MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES - An Academic Journal of the Martial Arts (UPDATE 08/21/2015)

[leatherneck]

in 12 yrs this is the most interesting thing I have read here.

and im still movie watchin.

you filled my month, thx sir. sincerely.

 

[chickenluver]

I wanna be like Bullitt when I grow up

 

[SuperNerd]

Thanks Bullit will read a bit, not in condition to put down some serious reading atm. I will be back, for sure. This is interesting

I wanna be like Bullitt when I grow up

He's probably the best poster I've ever come across during my time here.

 

[rE]

This is exactly the field I would like to go into. Thanks for posting this.

 

[Jin Akutsu]

Wow, great information TS. Bookmarking those links for sure.

 

[seatea]

Here a few sites with related material.

Global Training Report.
Mixed Martial Arts History.
Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences.

 

[Bullitt68]

I'm honestly stunned at the number of views this thread has gotten. I hope the people who have been coming in here have enjoyed the reading material I've posted. As this Martial Arts Studies stuff is just getting off of the ground, there isn't much to report at the moment. Over the past several weeks, I've been discussing a lot of stuff with Paul Bowman, the leading Martial Arts Studies scholar and my PhD supervisor. He's been doing a lot to get UK funding for various conferences over the next couple of years (including one on fight choreography in action movies which I'll be helping to set-up for late next year ) as well as putting the finishing touches on his Martial Arts Studies book for which I previously provided a link and which I encourage anybody interested in this stuff to remember to check out when it comes out in May.

On his Kung Fu Tea blog, Benjamin Judkins has posted a few interesting write-ups, one explicitly dealing with Martial Arts Studies as a scholarly endeavor (which you can read HERE) and then two related essays dealing with the reasons why certain martial arts styles are so popular and financially successful (the first of which is HERE and the second of which is HERE).

And then, IMO the coolest of all (cue shameless plug :redface, I recently had published a big essay on realism in martial arts movies where I focus in particular on the masterful work of Sensei Seagal as well as a brief discussion of the Bourne movies (anyone interested can read my essay HERE). Fair warning, my essay is very long and heavy on film theory (it was originally written as my Master's thesis at the University of Chicago, so I was pulling out all the stops) but it's broken up into two parts, so anyone who doesn't want to read through the theory stuff can just skip to Part 2, which is where I get into specific analyses of the fight scenes in Seagal's films and where I close with an analysis of the fight scene in the U.S. Embassy near the beginning of The Bourne Identity.

I'm sure those interested will also get a kick out of seeing a clip from Bas' legendary street fighting instructional in there (not the "danga da danga da dang" clip, though :icon_chee) which was generously uploaded to Youtube for me by the tech wiz super-mod, Tachy, as well as gifs of the various sequences I deal with made for me by the king of the gif reply, mikehunt, and kung fu film aficionado, Francis Rossi. They all told me I didn't have to thank them, but as I closed my essay by giving thanks to the people at the University of Chicago who provided insights during the writing process, I figured I might as well slip in at least a general shout-out, which reads as follows: "Lastly, I would like to thank the members of the Sherdog Mixed Martial Arts Forums who helped provide the visual aids used in this essay." If I accomplish nothing else in my academic career, I can at least claim to be the first film scholar to reference Sherdog in their work :wink:

Enjoy.

 

[Francis Rossi]

Can't be crediting people by their forum names

 

[BisexualMMA]

Bookmarking to check out these articles when time permits. Looks interesting.

I will have to come up with some brilliant suggestion or academic theory of martial arts, in order to dare you to acknowledge me by name in an article.

 

[Bullitt68]

I will have to come up with some brilliant suggestion or academic theory of martial arts, in order to dare you to acknowledge me by name in an article.

 

[315MMAFighter]

LmAO, awesome

 

[gevoudane]

I could have sworn the ref spoke to both and only had them resume asking talking to them. If Ken said he tapped why resume the match?

No problem. Thanks for the positive feedback.



I said I hate the myth that he denied tapping because at no point did he ever do that. He tapped, Royce let go, the ref didn't see it and told them to continue at which point Royce jumped back onto Ken's back. Ken had no idea what was going on, grabbed Royce's leg when he felt him come back on top of him, and then when he realized what was going on and the ref asked if he tapped, he confirmed that he had and said as much directly to Royce and in the post-fight interview.

And yet people still go around acting like Ken was trying to pull a fast one.

 

[Andy Capp]

I like the content so far, but I have some advice.

I think you need someone with a good knowledge of the scientific method who can educate all you artsy types if you want to continue to turn this into a serious field of study (I'm not volunteering.)

On one hand, you need to take yourselves less seriously, in the sense that a lot of the writing I have seen so far is overly verbose and tends to belabor points, but on the other hand, you need to take yourselves more seriously in the sense that instead of trying to answer the question, should we exist, accept it as a given and continue to develop this science you have labeled Martial Arts Studies. I don't see how any sufficiently complete study of martial arts could avoid being multi-disciplinary. Like any fairly large topic, it may have a requisite base of knowledge that may touch upon lots of different disciplines but will nevertheless have its sub-categories and specialties.

The scientific method forms a basis for objective study. I don't see a need to relegate Martial Arts Studies to arts graduates. Physiology and physics have an equal role to harmony of body and mind. It will help you better formulate a response to those who may criticize your work. Just a thought.

[edit] or I may be full of shit. Either way:

I say, give yourselves some credit and stop worrying about whether others will take you seriously. Your work will speak for itself so just do the best you can.

[edit] Anyway, if you just published something pompous sounding like the American Journal of Martial Arts Studies, you could probably get universities all over the place buying it just to be cool.

 

[Bullitt68]

I appreciate the thoughtful reply, Rebound. You sound like someone who has spent their fair share of time in universities. To the points you brought up, I would respond as follows:

I think you need someone with a good knowledge of the scientific method who can educate all you artsy types if you want to continue to turn this into a serious field of study (I'm not volunteering.)

Why does "serious field of study" mean science? Or, to put the question another way, what reasons are there to refuse to consider anything that isn't science serious?

On one hand, you need to take yourselves less seriously, in the sense that a lot of the writing I have seen so far is overly verbose and tends to belabor points

Just out of curiosity, what are some examples of writing you found to be "overly verbose"? Whatever your answer, given your slant towards science, I imagine the literary nature of much humanistic scholarship, with its emphasis on rhetorical cultivation, will invariably strike you as overly verbose and belaboring points, but as humanistic inquiry is more a matter of philosophical reflection than it is dry rundowns of data gathering, this may simply be an unbridgeable divide between different orientations.

That's not to say that no fruit can be borne from conversations between humanities scholars and scientific scholars. It's just to say that one side shouldn't be forced to turn into the other.

instead of trying to answer the question, should we exist, accept it as a given and continue to develop this science you have labeled Martial Arts Studies.

First, nobody has labeled Martial Arts Studies a science - in fact, I would expect most involved to reject that label - and second, interrogating one's own position and one's own presuppositions is crucial to scholarly inquiry (or at least it should be) while accepting anything as given can potentially leave one blind to biases, logical holes, etc.

I don't see how any sufficiently complete study of martial arts could avoid being multi-disciplinary.

Nor do the people involved, but just as there are a lot of different types of mixed martial artists, there can potentially be a lot of different types of Martial Arts Studies scholars, and conversations about how best to proceed seem like a good idea to have at the start.

The scientific method forms a basis for objective study. I don't see a need to relegate Martial Arts Studies to arts graduates. Physiology and physics have an equal role to harmony of body and mind. It will help you better formulate a response to those who may criticize your work. Just a thought.

With respect to your apprehension regarding the relegation of Martial Arts Studies to arts graduates, I personally believe it would be equally problematic to subsume everything under the general heading of science. This is not to say that science has no place in Martial Arts Studies, but it is absolutely to say that there is no reason why it should be granted a priori dominion.

 

[mikezismike]

cool info shared m8!

 

[betyourlife82]

Can't believe I haven't seen this until now, much appreciated

 

[meta0747]

Nice, Thank You!

I study Martial Arts in all forms as well, its what led Me to Sherdog in 2002...

Blessings

 

[Andy Capp]

I appreciate the thoughtful reply, Rebound. You sound like someone who has spent their fair share of time in universities. To the points you brought up, I would respond as follows:



Why does "serious field of study" mean science? Or, to put the question another way, what reasons are there to refuse to consider anything that isn't science serious?



Just out of curiosity, what are some examples of writing you found to be "overly verbose"? Whatever your answer, given your slant towards science, I imagine the literary nature of much humanistic scholarship, with its emphasis on rhetorical cultivation, will invariably strike you as overly verbose and belaboring points, but as humanistic inquiry is more a matter of philosophical reflection than it is dry rundowns of data gathering, this may simply be an unbridgeable divide between different orientations.

That's not to say that no fruit can be borne from conversations between humanities scholars and scientific scholars. It's just to say that one side shouldn't be forced to turn into the other.



First, nobody has labeled Martial Arts Studies a science - in fact, I would expect most involved to reject that label - and second, interrogating one's own position and one's own presuppositions is crucial to scholarly inquiry (or at least it should be) while accepting anything as given can potentially leave one blind to biases, logical holes, etc.



Nor do the people involved, but just as there are a lot of different types of mixed martial artists, there can potentially be a lot of different types of Martial Arts Studies scholars, and conversations about how best to proceed seem like a good idea to have at the start.



With respect to your apprehension regarding the relegation of Martial Arts Studies to arts graduates, I personally believe it would be equally problematic to subsume everything under the general heading of science. This is not to say that science has no place in Martial Arts Studies, but it is absolutely to say that there is no reason why it should be granted a priori dominion.

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I overstepped in several areas. I have not had time to properly form the response you deserve. I am replying to let you know I will come back to this when I have some more time.

 

[One Time]

I haven't been on for awhile and was pleasantly surprised to see this sticky. I am also a lifelong practitioner of 'the arts' and have studied the history and philosophy of multiple styles. Thank you for posting this, I look forward to spending some time looking through your journal.

 

[Stump]

bookmarked.