you have.

A martial arts workout that has become too easy for you could make you bored. That will reduce the effectiveness of the workout.

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Like any other arts, martial arts training is an important contributor to your proficiency in the field. Whether you are aiming to participate in competitions or learn for the sake of self-defense, people often to choose MMA or Mixed Martial Arts Training, to develop an overall expertise in the area. Here are some tips to set you on the right path for martial arts training.

These tips are aimed to make you comfortable as well as efficient in each area of martial arts:

1. Wrestling: This is your ground game training where the basic idea is to teach you the art of grappling along with some submission training. Ju-jitsu is the right type of martial arts where you could get a good idea and practice of grappling with submissions.

2. Striking: This is part of your stand up game where you would be trained to master the art of striking like, boxing or kick boxing. Muay Hai is the recommended training to learn the critical art of striking and kicking. This training teaches you the skill of clinching and knee strikes.

3. Cardio training: This is perhaps one of the most critical areas of martial arts training. While you may have mastered the art of grappling or striking, if your cardio training is not up to the mark, you could get beaten by any ordinary person, who may not be as strong as you are in these two areas.

The quality of martial arts training really depends on the type of school you have chosen. There is nothing called the ‘right’ martial arts school as you would have to choose it according to your specific needs, which could any of the following: develop self defense skills; for physical fitness; to participate in competitions; develop self-confidence; or as a purely social activity.

While all these aspects are important, you have to decide which of these is most important to you. For instance, some schools impart martial arts training to make you participate in competitions. Others may just teach you the basics but rarely put you through the entire course of martial arts training.

One very way to get the most out of your martial arts training class is to observe the instructor’s style and listen to his instructions carefully. You should also get to learn the various safety methods practiced during martial arts training. Learn to use safety gear like pads, headgear and mouthpieces.

This is all part of the training program. When you are trying to enroll in a school for martial arts training, watch out for schools which offer 5 to 6 free training sessions. This is sampling the art to you and if you like what you are doing, then you can join them.

This is good for beginners as there is no cost involved for these training classes and some schools even allow you to rent uniforms for the free training purposes. If you are wondering what could be the possible cost for taking martial arts training, you ought to remember that the cheapest school is not necessarily the best. Also the expensive classes like the ones in YMCA or any community center, may also not suit your individual purposes.

When starting out, you could expect to pay anywhere between $30 and $250 per month in a reputed school for martial arts training. Of course the cost of uniforms, tournament entry fees and other equipment like weapons or sparring gear would be extra.

So you are bitten by the martial arts bug and wish to do everything Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee do on the movies. You have also bought several martial arts DVD, visited martial arts forums to know about real like experiences and are fully prepared to learn the art. If you are motivated to learn martial arts in depth, there is no better way than to join your local martial arts school so that you could learn the art right from the basics.

Unless you have a strong foundation in your learning, you would find it difficult to learn the advanced steps or might start doing them wrongly. Whether you are going to learn martial arts as an effective step for self defense or you wish to participate in tournaments, joining a reputed school is a must.

But the first step is probably most difficult – choosing the right martial arts school. Without the right school, you could be wasting your money and effort. In fact, there are some students of martial arts who spent hours and months at many of these schools but left them without even mastering the basics. What a waste.

This article will share some tips on how to pick a good martial arts school:

Step 1:  Pick a school which has been in operation in the area for at least 5 years. According to official statistics, 75% of all martial arts school shut down their operation within the first two years.

Step 2:  You need to locate a school which should ideally be less than 15 minutes drive from your workplace or home. When the school is conveniently located, you could bank on it for long term training. However, if you are in any way not satisfied with your local schools, by all means go beyond. After all, you should not sacrifice on the quality of training simply because commuting time is a bit more.

Step 3: Choose a martial arts school that shares the same outcomes as you. For instance, you want to learn martial arts purely for self defense purposes. If so, choosing a school which specializes in tournament participation and winning the game might not be the right choice for you.

On the other hand, if you wish to participate in competitions, make sure that your school coaches students to do this. If you want to participate in training classes which is exclusively for adults, make sure the school has a specific program for adults. Incidentally some martial arts schools consider 12 and above as adults.

Step 4: Ask questions. Most of us make this critical error when enrolling or entering a program – we simply become shy for the moment. Ask all the questions which crop up in your mind to the instructor or coach before you get admitted. Because you are the only person who really knows what you are looking for, all the questioning should be done by you and you can not delegate this responsibility to anyone else. There are also many online martial arts guides available, which you could consult before enrolling in any school.

Step 5: There are plenty of martial arts gears and supplies which would be required at the school. It is wise not to buy everything together before you are completely sure whether you would like to continue with the training or not. It is better to buy each item, one at a time, after getting a clear brief from your instructor.

As you can see, choosing a good martial arts school for your own needs is not difficult. Spend some time on research and you will be on track to achieving a good martial arts education.

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Purchase Considerations- Material
If you decide to buy pure cotton material, ensure that they are pre-shrunk, or you could even buy one size larger to take care of the post-wash shrink, if any. Regarding the quality and weight of your uniform, there are plenty of choices.

Gears are made with a variety of materials and styles. Cotton is the most popular fabric because of its capacity to absorb sweat, which polyester and cotton blends can not do. These however are less expensive.

The gear could be made in several types of fabrics including lightweight, medium and heavyweight. You can learn about the weight of the gear as mentioned on tags or labels. It is to be noted that heavyweight fabrics cost more, though prices may differ depending on the manufacturer and the brand.

On the other hand, lightweight materials which are the cheapest of the lot are good for beginners. Medium weight uniforms, weighing about 10 ounces offer great flexibility and offer good sweat absorption.

Purchase Considerations- Waistband
The other component of martial arts gear is the waistband. Drawstring waistbands are the preferred choice over elastic as they are more secure during kicks and other postures of martial arts.

Purchase Considerations- Cuts
There are tournament cut and traditional cut available. While the traditional cut has long pants with long sleeves, the tournament cut is just the opposite where both these parts are shorter. If you are a beginner it makes sense to buy each item one at a time and not altogether, since you may not be too sure whether you would continue to practice martial arts for too long or not.

Purchase Considerations- Accessories and Equipment
For instance, it makes sense to ask your instructor whether you need to buy extra equipment for practicing martial arts at home like, focus targets, exercise equipment, punch bags, strike pads, or weights. There are several reputed brands for martial arts gears like, Arawaza, Tokaido, BudoNord, and so on.

The price range varies according to the brand reputation, etc. Visit online stores and you could get a fair idea of the price, material, size, etc. and buy supplies which suit your need best.

If you are new to martial arts and have just enrolled in a martial arts school, you would need to get the right gear for training and workouts. Since each of us is unique in shape and height, you must carefully choose the uniform which would give you the right kind of flexibility of movement as you undergo training.

What To Buy
The first task while buying martial arts gear including uniform and supplies is to find out what your martial arts school, also called ‘dojo’ requires you to wear. Karate uniforms, as an example, have traditional colors. The uniform is white and comes with belts that vary from white to black. There are many schools that have their special emblem or color to distinguish the students from other schools.

You must be familiar with several terms used to describe a particular style. For instance, gear worn for karate is called “karategi” or “karate gi” and judo uniforms are called ‘judogi’. Uniforms for taekwondo or jujutsu also have special names. The uniform worn by anyone practicing martial arts is called ‘dobok’. So you need to know what to buy before you make the actual purchase.

Where To Buy
There are various types of brands available, some of which are more popular than the other. You could also buy martial arts gear through online merchants, if you know the particular name of your uniform. While the size of the uniform would vary as per your height, there may be some differences from one brand to another.

Purchase Considerations- Size
While it is good to know your height, it can also help you if you know the precise measurements of your hips, arms, waist, and legs, before you actually buy the gear. Many online shops offer buying guides and provide you with size charts to make the job easier for a buyer.

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Though we hear mainly of judo and karate as forms of martial arts, thanks to the many films made based on these styles, there are various other styles of martial arts as well. Essentially there are four main styles of martial arts which are: Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Philippines styles. Though some features are common amongst all these styles, there are wide differences as well.

Let us discuss these four essential styles of martial arts in greater detail:

1.    The Japanese style of martial arts: Based essentially on the philosophy of creating perfect harmony of mind and body, the Japanese style of martial arts would focus on self defense. It relies on the knowledge of being aware of the attacker’s strength and using the same against him. It uses throwing and twisting techniques and even when the opponent is mightier than you, you know how to use his strength to your favor.

Considered to be a mild form of martial arts it is never taught to attack or hurt any opponent, which is the essence of other forms of martial arts. There are various techniques used in this art form where the nervous system is pressurized to do some action during the self defense activity.

2.    The Korean style of martial arts: This art form was initially developed for the soldiers in war field. They perfected the art to the extent that they were at one point in time known as the best soldiers in the world. As is evident, this art form is purely combative unlike the Japanese form, which is aimed more at protecting oneself more than attacking an opponent.

3.    Philippine style of martial arts: In this style of martial arts, a small weapon is used like a short stick. This art is practiced both as a sport as well as for self defense purposes and is not as popular as other styles of martial arts.

4.    The Chinese style of martial arts: This style of martial arts is also known as Tai Chi which is used both for sports as well as for self defense reasons. Some schools teach this art using a weapon whereas some do not preach the use of weapons. Learning and practicing this art style is considered to bring about a certain amount of mental peace and quietness to the practitioner.

While there are plenty of different types of martial arts to choose from if one wishes to learn the art, karate is perhaps the most popular form of martial arts known to the world. It was originally created to attack and subsequently kill the attacker; modern day karate is used mainly for self defense. Learned and practiced by people of al ages, karate is again broken up in various techniques like Judo, kendo, etc. Developed in Japan, Judo is today used more as a cardiovascular workout which helps people to remain fit and healthy.

The main purpose of Judo however is self-defense as with other karate styles. Kendo on the other hand uses a sword. This art was used by soldiers who needed to attack their enemies. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is considered one of the best forms of self defense which centers on ground fighting. Not popular till the ’90s, this type of martial arts is practiced by people of all ages. It focuses mainly on using the opponents’ strength against them and in your favor.

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In cinema, everything is larger than life, to create an impact and increase its box office returns. Display of martial arts skills is no exception. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a memorable movie in this genre but if you get yourself down to earth, trust me, no one can catch a flying bullet or defy all laws of physics and gravity to fly into air.

Another impossibility often shown in movies is an old Asian man killing or maiming an opponent using a technique called ‘death touch’ or ‘dim mak’. Though the movies will want to make you believe that such a ‘death touch’ is possible, where you simply ‘touch’ someone at a particular spot and he drops dead, it is a pretty absurd idea.

Think about it. If it was really possible, would everyone not learn and use it? If it was true, many people would learn this and start building defense against it too. Just for the records, you can check out the police records of our country to find how many people died of ‘dim mak’!

While there is no ‘deadliest style of martial arts’ in existence in modern times, there are many extremely effective lessons that can be learnt from schools which teach martial arts so that you could develop your self defense skills in the event you are touched ever by ‘dim mak’!

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