Fine by me. Most characters in the arena aren't particularly martial arts oriented in the sense you're thinking of, but I'll throw a thought out there before the narrative. In the arena reality based (as opposed to anime/The Matrix/whatever) martial artists tend towards being the least, "OP," of the different broad categories of relative power levels. It's usually ranked up from realistic hand-to-hand fighters, then medieval types with blades and armor but no unrealistic or fantasy abilities, then modern gun weapons and super powered hand-to-hand or medieval types who can handle through super-speed/magic/whatever bullets well, so if you want to avoid martial arts in general it would be easiest to play a more, relatively speaking, "OP," character, be that because they are a modern gun wielder or because they have fantasy abilities/magic. If you don't mind I would propose a compromise and start with reality based medieval weapons type combat. It's less, "martial arts," then complex grappling maneuvers or video game style hit chains, but isn't quite at the point of, "take cover or get your brains blown out," and doesn't include anything anyone would look at as OP. If you want to move forward after that it would be easy to transition up to guns/fantastical abilities or down to hand-to-hand. I'm happy playing this out as our avatars if you don't have a character in mind, or posting one of my characters who could fit the bill if you want something to build off of, but it's your request so let me know if this all sounds good or what you'd rather see happen and I'll make a thread or continue the dialogue here. Most important thing is you having a good time of it, so let me know your thoughts on what you expect out of this rp and arena in general and anything you do want to see specifically. Mostly setting and power level doesn't matter for the basic rules which is what I plan on covering, it's just to have an idea of what your looking to see and play once you get into arena roleplay in general. 

EDIT: 

[@Silver Carrot] I didn't see your post before posting, I'll revise. 

Revision: I can work that as well, but you're getting closer to asking for a lesson on fight theory as opposed to the basics of arena roleplay. I will still do this narrative with you if you want, but at this point if you know the basics I would recommend jumping into the arena and starting a fight. As you say, you learn best with practice, and if you want to learn to outmaneuver an opponent the best way to do it is by getting into fights, making mistakes, and learning from them.