This third part of the book comprises five chapters that begin with techniques as everyday experiences and move on to competitive sports phenomena linked to societal changes, including in the context of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Although the first two texts do not focus primarily on BT, the authors nevertheless incorporate this concept to better explain, respectively, Arman’s para-sculptural practice and the judo experience for active older adults. Drawing on various primary and secondary sources, Renaud Bouchet analyzes the impact of martial arts on Arman’s creative activity. The text then traces his trajectory as both a practitioner and an artist: we understand the role of the physical techniques of judo and wushu in channeling what Arman describes as “stupid violence”, rooted in his childhood. Renaud Bouchet thus identifies what the artist describes as “violent techniques” following the breaking of everyday objects to create his compositions. They embody a form of channeling and energy optimization derived from the movements of these martial arts, whose anger expresses the artist’s creative identity. Renaud Bouchet highlights the similarity between his artistic identity and that of Yves Klein, a fellow martial arts practitioner. The use of BT in this chapter, in which the New Realism movement shapes the contours of everyday life, is very different from that initiated by Raúl Camacho Pérez and Fernando Diéguez Rodríguez-Montero, who use judo movements as a health strategy for aging populations. The project they present uses postures (shishei), movement techniques (shintai), gripping techniques (kumikata), falling techniques (ukemi), attack and defense techniques, and judo katas to help older adults better cope with the difficult situations of daily life associated to this stage of life (e.g., self-esteem, perception of safety, fear of falling or getting up). The chapter presents a training experience that took place in Spain as part of the European Erasmus + EdJCO program, which aimed to train judo coaches to work with older adults who had no prior knowledge of the discipline. The conclusions of this initiative should enable judo teachers to better plan the technical work to be covered during sessions with senior citizens, drawing on interdisciplinary information and promoting the intergenerational dimension.
These first two chapters, which focus on everyday experiences, pave the way for the competitive experiences discussed in the last three chapters, which are always placed in their respective socio-political contexts. Their intertwining provides us with a kind of comparison on several political levels, particularly in Spain, Portugal, China, and France. The focus on international sporting bodies such as the IOC does not obscure the regional dimension offered by Spain’s high degree of decentralization. It is this latter dimension that is explored by Recaredo Agulló Albuixech, Víctor Agulló Calatayud, Dayana Arteta Molina, and Helena Paricio de Castro, who trace the history of the Valencian boxer Martinez Alfara. Nicknamed El tigre de Alfara (The Tiger of Alfara), he had a significant impact on the sporting and cultural heritage of the Valencian Country, as well as that of Spain, Europe, and Argentina due to his exile during the Spanish Civil War. Through documentary and biographical analysis, we understand why this boxer, who became European champion despite some previous local defeats, was able to face adversity at a decisive moment in Spanish and European history. Having supported the Spanish Republic, he was forced into exile in France and then Argentina, where he ended his sporting career.
The last two texts, while remaining focused on the competitive dimension, concentrate respectively on the integration of MMA and Wushu into the Olympic system. The fourth, written by María Perrino Peña and Abel Figueiredo, compares the structure of MMA in Spain and Portugal, taking into account the international institutional environment surrounding this practice (IMMAF, GAMMA, and organizations close to the Olympic movement (ASOIF, ARISF, AIMS) in their interaction between the local and global levels. The authors address the integration of this young discipline into the Olympic movement, without hesitating to move back and forth between professional and amateur practice, and also including practice from an early age.
In the final chapter, which deals with the perspective of French practitioners, Julie Pincot highlights a conflict of representation and appropriation, more pronounced in France than in China, concerning the transition of wushu as a competitive discipline with the aim of gaining admission to the Olympic program. Sharing the same conflict between traditionalists and supporters of competitive wushu, China remains cautious and strategic on a political level as it strives to develop this sporting dimension. In France, tensions are more visible. Indeed, in the absence of a strong unified federation based on a large number of practitioners, the means for practicing competition are all the weaker as they are scattered and cannot, in the long term, support the integration of wushu into the Olympic Games. Although BTs are discreetly mentioned in the processes of sportification in the last two chapters – from the perspectives of violence and modernization, respectively – the common perspective is that of their political regulation in several countries.
