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Wikipedia:WikiProject Martial arts

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First, an important note for everyone to remember:

A few Wikipedians have gotten together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in articles about martial arts. These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles!

Title

WikiProject Martial Arts

Scope

There are many different martial arts and correspondingly many entries. As martial arts differ wildly, there's a limit to how much standardization is reasonable. But the information could be better distributed and coordinated between articles; that is the goal of this project.

Parentage

No parent of this WikiProject has been defined.

Descendant Wikiprojects

Similar Wikiprojects

No similar WikiProjects have been defined.

Participants

Userbox

This user participates in WikiProject Martial arts.

Userbox enthusiasts can put this {{User WikiProject Martial Arts}} to show that you are a member of this project.

Conventions

There is a vast profusion of martial arts and therefore of martial arts lore, most of which has only been written about in the last few decades, and often not by academic scholars. So the same thing can have many names and each name can have many spellings, making reading difficult. One of the goals of this project is to standardize, to some extent, spelling and usage of various words.

The words style, system, school and organization

When talking about martial arts, many people use these terms interchangeably. However, in an encyclopedia it makes sense to use these words in a standard way as much as possible.

  • organization: An organization is just that, a group of people collaborating to define a martial art. For example, the World Taekwondo Federation is an organization that certifies teachers and runs tournaments. So is the International Taekwondo Federation.
  • school: A collection of classes, usually taught or at least overseen by a single teacher, on the same subject. Dan Inosanto runs a school, the Inosanto Academy, where they teach many different systems.
  • system: An organized method for teaching students how to fight. This may include training drills, forms, kinds of sparring, warmup exercises and so on. For example, Ben Largusa studied with Floro Villabrille, a top duelist, for many years. He then took what he had learned, and, with Villabrille's approval, designed a system for effectively teaching the techniques he had learned. He called the resulting system Villabrille Kali.
  • style: A way of fighting, including preferred techniques, ways of doing techniques, preferred weapons, kinds of trickery, and many other things. Styles are largely personal, although some schools are very rigid and try to ensure that their students' style is identical to the teacher's. People with different bodies generally find that slightly different styles work best for them. For example, Mestre Suassuna and Mestre Acordeon both learned Capoeira in Mestre Bimba's school and were taught the same system (Capoeira regional) but the two men play capoeira in very different ways, that is, with very different styles.
  • Categorization: If the article is already listed under a subcategory in the Martial arts category, there is no need to put the Martial arts category on the article. This is to prevent flooding and help with organization.

Spelling

Many martial arts are not from English-speaking countries. Especially for those that are not European, there may not be a single standard way to write their names (or the names they use for things) in English text. For example, Eskrima is also often spelled as Escrima, and sometimes the words Kali or Arnis de Mano are used instead (and this word comes from Spanish via Tagalog, which are both normally written with the Latin alphabet).

First of all, many organizations have a standardized English spelling. For example, "Cabales Serrada Escrima" is the name for a particular Eskrima organization, founded by Angel Cabales. In cases like this, the correct spelling is the organization's way of spelling it's own name. If there's a martial arts organization called "Iron Fist Kungfu School", call it that even if you don't approve of how they transliterated "Kungfu" and they have nothing to do with traditional kung fu. An organization may also have a standardized English spelling for the name of a technique; this is a little more tricky, but try to follow this spelling while letting the reader know what other spellings may be in use.

When no standardized spelling exists, but one particular spelling is in very common use, try to use that spelling throughout, with an indication where appropriate that another spelling is sometimes used.

Where several spellings are in common use, try to use one based on a standardized transliteration system.

In all cases, where possible, give the spelling in its original language as well. Keeping in mind that many readers cannot read foreign alphabets, so try to give the appropriate transliteration (and possibly a pronunciation guide).

Here are recommended spellings and usages for some possibly ambiguous words:

  • eskrima rather than escrima, kali or arnis de mano, meaning any traditionally Filipino martial art.
  • wushu (武術 or 武术; pinyin: wǔshù) rather than wu shu, meaning any Chinese martial art; use modern wushu when referring specifically to those forms that are standarized for competition.
  • wing chun rather than Wing Tsun, meaning a martial art in the wing chun family; the latter is the trademarked name of an organization that teaches a particular kind of wing chun.

Capitalization

Proper names of individual martial arts should be capitalized ("Cabales Serrada Escrima"). Use of martial arts terms as words should not be capitalized ("eskrima").

Japanese names

Follow the conventions in Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles). For articles that are about a ryū, capitalize the proper name part and add the suffix -ryu. For example, "Tennen Rishin-ryu". Do not use macrons (ū ō) or hats (û ô) in article titles, but do use macrons in article text (for example: "Tennen Rishin-ryū") at least when the word in question is not a proper English loanword.

See also

Structure

There are several different kinds of articles related to martial arts. Try to list all of them on list of martial arts-related topics. If that page gets too long this policy can be changed. This page is a good page to keep an eye on as a "to do" list and a summary of what's there.

First, there are the global articles, such as martial art itself, list of martial arts, and possible future pages on topics like selecting a martial art. These should contain some useful information about all martial arts; of course, it is very difficult to be this general, so not much can be said. The main problem (and motivation for this project) is to keep the list of martial arts useful.

Second, it is often possible to say something useful about quite general families of martial arts, such as Filipino Martial Arts or Wushu. Such articles, being more specific can go into more details about history, technology, and technique, along with references to any sporting organizations that seem relevant to families. Each family should probably maintain its own list of martial arts in the family, like list of Eskrima systems.

Third, many martial arts deserve a page of their own, such as Wing Chun. Of course, martial arts being what they are, such a page may encompass several different, though closely related, systems or schools; if the content warrants it, the separate schools can be separated.

Fourth, many fighting techniques, kinds of fighting, or other supporting information need pages of their own; examples include grappling and punch. These pages should be as generic as possible; while they can discuss the usage within a particular fighting system it should be made clear that they are elements of fighting that are practiced in many systems.

Family pages

Family pages should explain the term that is used and describe the common features of the systems. They may also explain classifications used to subdivide the systems (for Chinese martial arts, internal/external and soft/hard may be worth explaining, since many practitioners describe their arts in this way). Family pages should contain information from all the categories listed below for individual martial art pages, to the extent that this is reasonable: a family page should describe common elements of the arts in the family, and they should discuss, where possible, differences between arts. These pages may include lists of the systems in their family, but if there are many, a separate list page should exist.

See Eskrima for a (by no means perfect) example.

Family pages should include links to relevant global martial arts pages, links to related families (if any), links to the list of martial arts in the family, and links to individual martial arts in any family that are directly relevant to the text of the family article.

Individual martial art pages should indicate which family they are from.

Some families that may be useful:

Handling of martial arts that cannot be easily classified into a family (for example, Capoeira) is a matter for discussion; for the moment it probably makes sense to link them directly from the global pages as if they were families.

The number of families should be kept relatively small.

Individual martial art pages

Individual martial art pages will inevitably be rather free-form, suiting themselves to the nature of the art. However, some sections can be suggested:

  • History: this should include both recent history (who is teaching now, where they learned, how the art came to be widely known) and ancient history if applicable (if the art is derived from ancient Spanish and Filipino war techniques, say so). Ancient history will very often be a matter of debate; in order to maintain NPOV, all versions in common circulation should be described, whether plausible or not, with appropriate Wiki links to the relevant history. Ancient history may well be shared with related arts, so this might belong on the family page. This section should also describe any related arts and their relationship (ancestor, descendant, factional split).
  • Technical Aspects: An overview of the art's technical features. This may include:
    • ranges covered
    • weapons used
    • whether emphasis is on self-defense, military effectiveness, or spiritual preparation,
    • footwork
    • stances
    • training methods and drills
    • training equipment
    • forms or katas
  • Sport: Is the martial art practiced as a sport? Are there competitions? Sparring? Is there one or more international organization that administers the sport?

Other things that should be mentioned if relevant:

  • uniform
  • customs (bowing, saluting and so on)
  • ranking (colored belts, colored gloves, official instructor certification)
  • organizations (e.g., International Taekwondo Federation, which has copyrighted the forms)

Pictures may be relevant, and always help liven up an article. Pictures may include:

  • organization logos (check copyright and trademark issues first!)
  • uniforms
  • training equipment
  • important people

Consider adding a small and short video of a characteristic drill or exercise. See the m:Video Policy first.

Lists of martial arts

Lists should not include martial arts for which only the name is known. Martial arts with an entry, even a stub, belong in lists; otherwise they should have at least the name of the founder or the head of the system and perhaps some characteristics (what region is it from, where is it practiced, are there many or few schools, is it derived from another school). This information should be included in the list itself; if this is cumbersome, make a stub.

The reasoning behind this is that there are very many systems of martial arts, many with basically uninformative names (for example, Modern Arnis is a kind of Arnis; just listing its name is really of no use). Moreover, students in mixed martial arts classes may confuse names of techniques with names of systems, zealously adding nonexistent names to the lists. Since there are so many systems, it is basically impossible to verify that something is not a system so that it can be removed.

Guidelines for creating articles about techniques

It should be kept in mind, that many martial arts share the same techniques or training methods although with different names, or slightly different technical variations. It is natural to be biased towards the particular martial art that one practices, but we should strive for equality and to unify the martial arts under one banner; still retaining what is peculiar to each martial art. The following are the most common types of techniques used in martial arts:

If you have a particular technique that you'd like to create an article about, it is highly likely that there already is an article about that type of technique. For instance, let's say you are a Judoka and want to write a little something about morote-seoinage, a judo technique. Think hard before starting a new article: What type of technique is this?. Morote-seoinage is a throw, and should hence be put under Throw (grappling), which is the standard article for all throws. You should then check if there is a corresponding English term for the technique, such as shoulder throw for seoi-nage, and use that one instead. However you should not put a translation instead of the original term. Only use the English term if it is actually in use. For instance: juji-gatame is translated into cross armlock, but that's a term which is not in use, so you should hence refer to it as juji-gatame, and only provide the translation once. Example:

juji-gatame (十字固, "cross armlock") is a ...

If there is an existing English term, it should be done as follows:

A rotational wristlock (in Aikido referred to a a type of sankyo, 三教, "3rd teaching") is a ...

Although the English and foreign language term may not mean exactly the same technique, it is still advisable to put them into the same section, and just mention the differences.

WikiProject Martial Arts notice

It may be worth including a Template:martialartsproject message on the Talk page of pages that are relevant to martial arts, using {{martialartsproject}}. It looks like this:

WikiProject iconMartial arts NA‑class
WikiProject iconThis page is within the scope of WikiProject Martial arts. Please use these guidelines and suggestions to help improve this article. If you think something is missing, please help us improve them!Martial artsWikipedia:WikiProject Martial artsTemplate:WikiProject Martial artsMartial arts
NAThis page does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

Stubs

We also have a Template:Martialart-stub for martial arts related stubs. Use {{martialart-stub}} instead of the normal {{stub}}. It looks like this:

This martial arts related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

It will place the page in Category:Martial arts stubs.

Templates

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