When talking of martial arts you often hear a distinction between “hard” and “soft.” or “internal” and “external” martial arts. Hard or external martial arts consist of fighting styles that rely on physical strength and stamina in striking and blocking. The most common examples are Jujitsu, Kung Fu, Taekwondo, Tai Kickboxing and Karate.
“Soft” is an adjective best attributed to techniques rather than styles. You can find soft techniques along with hard techniques in many external martial arts. “Soft” techniques are techniques that don’t use physical strength to disable an opponent or block an incoming strike, but avoid attacks and then use the incoming attack against the opponent in the form of a throw or joint lock. Joint locks are manipulations of the human body’s joints and pressure points to force the opponent into submission.
“Internal” arts are based on the principle that there is an energy flowing through our body called Qi or Chi in Chinese and Ki in Japanese. In Chinese culture, all exercises (including martial arts) that cultivate this energy in the body are called Chi Kung. The internal martial arts practitioner uses his or her Chi to overcome an opponent, rather than by brute force. Internal martial arts are exclusively “soft.” Examples are the many schools of Tai Chi Chuan and Aikido.
When deciding whether to take a hard/external, external with some soft techniques, or an internal martial art, you must consider the goals of your training. If you simply want to learn how to defend yourself or compete in full contact martial arts with easy to learn techniques, take an external art. If you want to take a martial art that will grant mental well being and even help you reach spiritual epiphanies, take an internal art. Of course these are not hard and fast rules. Most external martial arts (such as Budo, the way of the Japanese warrior) have a philosophical element to them. When describing internal and external martial arts, they are distinguished mostly by the martial techniques themselves, not any tertiary philosophies.