The aim of this thesis is to explore and analyze what the effects capoeira has on its practitioners when it comes to how it interacts in their everyday life, what capoeira means to them, what feelings they attach to the practice and what meaning they make of the historical aspect of capoeira. This study is based on 7 interviews with people who practice capoeira and 2 observations of capoeira training. The main theoretical framework applied in the thesis is phenomenology, with an overall focus on the phenomenology of the body, as well as critical race theory. The result shows that the impact on the practitioner was positive not only when it came to the physical aspect of working out, but gave them an insight regarding differences between the two cultures. The one they live their lives in, and the one capoeira offered them. The discussion highlights how the practitioners valuing capoeira as something positive that enriched their lives, but also became a tool that made them reflect on their role as consumers of a culture rooted in oppression.

Purpose/aim: This study was performed in order to describe how Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is reported in Swedish daily newspapers during a five-year period. MMA is a relative new sport in Sweden and it is important that the description by the Swedish daily newspapers is accurate and balanced. Then this sport will have the same opportunities to grow as already well-established sports in Sweden.  Material/Method: The material consists of 159 articles from six different daily newspapers gathered from 2006-12-07 to 2011-12-07. Quantitative content analysis is used to investigate how the newspapers describe MMA. The result from this quantitative analysis are then compiled, analysed and discussed by applying theories of agenda setting, framing and moral panic.  Main results: The result shows that the Swedish daily newspapers give a relative neutral and balanced picture in their coverage of MMA but they are affected to a certain degree of moral panic. A neutral framing of MMA was common in the majority of the newspapers. Swedish newspapers have fulfilled the requirements that you should have on balanced journalism. A majority of the articles described MMA with more or less deviancy and therefore made MMA “Folk Devils”. Further there was a consensus among politicians and other right-thinking people that MMA is a threat to and is dangerous to society. The negative reporting of MMA in the daily newspapers is volatile with one-year cycles with start in late 2009. With one quarter of the articles describing MMA as a problem, there is preconception that MMA is likely to have a negative impact on society. There is a disproportion in the reporting of MMA as a threat as “Swedish Sports” have approved MMA as a sport, but still report it as a problem. Therefore there is some kind of moral panic about MMA in Swedish daily newspaper.

Folk arts are dynamic cultural assets conveying messages of people's life styles as well as recording their daily activities. With the passing of times, they murmur the stories of common people's lives with cultural connotation. Undeniably, folk arts are precious treasures for a nation. Therefore, we'll dig out the treasures and promote them. On the other hand, with the mission of exalting folk culture, fork art groups should function as conservatories to preserve the local culture. Actually, for the purpose of showing the value of its survival in the history, an outstanding folk art group would retrospect and inspect itself continuously, improving the quality at every stage as it grows up with times. The authorities and people are expected to give their hands to such excellent folk art groups and encourage them to run persistently. For ages, how to preserve, convey and exalt the folk arts through cultural policy making and executing are great challenge for the authorities. In recent years, in response to the sense of ¡§glocalization¡¨, the authorities manage to unite the features of local industries with the international or district festival celebration activities held in very place to evoke the community awareness, develop sightseeing industry, promote the economic prosperity, build up good reputation as well as increase the opportunities for international cultural exchange. Among the folk arts in Taiwan, the performance of ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art¡¨ is highly praised. Converging special features of physical education, military art, religion and art, ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art¡¨ catches all the audience's eyes and becomes the spotlight on the stage. In recent years, the launching of Sung-Chiang Martial Art Clubs among schools at all levels has brought forth the development of this folk art. Speaking of ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art¡¨, it originated from the Mainland China. Unfortunately, during the ¡§Cultural Revolution¡¨ period, the weapons used by ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art¡¨ had been banned and the groups were forced to dismiss. From then on, Taiwan has become the only place where the whole ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art¡¨ skills were preserved intact. In the past, ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art Groups¡¨ guarded against the invading enemies; however, as time goes by, it turns into an important religious activity in the country, acting as an escort of gods on religious festivals as well as a celebrating performance to amuse people. For this reason, the portion of performing art is always associated with the religion and hasn't been emphasized. Instead of training at regular time, the Sung-Chiang Martial Art performers just follow the tradition to practice intensively before a religious celebration. When the activity is over, the performers would go back to their regular lives and there¡¦s nothing changed. Generally speaking, this way of preserving folk art won't be encouraged, letting go of nurturing high-standard performers. It would even be harmful to the development of ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art¡¨. Fortunately, there are still some enthusiastic people doing their best to keep ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art¡¨ sustainable as the folk art declines with times. The members of ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art Group of Shun-Hsien Temple¡¨ are among them. The founder of this group noticed the problems of traditional Sung-Chiang Martial Art performance, which was just held with the need of celebrating activities. When the activities were over, the folk art groups were dismissed again. Therefore, the founder of ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art Group of Shun-Hsien Temple¡¨ built up a team with cultural mission and tried to improve the disadvantages of traditional ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art Groups¡¨. This team executes their training weekly. Furthermore, this folk art group welcomes visitors to watch their training all year around. In this research, the folk art group ¡§Sung-Chiang Martial Art Group of Shun-Hsien Temple¡¨ is served as the target for case studying, in which we explore into the internal managerial condition of this group and test the possibility of its persistent management. At last, the strategic managerial model is offered as a reference to improve its operational condition. As for the synthetic indicators for persistent managerial appraisals, they can also be applied to other nonprofit performing groups, served as an assistant tool to improve their internal managerial conditions.

O presente trabalho propõe uma investigação sobre as possibilidades do uso da prática da arte marcial chamada Kildo Self Defense voltada a técnicas de preparação de atores para a cena. Empregando essas práticas marciais, realizou-se a preparação corporal dos atores do Grupo Farsa, de Porto Alegre, durante o processo de criação do espetáculo para crianças A Roupa Nova do Rei. Com o objetivo de alcançar uma melhor disposição e presença dos atores em cena, buscou-se criar um treinamento que funcionasse como alicerce para a preparação dos atores, a ser utilizado em trabalhos posteriores do grupo. Este estudo foi construído a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas e estudos práticos sobre os efeitos das técnicas marciais e suas contribuições para o desenvolvimento das possibilidades corporais do ator e para sua eficácia em cena. / The present work intends an investigation about the possibilities to use the practice from the martial art of Kildo Self Defense as a technique for actor‟s in preparation for a scene. Making use of this martial arts techniques, the preparation of the actor‟s body was accomplished by the Grupo Farsa, from Porto Alegre, during the creation process of the play for children “The King‟s New Clothes”. The purpose was to search for a better actor‟s arrangement and presence in the scene, looking for a training that serves from base to preparation of the actor‟s, to being use in future works. This study was analyzed by means of bibliography research, interviews and practical studies about the effects of the martial art techniques and its contribution to the actor and the scene.

O presente trabalho propõe uma investigação sobre as possibilidades do uso da prática da arte marcial chamada Kildo Self Defense voltada a técnicas de preparação de atores para a cena. Empregando essas práticas marciais, realizou-se a preparação corporal dos atores do Grupo Farsa, de Porto Alegre, durante o processo de criação do espetáculo para crianças A Roupa Nova do Rei. Com o objetivo de alcançar uma melhor disposição e presença dos atores em cena, buscou-se criar um treinamento que funcionasse como alicerce para a preparação dos atores, a ser utilizado em trabalhos posteriores do grupo. Este estudo foi construído a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas e estudos práticos sobre os efeitos das técnicas marciais e suas contribuições para o desenvolvimento das possibilidades corporais do ator e para sua eficácia em cena. / The present work intends an investigation about the possibilities to use the practice from the martial art of Kildo Self Defense as a technique for actor‟s in preparation for a scene. Making use of this martial arts techniques, the preparation of the actor‟s body was accomplished by the Grupo Farsa, from Porto Alegre, during the creation process of the play for children “The King‟s New Clothes”. The purpose was to search for a better actor‟s arrangement and presence in the scene, looking for a training that serves from base to preparation of the actor‟s, to being use in future works. This study was analyzed by means of bibliography research, interviews and practical studies about the effects of the martial art techniques and its contribution to the actor and the scene.

O presente trabalho propõe uma investigação sobre as possibilidades do uso da prática da arte marcial chamada Kildo Self Defense voltada a técnicas de preparação de atores para a cena. Empregando essas práticas marciais, realizou-se a preparação corporal dos atores do Grupo Farsa, de Porto Alegre, durante o processo de criação do espetáculo para crianças A Roupa Nova do Rei. Com o objetivo de alcançar uma melhor disposição e presença dos atores em cena, buscou-se criar um treinamento que funcionasse como alicerce para a preparação dos atores, a ser utilizado em trabalhos posteriores do grupo. Este estudo foi construído a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas e estudos práticos sobre os efeitos das técnicas marciais e suas contribuições para o desenvolvimento das possibilidades corporais do ator e para sua eficácia em cena. / The present work intends an investigation about the possibilities to use the practice from the martial art of Kildo Self Defense as a technique for actor‟s in preparation for a scene. Making use of this martial arts techniques, the preparation of the actor‟s body was accomplished by the Grupo Farsa, from Porto Alegre, during the creation process of the play for children “The King‟s New Clothes”. The purpose was to search for a better actor‟s arrangement and presence in the scene, looking for a training that serves from base to preparation of the actor‟s, to being use in future works. This study was analyzed by means of bibliography research, interviews and practical studies about the effects of the martial art techniques and its contribution to the actor and the scene.

Title: Comparison and characterization of Korean martial arts Taekwon-do ITF and Taekwondo WTF Objectives: In this work will be examined charakteristic of sport disciplines, philosophy, success in competitions of czech competitiors Methods: For the development of this theses was used a method of gathering information of these two federations of Czech and foreign literature. Results: It was found that Taekwon-do ITF is a martial art, which consists five sport's disciplines and our representatives from year 2000 at european championships won 237 and at world championships won 61 medals. WTF Taekwondo is a combat sport and the main discipline is Kyorugi (sparring). Kyorugi is the Olympics. Our representatives in WTF Taekwondo from year 2000 won only 5 medals at european champinships. Keywords: Korean martial art, International Taekwon-do Federation, World Taekwondo Federation

This thesis describes the evaluation of several computer supported martial arts learning environments. These learning environments were designed, developed and implemented for practitioners of Rough and Tumble (RAT), a South African martial art, originally as a result of an increasing number of RAT practitioners relocating to other countries and yet wishing to continue their learning and practise of RAT. This project revolves mainly around the effectiveness evaluation of whether RAT martial arts knowledge, skills and attitudes can be learned in computer supported learning environments. The research is situated within design research and has pragmatic goals to provide a computer supported learning environment for the learning of RAT. Furthermore the design research was conducted to derive design principles for future design and development efforts. A brief account of the literature is provided, covering three main learning paradigms, with a focus on behaviourism and constructivism, followed by a description of issues in the computer supported learning field, an explanation of various definitions of martial arts and how the term is delimited in this study, and an overview of various evaluation paradigms. This account revealed inadequacies of the theories and terminology described pertaining to this study, resulting in the combined use of various underlying theoretical approaches to guide this research. These approaches include the eclectic-mixed methods-pragmatic paradigm as the overarching framework, a social constructivist learning approach, cognitive flexibility theory, Bloom’s Taxonomy, the RAT approach to martial arts learning and teaching, and a mixed methods research design. Two main components were developed as solutions, which included the development of a computer martial arts resource, the RAT CD-ROM, and four online courses, the RAT Online courses. Data were collected using a number of research instruments, such as questionnaires, interviews, observations, records, expert reviews and learner artefacts in an attempt to understand the data from multiple viewpoints and develop a more reliable depiction of evaluation events. The data were analysed using mainly qualitative coding in software, expert rating diagrams, basic frequency statistics, and martial arts assessments of physical performances. These analyses revealed that although there is significant work involved in mixed methods research and there are issues such as participants not meeting task deadlines, technology failures, software usability issues, and small participant numbers, the research approach has contributed to the pragmatic goal of providing computer supported learning environments to RAT practitioners, who otherwise would not have been able to participate in RAT. In addition a number of design principles for the creation of RAT computer supported learning environments were derived from this research, including the use of social constructivism, cognitive flexibility theory, Bloom’s Taxonomy, multiple contextual training, and using computers as learning and knowledge construction tools. These underlying theoretical principles translate to more practical procedural principles, such as amongst others, to design computer supported learning environments incorporating tools to enable knowledge construction and collaboration, provide learning designs that are complex and authentic, encourage multiple representations of learner knowledge, take on a mentor role as online course facilitator, and to build problem solving activities into the learning design. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The diploma thesis is aimed at investigating the influence of the educational system of Kendo on the values and attitudes of practitioners, both in terms of perceived contrast between the values and attitudes anchored in Czech (Central European) cultural context and values and attitudes anchored in the cultural context of Japan. In terms of methodology, this will be an empirical research based on survey (5 standardized questions) and an interview.

Title: Evaluation of postural stability in subjects engaged in combatand non-contact sports Objectives: The aim of this diploma thesis is to investigate the influence of contact itself during sport activities on postural stability of athletes. Methods: Into this quasi-experiment study there were picked 16 atheletes (n=16) in age from 22 to 35 years. Selected individuals were divided into two groups of eight according to their sporting activity (combat sports, baseball. In the mentioned individuals the postural stability was measured. To measure postural stability the computerized dynamic posturography of EquiTest Smart System from Neurocom was used. Measured data were processed using Neurocom Balance Manager Software. For the analysis of the data following statistical methods - paired t-test, Mann-Whitney test and rate of clinical signifikance (Cohen's d) were used. Results: The results indicate that individuals performing in combat sports were reaching higher mean scores in Limits of Stability than baseball players. This fact has been statistically and clinically proven. On the other hand baseball players reached higher mean Equilibrium Scores in Sensory organization test, however this fact has not been statistically nor clinically proven. No significant differences between the groups in motor...