Most obscure martial arts?

What are some martial arts that you have heard of (or preferably, come across personally) that are relatively unknown to the vast majority of the martial arts community?

As an example, my old Capoeira teacher from a couple of years ago told me of a fourth style of Capoeira. The known three dictate the rhythms and speed at which movements are executed. However, she told me about a fourth style that was completely made for street fighting which was created by an old mestre, but she said he died before he could pass it on properly, and thus the style died with him.

It's possible it might more well known than I think, but that is just a personal example. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the martial arts stated were of African or European descent as martial arts are commonly associated with Asia.

 

lancashire clogg fighting, that putting on a pair of wooden soled shoes and kicking your opponent in the shin til he or you gives in or someones leg breaks.

its a bit niche, but really hard core

 

There is a machete style of capoeira you rarely see as well.

 

No way! That actually sounds insane...

 

handbags at dawn

 

There are not a whole lot that have heard of Xingyiquan, but there are a lot of Chinese Martial Arts that most martial artists don't know about

 

i suspect doing those moves armed with a machete has a high injury rate rate

 

There used to be a guy in my county who founded his own style of karate that he taught out of his garage. He was the, like, 15th dan black belt high grandmaster or whatever. A quick google search says he moved and now teaches his same program out of his garage in another city. I'd say that's pretty obscure lol.

(There are lots of people like this, btw.)

 

I've never seen it but I think I had a couple of NCOs in my platoon describe it when I was in the the 82nd Airborne Division about 1961. I think they had seen it in Panama. I'm pretty sure they didn't give it a name but described how they would turn their machetes so the flat of the blade struck just before they hit their opponent. So I say they described it, but actually i am only guessing what you describe and what they described are the same. Sounded like something that required a lot of control.

EDIT: Good Grief! Somebody hit me and wake me from my nightmare, I think I just agreed with @drop bear. How could I?

drop bear: do you know anything more about it?

 

When I was on Okinawa about 1963-64, I heard of a martial art in Japan that evidently used nothing but pressure points. It could render a person down immediately. Never saw it, and having been a MA practitioner for a while now I suspect the person who said he had seen it was describing a currently better known MA such as Aikido or Dai Ito Ryu, itself known by name but in practice rather unknown.

Something like Hapkido, which although everybody says they know about and can tell you lots about it (true or not), actually remains rather unknown.

 

Yeah. It is called macelele and it is a very arty version of fighting.

 

Pretty recent vid on this

 

anyone try this?

 

Joe Son Do; it had only one practitioner, and he wasn't very good at it.

 

Its a cop out, but some people do legitimately view the lightsabre technique things as martial arts, so i would put them as obscure. As they are pretty obscure


Its not a martial art, but shin hitting is a sport, two peopel hold onto each other and take turns hitting each others shins with their shins.

 

One thing I wanted to try when I was getting into martial arts was Baguazhang. It's an art built around movement in circles. I was initially looking into martial arts as a way to defend an initial attack enough to draw my gun, and so I wanted an art built on escaping footwork.

There was, of course, nothing in my area. So I picked Taekwondo since I had prior experience as a kid. Interestingly enough, the Hapkido covers the footwork I wanted. At some point I'd like to combine Hapkido with Gun Fu for a very specific self-defense system.

 

The most obscure would probably be stuff like family martial arts, as by definition they don't get taught to many people. There are also small offshoots of existing arts like Hatenkai aikido, as well as non-competitive bodywork stuff like Hino Budo.

Daito ryu practice is pretty well-known compared to most koryu, I'd say. And the difference between daito ryu and traditional aikido is pretty thin. The founder of aikido started as a daito ryu instructor and did not alter his teachings until his death. Also, there's no emphasis on pressure points in aikido or in DR.

More probably, the art you heard of was some form of kyusho jutsu/dim mak. However, pressure points typically form a very small part of traditional styles because that knowledge has limited use. Most dim mak systems I've come across are pretty modern and often capitalise on exoticism and the "death touch" fantasy.

 

Ah the exquisite art of blocking punches with your balls.

Hey! Another Perthite!

 

Daito ryu practice is pretty well-known compared to most koryu, I'd say. And the difference between daito ryu and traditional aikido is pretty thin. The founder of aikido started as a daito ryu instructor and did not alter his teachings until his death. Also, there's no emphasis on pressure points in aikido or in DR.

More probably, the art you heard of was some form of kyusho jutsu/dim mak. However, pressure points typically form a very small part of traditional styles because that knowledge has limited use. Most dim mak systems I've come across are pretty modern and often capitalise on exoticism and the "death touch" fantasy.[/QUOTE]

I don't try to be familiar with all martial arts so I don't know much about Daito ryu, even though my art is thought to have a connection with it. For the same reason I can't confirm nor deny that it and Aikido are very similar. It just doesn't sound right. As to Dim mak, I think that has been discredited already.

 

The death touch is a fantasy??!! I just wasted $39.95 plus postage? Say it ain't so.123