a lingering point of contention found in today's world of martial arts is the bait between which one is better traditional martial arts or modern arts typically what you find in mma now we already covered the whole debate between which one was better in a previous episode but i think a big wild card in context falls on the definition we choose to apply to the word traditional so what exactly is a traditional martial art and which disciplines fall under that banner is karate a traditional martial art what about taekwondo muay thai brazilian jiu jitsu kung fu kickboxing which of these arts are we going to classify under the moniker traditional arts what does it mean for an art to be traditional or not most of the martial artists in the world consider what they practice more or less a traditional system but this term is quite controversial especially applied to martial arts people define traditional as belonging to or relating to the tradition which is transmitted through it that it follows the ideas rules or customs of the past we could define a traditional martial art as a martial art of a past transmitted from generation to generation in this sense many masters consider a martial art traditional in that it has at its foundation the transmission and preservation of the knowledge of the past but honestly that's just a bunch of pedantic word salad if we stick to such a textbook definition of tradition then congratulations we've answered the question all marched on traditional martial arts but the truth is this is more of a fluid concept and several factors make it difficult to establish a clear criteria that differentiate the traditional martial arts from those that are not the uninitiated will probably focus their attention on the superficial aspects of an art such as required uniform and patches traditional belt ranking systems the use of foreign vocabulary the greedy rituals etc and what about the systems that start from a specific geographical location and have spread in recent years throughout the world such as brazilian jiu-jitsu or krav maga can or will they be considered traditional see these questions and many more like it make it very difficult if not almost impossible to distinguish traditional martial arts from those that are not or at least establish a clear line of division in reality there is probably not a line but a wide band of fuzzy edges in which traditional and non-traditional merge and are inseparable it is very clear that there are very different points of views for example let's say that we define traditional martial arts as those that utilize a specific traditional uniform such as a ghee and color belt systems foreign terms to use in the curriculum and formalize greetings in school etiquette okay well that easily applies to karate kempo judo aikido taekwondo and even more exotic arts such as volvo nom from vietnam okay that makes sense until we point out that brazilian jiu jitsu also uses uniform geese and belt ranking systems and they even sometimes really use japanese names as counterparts to the techniques that they've taken from judo but if you were to ask mma practitioners most of them would probably tell you that bjj is not a traditional art but a more modern contemporary fighting method why would they say that the most common reason i hear given is because mma arts are purely fight focused and don't spend time in kata or philosophy but rather on competitive fighting okay fair point that i would give to bjj they don't practice kata and the focus of the training is actual hands-on resistance fighting and rolling the same thing also applies to boxing wrestling and kickboxing but what about judo judo is very popular in mixed martial arts for its competitive ability and is in fact a sport version of a grappling system devised from an older traditional jiu jitsu but yet it also established the traditions of the dogi in the belt ranking system so it seems to kind of have one foot in each category but look back on older karate from okinawa it's very different than what we see in karate today original okinawan karate was very self-defense focused and had grappling throws joint locks and destructions along with the powerful strikes that characterize the art but karate is a good example because we could split this even further into another perspective perhaps traditional martial arts refer to older disciplines versus newer ones the comparison between okinawan karate and japanese karate highlights the differences between the eras of the empty hands for example in japanese karate formality and honor is extremely important and they often take a regimented approach to cultural activities extending to the martial arts there is a strict sense of etiquette and japanese dojo's for example the requirement of bowing before and after class and in response to the instruction from the sensei it is also considered bad form to question the instructor or the technique the japanese systems tend to be much more regimented focused on the specific technical details of a technique and taught in such a way to be taught to a large group of students at once uniformity is held in high regard in contrast the okinawan systems tend to be much less formal classes are smaller and instructors are inclined to give individual attention to each student and even go so far as to tailor the art to the individual questions and understanding are more acceptable as it's more about understanding why you're doing what you're doing more than simply making it uniform and proper japanese karate is also far more competitive focused than okinawan and in many ways leaves behind a lot of curriculum of the original karate systems gichin funikoshi the father of shotokan karate and the man who popularized karate japan adopted the ghee and belt ranking system developed by friend and judo founder gigoro kano many people think of the bell system as an ancient ranking system that's been around for centuries but it's a contemporary addition to the martial arts interestingly enough the older traditional okinawan arts didn't have a ranking system but later the influence worked backwards and many okinawan schools adopted the gehan bell system once its popularity spread in japan so in the topic of what defines the system as traditional or not karate is an interesting study because you can see evidence of that overlap there is a fairly clear division between okinawan and japanese karate but there is also a lot of cross-influence with each other and when it comes to comparing it to mma karate as a whole often gets shoved into the traditional martial arts category so is there a specific line that we can draw on the sand to define what is traditional or not is it based on philosophy lineage age and since we're on the topic of japan let's take a look at how they attempted to distinguish the traditional classic arts from modern systems in 1868 emperor meiji restored proper imperial rule to japan formally transforming japan into a new era of industry and western influence this is known as the meiji restoration during this time it was declared that the older martial arts before this time be classified as corey bujutsu or older martial arts this includes many of the ancient arts and the arts of the samurai arts that were developed or formally established after the meiji restoration were referred to as agenda budo or new martial arts okay so there we have it it's settled 1868. anything before this is traditional and anything after is modern right if it were only that easy in that clear cut black belt magazine had an expert pointed out how silly it was to make such a distinction they asked does this mean if a japanese martial art was created on december 31 1867 it should be classified as a corey art while a similar martial art created on january 1st 1868 should be considered modern when put into that perspective it does seem a bit trivial to be honest to argue over whether a martial art is traditional or not is a trivial debate at this foundation the distinction becomes less clear when you change the context of the art let's take muay thai as an example muay thai is one of the most popular arts scene in mma and in the context of the ring in competitive fighting it is considered streamlined and purely combat focused but that's in the ring you know that's in the octagon as we recently talked about in the episode the traditions of muay thai the art is practiced much differently when isolated on its own it was derived from much older battlefield artist muay bharan and has a heavy infusion of thai culture interwoven with its training fighters not only learn techniques but they place great importance on prayer and ceremonial head pieces as well as put a lot of effort into developing ritualistic dances to be performed before a fight for some it is considered the traditional art due to the weight it has within the entire thai culture how from a young age boys and girls want to be a champion in the art the respect the seniors get for these practices and how it represents a great deal of thailand's history if we stick to the definition of tradition as a practice or knowledge pass from one generation to another with an important amount of spirituality then yes we can consider muay thai traditional martial arts so to get right down to the root of the issue the only reason this debate really seems to be any forefront discussion is disparage older systems for those that we see using mma competitions i think people tend to get so tied up into which art is better versus what they can use their chosen arts for to make themselves better and as i stated in several videos this year one of our main goals in this channel is to unite the martial arts community and erase the boundaries we use to disparage each other to open doors and show you some positive aspects of other arts you may be able to appreciate even if you do not choose to use it as your own but if we had to take a stance to pick a definition here as to how we would classify a traditional martial art i would like to refer to a quote i saw somebody post online citing their sources blackboard magazine and that said traditional martial arts refer to the martial art that is rooted in the tenets set forth by the original master of the art subsequent masters are chosen to carry on the traditional teachings of that particular art often the traditional martial art is rooted in the country's history as such traditional martial arts training implies that the students uphold the philosophical principles of the art and practices techniques in a similar fashion to the founders or in their own styles natural progression so i would agree with that i would say a traditional martial art follows a specific path in lineage as well as codifying a specific set curriculum a formal syllabus and possible a ranking or hierarchy system i also believe that a traditional system places equal focus on its philosophy academic studies and personal growth as it does on strict fighting and combat i think that if we can generalize to that broad definition it's a little bit easier to classify but the truth is does it even really matter just because something is older or newer or one focuses on fighting more than another doesn't make it better we evolved from hand-to-hand combat battlefield days and in our modern age as many reasons as we can think of to join the martial arts and for as many goals that we might want to set there are just as many solutions out there whether you want to be a cage fighter or learn self-defense or into tournaments or recover from an illness or injury or you just want to learn history then there are plenty of arts out there for you what really matters is that you know specifically what you want do your research check some places out and then find a school that feels right it's about making choices and using the martial arts for what they were ultimately intended for making a better you so i'm just curious how would you distinguish traditional martial arts which arts do you feel are best for your goals let us know in the comments down below and thanks for watching you