Most Popular Martial Arts: 9 Defensive Forms To Learn Today

Photo by Ousmane Daouda Diarra, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

There's a vast array of martial arts styles around the world today. Martial artists or those who consider becoming one seek self-improvement, explaining their engagement in combat sport.

Some engage in it for self-defense, joining competitions, mastering self-discipline, or getting fit.

Hence...

You might wonder what the most popular martial arts have been throughout time. If so, please keep reading as we find out more about them.

Hopefully, this article helps you choose what to try.

Overview Of The Most Popular Martial Arts

Martial arts can be grouped roughly into traditional, sport-based, and weapon-based styles. Many people also train for confidence and self-defense.

They're also a serious workout. Harvard Health estimates that 30 minutes of martial arts burns about 300 to 420 calories for people weighing 125 to 185 pounds.

Identifying the most popular martial art can be subjective, as everyone has different standards of what is famous for them. Besides, there can be a well-famed combat sport for Chinese martial arts and a different one for Japanese martial arts.

Nonetheless, check out the overview of the world-renowned martial arts today and see which one suits you best.

1. Muay Thai

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If Burmese Lethwei is known as the art of nine limbs (it allows headbutts), Muay Thai is known as the art of eight limbs: fists, elbows, knees, and shins.

Muay Thai training is famously demanding, focusing on conditioning, timing, and power. It plays a big part in Thailand's tradition and culture, and people now practice it worldwide.

It is a striking-based combat sport, although the clinch, where fighters tie each other up to land knees and elbows or throw each other off balance, is a big part of it.

Before a fight, practitioners perform a traditional dance-like ritual, the wai kru ram muay, to pay respect to their teachers.

In addition to stand-up striking, various clinching techniques are part of Muay Thai's fighting techniques. Many practitioners consider Muay Thai a way of life more than a sport.

Muay Thai is a big part of Anderson Silva's fame. The former UFC middleweight champion's striking was built on taekwondo and Muay Thai.

2. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a grappling art built around takedowns, positional control, and submissions such as chokes and joint locks. Training builds conditioning, flexibility, strength, and balance.

Most mixed martial arts teams train BJJ every week alongside striking and wrestling.

BJJ had a bigger impact than any other style on early mixed martial arts competitions.

As a result, Brazilian jiu-jitsu went from anonymity to international prominence in a staggeringly short period because of its unanticipated success against other combat sport styles.

Royce Gracie, for example, won three of the first four UFC tournaments using BJJ.

Spectators were surprised that BJJ fighters, often smaller than their opponents, could win without throwing many strikes.

3. Kung Fu

Kung fu (gong fu) is an umbrella term for hundreds of Chinese martial arts styles, from Shaolin to Wing Chun and tai chi. Many styles teach philosophy alongside technique.

Kung fu films made the art famous worldwide, and the Shaolin Temple became a major tourist destination.

Bruce Lee trained in Wing Chun for years but found it incomplete as a fighting system. He went on to develop his own approach, Jeet Kune Do.

Lee advocated learning from different styles and keeping only what works for you. Traditional kung fu takes years of practice before it becomes useful in a real confrontation.

4. Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA is a modern sport, but it has an ancient ancestor. The Greek Olympics included pankration, which mixed boxing and wrestling with few rules, no time limits, and no weight classes.

In MMA, "mixed" refers to interdisciplinary competitions allowing a vast range of grappling and striking techniques. Such a style will enable you to shift from one maneuver to another in seconds, like dynamic throws, ground grappling, powerful strikes, and submission attempts.

It has also been called no-holds-barred, cage fighting, and vale tudo. Striking includes punches, kicks, knees, and elbows, while grappling includes throws, takedowns, chokes, and joint locks.

The UFC began in 1993 and made MMA famous. Many trace modern MMA's roots to the Gracie family in Brazil, who began teaching jiu-jitsu in the 1920s and held open-style "vale tudo" challenge fights.

MMA also became hugely popular in Japan through promotions like PRIDE. As MMA grew, many martial arts schools added grappling to their curricula.

5. Krav Maga

If Thailand has Muay Thai and Korea has taekwondo, Israel has Krav Maga. It is an aggressive self-defense system that uses strikes, kicks, and throws.

Imi Lichtenfeld, who grew up in Bratislava (then in Czechoslovakia), developed Krav Maga after moving to what became Israel, where it was adopted by the Israeli military.

Krav Maga is still associated with the Israel Defense Forces and is taught to civilians worldwide. It is a self-defense system, not a sport, so there are no competitions.

Unlike traditional martial arts, it was designed for real-world threats, and its training emphasizes principles rather than set techniques.

Part of Krav Maga's principles is that since no two attacks are identical, every individual can react to the same threat differently.

Furthermore, its principles rely on techniques based on instincts, addressing immediate danger, defending and counterattacking simultaneously, and that one defense maneuver can work for various attacks.

The core of its training includes deflecting incoming attacks, protecting the center line, and armed and empty-handed attacks. Krav maga practitioners must be able to attack and defend all at once.

6. Karate

Karate developed on the island of Okinawa, where local fighting methods mixed with Chinese martial arts. It spread to mainland Japan in the 1920s and then around the world.

People practice karate for self-defense, fitness, and discipline, and it's one of the easiest arts to find a school for.

Its popularity jumped with the 1984 film The Karate Kid. Who wouldn't want to learn from Mister Miyagi?

The karate style focuses on striking techniques involving punches, kicks, knee, elbow, and palm strikes. Like most martial arts, karate evolved into different types; such diversity offers every practitioner varying perspectives.

Karate uses the kyu and dan grading system, with colored belts for the kyu grades and black belt for dan grades. Students move up by showing progress in skills and behavior.

Every karate student starts with a white belt. Judo founder Jigoro Kano created the kyu and dan system, and Shotokan's founder Gichin Funakoshi adopted it for karate.

7. Judo

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Whether you choose to learn judo, wrestling, or BJJ, being physically strong and fast does not guarantee you victory. Martial arts mean more than a combination of athletic skills, such as jumping high, running fast, and heavyweight lifting.

While these skills matter, judo is about using technique and leverage to beat stronger opponents.

Founded by Jigoro Kano in 1882, judo took the throws and grappling of older jujutsu styles and turned them into a safer sport. Strikes appear only in some of its formal kata, not in competition.

By standardizing judo as a coherent system, Jigoro contributed to developing judo as a sporting phenomenon; such developments resulted in the widespread fame of judo.

Many of these techniques were already prevalent in the arts worldwide, but the standardization of the judo training syllabus made it easier to teach.

One of Kano's students, Mitsuyo Maeda, traveled the world taking on challenge matches. He eventually settled in Brazil, where he taught Carlos Gracie and helped give rise to Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Since judo is a Japanese martial art, Ju, which judo and jiu-jitsu came from, is a Japanese word meaning soft or gentle. Therefore, many practitioners of the traditional arts refer to judo and BJJ as gentle art, although some would define Ju as flexible or yielding.

8. Taekwondo

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Taekwondo is a Korean art best known for its fast, high, and spinning kicks. Most martial arts specialize: judo focuses on throws and grappling, BJJ on ground grappling, and boxing on punching, while taekwondo emphasizes kicking.

Korea has older kicking games such as taekkyeon, but modern taekwondo was shaped in the 1940s and 1950s by masters who had studied karate. General Choi Hong Hi is credited with the name, adopted in 1955, and taekwondo became an Olympic sport in 2000.

It still uses hand techniques, but it's one of the few arts that focuses so heavily on kicks above the waist.

Practitioners wear a uniform called a dobok. Many dobok tops are V-neck pullovers instead of the wrap-around jacket of a karate gi.

9. Boxing

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Boxing is many fighters' choice for striking. Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do and Krav Maga both borrow from boxing.

Boxing looks simple, but its strategy runs deep. A boxer has to think a few moves ahead, a bit like a chess player.

As chess players sacrifice a piece to obtain a positional advantage, boxers use feints and gambits to deliver a knockout blow. Physical conditioning is crucial in boxing, but psychological preparedness is as important.

Being mentally prepared for a boxing match means having the ability to think clearly and maintain self-control. In addition to punching, boxing likewise develops strong footwork and core muscles.

Boxers also work hard to hide when they're hurt or tired, so opponents can't read them.

Knock-Out Point: Tough times require tough means to fend off wrongdoers! Sometimes, you even have to employ deadly tactics to evade harm and protect yourself. Here are a few martial arts forms that many consider lethal -- Deadliest Martial Arts.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which martial arts is the most popular?

There's no single official ranking, and the answer depends on whether you count participants, fans, or schools. Boxing, karate, taekwondo, judo, BJJ, and MMA all have huge followings worldwide.

Karate and judo are especially popular in Japan, kung fu and wushu in China, and taekwondo in Korea. In the US, taekwondo, karate, BJJ, and boxing gyms are easy to find.

Who is the top-ranking martial artist worldwide?

There's no official ranking of martial artists, but actor and martial artist Bruce Lee is often called the most influential. Bruce Lee was a Chinese American martial artist whose philosophy shaped Jeet Kune Do, his eclectic approach to fighting.

What martial art is the easiest and the hardest to learn?

Many practitioners find Brazilian jiu-jitsu one of the hardest to master. Earning a black belt commonly takes around a decade of consistent training.

Contrarily, boxing is one of the most straightforward combat sports, as you only need to throw punches and learn proper footwork. Further, anyone can engage in boxing, but it can also be competitive and a popular sport that demands timing and precision.

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Conclusion

Martial arts are still surrounded by myths, so try a few classes before you commit. The best style is the one you'll keep training in.

Pick a qualified instructor, start slowly, and wear the right protective gear. May this serve as your handy guide in choosing among today's most popular martial arts.

Sources

• Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights, Harvard Health Publishing
• History, Japan Karate Association
• Pankration, Hellenic Ministry of Culture