Martial art is a way of defending oneself without the help of any weapon. For self defense martial art is a very good thing and the biggest positive point of this is that you will not have to use and weapons. You can also say that the codified practices and traditions of training for combat are called martial art. The basic aim of learning martial art is to defeat someone and to defend oneself from any type of physical threat. You can also find that martial art is linked to religious beliefs also such as Shinto, Daoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Martial art is practiced as a sport also in many countries like India, China, Japan, and Korea etc. Martial art was originated in the Asian cultures.

Wrestling is also a form of martial art which is practiced by the North Americans where they called is an open-handed martial art. In Brazil it is found that as an athletic movement of Capoeira, which was practiced by slaves. These skills were brought by the slaves from Africa. In martial art every style has its unique facets but there is a common characteristic also, the systemization of fighting techniques. In martial art it is not necessary that for practicing you need someone else. In this there are several styles which a person can practice alone. These styles are more common in Asia or Asian-derived martial arts.

The name martial was derived from the name of planet Mars, which is believed as the Roman god of war. And the term martial art means the art of war. And the practitioner of martial art is called a martial artist.

In martial art training you can find grappling, and strikes training mainly. The best examples of these areas are:

1. Striking – Punching, Boxing , Wing chun, Kicking, Capoeira, Savate, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Karate and Shaolin Kung Fu.

2. Grappling – Throwing, Glima, Judo, Joint lock, Aikido, Hapkido, Wrestling and Sambo.

The history of martial art is very old. According to pictorial records it was found that martial art practice was started in the Bronze Age. In Asia, martial art was founded by the Chinese and Indian people in around 600 B.C. As described by Sun Tzu, during the Warring States period of Chinese history (480-221 BC) there was an extensive development in martial philosophy and strategy emerged. An Indian monk, Bodhidharma was believed to be a martial art legend which lived around 550 A.D.

Later on due to the increase in trade between America with China and Japan, martial art gets popular in the western countries also. A railway engineer, Edward William Barton-Wright, was the first man who taught Asian martial art in Europe. He learned Asian martial art in Japan while working in 1894-97. A new form of martial art was founded by him which was a combination of Jujutsu, Judo, boxing, and sticks fighting.

Nowadays martial art is practiced in all military forces also. It has become mandatory in military. You can find it as a subject taught to students in the Japan, Korea and China.