Many martial arts include Rocky's form of punches (boxing, karate), kicks (taekwondo, kickboxing, karate), holds and throws (judo, jujutsu, wrestling), weapons (iaijutsu, kendo, kenjutsu, naginatado, fencing, Filipino eskrima) or certain combination of these elements (several styles of jujutsu).
Martial arts are divided in two main sets: the so-called "hard martial arts" like karate and kickboxing which give special consideration to the attack to beat the opponent, and the "soft martial arts" like judo and aikido which fight the opponent in a less aggressive manner, using the force of the other to surrender him.
It is difficult to compare the effectiveness of the different existing arts. Recently, people developed competitions like the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the United States of America or Pancrase in Japan. That competitions also are known as "mixed martial arts" or MMA. But these competitions only test the fighting styles in limited situations (fighting against an experts, only fighting one opponent, fighting while wearing the right clothes - none of which would be true in other situations such as self-defense).
The martial arts are defined in this method: through the history, to the soldier in the battlefield, the only thing that was important for them was beat the enemy that one have before himself. Whether a style is soft or hard or how many points are gained with a blow are details and subjects of discussion which appear in periods of peace, when there were hand to hand combats.
Martial arts are part of the art of war. If the main goal in a competition depends on noting points to somebody's advantage, then it could be said that this is a sport, not a martial art.
The history of martial arts is long. The act of developing of the fighting systems dates from when the man had been able to cause to pass the knowledge, along with the strategies of war. Part of the most ancient written material on the subject dates from the 15th century in Europe and the authorship fall to famous masters, like Hans Talhoffer and George silver. Also transcriptions of still more ancient texts had been brought to our days, one of them is a document written by hand. That document is called I.33 and dates from end of the 13th century.
The persons who train martial arts disagree with relation to the matter of the competitions. Some arts, like the boxing or the Thai boxing, give attending to the sparring -fights during training - and to taking part in competitions, yet the most common of aikido and krav maga reject the competitions. The reasons that cause these opinions are different. Many of the arts desiring to compete argue that the competitions give place to better and more efficient techniques. However, certain styles not desiring to compete claim that the rules with which people developed these competitions ruin the art and does not represent what can happen in a real situation.
In recent years, there have been tries to return to life some martial arts considered historical. Examples of this historical reconstruction of the martial arts are the pankration and the school of Shaolin that have not a continua tradition.
Soda
Gonad
Gonads are the ovaries and testicles. A male usually refers to his testes as "gonads" more than a female would refer to her ovaries as gonads.
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (born Hamburg 3 February 1809; died Leipzig 4 November 1847) was a German composer.
His grandfather was the German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. He was one of the great composers of the Romantic period. He loved the music of earlier composers like Bach, Handel and Mozart and he built on the traditions they had made. Mendelssohn was a child prodigy. He was already composing great music when he was a teenager. He wrote music for orchestra, piano, organ as well as chamber music and music for singing. His violin concerto is one of the most popular concertos ever written and is played by all the famous violinists. Two of his tunes are known by almost everybody: the hymn tune "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", and the "Wedding March" which is played so often at the end of weddings.
Mendelssohn’s family had plenty of money. They were also very interested in music, literature, painting etc. His grandfather Moses Mendelssohn was famous in German national literature. His father was a banker and his mother came from a family who owned a lot of factories in Berlin. The young Felix was educated at home by his parents. Although the family was Jewish his parents had Felix baptized and his father became a Christian a few years later. The Mendelssohn family added the name of Bartholdy to their name at this time.
Soon Felix was being taught by private tutors including Ludwig Berger who taught him the piano. He also learned music theory and composition. He played the piano at a concert when he was nine, and started to compose little plays with music (called a Singspiel in German). In 1821 he was taken to meet the famous writer Goethe in Weimar. It was to be the first of several visits and Goethe’s way of thinking and his works of German literature had a big influence on the young Mendelssohn. He composed several works at this time including Singspiels, symphonies and chamber music. He traveled with his father and met many famous musicians.
In 1825 the family moved to Berlin. They had regular concerts on Sunday mornings in their large house. Many rich and famous people were invited to their private concerts. In October 1825 he wrote a "String Octet" (a piece for eight string instruments) which is one of his best works. He studied the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) whose music people had almost forgotten. He found the music of Bach’s "St Matthew Passion" and conducted a performance of it in 1829. It was a famous performance in music history, because people suddenly realized how great Bach was. Bach’s music has never been forgotten again since then.
During the years 1829 to 1835 Mendelssohn traveled all over Europe. He visited London several times and he also performed Beethoven’s "Emperor Concerto" there. He travelled to Scotland where he sailed to Fingal’s Cave in the Inner Hebrides. This inspired him to write the overture called "The Hebrides". When he was returning the stagecoach had an accident and he hurt his knee. He stayed with the composer Thomas Attwood for some time before he could return to Berlin. Next he travelled to Italy where he wrote the "Italian Symphony". In Italy he met Hector Berlioz and on his way back he met Chopin.
He spent some time in Düsseldorf where he performed several oratorios by Handel as well as his own music. In Frankfurt am Main he stayed with a family who had two daughters. He married one of them, Cécile Charlotte Sophia Jeanrenaud, in 1837. They had a happy marriage and had five children.
Felix and his young wife went to live in Leipzig where he became the conductor of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. This was one of the highest musical jobs in Germany. He conducted a lot of music by 18th century composers who had been forgotten. He also gave the first performance of Schubert's which had been discovered by Robert Schumann nine years after Schubert’s death. Mendelssohn got some of the most famous musicians to come to Leipzig and perform with the orchestra: Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, the young violinist Joseph Joachim and the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. Mendelssohn improved the playing of the orchestra, making them one of the best orchestras in the world. He also made sure that the players were paid well.
In the early 1840s Mendelssohn spent some time in Berlin. The new king, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, was very keen on music and had lots of ideas about new plans for concerts. He wanted Mendelssohn to be in charge of this. The king wanted to see Greek plays performed and Mendelssohn had to write incidental music for the performances of "Antigone".