The Most Popular Types Of Martial Arts By Each Style

Martial arts are popular all around the globe and are bound together by a common theme. Martial means related or suited to war, which is not strictly true for martial arts in the modern day, but there is no doubt that hand to hand combat was once the primary way of fighting.

In summary, martial arts is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of fighting techniques, which can be anything from weapons training to striking, grappling, and anything in between. As a result of this, there are hundreds, if not thousands of variations of fighting styles within martial arts that have been created in a specific style.

Although martial arts are primarily a physical activity, there is also an element of mental toughness and fortitude that goes alongside each type. This varies from one martial art to another, as some are more physical, some more technical and others more spiritual. Overall though, it is easy to recognize what a martial art is and isn’t from simply observing it.

Lastly, it is rare for a martial art to be a singular type alone. Whilst they all have roots within a single sub-section, there is often a lot of crossover and overlap between the styles. This has become more apparent with the increase in popularity of MMA, where practitioners combine many styles together in order to be a well rounded fighter.

Below is a list of various martial arts according to each of their styles. It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list since if every style were written here then it would be hundreds of pages long.

Striking Martial Arts Types

Karate

Country Of Origin: Japan

Date Of Origin: 17th Century

Karate is a very common entry point into the world of martial arts since these days it is mostly marketed towards children. This does not mean adults can’t practice karate, but it is just less common.

To put it simply, karate is a martial are with a heavy emphasis on striking, mostly with fists and legs. Unlike boxing, karate does not particularly seek to dodge too many strikes and focuses more on blocking techniques. These blocks are usually rigid and powerful when compared to the trapping style of Wing Chun.

Even within karate, there are many different styles and forms such as Kyokushin, Shotokan, and Goju-Ryu. All 3 have similarities to one another but differ in the emphasis placed on certain techniques, as well as the overall curriculum.

Wing Chun

Country Of Origin: Hong Kong

Date Of Origin: Early To Late 19th Century (disputed)

Wing Chun is a rather unique martial art that uses striking, but almost purely relies on counterattacking. Instead of directly striking your opponent with arms and legs, instead practitioners are encouraged to move them away from the centerline by using their own movements against them. By trapping the hands of adversaries, you are able to have much more of an open pathway to strike them whilst undefended.

Compared to other forms of martial arts, the Wing Chun style is relatively young and has only been around for a couple of hundred years. The most famous practitioners of Wing Chun are both the late Ip Man and Bruce Lee.

Muay Thai

Country Of Origin: Thailand

Date Of Origin: 16th Century

With its roots deeply embedded in Thailand, Muay Thai is not just a style of martial arts, but a way of life for many people. Commonly referred to as the art of 8 limbs, Muay Thai can be a very aggressive and brutal sport with knockouts using shins, knees, fists, and elbows. Hard sparring and training is commonplace within Muay Thai and this is not a gentle or unassuming martial art.

In a competition setting, Muay Thai will often be mixed with kickboxing to make superfights against European champions and Thai legends. This is because other than certain rules such as the use of elbows and/or knees, Muay Thai is extremely similar to other forms of kickboxing.

Boxing

Country Of Origin: Unknown

Date Of Origin: At least 3000 BC

A martial art that is popular around the globe, boxing does not have any social or cultural barriers and can be practiced by literally anyone who has 2 arms. As the sport is so simple to learn, yet impossible to master, boxing has a mass appeal to everyone who has an interest in fighting. Due to the marketing of the sport, boxing is the martial art with the most money and potential income in terms of a profession.

In more recent years, boxing has become more civilized with rulesets, regulations, and governing bodies, but people have been trying to punch each other for at least many thousands of years and quite possibly more. Even within boxing, there are various martial arts styles and sub-branches of kickboxing.

Submission & Grappling Martial Arts Types

Freestyle Wrestling

Country Of Origin: Unknown

Date Of Origin: Unknown

Men have been wrestling since the beginning of time under a variety of rulesets. If you go to any continent in the world, there will be at least one or two different strands of wrestling styles that involve both taking your opponent to the floor and pinning them there.

Freestyle wrestling is a combination of various rulesets, which allows almost any upper or lower body grip and is not too restrictive. Made an official Olympic sport in 1904, freestyle wrestling is hotly contested around the world. Wrestling combines huge amounts of athleticism, strength, conditioning, and cardiovascular abilities into a contest of both will and determination combined with technical ability. There is nothing quite like the intensity of wrestling.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Country Of Origin: Brazil

Date Of Origin: 1920’s

A relatively new martial art, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is an adaptation of both Japanese jiu-jitsu and Judo. It is also a very similar martial art to catch wrestling and various other forms of submission wrestling which are thousands of years old.

As an entirety, the majority of Brazilian jiu-jitsu fights are contested on the ground, with a heavy emphasis placed on submitting the opponent by either a choke or joint lock. Stand up skills are respected within this style, but not as widely practiced when compared to other forms of grappling styles.

BJJ came to prominence from the original UFC tournaments where it dominated all other styles. Since then, people have learned to adapt against it, and whilst it is still useful, it is no longer the be all and end all of martial arts.

Judo

Country Of Origin: Japan

Date Of Origin: 1882

Created by the legendary Jigoro Kano, Judo is mostly a stand up grappling martial arts style in which combatants aim to throw their competitor on their back. Judo also uses ground positions and submissions which are seen in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but is primarily based around throwing the opponent to the mat.

Unless used in an MMA setting, judo is a martial art that is very heavy on grip battles and exclusively uses a kimono. Some judo throws can be performed without a kimono but are far less leveraged and explosive.

Judo is almost entirely based around the theory of kuzushi which involves using your opponent’s weight and balance against them. By pretending to move forwards and then launching an attack that goes backward will catch your opponent off guard and is a theme that is used throughout the entire judo curriculum.

Aikido

Country Of Origin: Japan

Date Of Origin: Early 1900’s

Known as a very gentle martial art, Aikido has the ability to be a very soft style – should the practitioner choose to use it this way.

Once again, Aikido is primarily a standing martial art that uses the strength, weight, and balance of an attacker against them. Unlike most other forms of grappling, Aikido is not really an aggressive style and is instead a more counter-attacking and reactive art.

The founder of Aikido Morihei Ueshiba was very influenced by the spiritual side of martial arts, so aikido is not a self defense style designed to kill people. Instead, it primarily focuses on takedowns and wrist locks designed to immobilize opponents.

Self Defense Martial Arts Types

Krav Maga

Country Of Origin: Israel

Date Of Origin: 1940’s

Widely regarded as the most violent and aggressive martial art in the world, Krav Maga is a defensive system designed to keep you safe in the most hostile of environments. Trained by the IDF, Krav Maga does not really have any rules, forms or ideals when compared to traditional styles of martial arts.

Quite simply, the idea of Krav Maga is to escape with your life when confronted by an enemy. It does not really matter what you have to do, provided that you make it out alive.

For this reason, Krav Maga and other self-defense focussed martial arts are very different from other styles which have been around for hundreds or thousands of years. There is no sport style Krav Maga – and for good reason.

Systema

Country Of Origin: Russia/USSR

Date Of Origin: 1960’s

Once a rather secretive martial art used by the Russian spetsnaz, Systema has become more widely available to the western world since the opening up of the Soviet Union.

Much like Krav Maga, Systema is best suited towards a military setting. After all, the USSR was a relatively violent and dangerous place with certain regions requiring combat and survival skills. For this reason, Systema is taught with and without a variety of weapons and self defense tactics. There is no real style, formula or rules in the style of Systema. Everyone is encouraged to find what works and win combat situations in this way.

Weapon Training Martial Arts Types

Kendo

Country Of Origin: Japan

Date Of Origin: 1700’s

A modern way of training ancient sword fighting styles. Kendo is a lot safer than training during samurai times since it uses both a bamboo sword and body armour to protect practitioners from getting injured.

Kendo is also one of the few sword fighting styles other than fencing which has a points based scoring system in a sport setting and was not designed as a war-based martial art in order to kill enemies.

From a technical standpoint, Kendo has a very structured and well-built curriculum which is broken down into several areas. This is also somewhat different from other styles of weapon fighting martial arts.

Eskrima

Country Of Origin: Philippines

Date Of Origin: 1500’s

Often referred to as Kali or Arnis, Eskrima is a traditional martial art with UNESCO cultural heritage status.

A self-defense based martial art, Eskrima training is mostly performed with short daggers and knives. Although it’s not known whether this style of fighting originated within the Philippines or was bought in by outsiders, it is a very aggressive method of combat and was mostly used to stop outside forces invading the islands.

There is a huge amount of sub-styles and stand alone systems that are all somewhat different from one another as there is no global governing body compared to a martial art such as judo.

Traditional Kenjutsu

Country Of Origin: Japan

Date Of Origin: 1100’s

The godfather of almost every other sword style, traditional kenjutsu was used by the samurai of Japan. Each faction of samurai had their own styles, of which at one point there were at least several hundred.

Kenjutsu is both a spiritual and physical martial art, which depending on the sub-style may be based upon attacking your enemy in a very aggressive manner in order to kill them. Or on the other hand, it could be the perfect form of drawing your sword. Either way, kenjutsu is an extremely difficult martial art to master, regardless of which sub-style you learn.