I would say America's biggest contribution to the martial arts are the combatives forms such as American Combato, John Perkins "Attack Proof", and many others, that borrow from many systems and develop a more realistic, scientific approach to the martial arts. There are probably others, and certainly the first combative form, WE Fairbairn's Defendo, was British, and the American combatives certainly borrowed a lot from Fairbairn's work, but they further developed it with Fairbairn's student, Rex Applegate's classic "Kill or be Killed" book, (This is certainly true of American Combato, Applegate's contribution to that system can not be over stated, ask the founder of American Combato, Bradley J. Steiner for verification if you desire at www.americancombato.com) and Applegate was of course American. And this approach is very American, borrow from anything that works, eschew tradition for pragmatism regarding street effective self defense.
What other contributions has America given to the martial arts? All opinions appreciated.
What other contributions has America given to the martial arts? All opinions appreciated.