Guest Column: Technology and Martial Arts

This continues a series of guest columns on how technology is reshaping hobbies and passions  – basket weaving, rugby – whatever.

This time it is Harald Reiter, at SSIP who writes about all different kinds of Martial Arts. In the photo he is in yellow gloves with his trainer.

“I have always been fascinated by Martial Arts. I started with Shaolin Kung Fu, which originated in China.  I soon realized that you cannot sing and fight like Carl Douglas suggests in his hit!  But then along came  the movie Bloodsport in 1988, and my friends and I got into TaeKwondo (TKD), which is Korean in origin.

I attended high school at that time in a small town in Austria which narrowed down the Martial Arts options quite a bit.  We did classic TKD without full contact sparring and I kept on practicing it until end of my mandatory military service in Austria.

When I got a job as a SAP Basis consultant I moved to Vienna and a club that practiced full contact TKD (now called Olympic TKD) . It had quite a grueling training regimen if you wanted to fight competitively.

Those were the heydays for SAP Consultants, and I kept switching jobs with ever increasing travel and less and less time at the dojang. The timing was perfect and the body metabolism was slowing down – so my weight kept ballooning. I did try to compensate by lifting weight and running but it was so easy to skip those when you are on the road.

I moved to Scottsdale, Arizona because of another long term SAP implementation in 2006 and here is where I found my new Martial Arts home.

With the rise of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and the UFC I was intrigued to give this a try. I found a great gym where they taught all the components of MMA (including Brazilian jiu jitsu, Greco Roman wrestling and Japanese Judo)– though the main focus is on Thai Muay Thai and TKD for kids. The most common style of Muay Thai is what is known to the western world as Thai Boxing and is more a sport then an art.

First, I was afraid that I would end up as a punching bag for the younger and more experienced fighters but thankfully this was not the case.

So, how has modern technology helped these martial arts from thousands of years ago evolve?

Apparel and protective gear have evolved – some of the best for TKD comes from Adidas. The TKD uniform or “Dobok” has evolved and is made of synthetic material to keep you cool in the heat of competition. As TKD has evolved into an Olympic sport we seen growing Western influence in the training of TKD athletes in areas such as pylometrics, weight training and nutrition.For competitions, sensors are being embedded in the gear so “contact” can be scored more accurately and electronic scoring machines take the place of judges. And of course, video technology for training and for scoring comes in handy.

Different styles of Muay Thai feature different apparel and protective gear. Practitioners wear Muay Thai shorts that allow complete freedom of movement, boxing gloves, groin guard, hand-wraps and mouth guard. Fighters in Thailand also wear a head band (Mong Kon) and a woven armband (Prajed) and perform a dance before the fight (Wai khru ram muay) . Shin guards are also recommended during training to protect yourself and your training partner.

The National Geographic video below touches all the science which is going into understanding various techniques and impact on the human body.

Martial Arts schools have also evolved quite a bit. Most now have anti-bacterial, anti-slip rubber mats. They also have all kinds of training dummies like the one I am kicking in the photo on the right while my daughter Victoria takes notes:)

The schools have specialized software to help run their operations. And as you can see from the website of my Sitan gym, most today have professionally designed sites and know the ins and outs of search engine optimization and use social networks to keep members informed.

Then there is the growing applications on smartphones to help with workouts. I can also highly recommend the P90X program that I have on my iPhone and comes with great workout videos (especially for your Abs) and nutrition plan.

Over the last couple of decades I have moved from Chinese to Korean to Thai martial arts. If you read this encyclopedia of martial arts from all over the world I have plenty more to discover. And each will bring new challenges to technology. 

Somehow, though I doubt technology will ever allow us to sing and spar at the same time! “

Comments

[Martial Arts Drills]

You went from martial arts to a sport?

Rick

[Kick Boxing]

Now a days we can find many good schools for martial arts and even for kids also .... this is a sign for good future of MMA.