Portal:Martial arts

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The Martial Arts Portal

United States Marine practicing martial arts, 2008

Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the preservation of a nation's intangible cultural heritage. (Full article...)

Although the earliest evidence of martial arts goes back millennia, the true roots are difficult to reconstruct. Inherent patterns of human aggression which inspire practice of mock combat (in particular wrestling) and optimization of serious close combat as cultural universals are doubtlessly inherited from the pre-human stage and were made into an "art" from the earliest emergence of that concept. Indeed, many universals of martial art are fixed by the specifics of human physiology and not dependent on a specific tradition or era.

Specific martial traditions become identifiable in Classical Antiquity, with disciplines such as shuai jiao, Greek wrestling or those described in the Indian epics or the Spring and Autumn Annals of China. (Full article...)

Selected articles

Selected biography

Michael Gomez
Michael Gomez (born Michael Armstrong; 21 June 1977) is a former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2009. He was born to an Irish Traveller family in Longford, Ireland, spending his early years in Dublin before moving to London and later Manchester, England, with his family at the age of nine. In boxing he was affectionately known as "The Predator", "The Irish Mexican" and "The Mancunian Mexican".

Despite finishing his career fighting in the lightweight division, Gomez is more notable for his fights at featherweight and super-featherweight. During his career he amassed a number of regional championships, most significantly the British super-featherweight title twice, from 1999 to 2004. He also held the WBU super featherweight title from 2004 to 2005.

Gomez, who has been compared to Johnny Tapia, has lived a turbulent life and was often involved in controversial fights. In Gomez's initial matches he suffered a number of losses to journeyman opposition but then went on a run of victories which stretched for almost four years. Of his 17 fights between February 2001 and March 2008, 16 ended in knockouts. Concerns arose about his drinking and failure to adhere to his diet and training regimes after a loss to László Bognár in 2001. Gomez appeared to be "back on track" in 2003, with his high-profile fight against Edinburgh-based fighter Alex Arthur for the British and WBA Inter-Continental super-featherweight titles, which Gomez won by knocking out Arthur in the fifth round.

In 2006, Gomez suffered a controversial loss to Peter McDonagh when, in the middle of a round, he dropped his guard and walked out of the ring, later saying he had retired from boxing. He returned to the ring after a 15-month interval. On 21 June 2008, Gomez lost what was seen as possibly his last bout: a last chance saloon opportunity to resurrect his career against rising star and Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan. Although scoring a surprise knockdown against Khan early on, the fight ended with Gomez being stopped in five rounds.

Gomez took the surname Gomez after his childhood hero Wilfredo Gómez. (Full article...)


Selected entertainment

Super Punch-Out!! is a boxing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was released on September 14, 1994 in North America and again in the same region in 1996. It was released in Europe on January 26, 1995 for the same console and in Japan in 1998 for the Super Famicom through the Nintendo Power flash RAM cartridge series. The game is also included in the GameCube version of Fight Night Round 2 as an extra game due to the inclusion of Little Mac in the game. The game was released for the Wii's Virtual Console in Europe on March 20, 2009, in North America on March 30, 2009, and in Japan on July 7, 2009. The game was also released on the New Nintendo 3DS eShop on May 5, 2016. Nintendo re-released Super Punch-Out!! in the United States in September 2017 as part of the company's Super NES Classic Edition. It is the fourth game in the Punch-Out!! series, taking place after the Punch-Out!! game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

In Super Punch-Out!! the player controls a boxer as he fights his way to become the World Video Boxing Association champion. Players, fighting from a "behind the back" perspective, must knockout their opponent in three minutes to win. Players can launch jabs, hooks, and uppercuts against their opponents as well as block, dodge, and duck opponents' attacks. Nintendo Integrated Research and Development, led by Genyo Takeda, Minoru Arakawa and Makoto Wada, developed the game. It also featured voice acting by Charles Martinet.

The game received praise from reviewers for its cartoon-like style, its colorful, outlandish opponents, simple gameplay controls, and replay value. The game also featured colorful, detailed graphics, which included the usage of transparency that facilitates the game's "behind the back" perspective. Other reviewers had said that this game lacked the overall appeal, gameplay, or audience of its predecessor.


Sports portals

Selected image


Credit: Аркадий Зарубин

Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows. The word comes from the Latin arcus, meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity. A person who practices archery is typically called an archer, bowman, or toxophilite. (Full article...)


The following are images from various martial arts-related articles on Wikipedia.

Selected quote


I practice martial arts not to win over other people but to win over my own heart.
Tony Jaa, Blackfilm Interview


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Categories

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Things you can do

See the list on the right of Martial art related projects who organise work on these articles. You can also add your self to the list of Wikipedians by martial art

Talk page tagging

If you come across a martial arts related article, adding the project template {{WikiProject Martial arts}} to the talk page will help identify them for improvement and linking to related articles. For Boxing, Fencing, Mixed martial arts and Sumo. Use {{WikiProject Boxing}}, {{WikiProject Fencing}}, {{WikiProject Mixed martial arts}} and {{WikiProject Sumo}} respectively.

Assessment
If possible please assess articles you tag using guidelines (Boxing, Mixed martial arts and Sumo).

Deletions

Monitor and contribute to deletion debates (Boxing).

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