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. 2025 Jul 30:16:1631471.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1631471. eCollection 2025.

The psychological dynamics of the combat sports experience: how the phenomenological specificity of corporal fighting prevents violence and promotes the development of the practitioner

Cristiano Roque Antunes Barreira  1 , Thabata Castelo Branco Telles  2 , Carlos Gutiérrez-García  3 , Bernard Andrieu  4
Affiliations

The psychological dynamics of the combat sports experience: how the phenomenological specificity of corporal fighting prevents violence and promotes the development of the practitioner

Cristiano Roque Antunes Barreira et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Psychological research on martial arts and combat sports (MA&CS) often neglects the essential specificity of the lived experience of combat, resulting in a lack of a unified conceptual framework. This article proposes a phenomenological perspective to clarify the unique psychological dynamics and developmental potential inherent in corporal fighting. Applying classical phenomenology, and drawing upon empirical-phenomenological research based on interviews across nine MA&CS modalities, we analyze the constitutive structures of this lived experience. We identify corporal fighting as a reciprocal, embodied struggle and foundational, distinct from brawl or play-fighting. Five essential forms (corporal fighting, duel, self-defense, instrumental offensive combat, play-fighting) are distinguished by intentional structures. Traditional, modern, and military martial arts simulate duel, self-defense, and instrumental aggression; combat sports directly express corporal fighting. The lived experience of combat is oscillatory, dynamically shifting between forms based on affective, empathic, and motivational modulations. Training fosters development by mediating these transitions, cultivating reflection and resilience. Maintaining this structure requires empathic vigilance, affective modulation, and a sensible norm. Understanding this phenomenological specificity grounds the proposition of a Psychology of MA&CS, clarifying how combat promotes ethical development and intersubjective formation by sustaining experiential tension.

Keywords: combat sports; corporal fighting; ethical development; lived experience; martial arts; phenomenology; psychological dynamics; violence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Diagram titled “Corporal Fighting,” depicting two circles labeled “Subject A” and “Subject B” on either side, both marked “Open.” A central pink circle shows “Motivation” and “Reciprocity” with the text “Dominate the opponent while avoiding being dominated.” Arrows connect the subjects through the central circle.
Figure 1
The structure of corporal fighting: reciprocal engagement sustained by motivational tension and empathic openness.
Diagram illustrating play-fighting dynamics. Two circles labeled “Subject A” and “Subject B” both indicate “OPEN.” An arrow between them shows interactions: “Motivation” toward subject B, “Reciprocity” toward subject A, and “Ludic experience” in the center.
Figure 2
The structure of play-fighting: ludic engagement based on reciprocity and motivational openness.
Diagram titled “BRAWL” showing Subject A and Subject B. Subject A is a square labeled “The other perceived as a negative entity and as a threat.” Subject B is a circle labeled “Closed to otherness.” An arrow points from Subject B to Subject A, with terms “Motivation,” “Hostility/anger,” and “Unilaterality” beside it.
Figure 3
The collapse of combat into brawl: dominance of hostile impulsivity and loss of reciprocal structure.
Diagram titled “Duel” with two circles labeled “Subject A” and “Subject B,” both marked as “Open.” An arrow connects them, labeled with “Motivation,” “Matter of honor,” and “Reciprocity.
Figure 4
” The Duel, whose experiences structure the founding narrative of martial arts.
Diagram titled “Instrumental Offensive Combat / Self-Defense” showing two subjects. Subject A, depicted as a square with “Restricted opening” inside, with labels “Target to be neutralized” and “Negative/threatening”. Subject B is a circle labeled “Hostile closure”. Arrows between them show dynamics: “Calculated attack/hostility”, “Unilaterality”, “Defensively proportional to the attack”, “Responsiveness”, and “Motivation”.
Figure 5
Subject A is in self-defense, requiring responsiveness, which means acting proportionally to the attack suffered. Meanwhile, Subject B attacks unilaterally in the realm of instrumental offensive combat, a calculation that reduces the other to a target to be neutralized, perceived as negative and threatening.
Diagonal line graph showing the relationship between “Freedom of Action” and “Combative Intensity.” Labels along the line, from left to right, are “Play-Fighting,” “Corporal Fighting,” and “Brawling.
Figure 6
” The dynamics of corporal fighting. As combative intensity increases, freedom of action decreases, leading to a greater likelihood of brawling. Conversely, reduced combative intensity with greater freedom of action corresponds to a tendency toward play-fighting. Corporal fighting is always at risk of destabilizing into these combative forms. Diagram adapted from Miranda and Barreira (2022).
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