From July 22 to 24, 2026, the University of Brighton hosted the 10th annual conference of the Martial Arts Studies Association (MASA)—an international association dedicated to the study of martial arts. For the organization, this was an anniversary conference and, at the same time, the largest in MASA’s history.
The event was attended by 125 delegates from 29 countries around the world. A total of 97 in-person presentations were delivered at the conference, with an additional 9 presentations held online. Participants included representatives from six national martial arts federations, and the program itself combined academic presentations, practical workshops, and panel discussions.
Contemporary research on martial arts encompasses history and philosophy, psychology and sociology, pedagogy and sports science, health and rehabilitation, gender and cultural studies, issues of violence and safety, and the impact of martial arts on youth and society. This is precisely why representatives from a wide variety of academic disciplines and practical fields gathered in Brighton.
The conference program included two keynote presentations, a panel discussion, two film screenings, and four practical workshops. Special attention was given to issues of safety and protection for martial arts practitioners. A dedicated panel discussed traumatic experiences, sexual harassment and abuse in Muay Thai, as well as the relationship between coaches and athletes.
A special format for engaging with representatives of the professional community was also organized. The organizers invited representatives from governing bodies in the field of martial arts, sports partnerships, and charitable organizations to a closed-door roundtable discussion. Together with researchers, they discussed how scientific research can influence policy and practice in this field.
Another important outcome of the conference was the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the International Council of Martial Arts under UNESCO (ICM). The agreement aims to strengthen international cooperation and joint efforts to advance research in the martial arts.
The meeting point is the leading British university for sports science
The event took place at the Falmer campus of the University of Brighton, located just outside the city. The University of Brighton is one of the UK’s leading centers for research in sports, physical activity, and health. The choice of venue was logical: the university has a strong research base in sports science, with programs ranked among the best in the UK, and its research impact in the field of sport and exercise sciences has received exceptionally high ratings. Moreover, representatives from Brighton were directly involved in organizing the conference: Alex Cannon, who represents the University of Brighton, serves as the chair of MASA and the main organizer of the event.
The audience and participants included not only martial arts masters and representatives of sports organizations, but also scientists, faculty members, researchers, graduate students, practitioners, and representatives of international organizations. The organizers explicitly emphasized that the conference’s objective is not only academic exchange but also the establishment of professional connections within the international community of martial arts researchers.
The program featured researchers from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, India, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, and other countries.
Scholars and faculty members from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Cardiff University, the University of Sheffield, the University of Leeds, the University of Essex, the University of Ottawa, the University of Manitoba, the University of São Paulo, the University of Hong Kong, Yonsei University, as well as other major academic centers.
Participants also included representatives from specialized organizations, such as the German Sport University Cologne, Chengdu Sport University, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, and UNESCO ICM.
It was precisely within this international academic context that Ukrainian scholar Professor Oleg Maltsev presented his own paper.
A Question That Transforms the Very Logic of Martial Arts
Among the topics of the presentations, Professor Oleg Maltsev’s talk stood out in particular. His presentation addressed a topic that, at first glance, appears to be legal in nature but actually touches upon the very foundation of the modern understanding of martial arts: what happens to a combat system when a person trained to inflict harm effectively finds themselves in a society where the use of such force is regulated by criminal law?
It was precisely this question that Professor Maltsev brought up for discussion before MASA’s international audience.
The presentation, titled “Rethinking the Effective Use of Martial Arts within a Legal Framework,” was an attempt to view traditional martial arts not from the perspective of a training hall or a sporting competition, but from the perspective of real life—where the application of acquired skills may have criminal law consequences rather than merely sporting ones.
This is a fundamentally different perspective.
Professor Maltsev suggested starting with a distinction once highlighted by the outstanding judo master Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki: there are sporting and traditional systems. The scholar himself focused primarily on the applied, traditional component, since it is here, in his view, that the most acute contradiction arises between the system’s effectiveness and the modern legal order.
Traditional martial arts were created to stop an opponent. Modern civil society, on the other hand, is based on the premise that causing harm to a person can in itself be unlawful. This creates a paradox: the better a person masters an applied system, the higher the potential cost of using it.
And Professor Maltsev illustrated this paradox with an extremely concrete example.
He turned to Filipino martial arts, specifically Kali, where a significant portion of the training exercises involves weapons. For someone who wants to use such a system for self-defense or in a professional capacity, an obvious question arises: how can one use the acquired skills without violating the law on the possession and use of weapons? Moreover, the answer to this question will vary depending on the country. What is permissible in one legal system may lead to criminal prosecution in another.
But weapons are only the most obvious part of the problem. A far more serious issue arises when there are no weapons at all.
Professor Maltsev, who also has practical experience in legal work, drew attention to the large number of criminal proceedings related to the use of combat skills. In his account, effectiveness and legality turn out to be two sides of the same coin: a person may be highly skilled in a technique yet fail to understand under what circumstances they have the right to use it. This is precisely where the central idea of the presentation emerges. One can spend thirty years perfecting a martial art—and one day find oneself a hostage to one’s own skill.
Professor Maltsev suggested imagining a very ordinary situation: a man is returning home from a restaurant with his wife in the evening when two unarmed men begin to provoke him, and he uses a technique he has practiced for decades. A single strike could be fatal. And then the skill that was meant to be a tool for self-defense becomes the basis for criminal prosecution.
Traditional systems have, for decades, developed a person’s ability to act quickly and with virtually no conscious analysis. Techniques are repeated over and over in the training hall precisely so that, at a critical moment, the body will react automatically. But if an automatic reaction leads to serious consequences, a fundamental contradiction arises: a person has been taught for years to perform a certain action automatically, whereas the law requires them, in a specific situation, to assess the limits of permissible use of force.
This is precisely why Professor Maltsev’s presentation went far beyond the usual discussion of martial arts. He essentially proposed rethinking the training system itself.
In his view, it is not enough to simply teach a person the techniques. It is also necessary to understand the legal framework for their application in civilian life. Otherwise, a situation may arise where a person has mastered the system perfectly but does not know how to legally apply the knowledge they have acquired.
From Effectiveness to Responsibility
This is the key distinction in Professor Maltsev’s approach. He does not ask which system is more effective. On the contrary, he takes the concept of effectiveness to its logical conclusion: if a technique is truly effective, its improper application can have irreversible consequences.
Consequently, effectiveness alone can no longer be the sole criterion for the quality of combat training. A second criterion is needed—legality. And between them, another category is essential—one that the report effectively brings to the forefront—the responsibility of the individual who has acquired this skill.
Professor Maltsev concluded his presentation with the observation that this problem has existed for more than a decade, but is becoming particularly acute today: various countries are even discussing restrictions on the teaching of certain traditional and modern combat systems due to the potential consequences of their use. It was precisely this legal concept that he proposed for discussion at the conference.
Thus, Professor Oleg Maltsev’s presentation in Brighton was not merely a study of the application of martial arts. He posed a far more uncomfortable question to the research community: what exactly should we teach a person if we want their martial skills to help them defend themselves, rather than one day becoming the cause of their criminal prosecution?
It is precisely this question that transforms his presentation from just another item on the MASA 2026 program into a standalone research discussion on the future of martial arts.