"Typical body types" for specific MA's?

[pknox]

In a post regarding fitness on another board I frequent, somebody spoke of the "typical judo body." It was characterized as being heavier on upper body strength, including a proportionally larger neck and forearms, a thicker waist, and in general a bit bulkier then say an Aikidoka.

Has anyone found this to be true? I've seen various body types come through the door, both in Judo and other MA. In your opiniom, does somebody who trains consistently in a specific art for a length of time begin to develop a physique that is, for lack of a better word, "stereotypical" of that style? If so, what do you think is the "typical body type" for these particular arts? Does this occur even in practitioners who pick up the art later in life (as opposed to people who start at 5 and stick with it)? The original question mostly dealt with male practitioners, but females should definitely feel free to chime in as well.

 

[kenpo12]

I think being bulky say for judo helps because it makes you harder to throw. I don't see a lot of TKD guys with short legs and big belly's for obvious reasons. I think there are certain body types that will make certain arts easier but I think in general alot people had those body types before they ever took up an art.

 

[pknox]

Good point, and that begs the question, "does art X build a certain body type, or is it just that people with that body type are drawn to art X?" I'm kind of in the latter camp, but the insinuation made in the original thread was that certain martial arts can change an individual's body type, and it is consistent enough that you can almost recognize a particular stylist by this body type. i.e. if an individual came to TKD with a "big belly", it would most likely disappear, replaced by a longer, leaner look (can't do anything about the short legs, unfortunately :uhyeah: ), but the same might not be true if someone with a big belly came to Aikido, or Tai Chi, or some other art.

 

[Black Bear]

Years ago I read a book by a prominent martial arts guy (I don't recall exactly who, it may have been Loren Christenson, but don't quote me) who wrote about these "types". He was saying that the shorter, stockier guy would be suited to judo because of his lower center of gravity and better leverage. The lanky guy was a natural for tae kwon do because of the reach advantage, and the slight fellow should favour aikido, which does not oppose with force, but uses the opponent's strength against him, or wing chun, "which was created by a woman".

After another five years of experience, I decided this was poppycock.

If we're talking about a hobby or something, then yes, people will be attracted to things that their body is "naturally adapted to". But not if we're talking about self-defense. In self-defense, you have to deal with reality. The totality of it. Everyone has to have an open-range game. Everyone has to have a close-quarter/clinch game. Everyone has to have a ground game. Learning to use a knife isn't, as the old magazines might say, "perfect for women to make up the size/strength difference". It's perfect for everyone who needs that increased level of force option and has the judgement and maturity to accept the responsibility of carrying.

The assumption among many naïve martial artists is that people "choose their range". Guess what--if that's true then the assailant is choosing his range too. Myself for instance. Tony Blauer teaches an awesome streetified version of the sprawl to prevent takedowns. I know folks talk trash about "antigrappling tactics" but this stuff is seriously good. But I do not assume that I could never be taken down. I could encounter a problematic ground surface, or be ambushed, or just not quick enough. So I can't just say hey, I'm a stand up guy, I'm going to ignore the ground. I train my *** off on the ground.

Finally, the individual differences that relate to ability in various skill areas have little to do with body type. Strength, agility, timing, instinct, etc. are not body types. They're the things that matter. People fixate on body types because they can see them, and they construct specious correlations between the things that they notice, just like a century ago they believed that body types related to temperament, until someone did some good double-blind research on it. Some of them become folk wisdom, like the ones in that book I mentioned. Baloney. I knew an extremely long-limbed guy who fenced and did wing chun. He was very successful with a centerline approach. With his long limbs, no one could enter on him in one-on-one sparring. If we were to follow conventional wisdom, he should be "keeping people away with his kicks". Ooh, but then maybe a short stocky guy would catch the kick and take him down. *rolleyes* (since there doesn't appear to be a rolleyes emoticon here) Truth is, he can use his longer limb length to his advantage in any range if he learned how.

 

[pknox]

Excellent points, Black Bear. However, realize that I'm not asking which martial art is suited to which body type -- I'm instead asking does practicing a particular martial art help determine what body type you will have, and if so, what are the characteristics for practitioners of these specific arts? For example, if two people with similar body types each start a martial art -- say one does Judo, the other Aikido -- and practice the same number of days per week, for the same amount of time, and with diet and other outside factors being equal, will their "physiques", for lack of a better term, be noticeably different? Will the judoka tend to be bulkier and more muscular, and the aikidoka lankier?

 

[moving target]

Depending on how people train, yes. If you train in a school with a heavy sports influence than I would bet you would do some physical training to give you an edge in your chosen game. So a boxer would probably put on muscle in diffrent areas (depending on weight class) than a grappler.

In my experience grapplers tend to need more diversified upper body strength than strikers (presumming the strikers aren't grappling) so you see things like boxers having big lats and triceps and grapplers having more evenly distributed upper body weight.

This also assumes that the person wants to stay within a certain weight range. If you don't have to stay in any given weight range than that wouldn't apply to as much of a degree simply because training equally wouldn't nessisaraly give any disadvantage (and most likely would give advantages) . So if the person doesn't need to keep in a given weight range the only reason I could think of for gravitating twards a certain look would be exercises in the school, But that wouldn't nessisaraly create a sterotypical build simply because most schools will have diffrent physical training methods (at leaste quite a few schools).

So to sum up, If the person practices in such a way that they have an advantage in developing a given build than yes, otherwise most likely no.

 

[Black Bear]

Ah, I see pknox. My bad. Well, yes, the body develops differentially in response to different stresses. Different martial arts put different stresses/demands on the body. So, sure.