The History of Fighting

A young Chojun Miyagi and Juhatsu Kyoda practising what appears to be an
application of the Okinawan kata Saifa.

Title:  The Bruiser Bruis'D, Or, the Knowing-Ones Taken-In

Date:  1750

Artist:  Unknown

Infomation:  Engraving of the fight between John 'Jack' Broughton and Jack Slack. Broughton was an instrumental influence on the early boxing scene after introducing the first rules aimed at providing some safety measures for fighters. In contrast Slack, after winning this fight and become the champ, went on to become the first known person to fix prize fights; he is also credited with inventing the rabbit punch, a particularly dangerous blow to the neck or to the base of the skull.

Sun Lu-t'ang (or Sun Lutang) was a master of the internal arts and was instrumental in the invention of the syncretic art of Sun-style t'ai chi ch'uan. Born in 1860, he was also an expert in Neo-Confucian and Taoist scholarly pursuits and was a master at two other internal martial arts; xingyiquan (hsing-i ch'uan) and baguazhang (pa-kua chang). He came to t’ai chi relatively late in life but mastered it very quickly and spent much of his later career teaching t’ai chi to members of the public at the Beijing Physical Education Research Institute.

Mestre Bimba teaching a student how to do the most basic movement of capoeira, known as the ginga.

A demonstration of the Vietnamese martial art, Vovinam.

This video demonstrates a training method used by Shaolin monks to strengthen or condition their legs. Known as Iron Body, by repeatedly hitting parts of their body over a period of years they make it gradually get stronger and stronger.

Sensei Chojun Miyagi (far right) teaching his students Goju Ryu karate c.1929 in Okinawa.