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Abstract
In martial arts, as in dance, embodiment is of the utmost importance (Zarrilli Citation2009; Minarik Citation2014), especially in experiencing and interpreting the movements of the opponent in ground combat and responding with the body. Also in striking martial arts, the performative altercation and bodily communication with the opponent is based on corporeal sensitivity. The Covid-19 pandemic, on the other hand, has led to a widespread digitalisation in martial arts courses – a trend that will presumably continue after the pandemic, as the study by Meyer et al. (Citation2021) indicates. The results also showed that martial arts clubs and teachers have succeeded in adapting to digital teaching and practice in very different ways, e.g. through Zoom workshops or online lessons. Especially during a pandemic, when physical contact and activities are reduced to a minimum, data suggests that martial artists have become even more aware of the importance of embodiment and physical exercise. As digitalisation almost always leads to disembodiment, these dynamics seem to be opposed to each other. This development is also connected to the didactics and the training motives of martial artists, and how these are changed and/or replaced by effects of digitalisation before, during and after the pandemic. The article analyses the different methods and approaches to a digitalised martial arts teaching and practice and ventures a look into the future of digital movement practices in virtual reality.
Notes
1 Literally: ‘improvement’.
2 Literally: ‘communion of mind with mind’. Unspoken correspondence from heart to heart, like tacit understanding.
3 Literally: ‘guard – tear – detach’. Referencing to the three stages of martial arts mastery: learning the fundamentals, breaking with traditions, creating new techniques/systems through sampling and invention.
4 A medieval samurai martial art with grappling, throwing and striking techniques. A precursor to judo and aikido.
5 Short for Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It is based on judo with an emphasis on submission techniques and ground fighting.
6 A Korean martial art with grappling, throwing and striking techniques. Weapons are part of the curriculum.
7 The art of Japanese sword drawing and counterslashing in response to a (virtual) sudden attack by one or multiple aggressors from different angles.
8 A Japanese martial art using the short staff (jō).
9 An umbrella term for Japanese swordsmanship styles.
10 An umbrella term for traditionally practised ancient Japanese martial arts.
11 Short for Historical European Martial Arts. The practice of traditional, mostly medieval European martial arts, sometimes reconstructed from fighting arts manuals (especially fencing).
12 This emerged from kenjutsu as a method for secure practice, and is now an independent competitive modern sport.
13 Literally: ‘place of the way’. A training location for Japanese martial arts.
14 Traditional Japanese floor mats.
15 Also written as tai chi. A Chinese martial art, widely practised as a kinetic meditation.
16 A Chinese striking martial art.
17 Roughly: Members of the headquarters (hombu) and diaspora (kai).
18 Training against an opponent in the shape of free sparring or coordinated practice.
19 Literally: ‘no mind’. A mental state of a free flowing, unattached mind.
20 Literally: ‘remainder heart’. A mental state of unrelaxed alertness.
21 Literally: ‘there is no preemptive initiative in karate’. Generally interpreted as a demand to utilise karate only for self-defence.
22 Literally: ‘kill with one strike’. Generally interpreted as a demand to perform karate techniques as if with intent to kill.
23 Japanese martial arts.
24 Codified choreography of fight techniques in Japanese martial arts.
25 Traditional Japanese archery.
26 A weapon-based Filipino martial arts.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Martin J. Meyer
Martin Meyer is lecturer at the University of Vechta, Germany. His martial arts research follows a multidisciplinary approach, psychological, didactic and ethnographic to historiographical. After his 2012 doctoral thesis on motives in karate, Meyer accepted a research fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Kanazawa University under Professor Heiko Bittmann in 2017. For him, the central issue is what martial arts are in essence and under what conditions they are practised and for which purposes. Meyer published his major work on this topic ‘What Is Martial Arts?’ in 2020.