Martial Arts Training
“Martial Arts” is considered by some practitioners to be a misnomer, as many schools were never “martial” in the sense of acting as professional warriors. The phrase is also of European (culturally) and Latin (linguistically) origin, literally translating to “arts of Mars”, the Romans’ god of war, even though the term is more associated with Eastern Asia fighting styles.
Martial arts are categorized in many different ways: traditional vs contemporary, armed vs unarmed, internal and external (at least within Chinese martial arts). However, when choosing which type of martial arts training you’re interested in, it may help to look at how that martial art is categorized by application or intent: is it used for self-defense, choreography, combat sports, meditation, physical fitness, etc? Oftentimes, knowing what you want to accomplish with your martial arts training will help you decide with discipline is best to start with.