Martial arts and different fighting styles exist since centuries. There are unique martial arts styles attributed to different regions. For example, China is famous for multiple styles of Kung Fu, locally known as Gung Fu. Japan is famous for Judo and different styles of Karate. Most famous style of Karate is Bando Karate. Probably the most famous martial arts style is Tae Kwon Do which has its roots in Korea. Thailand is also famous for Kick boxing which is also called Thai boxing style. Similarly, Shoto Kan, Tai Chi Chwan, Ju Jistu, and many other fighting styles prevail in different countries like Philippines, Indonesia, India, Cambodia, and other regions. Since most of the styles originate in Pacific and Far East side of Asia, so they are also called Oriental Martial arts styles.
Contrary to the theme of attacking, actually most of these styles originally developed for the purpose of self defense. As it is generally said that attack is the best way for defense, so attacking fights became synonymous to martial arts, which is not entirely true. The main purpose of learning these fighting styles and martial arts has always been the defense.
Learning self defense includes a lot of exercises including hand to hand or body to fight blockings to save one from different attacks from opponent. These include kick blocking, elbow blocking, arms blocking, wrist blocking, jumping to avoid sweeps from opponent, sweep blocking itself, punch blocking, and locks removal. The other defense methods which are also very important are techniques to get rid of opponents weapons which can be knife, pistol, stick, or any other short weapon. Since defense is the essential part of learning martial arts, so special training is given to the learners. Hence, standing stance of all the martial arts focuses mainly on defense.
Different aids, equipment, and gadgets are used in different martial arts styles. Gloves, though essentially used in boxing, but is part of learning exercises of all kinds of martial arts. They save the learning from any possible injuries during training sessions. In sports tournaments, many styles have use of gloves. These are different types of gloves like MMA gloves.
Gloves and their different versions vary from person to person according to many factors. For light weight competitions, the gloves used are different than heavy weight competitions. For mature boxing trainings, specially Thai boxing, MMA gloves are always used. These gloves cover only the palms of the boxer. Fingers are open and not covered by gloves, in order to bring toughness to fingers which are important in certain types of fighting styles like Thai boxing and Tae Kwon Do.