Extreme Martial Arts is an evolution in the sport of martial arts and is often referred to as XMA or Xtreme Martial Arts.
Xtreme martial arts were greatly effected by the surge and popularity of the martial arts in the movies and on television.
Extreme Martial Arts (XMA) has a strong emphasis on showmanship and can be a combination, and even at times a fusion, of acrobatics, gymnastics, dance performance and the martial arts.
Xtreme Martial Arts can be performed either open handed or with weapons. XMA practitioners will perform a combination of martial arts kata(forms) set at an X Games style pace.
XMA mixes..
techniques
methods
movements
philosophies
..from different martial art styles, while blending in high-flying acrobatics and gymnastics techniques.
Many eXtreme martial artists have training in other more traditional martial arts.
It is really something to watch and is often accompanied by dance music and flashy costumes. There are even XMA competitions, they sometimes held in a separate division of traditionally open martial arts tournaments.
Martial arts tricking has become very a popular xtreme sport of over the past years. Unlike the XMA performed at martial art tournaments, martial arts tricks are performed on grass, regular flooring and even concrete.
The Pros and Cons of Extreme Martial Arts
As with anything in the martial arts world there are those who strongly criticize this form of extreme martial sport.
Here is a short list of complaints along with my opinions on each criticism.
The Use of lighter weight weapons creates flash, because they are easier to twirl around.
"Yes, this is true, xma weapons are a variation from the traditional and while it may be argued that this makes the practitioner less effective in real combat, the flashiness of the movement is bringing in a broader group of young people, whom may never have trained in the arts otherwise." - Kuma
Attention grabbing colors for both uniforms and weapons deviates from the traditional versions.
"Extreme weapons and uniforms for an extreme martial art, make sense to me. :)." - Kuma
XMA lacks traditional martial arts discipline.
"This one is just not fair. I enjoyed my traditional martial discipline training, but the extreme martial artists hardly lacks discipline. The dedication and determination required to perfect some the martial art trickz perform, makes them warriors in the truest sense." - Kuma
Xtreme martial arts are impractical for self defense applications
"OK, maybe many of the martial arts trickz performed are much less effective on the streets, but then again the brazilian martial art, capeoira, is a down right deadly dance." - Kuma
Extreme martial arts is an excellent way develop..
coordination
flexibility
strength
Although extreme martial arts have always existed in one form or another. It was Michael Chaturantabut, aka Mike Chat, who created the extreme martial arts system and helped turn this obscure phenomenon into a very popular sport and art form.
Mike Chat - Xtreme Martial Artist
In 2003, Mike Chaturantabut appeared in the
Xtreme Martial Arts DVD. He and Matt Mullins fight their way through an open martial arts tournament.
East meets West in a stunning application of visual technologies and the bio mechanical secrets behind the world's martial arts were revealed for the first time in this show.
At the time it revealed a unique graphic technique that allowed for "in-the-body" animation of joints and muscles, creating fighting and sparring scenes unlike anything that had been seen before.
Below is a short video of Mike Chat performing a XMA demo.
