The Future Trends In Martial Arts – A Combo Pack Of “Innovation And Traditional Forms”

Interfering with the notion of practicing traditional "martial arts"

Recently I read about an instance, describing a person who have learned almost all the forms of martial arts, the traditional forms, from the age of 16 and he still believes that innovative thinkings to the traditional methods can stir up the whole martial world; the only thing is that the right and perfect constituents in the right proportion can create the perfect tea. Interacting with the real masters and instructors, he came to know that each of the martial art form, have its origins which trace back to its pasts and every form have been "innovated", over the decades. Combining the internal energy and the knowledge possessed by the human body, Brazilian martial art forms like Jiu Jitsu have been invented and re-invented.

Creating "gateways" to new methods- "need" is the primary factor

Judo, the common martial art form practiced and exercised today have been developed as Jiu-jitsu was considered as an unfashionable act in the early 1980s, the latter’s importance was only understood when its "grounding methods" played the trick and helped many a martial arts practitioners. Another instance is Krav Marga, the non-conventional art which has been identified as one of the effective self defense art has also been developed from the same background.

All these small instances clearly points to the direction of "need " or "response to a circumstance, not satisfied at the moment". So let us state the golden rule,

"Innovativeness is created from a need or from hunger of unsatisfaction".

Evaluating a method through an effective approach

When we try to bring out the combo package of innovativeness with the traditional art forms, many of the critics argue that the essence of the particular art form has been lost or extinguished. But the other thing to be considered is that the approaches chosen are varied and the developers are trying to bring out methods that would well synchronized with the traditional forms. These approaches include the following:

• Understanding the original context

Since most of the art forms like Karate or Kung-Fu have been originated in the past, which may extend from simple 20 years to 200 years and belong to the Chinese or Italians, understanding the original context is crucial and the techniques can only be developed as an "add-on" to the original ones (not to forget the feelings to the traditional art form practitioners!!).

Mixing methods- going deeper into the "dangerous" part

Taking a psychological approach towards the mixing method, creating and mastering a new martial art form is all about practice and practice, feeling a sense of "discouragement" as every "nook and corner" of the method is being applied and requires long hours of commitment and patience.

Moving towards the dangerous slope, combining two forms can prove to be ineffective and counterproductive; be ready to face the challenges at the end. For instance, when Jeet Kune Do was developed by Bruce Lee in the early 1970s, he found that there was a "missing" portion. Although the form was agile and explosive, he understood the physical strength of a person played a prime criteria for mastering the form; he taught the JDK to a selective group of people. Those with 7 feet height and possessing weight that goes beyond 150kg, was not included in the category. Unless you understand the history and context, innovative methods would be just like "mocking" the martial art form.

Author is an expert writer of Gracie Morumbi Fabio Leopoldo.