Within all the books I have written, fighting and martial arts have been involved. The reasons for this are simple; one they are entertaining and fun to write and two I have experience with and understand what I’m talking about.
I have taken part in some form of martial arts for the majority of my life and a great writer once told me that you can only write what you know about, so that is what I did.
Besides providing a little action for the stories, martial arts also provide elements of symbolism for the characters using the martial art. For example, with Colomba (Silver Dove) and Alba (Death’s Assistant) a good portion of the martial arts they use is from the form called Aikido. Aikido is what’s referred to as a “Soft” martial art, meaning that it is more gentle. Aikido is known for being one of the hardest martial arts in the world since it focuses on not hurting your opponent, it focuses on controlling them and not pain. Pain can be applied, but it is the martial artist’s choice as to whether or not the pain is given to their opponent. This fits Colomba and Alba, both young women have a great deal of control and they don’t really want to inflict pain on the people they fight, but they have to do it on occasion.
Another example would be Scott from the Death’s Assistant series. His main form of combat is derived from Judo. A good portion of Judo techniques involve striking low and, metaphorically speaking, that is how Scott operates. He will strike you where he knows it will hurt. This can be seen by how he interacts with people he doesn’t like. He strikes in the areas it will cause the most pain, mostly within that person’s heart.
The style of martial arts a person does can show a bit about them, but for my characters it can show a great deal.