5 Martial Arts You've Never Heard Of

[@seasickviking]

I always love hearing videos like this because either I get learn something new or get to feel really proud of myself for knowing the practices already.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Which was it this time?

[@jasonthayer762]

I am from a small town in the Ozarks. I have had the pleasure of training in Capoeira and Hapkido (both schools now gone in my area). When I tell people that, I am looked at like I just said that I perform Black magic for self defense. I tried introducing Scottish back hold and Irish collar and elbow to a study group I was a part of and it was like I just offered to introduce occult dance. I found people were a whole lot more comfortable with implementing football (American) tackles but that was as unique as I could get. Long story short, I have had bad luck with getting people interested in training anything more rare than BJJ and Kickboxing. Love my friends though, even if they are martial arts troglodytes!

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Some people just need to be part of the crowd.

[@OnyxXThePunch]

This is why they won't be remembered you are awesome

[@kellyhoffmann1]

I was unaware of any of these which surprised me. Great vid.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Yay, I win!

[@jamierae5185]

Fantastic! I was expecting to know most of these but was pleasantly surprised to only have known one (dambe). As a Scotsman myself I was thrilled to hear of another Scottish wrestling style as I was only aware of back hold wrestling; and I'm pleased to say I managed to use a back hold technique in freestyle wrestling. Are you aware of any other Scottish fighting styles?

[@EnglishMartialArts]

There's a semi loose grip form from Uist, instead of always going left over and right under, you toss a coin to see which way you grip.

[@BradentonSlick]

I had heard of 4 and 5 but 1-3 were new to me.

[@benhur933]

I've heard of dembe and pradal serey I think is also known as bokator. but the others I have not heard of. thank you for all that you do.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thank you!

[@syciuplyte8494]

i heard of danbe and recently of lua from a show called 52 masters. I never heard of the others mentioned. In my island of trinidad we have a martial art called Kalinda. Its a stick fight art

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I'm not familiar with Kalinda, I'll check it out!

[@oldlifter530]

Thank you

[@curtdilger6235]

Great stuff. I overstepped last time, I'm guessing. Regrets and Regards

[@EnglishMartialArts]

You did? I wouldn't worry!

[@curtdilger6235]

​@@EnglishMartialArts I'm guessing when I add links, the message doesn't come through. I am alerting you to the new Russel Crowe movie Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher. Whatever its quality, it proves your subject is very popular, and your knowledge and storytelling capabilities would greatly enhance their future efforts. Perhaps you could get involved with the people who made this film or other like minded movie people, so you could help them make a better movie of the era. Regards

[@joshmarten-brown7220]

Never trained in anything more exotic than a off shoot of Israeli self defence everything else has been mma karate and hema. Are there any dead obscure martial arts were sure existed but died out fully?

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Great question! I'll start looking to see if I can find five!

[@adrianojordao4634]

I give you one more: "jogo do pau". I think one of the most efective "stick" arts. Using the lenght of the stick. Not the kungfu bs. There was a open "stick" tournument,i think in france in the 80s width no suprise they win. The stick can have a litle blade in the end, but is considered a shame to uncap it. Only used if multiple atackers. pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jogo_do_pau

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Weirdly I though about Jogo do pau, but thought it wasn't obscure enough!

[@adrianojordao4634]

@@EnglishMartialArts, hope you are right. Continue this good work. Is a recent chanel for me were i am learning with each post.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

@@adrianojordao4634 Good to have you on the fight team!

[@lewisb85]

Pradal Serey I've been to a seminar with an instructor because it's connected to an art I have trained extensively the boxe française form of Savate (went to a uk public school on jersey where boxe francaise was a PE option-when my dad got sick of the weather in Wales and decided to move to the channel islands). Cambodia is a former French colony so I remember an instructor telling me stories about how French or foreign legion savateurs who were in the army used to make extra money by fighting the locals, apparently the uppercut isn't common in Pradal Serey so the Savateur used to just hit a solid uppercut in the early part of the fight and win by knock out until the locals got wise to it.

[@kunkhmerenthusiast]

I think it has to do with the traditional techniques being used which is why uppercuts isn't common back then. I can say the Khmer boxing back then could be grapple-base. but I do believe your story, the Ring Sport of "Free-fighting "or "Free boxing" didn't take place in the 1920s. The Vietnamese, Khmer, and Chinese fighters fought against each other during the French colonial but mostly in the Mekong Delta region where there are Khmer and Chinese communities. When the French protectorate Cambodia in 1863. The French government decided to establish military schools in different regions. Those students that went to these schools are from middle-class or upper-class families. Of course, the government did start introducing French boxing, fencing, football, rugby, and gymnastics in the schools. For the lower-class Khmer, the kids go to a Buddhist school but they are also taught the traditional Khmer martial art or Boxe Khmère/Boxe Cambodgienne. In 1880, when the Tirailleurs indochinois was established many of the Khmer that came from farming villages got recruited are sent to Saigon, Vietnam to do military training. Around that time Boxing and fencing clubs start appearing in the Mekong delta region. The local traditional Boxe Khmère or Boxe Cambodgienne in Cambodia where they don't use gloves but wrap their hands with a rope or go bare knuckle where they fight on sand pits is well documented in the French account. I have been researching Khmer martial art for about a few years now and I run an Instagram page where I archive and bring in historical information about the sport of Pradal Serey and Khmer martial art. I have been talking to people from the Khmer community who practice the art that is passed down by their families. I once talk to a person from Canada who owns a fight gym and his great-uncle who was born in the 1900s taught his family the art.

[@ShaunCKennedyAuthor]

I hadn't heard of any of these. That's awesome! Thanks for sharing

[@EnglishMartialArts]

My pleasure!

[@jwilli6]

I had heard of three, but the Egyptian stick fighting, and the Scottish wrestling were brand new to me. Thanks for the great video!

[@chaxologist2024]

How about 52 Blocks? It is still a seldom heard martial arts that is Afro-centric but it is primarily known for being an exclusively defensive style of fighting focusing on deception and feints to set up a counter attack only off an opponent's attack and mastering various defensive shapes. It seems to be a close, Afro-centric cousin to English Pugilism with all its defensive shapes seemingly designed for bare knuckle fighting, especially in the case of Jack Slack using the Cross-Guard defense to eventually beat Jack Broughton and negate the latter's superior attacking techniques. Yoel Romero and Archie Moore are the closest examples of fighters utilizing the defensive shapes of 52 Blocks that is ideal for defending against elbow strikes and spinning backfists with the cross guard.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Probably deserves a video one day. One of my old wrestling buddies was pretty solid at it.

[@relativisticvel]

@@EnglishMartialArts that I would love to see.

[@kakazex1345]

@@EnglishMartialArts I think you should cover a video of this to give it more light. My dad taught himself 52 blocks and shows me how to do it and I plan on building my own variation of it. It is very useful in street fights against anyone especially boxers. People who practice it like my father often switch their guard and hands very quickly while moving forward to parry punches and throw elbows/punches. It is a mixture of cross-guard,peekaboo and Philly shell. It can also be used for grappling although I haven’t seen too many people use it for grappling. If you are interested in making a video about this check out Mr. 52 (the most well known), Lyte burly, Oni Oma Movement, and Sensei Mo. (there are others out there but these people show it better and are more well known.

[@Jenjak]

I already knew dambe through the channel "dambe warriors" Also tathib through martial arts magazines. In France (Bretagne to be more precise) we have a folk style wrestling called Gouren which is a bit like judo or Bokh on sand. It's very cool to watch.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I know of Gouren, I'd like to do a video on the relationship between that and Corninsb Wrestling.

[@JohnJohnson-pq4qz]

@@EnglishMartialArts are they not considered the same thing? I heard it referred to as "Cornwall and Breton Wrestling" years ago.

[@hailhydreigon2700]

Great video! I myself have been wanting to bring attention to Xupa Porrazo (Chupa Porrazo), which is a Native Mexican Grappling Sport/Art based on different animals. The sport involves people dressing up in the animal attire and wrestling. This is probably one of the very few pre-Hispanic Mexican Martial Arts in existence and it's in serious danger of dying out.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Oh that's interesting!

[@davidemelia6296]

I've heard of Pradal Serey. This type of kick-boxing is quite common in south-east Asian countries, with most countries having their own style or styles. Thailand has Muay Thai, of course, which is a more modern form of their traditional kickboxing styles. Myanmar has Lethwei as well as other styles. Laos has Muay Lao. Cambodia also has Bokator (and other styles) as well as Pradal Serey. Even transnational peoples in SE Asia, like the Dai/Tai/Shan, have their own distinctive martial arts. Of course, in centuries past, all of these peoples had a lot of contact with each other, both in warfare and in other ways.

[@izzygarcialionibabaloipici6293]

I do great-ape kungfu. Very rare very deadly. It was devolved by orangutans in the san diego zoo based off of movements that they observed chimpanzee and gorilla preform. I was only able to learn because I am in fact an orangutan

[@sinfinite7516]

Lmao wtf

[@izzygarcialionibabaloipici6293]

@@sinfinite7516 oohooh ahhahh?

[@junichiroyamashita]

Would love to see some of these elaborated further,since nobody talks about them. I am particularly interested in those that mesh well with boxing. One that you could be interested in is 52 Blocks, focused in very close range fighting.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

You're rhe second person to suggest that!

[@junichiroyamashita]

@@EnglishMartialArts i am one of those guys that believes that barehanded fighting must be close fighting,so i am very interested in close range combat styles. Since we are here,Da'Mon Stith many years ago made a video showcasing the ancient Egyptian boxing stance and style,if you are interested.

[@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y]

@@junichiroyamashita There are lots of former inmates on YT, none of them said anything about 52 Blocks. I even emailed one of them and asked, he replied that he doesn't know anything about it. But even if they saw it applied, they probably couldn't tell what it was.

[@folksurvival]

​@@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y There used to be many videos about it.

[@johnstuartkeller5244]

FIGHT- These are all new to me! Thanks for the introductory research material, boss 😁 -TEAM!

[@EnglishMartialArts]

My pleasure mate!

[@scholagladiatoria]

What a fascinating video! Lots learned.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thanks mate!

[@7woundsfist]

Most I have heard of before. I've been doing a deep dive into African martial arts the last year and a half. The highland wrestling sounds like fun.

[@Cavouku]

I've heard of the first three--dambe's been on my radar for a while, pradal serey drifts in and out of my attention, and tahtib comes up in some Historical African Martial Arts groups I'm subbed to. I feel like I may have heard of Kapu Kuialua at some point, but not enough to remember it well. As for Carachd Bharraidh, that one is completely new to me. I've heard of Sli Beatha some time back, and was honestly expecting it, so imagine my surprise when a completely different Celtic Martial Art pops up at the end. (Of note: sli beatha was invented by an American in the 60s, so it can't be called a *traditional* art. And the celtic-y ness is questionable)

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Oh that's interesting! Not come across that.

[@sanderson9338]

Was confident I would know all 5 but lol never heard of the Egyptian stick fighting so fair play. The Hawaii one is a bone breaking art.

[@paolosmaldone8347]

Only the last one its new for me.

[@fredazcarate4818]

As for the Scottish style of wrestling from the Hebrides I am familiar but the others mentioned I confess ignorance. I thank you for sharing the origins of these various manly arts. Brilliant video lad; I await your next presentation. 👊👍🙏

[@Stephen_Curtin]

I did some looking into Carachd Bharraidh a year or so ago, and I read that it's not a traditional wrestling style at all. According to one guy, who's well known in the Scottish Backhold scene, it was only started sometime the 1980s or 90s by a local gym teacher. Carachd Uidhist (Uist Wrestling) is the real deal though.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thats interesting! I think I saw a source that predates that, but could well be wrong.

[@Stephen_Curtin]

@@EnglishMartialArts William Baxter, former President of the Scottish Wrestling Bond, mentioned it in a couple of articles, but I don't think he said anything about it's history. The guy I referred to above, Michael Phillips is his name, was trained by Mr Baxter, and it's he who said that it is a modern thing. I've seen it mentioned in other articles and posts online but none of them provided any source other than Mr Baxter.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

@@Stephen_Curtin Interesting! Makes me glad I put the little disclaimer on that one!

[@johngr1747]

Yes! You did it! I was not expecting Paradal, which I always thought was a variant of Muay Thai. Great video nonetheless.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thank you!

[@lewisb85]

It's had more in common with savate at one point actually, with Cambodia being a former French colony, some Savateurs who were in the French army used to fight the locals to make some extra cash. Learnt this at a seminar at a savate club.

[@olihallam9667]

@@EnglishMartialArts Is Paradal the same as lethwei?

[@johngr1747]

@@olihallam9667 No. Paradal has no throws and no headbutts. Also the strategy is different.

[@lewisb85]

@@johngr1747 Not sure if it was the savate influence because of cambodia being a former french colony but I thought it was more kick heavy/distance based than muay thai.

[@harjutapa]

Your opening greeting always brightens my day :)

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Good, that makes me happy.

[@marcusreynolds5104]

Only the first one from Africa. But they're all awesome. New to your channel. Keep up the good work 👏 🙌 👍

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thank you!

[@brittakriep2938]

Swiss Schwingen/ Hosenlupf? Austrian ( Bavaria/ Southern Tyrol) Rangeln? Two folk wrestling styles from the south of german language region.

[@slabs6661]

What about the Martial Art that I have been practicing since I was fifteen? I am now fifty! I never hear anyone talk about the Burmese Fighting system that was developed by Dr. U Maung Gyi, that is known as Bando.

[@ruiseartalcorn]

Great stuff! :) Re "Carachd Bharraigh", the stress is on the first syllable of each word. "Carachd" means wrestling, and in this case, the wrestling of "Barraigh" ("Barra" in English). In Gaelic, we use the genitive case when describing something as being "of" something. The genitive of "Barraigh" is "Bharraigh" - the "h" converts the "B" into a v sound. So, "Carachd Bharraigh", literally means, the wrestling of Barra. Sorry for the nerdy Gaeilc lesson ;)

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thank you, I appreciate it!

[@ruiseartalcorn]

@@EnglishMartialArts 'S e do bheatha (You're welcome).

[@folksurvival]

There's an interesting documentary about Barra on KZbin called The Boy Who Lived Before.

[@kunkhmerenthusiast]

Pradal Serey is a term that isn't used as much nowadays it is now called Kun Khmer because the Kun Khmer federation sees Pradal Serey as a branch of Khmer martial art. The sport itself is indeed growing because Khmer locals actually like different things plus the fighters now are improving. First off, the Kun Khmer federation permanently brought back the traditional hand-wrapped rope fights a couple years ago. Second, there is a fight promotion that runs every Sunday at the Town tv studio in Phnom Penh which is called Mas Fight. Under Mas Fight rules, fighters wear 5oz gloves instead of 8 to 10 oz. Standing submissions, throws, elbows, and knees are allowed. The bout consists of 9 minutes with round breaks. If neither of the fighters cannot knockout or submit his opponent before time runs out then it is a draw. Third, a Bareknuckle Kun Khmer championship for the IPCC European title was held in Martigny, Switzerland back in November. The fight is under Pradal Serey/Kun Khmer rules no gloves. As of now, I see lots of improvement for Cambodian fighters for the past few months they have been fighting in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Japan. Some have won championship matches.

[@simonacerton3478]

Already subbed but I did discver 2 new ones (Scots wresting and Cambodian) I knew of the existence of Luah but not its lineage or the fact that it would be integrated into Grandmaster Wally Jay's Small Circle Jujitsu. Also heard of Egyptian Stick Fighting, and that African art though that's because its showed in a tabletop roleplaying game book

[@loneronin6813]

I thought I would recognize one or two of these but as it turns out the only one I had never heard of was that last one. I've heard the term, "Loose-Hold," in reference to more combative forms of Scottish Wrestling, but I never knew there were differing styles, only that they were more applicable to warfare than Back Hold Wrestling. As for my own training, I've trained in stuff you would see almost anywhere: Judo, Taekwondo, a small bit of Wing Chun and Yang Taijiquan, as well as Combat Hapkido. I also have trained in some basics of knife fighting and I walk with a cane due to multiple disabilities, so I have a general idea of how to use it as a weapon of self-defense as well. However, neither the knife usage or cane usage came from any one martial art and are only basic level stuff that I don't really focus on because due to said disabilities I can't really hold a knife too well so I typically can only fight bare-handed, and I can only grapple but with no ground fighting save for how to get out of having to do it. I've also had to basically combine aspects of my training to form my own methods, which kind of look like a mix of some Shuai Jiao, some Collar and Elbow, various standard takedowns, chokes and holds, and some basic disarms of commonly used weapons in close quarters. I don't get to train very often since it's hard to do so while being in constant pain from (you guessed it) the aforementioned disabilities as well as not having anyone to really train with since my attempts to teach martial arts haven't gone well and my back surgery to hopefully fix one of my many problems is still a ways off.

[@MartinGreywolf]

I've definitely heard of Tahtib and did some fairly in-depth looking into it from a "is this thing actually historical or is it usual BS" standpoint. And the conclusion I came to was that it... sort of is legit? There is definitely a tradition of fighting with a stick in the northern Egypt area, and the stick length and the way it is held is consistent. However, claiming that modern Tahtib is anything like ancient Egyptian military stick fighting is absurd - for starters, it wasn't called Tahtib. We kind of run into the "too generic to qualify" problem - there is about the same degree of similarity between fighting with Greek xiphos and Italian cinquedea, simply by the virtue of them being very similar weapons. My opinion on Tahtib is that it isn't a single martial art, but rather a family of different martial arts that either share the same lineage or are closely related, much like classical pugilism and modern boxing do, or (if swords are more your thing) the way Manciolino and Capo Ferro are both Italian rapier. On an unrelated note, Carachd Bharraidh reminds me of Grübleinringen from 16th century Germany (mentioned by e.g. Fabian von Auerswald), where the goal was to make one foot of the opponent move out of a small hole in the ground (hence the name, Small-hole-wrestling). And let's not forget sumo is a thing that exists as well... All in all, it makes me think that there likely was a large number of local traditions of wrestling all over the world that had some form of ringout as the primary loosing condition.

[@cahallo5964]

I have heard of 5 and 3 and also 2 (because of Hawaii 5-0 lol my mom loved that show) I haven't heard about 1 but it's very interesting, 4 does not interest me tbf.

[@maksymmerkulow5196]

Thank you for this interesting video. I`ve heard about Bharraid-wrestling for the first time. Maybe it was one of the base fo creation Britich catch-wrestling.

[@PassionateSpirit88]

Hello, where are the old, ancient books at on bare knuckle boxing techniques and training, etc..?

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Gonna need more detail on that one...

[@brokeheartwolf3733]

Kuailua as far as I know has no submission holds etc. Back or neck is broken right from the start. Of course with the incoming Western influence, like old hula dances, watered down.

[@ikaikakukaniloko3416]

As far as the UFC fighter Matua, he lied about being a Lua practitioner. He wasn’t an actual Lua practitioner.

[@taxusbaccata3001]

At first I thought that you would talk about some styles that are just not very common. but except lua I never heard of any of them. very cool video!

[@SifuTrix]

2 martial arts to check out, Lucha Del Garrote Juego del palo Local to the canary islands and also a tiny area of Louisiana/Florida USA

[@TheHammerOfRogues]

The only one I've heard of is pradel serey although I did know that there were some old wrestling styles in the UK but nothing about them. Interesting video.

[@amazed2341]

Slightly related, there’s a British bloke you might’ve heard of. Steve Morris of the Morris No Holds Barred fame, he’s been around for ages and put out some amazing stuff but sadly he just doesn’t have the reach or presence. You might be interested in what he has to say about fighting and martial arts in general as he’s a phenom when it comes to training methods and effective techniques

[@amazed2341]

He’s a “rare martial artist” as opposed to a rare martial art

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I know that name but I don't know if we've ever met.

[@amazed2341]

@@EnglishMartialArts perhaps he might be worth an interview for the channel or something, he always looking to spread his information

[@stoneslash]

I had my doubts that these would be at all arts I hadn’t heard of when I clicked the video…then I saw it was one of your videos. I immediately knew I was about to learn something today. I only knew of the Hawaiian art due to my grandfather participating in it to some degree as a younger man and showing me a couple things he had learned. Everything else was indeed a novel experience for me today. Thank you.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Really pleased to hear I shared something new!

[@Sifuben]

I'm impressed, 3 I had genuinely never heard of and good new information on the other 2

[@marcomiller5146]

Ive heard of dambe and it has reached all the way to sudan. We had foreign exchange student from south sudan and i had asked if he had heard of dambe and he said that he had seen it being performed in sudan

[@jonhstonk7998]

i really didnt knew about most of these! theres always something to learn.

[@liddco16]

Now I want to travel to some obscure isle to learn ancient wrestling haha 😂

[@sinfinite7516]

I don’t think the intro with the unicorn is necessary in the shorter videos but thats just me.

[@100dfrost]

Sir, no I have never heard of these arts, although their existence does not surprise me in any way. Good video thanks.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thank you!

[@Mr-Tibbster]

Cool stuff. There are also some tradtional Irish and Italian stick fighting styles that come to mind.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Yes, and sicilian dagger fighting IIRC

[@Mr-Tibbster]

@@EnglishMartialArts That's right.

[@123curiousity321]

all new to me, v. interesting thankyou

[@CountryKarate]

I have only heard of Dambe.

[@kevionrogers2605]

An obscure art my grandfather taught me is Calinda its stickfighting practice around the Caribbean, & Antilles. How I learned it was with kicks, but its more often done without kicks. It is a point based system similar to single-stick & you score by striking the head. To win you can out score first to 3 or 5 points, or knockout or quitting. Once the head is struck you separate then reset. There's a version with wooden daggers or truncheons that's more akin to Broughton rules Boxing with a weapon added, but these things are for the most part extinct. Related arts are stickboxing, & stickgrappling from FMA. The Dog Brothers Gathering, Sayoc Kali & Atienza Kali Sama Sama are other melee style competitions.

[@kanonierable]

Fascinating! I'm a huge fan of any kind of stick system. I hope you had the chance to teach what you've learned from your Grandpa to your son/grandson (or-daughter or any other relative of the next generation.

[@0xdeaddeaf699]

DAMBE is the only one i knew from the list

[@LuxisAlukard]

Great video!

[@jrlito2777]

I was always curious about the west African boxing art! I’m glad they are making it more legit and bringing it world wide

[@arc0006]

I've heard of Danbe that was it! 😀

[@furqantarique3484]

Kalaripyattu the mother of all martial arts

[@ajshiro3957]

This is cool. I haven't heard of these arts. I love learning about obscure arts from different countries.

[@Vayiram-]

Ok, you got me with the last one...

[@septegram]

I've seen plenty of videos about this or that "obscure" martial art, so I was mildly skeptical about the title, but you absolutely nailed it. These are fascinating, and no, I'd never heard of any of them 😁

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Yay, I win!

[@ianstewart1527]

A Septuagenarian's Musings Terry, it will no doubt surprise you to know, that there was once a designated 'Official Government Representative' (OGR), for what was politely termed in the UK as 'Defense Sports', that is; Boxing, Wrestling and Martial Arts, (amazing acronym, and what a gobful that was!). By the way that OGR, was me. No joke! I am, an amateur, Martial Arts researcher/historian, and it is really great to see you, a serious martial arts scholar, researcher and practitioner, with the obligatory sense of humour necessary for anyone crazy enough to try to explain, highlight, and promote understanding of, the plethora of Martial and Fighting Arts, which we are aware of, or interested in finding out about. Don Dragger (not his real name), in the 1960s-70s made a stab at it. However, his work appeared to include, what many serious students of martial arts, considered to be, frivolous and sometimes completely made-up nonsense, intended to sensationalise the subject, for a new western audience. So, Terry, you appear to be one of the few serious British scholarly, researchers, to publically addressed some of the more obscure UK and international fighting arts. That's good. I have, over my sixty-two years of interest, in these Arts, been fascinated by, for example, the hidden and sometimes forgotten, martial techniques, in Highland Dancing, and Morris Dancing, (sword, stick, and clogging) in the UK. I am particularly interested in why the northwest of England became such a hotbed, for oriental and indigenous fighting arts and systems. For example, close to my home, in the City of Salford, there is only one family who has kept the devastating and effective art of 'Wigan Pit Wrestling' (WPW), alive and kicking (excuse the pun). When I met with Mr Wood and his family, at his home in Wigan, I was surprised to find, that only he and his original teacher, who had emigrated abroad, knew about and still practise this system. I was fascinated, to see the non-standard; striking pinching, locks, and other unusual techniques, which appeared to be unique to WPW. After observing the techniques used in the system, I explained my view/hypotheses, that the more unusual, applied techniques/elements, were more akin to techniques I had come across, in the internal Chinese Boxing Arts, of Hsing, Bagua and Taichi. In discussing this with Mr Wood, I explained that over the past 200 years or so, Chinese commercial vessels would dock at Liverpool, and on occasion, some of the Chinese sailors would jump ship, and settle in Liverpool. This in part, might go some way to explaining, why Liverpool has the largest Chinese community in the UK. Some of the settled Chinese may have brought their own 'family', or 'learned', Chinese Boxing systems, with them. And, whilst popular perception might be, that it is only in more recent times, that Chinese Boxers, in the West, have openly taught Caucasians, I have a gut feeling that over that 200 years or so, some of the Chinese community's supposed, 'secret boxing techniques, have filtered out, and been synthesised, into the indigenous Wigan Pit Wrestling, probably, in more recent times. I may be completely 'off beam' with this analysis. So what do you, and your readers/viewers think Terry?

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I think you're confusing me with Someone else. I'm not Terry.

[@JohnRaptor]

I hadn't heard of any of these!

[@The_Prenna]

I think I've seen some Dambe on TikTok. Which reminds me that I was going to suggest chucking some of your short vids on TikTok with a link to your KZbin channel in your profile. It might drive a little engagement this way. I know TikTok has a bad rap but it does have its uses.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Most of the shorts I'm putting out are from my Tiktok account!

[@conorfiggs234]

I’ve heard of all these except the final one, great video as always! FIGHT TEAM

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I win then! 😁

[@zachleprieur2871]

Only heard of the African one. Never heard of any of the other ones. Savate is one I like to tell people about if you wanna learn to kick in shoes and is fun to do. Loving all the shorts you're doing btw. Fight team! #fightteam

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I'm not sure the shorts are very helpful in terms of growing the channel, but they're fun so I'm willing to see how it goes for a while!

[@johnl2648]

Nice vid. I'd like to hear more about Madagascar kickboxing

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Me too!

[@evalentin1975]

There is a Filipino style of Kickboxing called Yaw Yan

[@SuperFamiKing]

Also Sikaran which has chopping kicks. "Sipa" is Filipino for "Kick".

[@fabianbrain]

Except for dambe, all the other martial arts are new to me. I really like videos on forgotten arts, good job.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thank you!

[@andytopley314]

Fight Team!

[@chaos_omega]

I'd heard of all of them except for the last one. Or maybe I had, but that name is a bit hard to remember...

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Isn't it!

[@gordonmacdowell8117]

Great video! I honestly thought I would know more of them. There are a number of Thai Boxing/Muay Thai variants out there. I've wondered if the styles being taught in the West today tend towards less elbow work, due to the influence of MMA and kickboxing. I'd heard of Dambe, but only due to a cultural infotainment TV episode on the region. When you mentioned Egypt, I was thinking to myself, "I spent some time training with a guy who taught this" and it turned out to be something else entirely different. There's just so many fighting systems out there that never went beyond their locale or transitioned to the international stage.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

It's all absolutely fascinating isn't it!

[@garlandterry7475]

Fantastic video as always. I don’t know if you keep up with him but Zach Telander has been doing some international strength and combat sport videos (including grappling from so many different cultures). Would love to see you both in a colab as you could bring A lot of insight. Thanks for the consistently great content.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I'll check him out!

[@mobivation]

Great vid. First time I saw Kapu Kuialua was Mike Bitonio vs Bart Vale in the WFC (I think??) Bitonio was training lua out of San Pedro, Cali under a guy who's name was something like Kadja (??) The style looked brutal in the prefight footage it Vale was just too big for Bitonio (who was tough as nails) and it got pretty bloody. Vale won but couldn't fight the next round due to injury too..

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Oh I might have to see if I can find footage of that.

[@mobivation]

@@EnglishMartialArts here you go kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYvQn6iGa6-IsKc

[@christians.9158]

Never watched one of your videos that i didn't learn something from and enjoy thoroughly. This was fascinating! All the arts were new to me.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thank you!

[@richardhenry1969]

I take small circle so I’ve seen the Hawaiian art. In fact their is a good bit about it in Wally jays book. I love small circle it truly is a mixed martial art many years ahead of its time. The only downside is people think of the no touch stuff which has nothing to do with press points. But everything is in our curriculum from boxing to Filipino martial arts and many more. Small circle is the only are I know a small person can make a much stronger bigger person scream like a child. Wally used to have a saying “feeling is believing”. That pretty much changes everyone once they get put in a finger lock everything changes. We are taught to flow without ever letting up on the pain. Because everything doesn’t work with everyone.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I've never studied it, but have always been interested.

[@richardhenry1969]

@@EnglishMartialArts it's hard to find instructors but if you do it's something you'll never forget.

[@johnmatthewcrane4423]

I would like to see a video on the old Nordic system of Glima

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I've started scripting that several times, but there's a LOT to unpack.

[@operaanimelover369]

My good sir, I am utterly fascinated by Dambe, Pradal Serey, and Kapu Kuialua the most. I would also love to bring up Pankration which is the Ancient Greek version of today's Mixed Martial Arts, as it uses boxing, wrestling, striking, and grappling techniques. Other rare martial arts I would gladly bring up are Taekkyeon from Korea, Moraingy from Madagascar, and Ssireum from Korea.

[@TheReel_Billiam]

I’d love you to make more of these, oz!!!!

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I suspect that may happen! 😀

[@relativisticvel]

Dambe was the only one of these I had heard of.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Dambe is awesome. Brutal, but awesome.

[@ahmedsameh4408]

Awesome Video as per usual my friend! I know some Tahtib, I saw before a faction fight in upper Egypt and one man killed the other with a blow to the head, nobody will tell you this, but Tahtib is still used in real combat by men who knows nothing about other martial arts.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I'm really pleased you commented, I wondered if you were more familiar with it than me!

[@ahmedsameh4408]

@@EnglishMartialArts If you came to Egypt someday, I will organize a trip for you. You're awesome, learned a lot from you 😊

[@EnglishMartialArts]

@@ahmedsameh4408 I'd love to visit Egypt. If I ever do I'll be sure to let you know. It'd be great to meet in the flesh!

[@ajshiro3957]

Man, this is a great list. Very educational. There are a lot of lists with "obscure" martial arts, but they usually name things well known.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Yeah, those lists irritate me no end!

[@johnlodge5402]

Brilliant content has always

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Thank you!

[@mhs8772]

Tatib is just a traditional dance in egypt it was and still is it never has certain rules I am from Egypt

[@formlessone8246]

My understanding of Tatib is that it is somewhat like HEMA and HAMA in that it is partially a reconstruction of an ancient art, but its reconstruction is an older project from HEMA and done independently of the current HAMA practitioners (who use it as a model for reconstructing other African martial arts for which we often have no written sources). Because you're right, there is no one ruleset for Tatib or one traditional curriculum, instead the researchers went around Egypt and noticed that there were many stick dances and stick fighting games practiced as local tradition but the practitioners couldn't really explain where it came from. Certainly it wasn't related to medieval era Egyptian warfare. It was obvious, though, that there were enough similarities between the various communities that they must have a common origin as a stick fighting system that went into disuse at some point and fragmented in the process. The games for instance had a lot of common goals (like touching the head), but often had some kind of restriction on how you could move that suggested an old fighting drill in the original system. So that's how the researchers of modern Tatib treated it: they brought together all the regional styles and assumed that each contained just a few of the original techniques, but no one of them contained the entire system as it was practiced thousands of years ago. They also sought to preserve the original dances and games for posterity, and so they could show their work. Folk arts like this are always in danger of going extinct; for example, Irish stick fighting used to be quite diverse in the 19'th century, but now only two lineages can be verified to still exist. Tatib's modern practitioners don't want the same thing to happen to their art or the sources they used to reconstruct it. Even now it still deserves a spot on this list as an "obscure" art, even compared to similar arts like Jogo do pau.

[@mhs8772]

@@formlessone8246 Tahtib was the way (fetwa) fought fetwa or a bully was a kind of a savage strong man who provided security for the people of a certain area and forced them to pay him for defending securing them from attacks by other fetaws the way they fought didnt have particular techniques it was only to cause harm

[@sinfinite7516]

I didn’t know any of these haha

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Then I win!

[@rabiesbiter5681]

Subscribed because I've never heard of that last one.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

Yay, welcome to the fight team!

[@rabiesbiter5681]

@@EnglishMartialArts Thanks! And I'll be honest. I'd probably have subscribed even if I had heard of that last one.

[@lnfopublishingsecrets1887]

Thanks for your video. Please know that the remaining Welsh pugilism systems contain elements of a loose Welsh system of grappling called Cwdwm Braich (literally Arm/ Shoulder Grappling). Historically Cwdwm Braich is the basis of the sport of Shinkicking. Although it contains far more strikes, kicks, throws and the like than Shinkicking does. There are also Welsh catch/ loose wrestling (Cwdwrn or Cwdyrn) styles. But these are very rare nowadays.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I've heard that there are Welsh systems of wrestling, but I've never managed to track them down!

[@lnfopublishingsecrets1887]

@@EnglishMartialArts Hello. Thanks for you reply. My grandad taught me a particularly south Walian system of pugilism. That's full of kicking, torsions, striking and grappling. And some specific lifting/ physical exercises that compliment it. He died before i could learn more. That system contains a lot of Cwdwm Braich stuff. Cwdwm means grapple, Cwdwrn (w r n) means to wrestle. The dwrn etc. bit means to go down. Found in old English as Dern (a dark down place, a dell). I haven't seen the catch style Welsh wrestling systems since being a kid in 1980s.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

@@lnfopublishingsecrets1887 well if this place ever makes me enough money to free up my time that is definitely something worth tracking down!

[@lewisb85]

@@lnfopublishingsecrets1887 My dad trained with Don vines (ex welsh rugby duel code international turned pro wrestler) in a system that sounds similar to what you describe, Don was a beast of a grappler ran a gym out of Newbridge which eventually became known for its boxing and became team calzaghe.

[@nathanieltillman2355]

Living in Cambodia at the moment (Battambang), Pradel Serey seems to have become Kun Khmer. They have shortened it from Kbach Kun Pradal Khmer. They are derived from Bokator which (again, after talking with locals here) they seems to prefer to use. The Khmer do not practice it much anymore but a few hardcore gyms can be found..... and I mean hardcore! kicking trees, coconut to the gut, long live sparring session, all in the super humidity and heat of the day and night here! Fun though it you like good sweaty training. They are incredibly patriotic over it and get angry when people call it Muay Thai as the feel the Thai stole it from them and turned it from a noble sport to money making machine. I don't know if the last part is true, but that is how the Khmer feel. The even quit several competitions because the announcer's used Muay Thai. Just my 2 pennies from living here for a few months.

[@nathanieltillman2355]

@Trevor James Yeah, I agree with you on your points and you seems far knowledgeable in this area than I. What you are saying sure seems more likely.

[@tomdegisi]

I am a practitioner of a modern form of an extremely ancient art, now known as 'couch potato'. I believe the name of the earliest known form is roughly translated as 'achieving the lazy and useless by laying on the ground'. It's unpronouncible.

[@EnglishMartialArts]

I suspect I'd be a natural at that.

[@christophercurtis9392]

First

[@kindermord]

Comments for the comment god. Likes and subscribes for the Algorithm Throne.

[@batjutsu]

Thank you for another interesting video. More things to research 😀 Fight Team! 🥊🤼