The arts of the British Isles

Hi Dave,time to pick your brains mate

Have you ever compiled a list of just how many combat arts have originated in the British Isles?

Armed or unarmed.

cheers,
Ade

tricky question Ade mate .. as there are styles and sub-styles... take swords for example 122 sword systems, mainly sub styles
over 100 weapons systems
then on the unarmed stuff .. take wrestling .. at least 40 styles to my knowledge

boxing has SIX pre-styles before you get to today

so I reckon as a GUESSTIMATE.. 300 plus

Three hundred!.Wow,that's about two hundred and something more then i thought there'd be!

Of the unarmed arts,would you say there are more grappling,or more striking ? ...and did certain regions appear to favour striking over grappling,or vice versa?

Thanks Dave

The preferences for striking and grappling would generally be geographical more or less
Because our nation is a mix, we are descended from so many nations that these 'invaders' brought much of what they did to our fighting skills.

the vikings were great wrestlers, Glima etc, and as about half or slightly more than half of England was under Dane Law, we added their wrestling skills to our own.

People who were sheep farmers, etc also loved grappling because the handling of animals aided grappling skills and strength.
many people used their hands more centuries ago, so they became stronger, which again aided grappling.

the Grasmere games in the North and the West Country's love for Devonian and Cornish grappling events naturally encouraged grappling skills.

The area which is now parts of Lancashire and Cumbria was known as the 'county Palatine', regularly held competitions in wrestling, so naturally that propogated grappling.

punching was around, but less encouraged. It wasnt really until the Romans came and brought 'Pag' (their boxing style).. Pag became PUG which became pugilism.

but dont forget kicking.. we have a long history of Purring, which again was a unique english and welsh style.. people wore very heavy boots not shoes for many centuries, which encouraged kicking.. (shin kicking is still a competitive style)

However, and I must stress this is MY own personal view I break down unarmed British styles as follows.

wrestling/grappling 50%
kicking 30%
punching/striking 20%

cheers Ade

Cheers Dave,that's really interesting

How could i have forgotten kicking? I've got two scars on one shin i recieved from a young female student after a brief explanation of Purring about 4 years ago

an aside...Cornish wrestling seems to be gaining a bit more popularity down here at the moment,i know a couple of MMA guys i used to grapple with who do the Cornish stuff to compliment their more "conventional" training.