Making sense of martial practice: training orientation as an analytical lens for embodied leisure

Date

2026-09-01

Author

Yazıcı, Deniz Kaan
Pehlivanlı Kadayifci, Ezgi

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As martial arts have become increasingly prominent within leisurestudies, scholars have examined their contributions to wellbeing,identity, belonging, and lifelong participation. Yet the concept ofmartial arts remains analytically unstable. Existing classificationstypically distinguish practices by institutional status, historicaldevelopment, or stylistic tradition, but often fail to capture thediverse pedagogical purposes and embodied experiences thatcoexist within the same practice. We argue that this ambiguityreflects a broader epistemological challenge concerning how mar-tial practices are understood, organised, and studied. Rather thanproposing another taxonomy, this article introduces training orien-tation as an analytical lens. We develop three ideal-typical orienta-tions—disciplinary, competitive, and combative—understood asdynamic pedagogical logics rather than fixed or mutually exclusivecategories. These orientations may coexist, shift over time, and varyacross instructors, organisations, and practitioners. The frameworkis illustrated through a critical reading of Turkish academic litera-ture, treated as an analytically revealing context where classificatoryambiguities become especially visible. Foregrounding trainingorientation, we argue, enables more nuanced analysis of embodiedlearning, gender, ageing, and lifelong participation. The articletherefore proposes training orientation as a heuristic vocabularyfor more reflexive and context-sensitive research into how martialpractices are organised, experienced, and made meaningful withincontemporary leisure contexts

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/120963

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Department of Sociology, Article