Martial arts, referred to in Japan as "Gendai Budo", to strictly differentiate from older martial schools in Japan known as "Koryu", or just "Budo", are typically modern offfshoots, remixes, and revitalizations of older martial traditions, many even being created anew out of whole cloth, that, in essence, elevate a martial skillset to an artform or a "way", both serving as means of imparting self-defense skills, promoting physical fitness, and providing a pastime where people can make friends and enjoy a hobby. They are usually also divorced from actual military battlefield skill and tactics training (such as firearms instruction), although the militiary is known to teach martial arts such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to soldiers to enhance their confidence and mindset for deploying in an actual battlefield, even though instances of actual hand-to-hand combat in modern battlefields is rather rare. These also carry many modern expectations about how a martial tradition should be structured that has been influenced by popular media such as books, TV shows, movies, and sports that don't necessarily reflect historical martial concerns, and can often veer into the subject of fraudulent martial arts, known generally as Bullshido.

Some martial arts may be more biased towards sporting and competition, where others might be more formal and preservationist in nature, or others might be solely focused on concerned of real-world effectiveness in the context of empty-handed encounters, encounters with bladed weapons, or even with firearms. Examples of modern martial arts include Kendo, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, Tae Kwon Do, Kempo, Jeet Kune Do, Capoeira, the sport of Muay Thai, Mixed Martial Arts, and others.

Very few modern martial arts have survived unchanged through long periods of history, so the few actual martial traditions that have survived many hundreds or even thousands of years lack some of the ritual staples modern people associate with the practice of martial arts today, such as ranks, belts, sparring, open membership (outside of a limited family circle, geographic circle, or cultural circle), public schools, and so on, and likewise may also associate some religious elements of their native culture, perhaps more so than modern multi-cultural globalized life is comfortable with. They may focus less on concerns of self-defense or practical use, and instead feature a mixture of body cultivation and historical battlefield weapons training. Such an example is the Indian tradition of Kalaripayattu, which may be over 2,000 years old. Another is the Japanese "Koryu" of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, dating back to the 1400s. Sumo is another such tradition in Japan dating back thousands of years, with strongly religious and cultural overtones.