Elithil
Shuma-Gorath
Lord_Quortez
Shuma-Gorath
ninja.ace
Alot of people like most XMA think that the mind set and philosphy are ridiculous. To them its all about the physical contact. Which I sometimes agree in some forms tradition does hold you back. But if you go to the more traditional forms of a martial art they emphasise on philosphy and history of the art and the country it came from.

I do a very traditional plagua TKD background. And we have it bashed into our skulls lolz that there is no time or thought to waste on the ignorant. But philosphy and psychology arent going to work. If a sociopath wants to kill you, thier going to kill you. Its best to try to avoid the situationif you can but you cant go through your life avoiding everything. You have to be able to stand up and protect yourself. If you dont what is the point of taking the martial art in the first place?
I challenge you to find a Martial Art that emphasizes Philosophy and History rather then fighting.


i can give you one. ninjutsu. it is true that you do train physically as in any martial arts, however they teach the mindset of "winning without removing the blade." this is a philosophy of winning with the mind. as any martial artist should know in the times of thw samurai, anytime a blade was drawn it should taste blood before it could return to its saya. and so this philosophy was created around that truth. there is a saying that we learn fairly early on.
"gekijin tomeru, heiwa tsukuru, to issai itonomi mamarou. kono ninja no do."
this translated means, "prevent violence, make peace, and protect all life. this is the way of the ninja."
Ninjutsu is NOT a Martial Art. It's a stealth art. And a dead one at that. Everyone who says they train in it is doing something from the X-kans. And that is JJJ and Koppojutsu, NOT Ninjutsu. Also, the most of the Ninja were Samurai. Ninjutsu was for espionage. Hell, Ninja is a modern term.

TRY AGAIN.

May I ask...how do you define the term "martial art"? Actually, if more people could answer this question...I think it would be interesting, because I'm sure that there are many different ways that "martial art" is used as a term.
@lord_quortez: I'm curious...where did you learn that Japanese sentence or from whom? Because the Japanese in it seems a bit curious to me. I'd just like to know how sure you are that it's correct...


The word Martial has to do with combat or military things the Art comes from the training of such things. Shooting a gun, bow swinging a sword or fist learning any thing that is used in combat is a martial art or at least part of one.

Quote:
diplomacy is a form of martial art


That is a hard one yes and no it's non combative but it is part of warfair so I would say being well versed in diplomacy is in a way a martial ability. Diplomacy normaly comes before and after a war. War only happens when diplomacy fails it's the internal martial art of talking.