Martial arts are now practiced throughout the world. About 100 million people participate in the martial arts as a means of self-defense, physical fitness, mental tranquility, and competition. There are about 200 distinct martial arts, and within each one are specific schools called styles or systems. These styles number in the thousands.
Despite the array of martial arts and styles, most of them share common techniques, and so they can be organized into broad categories that facilitate understanding. The primary way of classifying martial arts is by the basic physical technique they use: striking or grappling.
The striking technique, technically referred to as percussive, uses blows with the hands, elbows, feet, knees, and head. Such popular martial arts as karate, kung fu, and tae kwon do fall under this category.
Grappling arts, on the other hand, primarily employ throwing, locking, and wrestling techniques. These arts seek to neutralize aggressive action by gaining control over an adversary without necessarily striking the person. The most popular grappling arts are jujutsu, judo, and aikido.
Judo (Japanese for 'gentle way') is an art of self-defense developed from jujutsu in 1882 by Japanese educator Kano Jigoro. Like jujutsu, judo is a method of turning an opponent's force to one's own advantage through grappling and throwing skills. Instead of directly opposing the opponent