Portal:Martial arts
The Martial Arts Portal

Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the preservation of a nation's intangible cultural heritage. The concept of martial arts was originally associated with East Asian tradition, but subsequently the term has been applied to practices that originated outside that region. (Full article...)
Although the earliest evidence of martial arts goes back millennia, the true roots are difficult to reconstruct. Inherent patterns of human aggression which inspire practice of mock combat (in particular wrestling) and optimization of serious close combat as cultural universals are doubtlessly inherited from the pre-human stage and were made into an "art" from the earliest emergence of that concept. Indeed, many universals of martial art are fixed by the specifics of human physiology and not dependent on a specific tradition or era.
Specific martial traditions become identifiable in Classical Antiquity, with disciplines such as shuai jiao, Greek wrestling or those described in the Indian epics or the Spring and Autumn Annals of China. (Full article...)
Selected articles
Selected biography
Robinson was a dominant amateur, but his exact amateur record is not known. It is usually listed as 85–0 with 69 knockouts, 40 in the first round. However it has been reported he lost to Billy Graham and Patsy Pesca as a teenager under his given name, Walker Smith Jr. He turned professional in 1940 at the age of 19 and by 1951 had a professional record of 129–1–2 with 85 knockouts. From 1943 to 1951 Robinson went on a 91-fight unbeaten streak, the sixth-longest in professional boxing history behind Pedro Carrasco with 93, Jimmy Wilde with 95, Buck Smith with 102, Packey McFarland with 104, and Young Griffo with 107. Robinson held the world welterweight title from 1946 to 1951, and won the world middleweight title in the latter year. He retired in 1952, only to come back two-and-a-half years later and regain the middleweight title in 1955. (Full article...)
Selected entertainment
Mortal Kombat (also known as Mortal Kombat 9 (MK9) is a 2011 fighting game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the ninth main installment in the Mortal Kombat series and a soft reboot of the series. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems in April 2011, and a PlayStation Vita port was released in May 2012. An expanded version of the game, titled Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, was released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February 2012 and for Microsoft Windows in July 2013.
Although beginning during the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the plot is a retroactive continuity to the earliest period in the Mortal Kombat series: the events of the first three games (Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3, as well as the third game's two updates Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy). The storyline involves the divine protector of Earth, Raiden, attempting to change the aftermath of the events of Armageddon by contacting his past self as he faces defeat at the hands of the evil emperor of Outworld, Shao Kahn. While having characters and levels rendered in three-dimensions, the gameplay distances itself from the 3D graphics style seen in the last five games, bearing closer resemblance to that of the 2D era of the series, using a camera that is perpendicular to the two-dimensional playing field. Colloquially this is called 2.5D.
Upon release, Mortal Kombat received very positive reviews and won several awards for fighting game of the year. It was also a commercial success, selling one million copies in the first month alone. Due to its extremely violent content, the game was banned in Australia, due to the lack of appropriate ratings category, as well as in South Korea, and it has been reportedly indexed in Germany. The Australian ban was later lifted due to the introduction of an R18 classification, and the game was released along with many other R-rated games in May 2013. A sequel, Mortal Kombat X was released in 2015 with another direct follow-up, Mortal Kombat 11, being released in April 2019.
Sports portals
Selected image
![]() |
Since the 1970s, there has been a revival of traditional or reconstructed methods of swordsmanship (劍術 geom sul, or 劍法 geom beop) based on the Korean sword in the Republic of Korea (Korean Bon Kuk Geom Beop 본국검법 "National Sword Methods"), supplementing the practice of Kumdo (the Korean adoption of modern Japanese Kendo). There are historical sources on which such reconstructions are based, dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, notably the Muyejebo (“Martial Arts Illustrations”) of 1610, its 1759 revision Muyeshinbo, supplemented with 12 additional fighting methods by Prince Sado who originated the term Sip Pal Ki (“Eighteen Fighting Methods”), and the renewed revision of 1790, Muyedobotongji. (Full article...)
General images -
Selected quote
Topics
- Regional origin - China - Europe - India - Indonesia - Japan - Korea - Philippines
- Unarmed techniques - Chokehold - Clinch - Footwork - Elbow strike - Headbutt - Hold - Kick - Knee strike - Joint lock - Punch - Sweep - Takedown - Throw
- Weapons - Archery - Duel - Knife fighting - Melee weapons - Shooting - Stick-fighting - Swordsmanship - Nunchaku
- Training - Kata - Practice weapon - Punching bag - Pushing hands - Randori - Sparring
- Striking - Boxing - Capoeira - Karate - Kickboxing - Muay Thai - Lethwei - Sanshou - Savate - Taekwondo - Vovinam
- Internal - Aikido - Aikijutsu - Baguazhang - Tai chi - Xing Yi Quan
- Full contact / Combat sports - Professional boxing - Professional kickboxing - Knockdown karate - Mixed martial arts - Pankration - Submission wrestling
- Self-defense / Combatives - Arnis - Bartitsu - Hapkido - Kajukenbo - Krav Maga - MCMAP - Pencak Silat - Systema - Wing Chun - Legal aspects
- Eclectic / Hybrids - American Kenpo - Chun Kuk Do - Jeet Kune Do - Shooto - Shorinji Kempo - Unifight
Categories
Things you can do
See the list on the right of Martial art related projects who organise work on these articles. You can also add your self to the list of Wikipedians by martial art
Talk page tagging
If you come across a martial arts related article, adding the project template {{WikiProject Martial arts}} to the talk page will help identify them for improvement and linking to related articles. For Boxing, Fencing, Mixed martial arts and Sumo. Use {{WikiProject Boxing}}, {{WikiProject Fencing}}, {{WikiProject Mixed martial arts}} and {{WikiProject Sumo}} respectively.
- Assessment
- If possible please assess articles you tag using guidelines (Boxing, Mixed martial arts and Sumo).
Deletions
Monitor and contribute to deletion debates (Boxing).
Find images
Wikipedia requested images of martial artists, mixed martial artists and boxers.
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus