Research of Martial Arts

Research of Martial Arts PDF Author: Shifu Jonathan Bluestein
Publisher: Jonathan Bluestein
ISBN: 1499122519
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Jonathan Bluestein's Research of Martial Arts is a book about the true essence of martial arts. It includes neither instruction on deadly killing techniques, nor mystical tales of so called super-human masters. Rather, it is a vast compilation of seriously thought-out observations made on the subject by the author, as well as many other martial artists and scientists, with a slight touch of history and humour. The goal of this project had from the start been to surpass the current standard in the martial arts literary market, and offer readers worldwide something which they have never seen before. In essence, a book in which are found countless answers for martial arts practitioners which they cannot be read elsewhere, which address commonly discussed martially-related topics with breadth and depth unparalleled in other works to this day (in any language). It holds among its pages no less than 220,000 words, containing knowledge which would be coveted by many. The aim of this book is to present the reader a coherent, clear-cut, and in-depth view of some of the most perplexing and controversial subjects in the world of martial arts, as well as providing a healthy dose of philosophical outlook on these subjects (from various individuals). At its core is the author's aspiration to build a stronger theoretical foundation for the discussion of martial arts, while addressing matters in innovative ways, which I have come to believe, would help people to better grasp the nature of these arts. There are books by authors who will tell you that some aspects of the martial arts are too complex for concrete, coherent and defined explanations. Others have used ambiguous terminology to explain what they could not pronounce otherwise. This is no such book. This book was written to provide you with the solid, applicable answers and ideas that you could actually understand, and take away with you. This book is mainly comprised of three parts: | Part I: From the Inside Out – External and Internal Gong Fu | This is essentially mostly a very long & thorough discussion of martial arts theory and practice. Traditional and modern concepts and methods are discussed through the mediums of Physiology, Biology, Anatomy, Psychology, Philosophy (Western and Oriental alike), sports science, and the author's personal experiences. The Internal Martial Arts of China receive a special, lengthier treatment in this part of the book. | Part II: Contemplations on Controlled Violence | This one is of a Philosophical and Psychological nature, and contains the author's thoughts on the martial arts and their manifestation in our daily lives, with guest-articles by various martial arts teachers. | Part III: The Wisdom of Martial Spirits: Teachers, and the Things They Hold Dear | This part includes various interesting and comprehensive interviews with distinguished martial arts masters, spanning dozens of pages each. Every one of the interviewees is a person whose views and ideas are thought provoking and well-worth reading. The teachers interviewed in this book are: Master Chen Zhonghua (Chen Taiji Quan) Master Yang Hai (Xing Yi Quan, Bagua Zhang and Chen Taiji Quan) Shifu Strider Clark (Tongbei Quan, Wu style Taiji, Shuai Jiao and more) Shifu Neil Ripski (Traditional Drunken Fist and many others) Sifu James Cama (Buddha Hand Wing Chun and Southern Praying Mantis) Itzik Cohen Sensei (Shito-ryu Karate) No matter the age, rank, status or experience – this book was written for everyone who see themselves part of the martial arts community. It is my sincere hope that any person who reads this book will benefit from the time he or she had spent doing so. May this work encourage others to continue intelligent writing and research in the field, as I was pushed forth and built upon the knowledge others have shared before me. May you have a pleasant reading experience! =]

Research of Martial Arts

Research of Martial Arts PDF Author: Shifu Jonathan Bluestein
Publisher: Jonathan Bluestein
ISBN: 1499122519
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Get Book Here

Book Description
Jonathan Bluestein's Research of Martial Arts is a book about the true essence of martial arts. It includes neither instruction on deadly killing techniques, nor mystical tales of so called super-human masters. Rather, it is a vast compilation of seriously thought-out observations made on the subject by the author, as well as many other martial artists and scientists, with a slight touch of history and humour. The goal of this project had from the start been to surpass the current standard in the martial arts literary market, and offer readers worldwide something which they have never seen before. In essence, a book in which are found countless answers for martial arts practitioners which they cannot be read elsewhere, which address commonly discussed martially-related topics with breadth and depth unparalleled in other works to this day (in any language). It holds among its pages no less than 220,000 words, containing knowledge which would be coveted by many. The aim of this book is to present the reader a coherent, clear-cut, and in-depth view of some of the most perplexing and controversial subjects in the world of martial arts, as well as providing a healthy dose of philosophical outlook on these subjects (from various individuals). At its core is the author's aspiration to build a stronger theoretical foundation for the discussion of martial arts, while addressing matters in innovative ways, which I have come to believe, would help people to better grasp the nature of these arts. There are books by authors who will tell you that some aspects of the martial arts are too complex for concrete, coherent and defined explanations. Others have used ambiguous terminology to explain what they could not pronounce otherwise. This is no such book. This book was written to provide you with the solid, applicable answers and ideas that you could actually understand, and take away with you. This book is mainly comprised of three parts: | Part I: From the Inside Out – External and Internal Gong Fu | This is essentially mostly a very long & thorough discussion of martial arts theory and practice. Traditional and modern concepts and methods are discussed through the mediums of Physiology, Biology, Anatomy, Psychology, Philosophy (Western and Oriental alike), sports science, and the author's personal experiences. The Internal Martial Arts of China receive a special, lengthier treatment in this part of the book. | Part II: Contemplations on Controlled Violence | This one is of a Philosophical and Psychological nature, and contains the author's thoughts on the martial arts and their manifestation in our daily lives, with guest-articles by various martial arts teachers. | Part III: The Wisdom of Martial Spirits: Teachers, and the Things They Hold Dear | This part includes various interesting and comprehensive interviews with distinguished martial arts masters, spanning dozens of pages each. Every one of the interviewees is a person whose views and ideas are thought provoking and well-worth reading. The teachers interviewed in this book are: Master Chen Zhonghua (Chen Taiji Quan) Master Yang Hai (Xing Yi Quan, Bagua Zhang and Chen Taiji Quan) Shifu Strider Clark (Tongbei Quan, Wu style Taiji, Shuai Jiao and more) Shifu Neil Ripski (Traditional Drunken Fist and many others) Sifu James Cama (Buddha Hand Wing Chun and Southern Praying Mantis) Itzik Cohen Sensei (Shito-ryu Karate) No matter the age, rank, status or experience – this book was written for everyone who see themselves part of the martial arts community. It is my sincere hope that any person who reads this book will benefit from the time he or she had spent doing so. May this work encourage others to continue intelligent writing and research in the field, as I was pushed forth and built upon the knowledge others have shared before me. May you have a pleasant reading experience! =]

Martial Arts and Well-being

Martial Arts and Well-being PDF Author: Carol Fuller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315448068
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
Martial Arts and Well-Being explores how martial arts as a source of learning can contribute in important ways to health and well-being, as well as provide other broader social benefits. Using psychological and sociological theory related to behaviour, ritual, perception and reality construction, the book seeks to illustrate, with empirical data, how individuals make sense of and perceive the value of martial arts in their lives. This book draws on data from over 500 people, across all age ranges, and powerfully demonstrates that participating in martial arts can have a profound influence on the construction of behaviour patterns that are directly linked to lifestyle and health. Making individual connections regarding the benefits of practice, improvements to health and well-being – regardless of whether these improvements are ‘true’ in a medical sense – this book offers an important and original window into the importance of beliefs to health and well-being as well as the value of thinking about education as a process of life-long learning. This book will be of great interest to a range of audiences, including researchers, academics and postgraduate students interested in sports and exercise psychology, martial art studies and health and well-being. It should also be of interest to sociologists, social workers and martial arts practitioners. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315448084, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Martial Arts Studies

Martial Arts Studies PDF Author: Paul Bowman
Publisher: Disruptions
ISBN: 9781783481286
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book disrupts disciplinary boundaries to make a case for the future direction and growth of martial arts studies as a unique field

The Historical Sociology of Japanese Martial Arts

The Historical Sociology of Japanese Martial Arts PDF Author: Raul Sanchez Garcia
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351333798
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Winner of the Norbert Elias Book Prize 2020 This is the first long-term analysis of the development of Japanese martial arts, connecting ancient martial traditions with the martial arts practised today. The Historical Sociology of Japanese Martial Arts captures the complexity of the emergence and development of martial traditions within the broader Japanese Civilising Process. The book traces the structured process in which warriors’ practices became systematised and expanded to the Japanese population and the world. Using the theoretical framework of Norbert Elias’s process-sociology and drawing on rich empirical data, the book also compares the development of combat practices in Japan, England, France and Germany, making a new contribution to our understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics of state formation. Throughout this analysis light is shed onto a gender blind spot, taking into account the neglected role of women in martial arts. The Historical Sociology of Japanese Martial Arts is important reading for students of Socio-Cultural Perspectives in Sport, Sociology of Physical Activity, Historical Development of Sport in Society, Asian Studies, Sociology and Philosophy of Sport, and Sports History and Culture. It is also a fascinating resource for scholars, researchers and practitioners interested in the historical and socio-cultural aspects of combat sport and martial arts.

The Martial Arts Studies Reader

The Martial Arts Studies Reader PDF Author: Paul Bowman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1786605503
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
A decade ago, the question was ‘could martial arts ever be studied academically?’ Today we are witnessing the global emergence and rapid proliferation of Martial Arts Studies – an exciting and dynamic new field that studies all aspects of martial arts in culture, history, and society. In recent years there have been a proliferation of studies of martial arts and race, gender, class, nation, ethnicity, identity, culture, politics, history, economics, film, media, art, philosophy, gaming, education, embodiment, performance, technology and many other matters. Given the diversity of topics and approaches, the question for new students and researchers is one of how to orientate oneself and gain awareness of the richness and diversity of the field, make sense of different styles of academic approach, and organise one’s own study, research and writing. The Martial Arts Studies Reader answers this need, by bringing together pioneers of the field and scholars at its cutting edges to offer authoritative and accessible insights into its key concerns and areas. Each chapter introduces and sets out an approach to and a route through a key issue in a specific area of martial arts studies. Taken together or in isolation, the chapters offer stimulating and exciting insights into this fascinating research area. In this way, The Martial Arts Studies Reader offers the first authoritative field-defining overview of the global and multidisciplinary phenomena of martial arts and martial arts studies.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo PDF Author: Udo Moenig
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317557336
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the historical, political, and technical evolution of taekwondo. Many of the supposedly ‘traditional’ and ‘ancient’ Korean cultural elements attached to taekwondo are, in fact, remnants of East Asia’s modernization drive, and largely inherited from the Japanese martial arts. The current historical portrayal has created an obstacle to a clear understanding of the history of taekwondo, and presents problems and contradictions in philosophy and training methodology. Using rich empirical data, including interviews with leading figures in the field, this book brings together martial arts philosophy with an analysis of the technical aspects and the development of taekwondo, and provides a detailed comparison of karate and taekwondo techniques. It debunks nationalistic mythology surrounding taekwondo to provide a reinterpretation of taekwondo’s evolution.

Hong Kong Martial Artists

Hong Kong Martial Artists PDF Author: Daniel Miles Amos
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1786615444
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This imaginative and innovative study by Daniel Miles Amos, begun in 1976 and completed in 2020, examines sociocultural changes in the practices of Chinese martial artists in two closely related and interconnected southern Chinese cities, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. The initial chapters of the book compare how sociocultural changes from World War II to the mid-1980s affected the practices of Chinese martial artists in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong and neighboring Guangzhou in mainland China. An analysis is made of how the practices of Chinese martial artists have been influenced by revolutionary sociocultural changes in both cities. In Guangzhou, the victory of the Chinese Communist Party lead to the disappearance in the early 1950s of secret societies and kungfu brotherhoods. Kungfu brotherhoods reappeared during the Cultural Revolution, and subsequently were transformed again after the death of Mao Zedong, and China’s opening to capitalism. In Hong Kong, dramatic sociocultural changes were set off by the introduction of manufacturing production lines by international corporations in the mid-1950s, and the proliferation of foreign franchises and products. Economic globalization in Hong Kong has led to dramatic increases both in the territory’s Gross Domestic Product and in cultural homogenization, with corresponding declines in many local traditions and folk cultures, including Chinese martial arts. The final chapters of the book focus on changes in the practices of Chinese martial arts in Hong Kong from the years 1987 to 2020, a period which includes the last decade of British colonial administration, as well as the first quarter of a century of rule by the Chinese government.

Armed Martial Arts of Japan

Armed Martial Arts of Japan PDF Author: G Hurst I
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300116748
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This unique history of Japanese armed martial arts--the only comprehensive treatment of the subject in English--focuses on traditions of swordsmanship and archery from ancient times to the present. G. Cameron Hurst III provides an overview of martial arts in Japanese history and culture, then closely examines the transformation of these fighting skills into sports. He discusses the influence of the Western athletic tradition on the armed martial arts as well as the ways the martial arts have remained distinctly Japanese. During the Tokugawa era (1600-1867), swordsmanship and archery developed from fighting systems into martial arts, transformed by the powerful social forces of peace, urbanization, literacy, and professionalized instruction in art forms. Hurst investigates the changes that occurred as military skills that were no longer necessary took on new purposes: physical fitness, spiritual composure, character development, and sport. He also considers Western misperceptions of Japanese traditional martial arts and argues that, contrary to common views in the West, Zen Buddhism is associated with the martial arts in only a limited way. The author concludes by exploring the modern organization, teaching, ritual, and philosophy of archery and swordsmanship; relating these martial arts to other art forms and placing them in the broader context of Japanese culture.

Martial Arts as Embodied Knowledge

Martial Arts as Embodied Knowledge PDF Author: D. S. Farrer
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438439687
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
This landmark work provides a wide-ranging scholarly consideration of the traditional Asian martial arts. Most of the contributors to the volume are practitioners of the martial arts, and all are keenly aware that these traditions now exist in a transnational context. The book's cutting-edge research includes ethnography and approaches from film, literature, performance, and theater studies. Three central aspects emerge from this book: martial arts as embodied fantasy, as a culturally embedded form of self-cultivation, and as a continuous process of identity formation. Contributors explore several popular and highbrow cultural considerations, including the career of Bruce Lee, Chinese wuxia films, and Don DeLillo's novel Running Dog. Ethnographies explored describe how the social body trains in martial arts and how martial arts are constructed in transnational training. Ultimately, this academic study of martial arts offers a focal point for new understandings of cultural and social beliefs and of practice and agency.

The Invention of Martial Arts

The Invention of Martial Arts PDF Author: Paul Bowman
Publisher:
ISBN: 0197540333
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Through popular movies starring Bruce Lee and songs like the disco hit "Kung Fu Fighting," martial arts have found a central place in the Western cultural imagination. But what would 'martial arts' be without the explosion of media texts and images that brought it to a wide audience in the late 1960s and early 1970s? In this examination of the media history of what we now call martial arts, author Paul Bowman makes the bold case that the phenomenon of martial arts is chiefly an invention of media representations. Rather than passively taking up a preexisting history of martial arts practices--some of which, of course, predated the martial arts boom in popular culture--media images and narratives actively constructed martial arts. Grounded in a historical survey of the British media history of martial arts such as Bartitsu, jujutsu, judo, karate, tai chi, and MMA across a range of media, this book thoroughly recasts our understanding of the history of martial arts. By interweaving theories of key thinkers on historiography, such as Foucault and Hobsbawm, and Said's ideas on Orientalism with analyses of both mainstream and marginal media texts, Bowman arrives at the surprising insight that media representations created martial arts rather than the other way around. In this way, he not only deepens our understanding of martial arts but also demonstrates the productive power of media discourses.