The traditional martial arts all draw from a limited pool of techniques. Most arts use some kind of striking with either feet or hands. Most have ways to uproot an opponent and knock him over. Some use traditional weapons while others teach improvised weapons. The difference between the martial arts styles lies in what techniques the arts specialize in and how they go about training people to perform those techniques.
Strikes
Strikes are the specialty of karate, tae kwon do and chuan fa. Karate uses heavy bags and makiwara, striking boards, to develop the ability to hit with the fist. Chuan fa also uses punches, but it has a wider variety of hand strikes. In chuan fa, you might hit with your knuckles, or you might hit with your finger tips, the edge of your thumb, your open palm or even your fingernails. Tae kwon do practitioners are kick specialists. Though they use punches, they train a vast arsenal of kicks, including jumping and spinning kicks.
Throws
Throws, the ability to pick someone up off their feet and throw them down onto the ground, are the specialty of the grappling arts. Judo, jujitsu, and aikido are the best known of the grappling arts. Judo players throw by getting underneath the center of balance of the opponent. The judo player's hips become a fulcrum over which the opponent is levered. Aikido players, by contrast, are more likely to lock up the arms of an opponent and to use that lock to manipulate the opponent off their feet. Jujitsu players use a combination of the judo and aikido methods.
Joint Locks
Joint locks involve taking joints in directions they don't want to go or taking joints past their comfortable range of motion. Jujitsu and aikido players train joint locks as do Chinese practitioners of chin na. The purpose of a joint lock is to disable an attacking limb. If you have locked an attacking arm, your attacker can no longer hit you with that arm. A second purpose is pain compliance. If someone thinks you are about to break their elbow if they don't comply with a request to stop attacking, they have an incentive to stop attacking.
Pressure Points
Pressure points are Chinese acupuncture points. The same points that are used to heal can also be struck or pressed to cause pain, disability or injury. Practitioners of Chinese dim mak and Okinawan kyusho jitsu train their students to use pressure points.
Traditional Weapons
Traditional weapons include the bladed and unbladed weapons that are native to the Chinese martial arts. They include flails, cudgels, staffs and blades mounted on various handles. Okinawan kobudo, the armed counterpart of karate, uses staffs, oars, flails and other weapons. The traditional Japanese arts of iado and kendo train students in the art of the sword. They use the long, lethal Japanese katana as their primary weapon.
References
- "The Complete Martial Arts"; Paul Crompton; 1989
- "The Way of the Warrior"; Howard Reid and Michael Croucher; 1983
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