History of Self Defense
Self defense is an instinctive trait in all animals. Our first form of self defense consisted of picking up and throwing any available object. As humanity developed weapons and climbed the food chain, weapons became instrumental in self defense. But like many other animals, humans like to play, and some of that play involved mock fighting. As humanity progressed into the hunter and gatherer stage and beyond, self defense went from a necessity to an art form.
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Karate
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Karate comes from the Japanese word that means "empty hand," and was developed as a way to fight without weapons. Scholars disagree about its true origin, whether it came from China or Okinawa. Though it's been around for centuries, scientists have only recently began studying it. In 1905, Japan incorporated karate as part of their schools' physical education programs. In 1936, the "Rykyu Shimpo" newspaper organized a "Karate Master" meeting to standardize and unify the sport. They officially adopted karate as the sport's name; and came to an agreement as to Karate's "official" history (see Resources below).
Judo
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Scholars have a hard time pinpointing judo's exact origins. The earliest record of jujitsu training dates to 1532, when the takenouchi-ryu martial art was founded. This form of self defense branched off into 700 different judo fighting methods by the 1850s. Modern judo began with Kano, a weak and frail kid that attracted bullies. He attended different judo trainings, then had an idea: He combined the best moves of these fighting systems to form judo as we know it today (see Resources below).
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Wrestling
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Humans engaged in wrestling since caveman times, as evidence by a 15,000-year-old cave drawing in France. Egyptian and Babylonian pictograms show two people engaged in wrestling, many of those wrestling techniques are similar to those used today. Wrestling was one of the sports in the ancient Olympic Games held in Greece, and the Romans borrowed this sport from the Greeks. Even though wrestling is a "common man" sport today, royalty enjoyed it during the Middle Ages. During colonial times, wrestling was used as entertainment by both the colonists and the Native Americans.
Boxing
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The earliest known uses of boxing as a sport started in ancient Sumer and Egypt, with the Greeks providing the first boxing records. The combatants used leather wrapped around their hands. Without today's boxing gloves, ancient boxing games resulted in more injuries than modern boxing. Boxing rules were flexible--just get into the ring and fight. Bare-knuckle boxing began in England in the late seventeenth century. The modern form of boxing, with rules and weight divisions, began in the nineteenth Century.
Weapons
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The first use of weapons for self defense was with rock throwing. Later, as humans fashioned spears, they engaged their enemy, or target, from distances. Using a sling in conjunction with a rock made the weapon fast and deadly. Swords and shields gave people the opportunity to make quicker kills while getting protection from their shields. Daggers were ideal for concealment; an assailant didn't know about it until the defender brandished it. Today, a concealed firearm takes the dagger's place.
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