Throughout the past eras martial arts were considered as necessary to the survival in society, but access to a scientific acceptance was never allowed to them. As a result, they remained in an area, that can be better described by the term "craftsmanship".
In the crafts experience and knowledge are transferred over a long period from person to person to ensure the survival of these skills. In science it is about to fathom the why and how in order to derive laws and coherences from it. These findings are then used in practical applications to facilitate daily life, for survival or to making them usable and servant to other purposes.
The science’s claim, that if laws and coherences were stipulated, these always work the same way and are having the same structures, thus being systematically. The simple example of gravity should emphasize this: an object with a mass always falls to the ground and has always the same behaviors within the gravity field - no matter in what place on this earth! This was dubbed by Isaac Newton on the basis of the legendary case of the falling down of an apple to the ground and has not lost its validity today. (Sir Isaac Newton (* Dec 25, 1642 jul. / 4 January 1643greg. in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire; † 20 March 1726 jul. / 31 March 1727greg. in Kensington) was an English naturalist and civil servant. In the language of his time, which still not sharply divided between natural theology, natural sciences and philosophy, Newton was known as a philosopher. Isaac Newton is the author of Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in which he described universal gravitation and the laws of motion and thus laid the foundations for classical mechanics with his law of universal gravitation. Source: Wikipedia). This simple fact is repealed in the weightlessness field, where there are other laws to abide.
This simple definition being referred to martial arts, the question arises, how and whether it is even possible to apply scientific considerations on 'human combat'. It is necessary to analyze the structure of the human combat first of all: the human combat is led by two human individuals, where each of them pursues the objective to gain physical control over the other to enforce his will. This is rather a simple logical inference, although it is overridden in the sports field on larger scales (because fairness aspects are involved), but is instrumental in self defense.
Each individual human has the same physical structure - four limbs (two arms, two legs), the torso and the head. This structure is always the same and applies for each population group, no matter on which continent of this earth. Differences arise in dependence of body dimensions such as size and mass, as well as the ability to effectively mobilize the own structure in order to win the fight. At this point now the attempt by scientific means to explore what - more mental - combat strategies and tactics can be achieved at best is setting in, for making this equally applicable for everyone (similar to the training of officers in the army, where battles and wars are always virtually being played through, but where the real wars usually happened differently as planned).
This means that in accordance to scientific stipulations the same laws on the strategic mental as well as physical level through a variety of experiments it must be elaborated, that have a universal validity at any place and at any time and in any constitution. Here again the example of gravity: a body with a mass always falls downward, whether in the Antarctic in Europe or China. The body may be a human body or an object. This is secured scientific knowledge and is proven every day. The inherent human drive to be able to fly from the own resources, is in opposition to the scientific knowledge of gravity and is therefore also to be classified as pure dreaming.
There is the following train-of-thought-error, when it comes to conducting scientific research in martial arts: if two people are fighting each other, the one taking the offensive has a certain intention and motivation. Of the two taking or having to take the defense part, must therefore interpret the intent and motivation of the other! He has but little time, because this is a complex information processing. To have security for himself, he needs a so-called anticipation (an acting before or an assumption or a guess at worst), to keep the defense action in timely sync with the incoming attack. A basic scientific research, that would tackle this topic, is to be equated with a scientific research for gambling! Two human individuals with their own intentions have their respective conformity due to their psychological and physiological structure, but these individual conformities never become a parent law called combat, that can be scientifically explored.
Since the approach to express a certain intellectualism through science and research in such a pragmatic field such as martial arts (this is preferably used to build up a certain social distance), the danger is great that quickly wrong associations term and expectations are being formed. On the one - due to human shortcomings – intended, to another, simply by indiscriminately accepting so-called 'verbal trends'.
The applied disciplines, that translate the findings from basic research into products or product concepts is another thought approach, that is analog to today's university based education. Example: the civil engineer is an applier of physics such as gravity, mechanics, thermodynamics, et cetera, and has as task to build homes, that meet the needs of the customer with regard to the intended use and providing security. The same validity for the martial arts: the physical components have the same laws on the basis of structures, that have evolved in accordance with other real scientific principles (such as for example the gravity, biomechanics, etc.). Based on these principles user strategies can be conceived, which pursue the logical objective of 0% risk / 100% security.
This means, that a basic scientific research in the field of martial arts is not possible, but that the martial arts can only base on the physiological and psychological foundations being studied for generations and rather putting this in a context of victory or defeat by 'craftsmanship'.