Did Polish winged hussars use martial arts? (Unarmed)

[Benjamin Parker]

Did they use unarmed martial arts?

[Brandon Paul Heslop]

Did they use unarmed martial arts?

You sure do ask a lot of questions. I'm sure they did. I frankly cannot understand how it is so difficult for most people to grasp this, but: almost every culture developed their own martial arts, or adopted and adapted some other country\region\culture's fighting arts. In the days before standing armies and police forces, martial arts would be a neccessity for survival, (particularly if you're a part of the warrior aristocracy, whose JOB it is to fight. Even if you're not, you're going to need something to keep yourself safe). It's a fair bet that the hussars practiced similar fighting arts to their more westerly neighbours.

-B.

[CalebChow]

I tend to think:

"So long as people don't like each other, they will always have incredibly ingenious ways of killing each other."

Whether there's a name for it or any texts on it I don't know, but I think I can say with certainty that Hussars used unarmed martial arts because firstly, they fought. Secondly, they have fists.

[Jay Vail]

Did they use unarmed martial arts?

Dangerous question. What do you mean by "martial art"?

[LafayetteCCurtis]

Did they use unarmed martial arts?

Dangerous question. What do you mean by "martial art"?

Don't we just love that question?

Anyway, I'm pretty certain that a 16th- or 17th-century Western European visitor to the Polish court mentioned some form of Polish grappling, but I can't recall out of hand what that visitor's name was. Let's see if I can have any luck locating him within the next week.

[Andrzej Rosa]

Did they use unarmed martial arts?

I'm not aware of any specific to Poland unarmed martial art, but as long as one assumes that disarms are an important part of any swordsman training, they surely trained for that. Those guys used to be notorious bruisers, and duelling was very common those days. Much more common than in the West, because most guys used to carry a saber. Saber cuts tend to cause surface wounds, which are rarely lethal, which in turns resulted in people fighting much more often than on the West, especially during elections (Poland was a republic those days). I read this in an account of some western traveler, who was astonished of the amount of scars your typical Polish gentryman carried on his scull. In other sources I read, that winged hussars had a reputation for brawling, even when compared to the rest of Poles.

So, to summarize, they spent a good amount of time to train for close quarter combat, which in my opinion clearly implies that they trained for unarmed combat too, even if the main focus was swordsmanship.

[Tony_Klabunde]

I have to agree with my poster above. Every tribe, clan, Nation had some form of fighting. We look back at the texts or the link for unarmed combat. And there we see.

http://www.thearma.org/essays/ringen-vocabulary.pdf

Europe was a land at strife and war. It fought armed and unarmed.


This concept of recorded martial arts, even the Asian karate, Tae kwon do, Judo, Jujitsu
It was all common place; it was all regulated by law Like Boxing or Pugilism and wrestling. Like all fighting, Everyone fights except the Amish. ( and a few others) It would seem we are looking for references to record and passed along RMA/WMA

We have it
http://www.thearma.org/essays/ringen-vocabulary.pdf

Look at them, all the moves you need to counter every attack. All the moves you need to Control a man in FULL PLATE; to control a drink man in a bar or tavern. You didn’t need more. These moves controlled and could be used to killed if necessary. My goodness just looking at the “Stomach arm bar” WOOT You can pin your opponent, drive him to the ground safely, from a kneeling position; step in the elbow, He will not be able to get up, roll away or any of that wild Jackie Chan crap. Then what you do it up to you.

HOW AWESOME! It doesn’t get any easier or simpler. Aaron and Kevin at ARMA in Appleton, WI had this discussion with me because I was always passive when I went to the ground, not wanting to mix the Arts. But look at this:

http://www.thearma.org/essays/ringen-vocabulary.pdf Every MA/Fighter/brawler knows these are the bread and butter of any fight, any violent encounter. Simple Body mechanics, as Kevin puts it. It’s true!

I think Europe had and edge, because if it did not work you died!

Oh My,

Practice them, Go sword vs. unarmed, go armed vs. armed, both unarmed, try every variation, like they did long ago. See if it works, see what is needed to set it up


DID Poland have a MA, of Course they did. They were feared warriors for a hundred of years. I would hazard a guess they used many of the technques used show in the manual, all fighting styles do at some point.