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I must know, do any military forces like the Imperial Guard or Astartes Chapters have a specific Martial Art they practice? I understand they train using melee weapons such as Chainswords and other things, but what about hand to hand combat training?

I imagine the Imperial Guard has something similar to what the real-life U.S Marines practice.

I'd be surprised if the Guard had any martial arts training. That takes time they aren't learning to shoot and shooting is 90% of their job.

I'd guess they all get some basic training in hand to hand and how to use common items, like a folding shovel, in CQB. Krav maga is a possible candidate for IG training, as is Sambo. Both are pretty brutal martial arts that are reportedly fairly easy to learn.

Obviously stormtroopers get more training that joe nobody in the IG.

It depends on where they come from. There are probably a wealth of martial art styles in the Imperium, some with more or less localised following. The same goes for Space Marines. Each Chapter probably has developped its own varience or even unique martial art styles. Scions and Sisters might be the only ones to share similar martial art styles (and even then, Sisters probably follow something similar to the orginal Daughters of the Emperor fighting style just adapted to more modern weapons). Logically, normal humans will avoid hard style martial arts and grappling technics since they would be dangerous or useless against larger and stronger foes and focus more on knife fighting and softer style martial arts even if they take more time to master and use efficently in combat situation. This isn't such a huge obstacle for fortress worlds anyway since they basically train their population from youth to adulhood to become soldiers. That leaves each individual soldier more then enough time to master a few martial arts and advance operation tactics.

While individual worlds would vary, I can't imagine a Catachan mastering a martial art when 1/10 of their body weight is concealed knives.

"Hey John! Ya wanna grapple with that poison-skinned toad over there?"

"No Jim. I'ma gonna gut it with me knoif!"

"Ah... that's why you've still got all ya skin John! Me, I'da tried ta crush it wiv me aahms. That's wh-oy me chest is ahll blistah'd and sooah."

 greatbigtree wrote:
While individual worlds would vary, I can't imagine a Catachan mastering a martial art when 1/10 of their body weight is concealed knives.

"Hey John! Ya wanna grapple with that poison-skinned toad over there?"

"No Jim. I'ma gonna gut it with me knoif!"

"Ah... that's why you've still got all ya skin John! Me, I'da tried ta crush it wiv me aahms. That's wh-oy me chest is ahll blistah'd and sooah."

proper use of that knife would proably fall under martial arts

OP specifically asked about unarmed combat.

 greatbigtree wrote:
OP specifically asked about unarmed combat.

Considering Imperial material its likely that there is tactical training in both unarmed combat and un-armed combat! A solider without arms still has more than 50% of their body left to fight for the Emperor!

A soldier without arms should report to his commissar for losing vital war materiel, and receive an appropriate punishment.

For guard, unarmed combat is probably taught more to toughen a soldier up than anything else. You're not killing a xenos or heretic astartes with you hands and feet, after all. Bayonet and knife training is probably more thorough.

In Emperor's Mercy by Henry Zou, it is stated that the Kasrkin are quite proficient in martial arts, employing techniques like the Kasrkin choke (forgive me, I don't have the book on me right now, plus I only read it in german, so I have no idea if that is the right english name!).
Granted, it is a BL book, but in my eyes it makes sense that units like the Kasrkin of the Tempestus Scions or any other elite equivalent would also get some training in martial arts.

I’m sure they know some unarmed arts, but I haven’t read anything about in any Scion-centric books.

However martial arts with weapons, such as the butt of a hot-shot lasgun and combat knives, leads me to believe Scions train in martial arts that are more reliant on looking for openings and counter attacks.

In “Tempestus,” the Scions fighting off Tyranid found themselves dodging and counterattacking with their rifles, as well as kicking, as a Sister of Battle noticed. However, contrary to earlier points in the thread, the Sister seemed surprised or perhaps interested by this fighting style, rather than recognizing it.

In “The Trophy,” it was never really explained IIRC, but one of the Scions seemed quite adept with his combat knife, favoring it over his rifle in close quarters.

My point was that in the 40k universe, there are power fists. So why would you learn unarmed combat when armed combat is a preferred method. Like bringing a Fist to a claw/sword/chainsaw/acid maw fight.

But... kicking an enemy back so you can bring your miracle rifle to bear on something trying to eat your face makes perfect sense. But the purpose of your “unarmed attack” is to shoot your target from 3 feet away or less. So not really needing to be elegant, just a solid boot.

 John Prins wrote:
For guard, unarmed combat is probably taught more to toughen a soldier up than anything else. You're not killing a xenos or heretic astartes with you hands and feet, after all. Bayonet and knife training is probably more thorough.

It's pretty much the same thing for modern armies. Soldiers, realistically speaking, will pretty uch never fight in pure hand to hand combat. Why do it, when you can use a rifle or a pistol as a club/staff and have a knife at your disposal. Martial art training in pure hand to hand combat is good for physical conditionning and to enhance martial arts with close combat weapons of course.

Pile up the bodies until they create makeshift sandbags for your brethren to take cover behind.