The five texts in this first part all adress BT in the field of combat sports and martial arts through their sociocultural transformations, captured by different forms of modeling aimed at accounting for them. The first, written by Jean-François Loudcher, offers a historical reflection on the definition of the concept of BT in the field of non-productive physical practices, and more specifically boxing from the point of view of attacks, using an anthropo-epistemological approach. This approach makes it possible to identify specific forms according to three periods spanning the 18th to 20th centuries and characterized by original contexts of transmission, from adaptive BTs to instrumental BTs and sports techniques. Generative BTs are identified and, fairly typical of the phenomenon of sportification, serve as a transition.
Matthias Röhrig Assunção attempts to identify the evolution of the ginga (“footwork” in Portuguese) in capoeira, a kind of guarding stance that forms the basis for all other BTs. Alternating between left and right with a constant swaying motion, it is analyzed using iconographic sources dating back to the 19th century, as well as in manuals. Alternating between left and right with a constant swaying motion, it is analyzed based on iconographic sources dating back to the 19th century, as well as in instruction manuals from the following century. The text attempts to problematize these changes in the form of the ginga by highlighting continuities and ruptures, questioning certain essentialisms that circulate widely among many current capoeira groups and on social media. Matthias Röhrig Assunção distinguishes several historical gingas according to periods that could be compared to other combat activities such as boxing.
Is technical progression in martial arts acquired through socio-spatial relationships between practitioners? This interesting question, posed by Alexandre Reubrecht through his study of capoeira groups, is based on the idea that BTs undergo alterations depending on the contexts in which they are practiced. Admittedly, we know that the group, or more broadly the “collective”, is made up of relatively “homogeneous” social and/or cultural classes that are essential to the construction of BTs in certain societal configurations, such as the kicks of savate or the punches of English boxing. But capoeira, a hybrid practice combining dance, martial arts, sport, and educational activity, is difficult to understand in this way in our modern societies. Considering that the dissemination of art involves territorial and networked approaches, the author revisits the processes of learning capoeira in Western Europe, focusing on the case of groups established in the Île-de-France region. Capoeiristas there feel either an attachment to the territory, to the place where their association emerged and to the deterritorialized or transnational structure that is the “grupo”, or to a multi-located school governed by a mestre who favors certain forms of BT.
Patrice Régnier and Olivier Bernard explore a dimension that could be similar to the previous study. Indeed, they argue that martial body techniques gain value through a system of emotional attachment, as it is through this mechanism that individuals become practitioners. The authors therefore dismantle the sociological mechanisms that drive it. A comparison between different postmodern martial activities, equestrian practice and karate, highlights the common learning dynamics of these disciplines, i.e., the processes of transmitting values, norms, and the imaginary. Through a reflection on the transmission of representations, the authors emphasize that practitioners’ attachment and sensitivity to their discipline are what guide their behavior and sense of belonging. The variety of origins of martial arts practices is matched only by the number of symbolic systems corresponding to them. Each group of practitioners is in itself a subculture that morally defends its system of attachment in a wide variety of martial activities.
Finally, the last text proposes an innovative model of standing judo technique, structured around a triptych: balance/posture/movement, grabs and throws/falls. Through a cross-analysis of biomechanical and empirical approaches, Cédric Terret, Julien Morlier and Jacques Mikulovic demonstrate the complementarity of these perspectives in deepening our understanding of technical movements. Empirical data, drawn from teaching traditions and technical works, is combined with scientific studies focused on kinematics and dynamics to provide a comprehensive and coherent framework. This approach provides a better understanding of the motor complexity of judoka in an ecological context. The chapter also highlights the need to anchor these analyses in a broader epistemological reflection, where tradition and innovation feed into each other, thus confirming the relevance of this modeling for teaching, training, and research.
