who is the one person who changed martial arts?

[yoda1]

ive been thinking about one, or even a few people who have changed martial arts in the world, or have contributed more to the sport more than anyone else. anyone have any ideas?

i know its a little cliche, but bruce lee i think made a huge impact on martial arts and changed the way the western world viewed the sport(s)

[Raven]

I think Jackie chan changed things for people in the Uk and how they saw the sports. He really has made people see what can be acchieved and hes made people laugh along the way.

Hes a talented person and dam good at what he does.

I will alsways love jackie chan he changed my opinion about many of the Martial arts.

[yoda1]

yes, jackie chan has made quite and impact. i think the fact that he does all his own stunts, and is a very talented actor, as well as martial artist says a lot about him

[John]

I like Chan the best, everything he did was just amazing.

Lee is unreal as well, but Chan always seemed alot more natural to me.

Those are just movie stars though. Sure they changed the sport in a commercial sense, but as far as "Real world" change, I think that would be someone we dont even know, probably someone deep, far away in Japan or somewhere that we dont know of.

My vote also has to go to Bruce Lee, all the way!

[Shinji246]

I believe that jackie chan really helped due to his massive amount of stardom in popular movies and not those just among the MA practitioners. things such as rush hour were seen by the majority of america while films involving bruce lee may not have done so well.

[DOCBROWN1705]

I would have to say that on a north american level, Chuck Norris would have to be one of the most influential. Despite some of his Cheezy movie and tv rolls, he was, in his day one of the premier fighters...and helped bring the arts into main stream...

Also on the North American front, you can't forget Joe Lewis, and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace...

You can't argue with Bruce, there has never been a more iconic figure for sure!!.

[Shirindo]

To say that Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are just movie stars is a bit unfair. Dont forget that both these people were accomplished martial artists way before they were put into movies.

Both these people have made a huge impact on the world but Bruce would have to be the first name most people would come up with when asked. Jet Li is also starting to make inroads.

As to who has been most influential within the MA world itself then I feel it would depend on which style you were looking at. Kano was hugely influential in Judo but not so much in kickboxing

[sirdarksol]

I think everyone here has really good examples, but I think that Shirindo touched on the right idea. Different people did different things. The martial arts world that we know now was built, for better or for worse, by a huge number of changes that have been made down through the years.
Using karate as an example (because I am more familiar with its history), Funakoshi Sensei, in creating Shotokan Karate, made a huge change to "popular" karate, as nearly every karateka on mainland Japan practiced Shotokan for a time around WWII.
Robert Trias was one of the first people to spread karate around America. Several of his students did something that was not as common in Japan (though it did happen), they essentially rebelled against their master. In part, this was the beginning of the spread of the so-called "McDojos".
Karate Kid created an interest in karate among America's youth, somewhat feeding the legitimate art, and somewhat feeding the McDojos.
Yamash-ita Dai-Sensei has opened schools all over the globe, including in many countries that don't speak English, and is proving that common language is not necessary to communicate. He is spreading his version of Shorin Ryu Karate around the world, and encouraging the young, the old, the fit, the disabled, and everyone in between to take up karate.

These are only a small few people that I know quite a bit about. There are, of course, many, many more examples just within karate.