rantlust

Posted by papi on October 20th 2005 in Health & Fitness, Sports
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A previous post had referred to the ancient martial art form of Kerala, Kalaripayattu, as the ultimate martial art. This, quite justifiably, prompted the question as to why then practitioners of Kalaripayattu were not the champions of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), generally considered the most hard-core fighting contest in the world. Both the assertion and the question are misguided, but the latter is quite easy to refute. Kalaripayattu is a weapons-based martial art form, while the UFC is about unarmed fighting. Having said that, I don’t think Kalaripayattu is the ultimate martial art. There is no single martial art that may be considered the ultimate; each has advantages based on your goals.

Martial arts may broadly be classified into the following groups based on their emphasis on one of the following techniques:

• striking and kicking (Karate, Boxing, Muay Thai)
• throwing (Judo)
• grappling (Wrestling, Jujitsu)
• weaponry (aaahhh, yes…our beloved Kalaripayattu, Kendo)

It should be obvious that arguments about the various types of martial arts and their relative merits quickly degenerate into shouting matches (or brawls, depending on how much alcohol and testosterone is involved.)

The UFC came about as a means to settle this question and establish, once and for all, which martial art is the greatest. The initial UFC championships had almost no rules, and it was simply no-holds-barred fighting (unarmed, of course, so that ruled out the weapons-based schools.) The results were quite surprising and counter-intuitive, especially to people used to the celluloid exploits of Bruce Lee and his ilk. Contrary to what one might expect, the pure striking and kicking martial artists were quickly eliminated, and it became clear that without grappling skills, one would not last very long against a skilled opponent. The initial UFC fights were brutal affairs, and drew a horrified response from the authorities, resulting in UFC matches getting banned in the US. The rules were then modified and now they have weight categories, time limits and so on, which have disillusioned many of the original UFC enthusiasts.

One of the greatest stars of the UFC is Royce Gracie. He’s a scion of the Brazilian Gracie family and practises a form of modified Jujitsu called ‘Brazilian Jujitsu’ or ‘Gracie Jujitsu‘. Ever since I heard of this guy, I’ve been fascinated with his style of fighting. One reason could be that we’re physically very similar with almost the same height and weight, and the same slender build. In UFC championship bouts, watching Royce take on a huge wrestler is like watching a philosophy major taking on King Kong. But then, within a few minutes, King Kong ends up biting the dust, with the philosophy major astride him. Here’s a clip where he subdues a Kung Fu fighter without even breaking a sweat.

Royce’s success at the UFC made him an international superstar, and brought to the fore the whole discipline of ‘mixed’ martial arts. Nowadays, most experts agree that ‘pure’ martial arts of the type mentioned earlier are hardly a match for a skilled practitioner of a mixed version, which includes elements of grappling, choking and striking.

For most of us, though, the best martial art might be running. As in running away. Discretion is indeed the better part of valour.