If there's really a difference between martial arts and sports? Then what about martial acting?

Question

if there is such a question about if a "martial sportist" is a "real martial artist"? are "martial actors" like bruce lee, chuck norris, let li, jackie chan, samo hung, van damn, etc "real martial artists?" i mean all there stuff is just choreography, right? they don't really know what they're doing, right? what they do is no more than doing a choreographed dance like in a musical right? i hope people know i'm being sarcastic. however, i know people that like to compete are getting a lot of grief for wanting to put their skills to use. i know that some "sport art" will get your butt handed to you in the street if you had to defend yourself, but what about MMA? i just see people like bruce lee or jet li get more respect than a MMA fighter. a UFC fighter, for example, hits for real. but what jet li does is staged. how does he get more respect? i'm just basically wanting everyone to wake up and start giving the respect to others that they're demanding themselves.

for the nuthugger at the bottom of the page. this is actually a very good question inspired by another question wanting to know the differenct between martial arts and sports. i saw alot of responses that drug in the new and growing more popular MMA. so i thought i would bring in charished and looked up to martial artist that act in movies. it was completely satirical and sarcastic. it was meant to bend all the traditionalist and "goo goo" babies, like yourself, out of shape. looks like i succeeded. lol. so seeing how my question was a success...it was a good question. martial arts as the traditionalist and purist know it are evolving and they like to make up anything thats gonna make them look different from the people that are doing something different. as for the stupid crap about "grandmasters wouldn't fight in the UFC, because they would kill someone..." is crap. they would realize that there are rules in the match and respect that. hence no killing. duh

Answer 1

Martial Art stunts have been around for as long as they have been making movies. Consider the success of movies like The Matrix. which was not about MA at all but utilized some great stunts that are now pretty much standard. I don't think Keanu Reeves considers himself a martial artist or an athlete.

The MMA contests are not a new event. Every time I think I have found the first, someone else comes up with another reference a decade older. The MMA is closer to boxing in my opinion. Boxing is a martial art, but it is not an Asian Martial Art, which mostly all have some core philosophies in common. The same would apply to Greco-Roman wrestling which is believed to have its roots in the gladiator sports as long as 4000 years ago. But, those fights were usually to the death, and did not have the same rules that apply to Greco-Roman Wrestling today.

I don't know Jackie Chan or Jet Li personally so I can't say with any degree of certainty how much or little they are involved in the MA. I have seen the Charlie's Angels movies where 3 pretty young actors appear to have amazing skills. Obviously they can use stunts and CGA to create almost any illusion they want. If Martial Actors are going to be included in the MA then the puppet from Star Wars called Yoda would be the Grand Champion.

Movies are not reality. But, both sports and traditional Asian martial arts are reality.

This is my opinion

Answer 2

First off - Cunamo dude - AWESOME ANSWER!
This is a bad question to begin with. Why don't we compare a toy car to a real car? or an apple to a freakin watermellon. lol Martial arts are not martial sports. remember I got big nuts so I'm not gonna slap the mat and sign out here. I enjoy watching MMA, but will disagree with any baby arses that are gonna cry that they can't call themselves Martial artist. so what! Martial artist then cant call themselves Martial sportist. Whats up with the "goo goo" baby crap with everyone? I see everyones point. Dude, the guy that says "recent insurgence" I've heard the word "Martial sportist" alot so knock off attacking people that aren't here as I talk to the guy your referring to via email. he knows his crapola. But I know more ;o) How about anyone calls it whatever they like ehhh? Martial acting depends on who the actor is. Yes they have fight scenes, but some are Martial artist and some just have a month or two of practicing moves.

Answer 3

I'm sorry but UFC, Pride, and all those"MMA" competitions are not martial arts. I'm not being unaccepting of other arts or whatever you would like to say I am merely stating an opinion. In my opinion that type of competition is a representation of BRAWLING, which is merely a fight in which 2 guys beat the daylights out of eachother and whoever has the strongest punch or the most stamina wins. Martial arts is NOT about "trading blows," (and if you don't know what that means then you need to learn a ittle more about martial arts). Martial arts is about technique, about transcending the the barbaric act of "bash n' dash" into an act of war utilizing strategy and skill. Don't kid yourselves into thinking that traditional martial arts, like wushu etc., are not effective in street fights/war situations/full contact competitions, that is how they were developed! The only difference between muay thai and Chinese wushu is the learning curve, the supposedly "street applicable" arts are only called such because they are direct and take less time to learn and understand, but they are actually less effective when compared to a fully trained martial artist in a more traditional style. They have many full contact (real blows) martial arts competitions around the world, and these are what is respectable in the martial arts world (you can use MMA in these competitions as well), the UFC is the equivalent of recording a brawl in your backyard. Martial Arts have a huge emphasis on NOT being hit, while still connecting blows on your opponent, it is a rare site to see a planned block on UFC. I've watched, (and continue to watch, because, let's be honest, it's entertaining to see 2 guys beat eachother to a pulp) many UFC and Pride matches and it is rare to see a move of any great skill performed, it's lucky to see one per match! What also upsets me about the UFC is that they call their styles MMA, but they all know a hybrid of the same 3 or 4 martial arts, that is NOT MMA! "MMA" stands for Mixed Martial Arts, which means the practitioner mixes multiple arts to find a more effective compromise, but the MMA practitioner has every martial art invented to choose from, not just the few that are used in those competitions. Lastly, I'm not saying that "Movie Martial Artist's" are all great fighters or whatever, but several of the actors you named actually have street/competition experience! Jet Li has several tournament championships (full contact like your precious "MMA"), Jackie Chan grew up in ghetto China (lots of street fights), Bruce Lee was in a few competitions in his youth, but mostly had street fighting experience, Chuck Norris has both street and competition, etc. Do a little research before you accuse these "dancers" (as you put it) of not really being able to fight; understand that most kung-fu movie actors learned martial arts and THEN became actors, not the other way around (like keanu reeves in the matrix-> not a martial artist). I really think they need a separate section for UFC and the likes fans, because I'm tired of all the "Who do you think will win UFC ##?," or "do you think Chuck Liddel could beat up Chuck Norris?," and blah blah... ok, so now I'm just ranting, sorry, I'm done.

Answer 4

a big difference. I wish last samurai was here to answer this one! I actually sent an email asking if he would come on and reply to this one. ha! sucker, get em Necroth! kidding folks! as much as I enjoy UFC, I know the difference between an art and sport. I've trained for 3 years Muay Thai and 2 TKD. I don't have much experience, but I can say TKD is all sport and I believe the website last samurai qouted because I remember and rsearched as well. But I disagree about BJJ as I consider it an art. everyone gets confused with sport and art and it is important. Necroth you act like you know it all buddy booooy. lol respectfully Thai brother! you don't and neither does that last samurai. I tend to agree on the philosophy that UFC matches and MMA are not Martial arts. so what, who the hell cares, they are and alsways will be martial sports because of the competitions. I keep going back and forth looking at older replies and older questions and see the same thing over and over again. The one thing keeps clicking in my old brain. competition. I don't care it's what I like and that's it.

Answer 5

Actually, I think Bruce Lee would do well in the UFC! He really WAS a martial artist, had a Xience physique, and founded his own style! (But then again, so did Joe Son) With the weight classes and all the added rules now, he could reall give someone a good fight. As for Van Damme, enough said.

Answer 6

The main reason seems to be that people like Jet Li and Jckie Chan are more widely known and make it look pretty, like a dance. On the other hand you have the MMA fighters that have practical uses for their fighting techniques. Truth is, a lot of people still aren't familiar with MMA and therefore don't truely understand it.

Answer 7

I'll leave the pissing contest between "martial artists" and "martial sportists" to other guys who have bigger bladders. I'll just address your question about martial acting, there's no such thing. It's just acting period. An actor playing the role of a gunslinger and shooting a gun on film is not considered doing "gun acting" now is he? At most, performing martial arts moves in a movie can be called stunt work, but definitely not "martial acting".

Answer 8

Sports have rules, actual fights don't.

I think UFC and MMA are very much overrated - trying to fight the way these guys do in a street fight might well get you killed since your opponent is hardly going to have restricted himself to not using eye gouges, groin strikes, strikes to the throat to cut off air to the lungs, strikes to the arteries of the neck designed to shut off blood supply to the brain, damaging internal organ based attacks, snapping necks, limbs, use of weaponry, etc. This why you don't tend to see actual, serious practitioners of things like Eagle Claw in UFC or MMA, the main techniques are simply not allowable in these sports based formats since it is a martial arts designed for military purposes. It was created to incapacitate, maim or kill - not to look good or to compete within a rule based, structured format.

Now I'll agree that a sportsman or actor can ALSO be a martial artist, nothing precludes that, but fighting styles created for audiences or for competitions that have to worry about laws and rules are not as effective as fighting styles created for the no holds barred reality of actual combat will be, at base, more effective in actual combat. Styles created for competition format will equally be more effective in competitions and tournaments since they'll focus on legal moves and use of the rules to one's advantage. Styles created for movies look flashier since they don't need to worry about effectiveness (the hero wins anyway after all). Yes I think people should respect those who dedicate time and energy to sports or who are good actors, but respect doesn't mean pandering to a silly image that a sport or movie "martial art" is ever going to be as combat effective as a true, combat based and tested martial art.

Also please note that this isn't about individual skill levels - a good boxer is going to wipe the floor with a poor martial artist without breaking a sweat. However in an actual street fight a hypothetical martial artist of about the same physical ability and experience as a hypothetical boxer is probably going to be able to clean up the boxer easily.

Answer 9

Mixed martial arts, is simply a term used to denote that two or more styles are taught or practiced together. Therefore practitioners are real martial artists.
Sport fighting, is just that, fighting for sport, with rules. Just because you do one does'nt mean you can't / don't do the other.

Answer 10

Everybody trains and gets result accordingly