Humanity's understanding of social sciences has yet to catch up with our technical understanding of how the world works around us.  War remains a social institution and the constant creation of more advanced weaponry puts the world at risk of complete annihilation.  Since combat presumably contributed to our survival as humans to the point that our logic could achieve the supreme foothold, the art of combat must be given its due, even if it is more accurately categorized now as the result of remnant aggressions once necessary for our survival.  The purpose of this article is to explore the ways in which physics influenced the way we conducted combat, especially at a time we didn't understand it, and how our interpretation of martial arts changes once with our increased knowledge of the physics that power principles of combat. After all, the most effective martial arts techniques are ones that have effectively expressed principles of physics, quickly, forcefully, and powered by a will constrained by logic.

Through the beauty of selected mutations, some humans are born with the ability to be highly sensitive to their body's impulses and responses.  This is generally described as athletic intelligence, the process of movements learned in a way which maximizes efficiency of the matter worked.  The neuronal system of one human may acclimate to laws of nature faster than another's for a host of reasons, none which appropriately fall within the scope of this article.

For those who are not born with innately sensitive mental, muscular or nervous processes in the realm of athletics, one can steadily increase their performance in martial arts by learning the parameters in which the skeletal and muscular system can work and then streamlining various technique until their system increases in speed, flexibility and control.  All martial arts that are studied for the purpose of self-defense (or more appropriately, attack of another) rely heavily on physics whether you are dealing with striking arts such as Tae Kwon Do, or Western Boxing.  Some martial arts such as Judo, Wrestling or Jiu Jitsu are predominantly grappling arts.  Some martial arts are a hybrid of both striking and grappling arts such as Hapkido and some modified forms of Kung Fu.

The most successful styles used by military forces (a good place to look to learn what works) incorporates the best ideas from any and all martial arts they can get their hands on.  This does not mean the military knows the laws of physics better than does the private sector, but it does mean they have been more eager to hone down what works over what doesn't for obvious reasons.