Though most of us have grown up watching movie of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, who were masters of Kung Fu, here we take a look at the commonly practiced martial arts in India.
Popular Martial Arts practiced in India
While Martial Arts is not as commonly practiced or watched as the other sports, there is a significant population in India that engages in various forms of Martial Arts.
It’s very common for kids to enroll in judo/Karate classes in their spare time, as part of extra-curricular activities
Karate, Judo, Taekwondo, Boxing, Thai-Boxing, Kick-Boxing, and even MMA are some of the martial arts that have followers in India.
Though children (and even some women) are most likely to opt for karate classes that teaches the art of self-defense, adults are likely to opt for kick-boxing sessions.
Read: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) gaining popularity in India
Health Benefits
Few benefits of registering your kids for martial art activities such as Judo lessons include:
- Children remain focused for the duration exercises, which is a skill that will help in other areas of their life as well.
- Improvement in performance depends on your kids ability to remember and repeat certain actions to precision, multiple times, which translates into a better memory for your kids.
- A child who practises Judo or Karate learns to improve from his/her mistakes in a controlled and friendly setting, with no bullying or name calling.
- Martial arts such as Judo and Karate greatly improves mobility and enhances physical fitness, both of which are important in up-keeping a robust mental and physical health for your kids.
Activities like kick-boxing are more suited for adults; these include high intensity workouts that are offered as a group exercise by several gyms and health clubs in India. Its fun, burns good amount of calories, and can be a good alternative to jogging or regular gymming.
These activities not only requires physical stamina but also mental alertness and hand-eye coordination, which means these offer a complete mind and body workout.
Here are some more benefits:
- Develops strength, flexibility, mental agility and stamina
- You can also learn some self-defense skills
- Activities such as Kick-boxing can burn up to 800 to 1,200 calories in an hour
- Variations of kick-boxing (known as cardio kick-boxing) combines kicks, punches and aerobics to provide overall physical toning/workout
- Most of these are offered as group exercises, and you really don’t have to fight against an opponent.
Kalaripayattu and Kushti / Pehlwani (Wrestling)
Kalaripayattu is one of the oldest forms of martial arts practiced in India. It is also well known (compared to other forms practiced in India) beacuse a few film actors (such as Vidyut Jamwal) are trained in this art. Originated in Kerala (South India) , this martial art focuses on fitness of the body and mind.
Read: Did Kung Fu really originate from Kalaripayattu?
Kushti is also one of oldest wrestling sports in India, more cmommonly practiced in North and Central India. It focuses on body building and body strength.
There are other Indian martial arts as well but they are not as well-known as these Kushti and Kalaripayattu.
However, the more commonly practiced martial arts in India are the ones that have originated in China and Japan, such as Judo, Karate, Kung fu, etc.
Kendo (Japanese Martial Art) in India
Although Kendo looks more like a sport, its considered a modern Japanese martial art (originating around the 18th century). Kendo combines martial arts practices with strenuous physical activity, making it physically and mentally challenging It is also quite noisy, because a Kendo player screams to call upon his fighting spirit when striking (termed as ‘Kiai’).
Its earliest practitioners were soldiers who replaced metal swords with bamboo ones for safety. The Mumbai Kendo Club is a community dedicated to practising the Japanese martial art of kendo.
“We use bamboo swords called shinai, instead of an actual sword, and put on a metal armour called bogu to protect our heads and bodies,” says a young practitioner in Mumbai, who works here as a management consultant.
How are the points scored in a a Kendo match?
Kendo is an activity that combines martial arts practices with strenuous sport-like physical activity.
In a typical kendo match, points are scored by a thrust to the throat, or strikes made towards target points on the head, wrists, or body. The player shouts out the strike points, such as head (‘men’ in Japanese), wrists (‘kote’) and body (‘do’).
Players are ranked based on how long they have played the game: so a beginning Dan (Dan means ‘level’ in Japanese) is the lowest rank, followed by first Dan, second Dan, and so on till the seventh Dan.
While baseball and soccer are quite popular in Japan, and judo is the better known Japanese export, kendo still has a considerable following in Japan.
Muay Thai
Muay Thai is a popular combat sport of Thailand and is fast becoming popular all over the world. It uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques, and looks similar to kick-boxing.
Muay Thai can be a great addition to your workout routine, as it requires lots of strength and agility. Here are some advanced Muay Thai techniques that you can incorporate in your exercise routine right away.
Many techniques used in Muay Thai are often seen in Mixed Artial Arts (MMA), such as punches, elbows, clinch fighting, high kicks, leg kicks and knees. Bollywood actress Nargis Fakhri took a 12-day martial arts boot camp in Phuket (Thailand) to prepare for one of her Bollywood projects.
Leave a Reply