Internal Martial Arts, the missing piece to Boxing and MMA.

The exploration of human movement is as ancient as the human race itself. It is innate to the human condition to be able to move, in fact it's a necessity of human life. So it only makes sense that it would be explored by everyone to a greater or lesser degree, some exploring it consciously and with intent and others unconsciously and only out of need. Those who choose to explore it consciously are often called athletes in an attempt by the human mind to distinguish those who embody this quality with those who have chosen not to (although it must be remembered that anyone can embody athletic qualities if they so choose). 

We can imagine that the need for excessive skill in movement was likely spurred by the need to gather and hunt food and water, or to find shelter or hospitable climate. To move quickly and silently would be highly beneficial in the hunt for instance. The hunt was likely a precursor to a very human experience called war, or even just physical conflict if war seems a little extreme. Whatever we call it and for whatever reasons, physical conflict and aggression have been a part of human existence for a very long time. It seems only natural that physical conflict, being in a very real sense a series of aggressive MOVEMENTS, would quickly become a subject of study and exploration by those with an interest.This brings us to the beginning of the martial arts.

Martial literally means “to be warlike”, and martial arts can be seen as the attempt to make the movements of war and conflict so skilled that they become an art. In the far east this was taken very seriously, even in times of peace.The individual skills that gave one person the upper hand in matters of war became a full time life calling for many. We would know them now by names like Samurai and Gung Fu masters. Often a lineage of martial arts masters would spend hundreds of years passing down and further exploring unique interpretations of martial movement. Slowly crafting and mastering many aspects of human existence in their efforts.

While some continuously explored only the movements, others began to realize that there was something behind the movements. Something akin to the  very source of the movements, the source of the power that was being utilized in these martial matters.Their efforts revealed what is now known as the internal martial arts, and the seeking of only the physical movements became known as the external martial arts.

Many different systems have since been created, some of the internal variety, some of the external variety, and many with a blend of both. For instance the famous Shaolin monks are considered to be mainly external martial artists although they still embrace the internal martial arts. In fact tai chi quan, an internal style, is considered by most Shaolin to be the foundation of their art and the first thing to be studied and mastered by students because of the potential it unlocks in them.

In the west the situation was a little different. War was every bit as prevalent, but the evolution of the martial way took its own unique shape, one to match the culture which birthed it. The west's version of martial arts might be more aptly called, combat sport. There was a preoccupation in the west with constantly testing oneself against others as a way of determining effectiveness and power. So even during times of peace the fighting continued, with mutual agreement to rules or conditions that often were meant to keep the combatives alive to train and fight another day. It became a spectacle of individual human power and achievement in the west, with the most successful fighters becoming praised heavily. Thus the phenomenon of the “champion” was born the minds of the people.

But while this preoccupation with constant combat build highly conditioned physical specimens, it left little down time for the type of deep observational contemplation that was seen in the eastern martial artists. It's not that the western combatants didn't reach the same level of skill in both internal and external martial arts, they certainly did. Experience is the greatest teacher and many of these combative athletes developed internal skills to rival those of their eastern counterparts, but there was much less understanding of them. When these qualities were observed in someone they were called by terms like “intangibles”,“athletic gifts”, “combative talent”. Still today we see athletes like Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Anderson Silva, or Conor McGregor and people say “look at all that natural grace and confidence”. And most are naturally graceful and confident, the naturals being our main examples of these qualities in a culture that hasn't fully realized how easily these qualities can be trained into anyone.

Yet now the world has gone global and worlds are coming together. You could argue that MMA is a natural evolution of the western sports of boxing and kickboxing, now being mixed with eastern combat styles like jui jitsu, muay thai, and judo.And with this coming together is a slow but steady evolution of combat sport and martial art alike. The most recent evolution is seen in fighters like Conor McGregor, a man who actively trains in what would be considered in the east as internal martial arts. And the result is that he has become something graceful, confident, smoothly skilled, and in command of a presence that seems bigger than himself. It is the future of MMA, and the beginning of the internal martial arts in the western combative sports.