External and Internal Martial Arts
If a martial art is obviously using body mechanics to practice the art, it is an external martial art. To perform the internal martial arts less obvious body mechanics are used.
In many martial arts the practitioners train their muscles and whole body to perform the martial art. They train their body to increase their body mass, power, speed, balance and strength.
These types of training systems can be seen in external martial arts such as karate, Taekwondo, Jiu-Jitsu, Modern MMA styles and etc.
In the internal martial arts, they use a very less amount of body power and they do not train body muscles like in the external martial arts. Internal martial arts lead to harmonize the mind and body through moving meditation.
In internal martial art system, it focuses on the body’s connective tissues, like ligaments, tendons, and fascia. In most of the time the internal martial art systems, power and strength of the opponents is used by the practitioners against the opponents. Some of the internal martial art systems are WingTjun, Tai chi, Aikido, Baguazhang and etc.
The External and Internal martial arts are also known as Soft and Hard styles. Internal martial arts are called as soft styles because they are used around an opponent’s physical strength, and the external martial arts are known as hard styles.
When considering the WingTjun Martial arts, they train both internal and external conditions of the body and mind.