Martial Arts And The Olympics People tend to think of martial arts as being oriental, Kung Fu sort fighting.

H owever, the word 'martial' derives from the Latin word 'mars, martis', who was t he Roman god of war. 'Martial', therefore, means 'to do with war or fighting'. As a result, martial can refer to Western ways of fighting too such as boxing an d wrestling. These martial arts have been in existence for thousands of years at least and or iginated on the battlefield where one's competence in fighting was literally a m atter of life and death. Wrestling was in the Olympic Games over 2,000 years ago . Similarly, lots of the oriental martial arts are similarly old and came into exi stence because peasants were not permitted to keep arms in the social structures of the times. Despite the age of these martial arts, they did not become popular in the Develo ped world until Bruce Lee made them popular with his Kung Fu films in the early Seventies. It is a little known fact that when Lee was dispatched to America at the age of 18 to avoid the wrath of a local Hong Kong mafia chief, he wanted to teach tradi tional martial arts, but was forbidden authorization by the local Chinese commun ity. There was an accepted law that non-Chinese were not to be taught Chinese martial arts. Lee ignored the rule, and he claimed to have received death threats from powerful Chinese gangland leaders from America and Hong Kong. Lee taught martial arts to a select group of famous Caucasians and even develope d his own style known as Jeet Kune Do. Jeet Kune Do used Lee's amazing speed and power in its moves. Three of Lee's sho wcase moves were: The Power Side Kick: with one kick, he could kick a 300 pound sack to hit a norm al ceiling The One Inch Punch: he could knock a trained fighter over with a punch that had travelled merely one inch The Lightning Snatch: with his arm by his side, he could snatch a nickel from an open palm three feet away and leave a penny behind in 5/100 ths of a second. Individuals wanted to be able to do the same. However, there are many different sorts of martial arts and many countries have their own individual style of figh ting. China has Judo and Kung Fu; Japan has Karate; Brazil has Brazilian Jiu Jitsu; Th ailand has Muay Thai.. There are numerous other, usually oriental styles, too, l ike Tae Kwando and Aikido but also French Kick Boxing. Some martial arts are more defensive in nature, but others are positively bellig erent: Judo and Aikido are examples of defensive styles and Karate and boxing ar e much more belligerent in character. However, all martial arts teach self-discipline and the students develop more se lf-assurance. Martial arts are experiencing a renaissance in popularity at the m

oment, largely due to UFC bouts or mixed martial arts. You might not approve of the brutality of mixed martial arts, but it cannot be d enied that many kids are learning a few martial arts, Western and Oriental, beca use of these popular TV bouts. Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on numerous topics, but is curren tly involved with the <a href="http://2012londonolympicsvolunteers.com/london-ol ympics-2012-venues.html">London Olympics 2012 venues</a>. Click a link if you ar e interested in the <a href="http://2012londonolympicsvolunteers.com">2012 Londo n Olympics Volunteers</a>.