2006, Volume 2
Budo in transition – the challenge of combat sports in the third millennium
Stanisław Tokarski1
1Academy of Humanities, Warsaw and Academy of Humanities, Łódź, Łódź, Poland
Author for correspondence: Stanisław Tokarski; Academy of Humanities, Warsaw and Academy of Humanities, Łódź, Łódź, Poland; email: tokarski[at]o2.pl
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Abstract
The author discusses circumstances of the emergence of the idea of Congress and the preceding activities, as well as the concepts and opinions which integrated researchers in the area of martial arts. The evolution of research directions, presented at the Congress in Rzeszów, was reviewedstarting with the Judo Congress in Spała, the proceedings of which was considered a milestone in the development of martial arts; their transformations were discussed from two points of view – 50 years of their development and meeting of two cultures. This resulted in implantingsome Eastern elements into the physical culture of the West, e.g. an increasing popularity of Asian concepts of self-defence self-defence, self-realisation and self-expression which greatly enriches the contemporary sport; on the other hand, combat sports undergo scientific evaluationwhich transformed the activities in that area of researchers with Western background. That encounter of research in combat sports (scientific approach to training, teaching, winning skills and recruitment) with the philosophical reflection of the East (code values, spiritualising thebody, bushido code), has created the worth studying, unique present of combat sports. Those, who contributed most to the development of research on martial arts, were mentioned together with the list of prime tasks of the just established Centre for Combat Sports and Martial Arts.In conclusion, the author makes the readers aware of pathologies which infiltrate every element of the contemporary sport and which have to be overpowered for the sake of budo values and of the research achievements and applications made so far.
Key words: martial arts, sport development, sport trends