Ask one hundred different martial artists what the “martial arts” are and you’ll likely get one hundred different answers.
Here’s mine. Maybe you’ll find some value in it and maybe you won’t.
Martial Arts are a set of disciplines or training methods which help one learn to overcome adversity, including especially, but not limited to, violent, physical adversity.
Wow. I sound like a lawyer. I didn’t mean to.
So let’s break that down.
In my opinion, a Martial Art does/has/includes the following:
So if some school or teacher or coach out there is teaching some method of fighting that does NOT have principles that apply beyond the physical, is it a martial art?
I would say not.
It could still be a very effective fighting method, but not a martial art.
I think this boils down to how the word “art” is used.
An “art” can simply mean a skill or craft at which someone can become proficient, for example the “bricklayer’s art” or the “house painter’s art”. In this sense, any fighting method could be an “art”.
But I use the word “art” in it’s more aesthetic sense. Art as in sculpture or painting (not a house, unless it’s a mural) or literature.
In that sense, a work of “art” is a distillation of some important principle or principles about life. The statue “The Thinker” might have a thematic principle of “The ability of mankind to focus their intellect”. Other works of art, similarly have themes…principles which they represent.
In that same sense, a “martial art” is a craft or discipline of fighting and preparation for fighting that is also exemplary of wider principles, of principles that apply beyond just fighting.
In this sense, each martial artist IS their own work of art. Their training routine and, should it become necessary, their actions in physical conflict, become a work of art to inspire others or even themselves.
Metaphorically speaking, each martial artist starts out with a “paint by numbers” set. This is the stage where they are doing things as their instructor teaches them. Once they have mastered the painting by numbers, they might branch out into free painting.
So there you have my take on what is and is not a martial art.
I have no idea what the next ninety-nine people will say.