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1. Introduction:

Good morning everyone, Im cif I came here today to talk to you about martial arts. I hope that at the end of my presentation most of you will decide to join one ma club and to learn how to defend yourself.Martial arts are studied for various reasons including combat skills, fitness, self-defense, sport, self-cultivation, mental discipline, and character development and building self-confidence.Worldwide, there is a great diversity and abundance of martial arts. Broadly speaking, martial arts share a common goal: to defeat a person physically or to defend oneself from physical threat. There is also a deep sense of spirituality within some martial arts. Each style has unique facets that make it different from other martial arts.A common characteristic of martial arts is the systemization of fighting techniques. One common method of training, particularly in the Asian martial arts is a set routine of techniques performed alone, or sometimes with a partner.2 Martial arts vary widely, and may focus on strikes, grappling, or weapons training. Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat with the purpose of defeating the opponent in an unarmed or an armed fight but not with fire guns.3 Unarmed self-defense may involve martial arts but are often quickly learned, practical methods, derived from martial arts or using opportunities and stratagems available in a potentially threatening world (shouting "Fire!" for example). Expecting an attacker to have greater strength and reach, martial arts "soft styles" can be used by children and old people, as well, and rely on balance, leverage, quickness, and coordination. Maintaining these abilities into old age is a main concern of the Tai Chi set of exercises. Examples of "soft" martial arts that women, children and old people can use effectively are Judo and Aikido.4 The origin of Martial arts are in ancient China at the Shaolin Monastery The Shaolin Monastery was originally founded in AD 495 by the Buddhist monk Batuo, an Indian dhyana master. Batuo went to China to preach Buddhism in AD 464. The Shaolin Temple was built thirty-one years later, by the order of emperor Wei Xiao Wen (471500). The temple originally consisted of a round dome used as a shrine and a platform where Indian and Chinese monks translated Indian scriptures into native Chinese languages.The introduction of fighting skills at Shaolin Monastery has been attributed in legend to the Indian monk Bodhidharma, who went to the monastery in 527, three decades after Batuo founded it. Bodhidharma allegedly spent nine years in contemplation, facing the wall of a cave on Song Mountain above the monastery. For exercise and protection from wild animals, he taught himself self-defense and later passed the skills along to his disciples.

5 Why are people practicing Martial arts? The main reason is to defend themselves from violence.In general, street violence refers to the use of physical force by individuals or groups within public spaces, the result of which may involve injury or death. This definition is quite broad and includes the forms of violence that are most often addressed by public health practitioners and researchers, particularly gang and youth violence, which often take place in the street or other open areas.

Although statistics for violent crimes do not always specify the location of the incident, approximately one third of violent crimes occur in a street or open area. School-related violence has gained widespread media attention and concern; however, many violent acts committed by adolescents take place off of school property. In 1999, over one-third (35%) of U.S. high school students had been in a physical fight, while only one in seven students had a physical fight on school property. Homicides of school-age individuals are even less likely to take place on school property. Between 1992 and 1994, less than 1 percent of homicides of school-age persons occurred on school property, with the majority occurring on streets.

6 Street violence takes a variety of different forms, including actual or threatened homicide, rape and sexual assault, robbery (with or without injury), and assault. Although not all street violence is gang related, the relationship of gangs to homicide makes street violence a public health issue. Over 94 percent of U.S. cities with populations over 100,000 have street gangs, and many smaller and more rural cities report street gang activity. Membership in a street gang increases the risk of violent death by 60 percent.7 One solution to deal with this violence is to practice martial arts and learn how to defend yourself, so that why I am trying to convince you to practice martial arts. To learn Self Defense is not just about learning a few techniques, it's about everything that we do to make our lives safer on a daily basis.Crime prevention should be the focus so avoid putting yourself in a dangerous situation, giving criminals a chance to make you their victim rather than entering into a physical confrontation. Even simple physical techniques require practice in order for them to be effective, especially in situations when you are under stress. If you decide to practice Martial arts you should know that:8 There are many styles of martial arts like, shaolin kung fu, shotokan, wado ryu, goju ryu, enshin, kyokushinhai, aikido etc. Every style of martial art has its own version of forms, although they have different names. However, all of them have kihon, kata and kumite. We cannot appreciate that one style is better than another but we can say that one is more efficient in fight than another. Anyway at a high level of training all styles of martial arts became less violent and more effective and you can easily defend yourself in fron of one or more opponents. Some stiles use full contact techniques and other non contact techniques. 9 Imagine a karate mach in which opponents are not allowed to use maximum force due to not heart each other. Point sparring is a form of sparring that uses a point-based system of light- to medium-contact sparring in a marked-off area. A referee acts to monitor for fouls and to control the match, while judges mark down scores similar to boxing. Typically, particular targets are prohibited (such as the face and groin), certain techniques may be forbidden, and fighters are required to wear protective equipment on their head, hands, chest, groin, shins and/or feet. Competitors score points based on the solid landing of a single technique as judged by the referee, whereupon they will briefly stop the match, award a point, then restart it. Judges also help regulate the match and resolve disputes. After a set number of points are scored or when the time set for the match expires (for example, three minutes or five points), the match is ended. In a tournament format, winning fighters advance to final rounds until there is only one winner. These matches may be sorted by gender, weight class, level of expertise and even age.

There are some critics of point-sparring feel that this method of training teaches habits that result in lower combat effectiveness than in continuous, full-contact sparring. Point sparring can teach competitors to pull their punches or not throw combination attacks, as the fighting occur. However, in a real confrontation even a fighter that uses light or non-contact style can provide the force to defeat an opponent. 10 "Full-contact" sparring or fighting is considered by many to be requisite in learning realistic unarmed combat. The phrase refers to several aspects which differentiate it from light and medium-contact sessions. One example is the reduced or eliminated use of protective gear. For instance, Kyokushin karate is a style of karate that requires advanced practitioners to engage in full contact sparring while wearing only a karate kimono and groin protector. Full contact may also refer to a wider variety of permitted attacks and contact zones on the body, excluding a limited number of forbidden techniques such as biting, finger breaking, and groin striking or attacking the eyes. The phrase could also indicate the employment of full-force attacks in order to disable the opponent, either by knockout or direct submission of defeat. If a point system is utilized, (in some competitions, such as the UFC 1, there is none) there is often a lower emphasis on scoring points to win by judges' decision. Using full contact, you can be hurt but not badly, because there are specific methods to harden your body and resist at many kicks and punches. Due to these factors, full-contact matches tend to be more aggressive in character. Nearly all MMA leagues such as UFC, PRIDE, Pancrase use full-contact rules, as do professional boxing organizations. Rulesets mandate the use of protective gloves and forbid certain techniques or actions during a match, such as punching the back of the head. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo matches do not allow striking, but are full contact in the sense that full force is applied during grappling and submissions. In a real fight, a full contact style is more effective than a non-contact style.Some practitioners believe that winning a sport match by rules is not an important matter in hand-to-hand combat. Many of these practitioners may prefer not to participate in most types of rule-based martial art competition electing instead to study fighting techniques with little or no regard to competitive rules or, perhaps, ethical concerns and the law (the techniques practiced may include attacking perceived vulnerable spots such as the groin or the eyes). Nonetheless, others maintain that, given proper precautions such as a referee and a ring doctor, full-contact matches with basic rules could serve as a useful gauge of one's overall fighting ability, encompassing broad categories including striking, grappling and finishing hold.11 Invest money in equipment. (Arguments and ca) Karate for example, is not an expensive sport like motorcycling where you have to buy a motorcycle for 10 000 euros but you have to invest some money to buy your own martial arts kimono and some protection for your body, and you will pay a month tax for training hours, maybe some 500 euros for all of this that will weak your month budget but on the other hand you will benefit from this wonderful sport. Conclusion.

You can chose any style of martial arts, but I think that a full contact one is better and remember that you can train yourself with a little money. Many people like to be like Bruce Lee but few of them try and succeed to do that.