Another big evolutionary step for martial art through the times is the competition element. Not long after the earliest martial arts was founded some sort of competitions was properly also developed. Today some people practice martial arts only or almost only for the competition element of the sport. This is another example on how the original purpose of martial art has been altered since its origin.

There is a very big difference between fighting on a battlefield for your life without any rules and fighting in a sports tournament with rules to protect you. This difference has had a tremendous influence on the specific style of the different martial arts. For example it is not allowed to kick or punch in a judo match so judo-practitioners are not very good at this compared to for example kick boxers who only can kick and punch in their tournaments. Both kickboxing and judo are martial arts because they have a background in the art of fighting. But the element of competition is by our definition combat sport and the rules of competition have an effect on how the styles look and how the techniques of the styles are performed. 
At this site you can find elements of combat sport in the Nunchaku-do. A lot of the techniques are made for fighting in a competition, and there are also katas/forms made primarily for competition.

Self defense

Almost every martial art has some origin in self defense but they have very different philosophies. Some rely on using the opponents own force and some rely on making the opponent harmless without hurting him or her. No matter what style you choose to practice you should be very aware of when you practice martial art, combat sport ore self defense. Some instructors teach only one or to of these elements but if you don’t now better you will probably believe that you are trained in all three.