Martial arts

Hi, we meet again! This time I will talk about martial arts that are vary in many culture in the world like in Asia, Europe and Americas culture. Before that, what is 'martial art' all about? Well, martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat. They may be studied for various reasons including combat skills, fitness, self-defense, sport, self-cultivation/meditation, mental discipline, character development and building self-confidence, or any combination of the above.
In Asia, the teaching of martial arts has historically followed the cultural traditions of teacher-disciple apprenticeship. Mostly, the instructor directly supervise their students' training, and the students are expected to memorize and recite as closely as possible the rules and basic training routines of the school. In many countries local arts like Te in Okinawa, Kenjutsu and Ju-Jutsu in Japan, and Taekyon and Soobak in Korea mixed with other martial arts and evolved to produce some of the more well-known martial arts in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries like Karate, Aikido, and Taekwondo.
In Europe, the martial arts declined with the rise of the firearms. As a consequence, martial arts with historical roots in Europe do not exist today to the same extent as in Asia. Martial arts existed in classical European civilization, most notably in Greece where sports were integral to the way of life. Boxing (pygme, pyx), Wrestling (pale) and Pankration (from pan, meaning "all", and kratos, meaning "power" or "strength") were represented in the Ancient Olympic Games. The Romans produced Gladiatorial combat as a public spectacle.(did you notice most of the Europe are made for a sport?)
Lets take a look to Americas martial arts history. The native peoples of North America and South America had their own martial training which began in childhood. Many Native American men considered themselves warriors and trained to use the bows, knives, blowguns, spears, and war clubs. War-clubs were the preferred martial weapon because Native American warriors could raise their social status by killing enemies in single combat face to face! Then when the European colonists came, they brought over their own martial arts such as boxing, fencing and wrestling.
Martial arts nowaday become not only just an 'art from the ancient', but also a 'shell' to protect ourselves, a military and police forces uses, and also as events in modern Summer Olympic Games.
Well, got to go!
See next time!
bye........