Which Martial Arts Can Be Considered Sports?
The google definition of a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment“. It makes sense then that people are not too sure about whether martial arts are considered sports. Martial arts definitely involve physical exertion and skill on an individual level. So from this perspective, they certainly look a lot like sports.
However, competing for entertainment is something which is more of a grey area. Some martial arts do not have any competitions at all since they don’t really have a ruleset with scores. Secondly, many martial arts do not compete for entertainment since they do not have much of a following. At one end of the spectrum, a martial art such as judo is an olympic sport. It can fill stadiums at large events with people from all walks of life coming to watch. On the other hand, a martial art such as krav maga does not have a spectator following, neither does it have rules or competitions.
Therefore, there is no real concrete answer whether martial arts are a sport. In short, the answer depends on which martial art you are talking about. Not only this, but it also depends on the context. A grappling match on the street cannot really be considered a sport, however in a gym with a referee and a scoreboard it certainly can.
Martial Arts As Sports – Good Or Bad?
At their most pure, martial arts are not really sports, but are instead physical and mental disciplines which involve physical combat and violence. Due to combat being a competitive individual pursuit, this can create the opportunity for a martial art to become a sport.
By becoming a sport, a martial art must have a very concise and clear rulebook about which techniques, grips, holds, strikes and uniforms are both legal and illegal.
On the one hand, moving a martial art in to a sporting setting can be very positive since it attracts new viewers. It also helps unify factions under a single ruleset and leaves little argument about who is the best at each said martial art.
Conversley, creating a sport around a martial art can be terrible and destructive for the culture and self defense aspect of each discipline. Rules will always be gamed by the best athletes who want to gain an advantage over their opponent. This causes events such as excessive stalling and tactics which you would never have previously seen in a martial art which was created for self defense. In addition to this, governing bodies of sports can become overreaching, corrupt and buerocratic. These things are never positive for a martial art which was designed to help people defend themselves from physical attackers.
Breakdown Of Each Martial Art By Sport
Judo – Almost all pure sport
In terms of martial arts as sports, Judo is as polarised as it gets. As judo is in the Olympic games, it has a very structured and clear ruleset about what can and cannot be done. The scoring system is very simple and easy to understand. Not only this, but judo is also heavily geared towards being a spectator sport. Rules of judo have changed over the years and now aim to heavily penalize stalling by banning double collar grips and removing any grabbing of the pants whilst both judoka are standing.
Even before judo was an Olympic sport, Jigoro Kano had created a syllabus and banned various dangerous moves from the traditional martial art. This is likely what created the modern path for judo and put it ahead of other martial arts in terms of becoming a recognized sport.
Karate – Mostly pure sport
Karate is also thought of as a sport, which is not 100% true. Granted Olympic point fighting karate is a sport, as is kata. Also, small promotions such as Karate Combat have standardised rules which are similar to that of kickboxing.
As karate is split in to many different variations, it could be argued that there are many different types of sport karate. Many of these variations have their own kind of tournaments with rules which are very similar to one another – but never the same. This is an example of a martial art which has become fractured as a result of becoming more popular and watered down.
Lastly, many people practise karate from purely a self defense perspective. This shows that karate can be a sport, or a pure martial art, depending entirely on how you are training.
Muay Thai – Mixed with competitive sport
Although Muay Thai is extremely brutal, the art of 8 limbs can also be considered a sport. Thai boxers fight many times per year under a ruleset which has changed in some ways, but still remains true to its roots.
Muay Thai has not been softened or watered down to make it more accessible to westerners. The same kicks, knees, elbows and punches are used that have always been used. Despite this, Muay Thai still has an international audience that is interested in seeing both the technical ability of fighters, as well as pure knockout power.
This does not mean that Muay Thai is useless for self defence – quite the opposite. Since Muay Thai is still one of the few martial arts that is a sport without losing any of its core principles, its sport element still translates over to regular combat situations.
Taekwondo – Pure sport
Perhaps the martial art that has suffered the most due to regulation and rules as a sport is Taekwondo. There is nothing stopping gyms training Taekwondo as a pure martial art, but the reality is that almost all do not.
Instead of being a striking art with brutal matches like Muay Thai, taekwondo is more of an Olympic sport than anything you will find in a kickboxing ruleset. Due to the influence of outside spectators, “excessive force” will get a fighter disqualified – despite knocking their opponent out cold. Taekwondo matches look very strange due to the lack of power generated, with full attention focussed on scoring points rather than doing any damage to an opponent.
This has left Taekwondo in a strange situation of becoming almost exclusively a sport and almost not a martial art at all.
Krav Maga – Not a sport at all
One martial art which is clearly not a sport is Krav Maga. The Israeli self-defence system is designed to keep you safe in the most extreme environments and situations. Therefore, having some kind of structured competition would be disasterous since there are no rules and competitors would be seriously injuring each other very regularly.
Krav Maga is pretty much as far away from a sport as you can get in terms of martial arts. It is adaptive and no 2 scenarios are the same. Whilst you may have a striking or grappling exchange which is not too disimilar from another martial art, the next day you may be training how to disarm knives and guns. Obviously it is best for everyone if weapons are kept away from sports as a general rule (with sports such as fencing being the exception).
Wing Chun – Not a sport at all
As Wing Chun is a martial art that is focussed on counter attacking and knocking an opponent off their center line – it is not really suitable to be a sport. Whilst Wing Chun has effectively been used in MMA by greats such as Anderson Silva. This has been as a pure block and counter attack – not an overall fight strategy.
Training Wing Chun is still very traditional, with dummies regularly being used. Of course, if a partner is available, they will be used as a moving, but non-resisting dummy too.
Therefore, we can see a variety of sports and martial arts using Wing Chun, despite Wing Chun not being a sport itself. As there is no real governing body, nor any notable Wing Chun tournaments, it is likely that Wing Chun will remain a pure martial art for the forseeable future.
Boxing – A very successful and brutal sport
There is absolutely no doubt that boxing is a sport. The prize money and spectacle alone show that not only is boxing a sport, it has been extremely successful at marketing this striking art to the general population.
Boxing has an extremely easy ruleset to understand and does not require a spectator to have trained before in order to enjoy it. Obviously boxing has a lot of setbacks, such as corruption and shady characters involved with the inner workings of promoted fights. This does not take away the fact that it is certainly a martial art that has excelled within a sporting context.
Boxing matches can be technical, or they can be fast and brutal. Despite the spectacle that high level boxing matches have become, it is still an extremely popular sport for the aforementioned reasons.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – Almost all pure sport
Once viewed as the posterboy of self defense, BJJ is now clearly on the fully fledged path to being a sports based martial art. Although competition Brazilian jiu-jitsu is not quite watered down as other sports martial arts such as Taekwondo, it has still lost some of its edge as a self defense discipline.
Particularly in gi competitions, it is relatively easy to gain the scoring system of BJJ by scoring early advantages or points and then stalling from a neutral position until the time runs out. Since penalties are seldom used consistently, at the lower belts of BJJ, it is easy to avoid 3 penalties since a match only lasts 5 or 6 minutes depending on competitors age.
Of course, much like other martial arts, it is possible to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu in self defense only. However, the majority of gyms now train as a sport since competitions have begun to start paying prize money. In turn, this attracts the attention of athletes and ways to game rulesets.
Wrestling & Other Grappling – Almost all pure sport
Wrestling is popular all over the world. If you live in the USA, you will already be familiar with the college and Olympic setup since it is a fundamental feature of almost every school.
Even in other countries, wrestling and/or other grappling disciplines are popular. In Mongolia, traditional Bokh is used, Greco-Roman in parts of Europe and the Sambo style grappling in the East.
One thing all of these grappling styles have in common is that they are all performed in a sports format. Even in the grasslands of Mongolia, there are rules, regulations and structured matches. There might not be a large financial prize outside of America, but there is still a lot of interest in wrestling from a specators point of view, as well as regional, national and international competition.
Aikido – Not a sport
Definitely not a sport martial art. Aikido has a lot of critics due to its perceived lack of realism and consistent focus on small joint manipulation. One thing Aikido is not however – is a sport. There is no real organization or Aikido competitions due to its lack of aggressive intent and lack of rules.
The vast majority of Aikido throws and submissions are counter attacks based on the movement of an opponent. When two opposing forces are both looking for a counter attack, an Aikido match is very boring to watch. This is also contrary to how Aikido is trained in the dojo with one person always being a Uke in order to improve your training partners technique. As such, Aikido is not a sport and is still very much a traditional martial art. Unless there is a rule system created in the future, this is unlikely to change.
Hapkido – Not a sport
It could be argued that Hapkido is essentially traditional MMA. With a variety of different techniques and situations being used within Hapkido, there is no official rulebook or competition format. Hapkido masters will teach their students striking, stand up grappling, as well as floor situations, which is why it has so many similarities with MMA.
As Hapkido is so traditional and non-mainstream, it has largely been ignored by most people. Anyone wanting to train a variety of martial arts and styles will likely choose an MMA gym over a traditional Hapkido gym. Conversely, anyone wanting to train a specific style such as boxing or wrestling, will choose an appropriate gym for either of these martial arts.
As of today, Hapkido is in relative obscurity and should certainly not be considered a sport.
