Martial Arts in Westeros and Essos

[Craving Peaches]

Do we know of any martial arts being practiced on either continent? There is the 'Fiery Hand' which sounds like it could be martial arts related, but apart from that I'm not sure if there is anything.

[Tyrosh Lannister]

4 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

Do we know of any martial arts being practiced on either continent? There is the 'Fiery Hand' which sounds like it could be martial arts related, but apart from that I'm not sure if there is anything.

The faceless men 

[Ring3r]

What do you mean by martial arts?  The term means something vastly different now than it used to.  Technically, a martial art is any skill used for martial purposes....fighting.  In our modern world, becoming skilled with a handgun could very much be considered a martial art.  Same with long-range shooting, clearing a structure, etc. 

The most prevalent ones in the ASoIaF timeline would be combat with a spear (or similar), then probably archery after that, then the various styles of swords.  You can throw in variations to those as well, since somebody with a short spear and a buckler or small shield is going to fight very differently than somebody with a long spear or a halberd.  Fighting with an arahk is far different than a longsword.  etc, etc.

If you mean the more modern definition (unarmed combat), it simply would not be very prevalent in a time when the primary weapons being used are blades.  In the real world, during the medieval and renaissance periods, essentially everyone, commoners included, carried a dagger or similar blade - it would have been considered part of the normal "leave your house with" every-day-carry. It'd be a death sentence to try and fight unarmed.  I'm sure something akin to boxing and wrestling are popular sports during this time period but they're essentially useless against somebody with a bladed weapon.

[Craving Peaches]

9 hours ago, Ring3r said:

What do you mean by martial arts?  The term means something vastly different now than it used to.

Modern Martial Arts.

[Craving Peaches]

9 hours ago, Ring3r said:

If you mean the more modern definition (unarmed combat), it simply would not be very prevalent in a time when the primary weapons being used are blades.  In the real world, during the medieval and renaissance periods, essentially everyone, commoners included, carried a dagger or similar blade - it would have been considered part of the normal "leave your house with" every-day-carry. It'd be a death sentence to try and fight unarmed.  I'm sure something akin to boxing and wrestling are popular sports during this time period but they're essentially useless against somebody with a bladed weapon.

But in the real world martial arts still developed despite the presence of bladed weapons.

[Rosetta Stone]

1. Benerro's guards are like Palpatine's red guards in the Star Wars franchise. 
2. The Unsullied must have also trained in hand to hand combat.  Their training is not restricted by honor nor fairness. The Unsullied are trained to be the perfect war machines.  
3. Barristan's boys in Mereen.  He teaches them the fighting disciplines of the West but they also bring with them the skills from their native home.  
4. Sword dancers of Braavos.
5. The Kingsguards are also adept at using other weapons besides swords and lances.  Barristan used a staff against the sell sword captain.  
6. Mance is skilled with sword but he must also have good hand to hand to prove himself to free folk.

[Craving Peaches]

3 minutes ago, Rosetta Stone said:

• The Unsullied must have also trained in hand to hand combat.  Their training is not restricted by honor nor fairness. The Unsullied are trained to be the perfect war machines.  
• Barristan's boys in Mereen.  He teaches them the fighting disciplines of the West but they also bring with them the skills from their native home.  
• Sword dancers of Braavos.
• The Kingsguards are also adept at using other weapons besides swords and lances.  Barristan used a staff against the sell sword captain.  
• Mance is skilled with sword but he must also have good hand to hand to prove himself to free folk.

Unsullied are never mentioned being trained in hand-to-hand combat. They are specifically mentioned as being trained to use different types of spear. It's possible but I find it unlikely, I think it would have been mentioned by now.

Barristan is teaching them how to be knights. He might teach them a bit of pugilism as part of that, but nothing like Aikido or anything similar.

Sword Dancers are trained to use the sword. Nothing suggests they are also trained in unarmed combat like a martial art.

[astarkchoice]

Pretty much all of westeros is based on viking/ medieval times where we know boxing and wrestling where popular sports  as well as armed combat. (We are told the ibbense excel in wrestling over the westerosi)

The dothraki as being verrryyy loosely based on various nomad cultures will have various weapons based training, horseback sports and probably grappling too.

The close quarters nature of the ghiscari.legions would  hint at least a grappling based style similar to our grecco roman wrestling would evolve , boxing and wrestling popular all over rome and ancient greece etc which they are modelled on and lastly  possibly ancient mma aka pankration (which if used to the death would fit perfectly into mereens pits)

[Alester Florent]

2 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

But in the real world martial arts still developed despite the presence of bladed weapons.

But most unarmed martial arts only developed properly after everyday carrying of weapons fell out of use.

There was an explosion of unarmed martial arts in Japan during and after the Meiji Restoration, because the suppression of the samurai class and resulting absence of swords from day-to-day life mean that traditional martial arts like kenjitsu and iaido were no longer useful for self-defence. Some of these martial arts had older traditions themselves (like karate) but in turn these tended to date back to periods when weapon-carrying was reduced for whatever reason.

[Loose Bolt]

Both Ironborn and Nothmen knew something about wrestling. After all Starks won Bear Island in wrestling match.

[Ring3r]

21 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

But in the real world martial arts still developed despite the presence of bladed weapons.

 

If there's one fighting style I'd like to see, I think I'd have to go with how the crannogmen fight.  They do not use swords, rather they use bows, tridents and nets - hunting tools.  Apparently they use them to good effect as well, although they can't stand in open combat against armored opponents.  It'd be neat to read something like a treatise on how they fight with those nets and tridents....tripping up and ensnaring a man in armor, then killing him as he's trapped.  Getting good enough with those tools for them to be useful would definitely qualify as a martial art, IMO.