And just throw even more confusion into the mix.
Where does a martial art, or any other combat maneuver for that matter, originate. Does it start with the physical or does it start with the mental?
If on any level the process includes a mental one, and everything we do involves some level of mental activity
, then why should I not be able to use it in astral space. Now granted I would still have to use the Astral Combat skill as my base skill but the martial art maneuvers and/or specialisms could definitely then be applied to this, even though the specialism is for one of the close combat skills.
I do the same thing with the martial arts and specialisms in the physical world. eg I have the martial art Jujitsu and have taken that as my specialism in unarmed combat. I also have the maneuver clinch. In my first attack I go for the clinch. But due to the vagaries/idiosyncrasies of rules and writers clinch is a gymnastics test and not an unarmed combat test (this is whole other argument I won't get into right now) so I shouldn't get my specialism unless I also specialised in clinch for gymnastics. I play it that you still get your specialism. You've already had to pay 14 - 19 points of karma (+ whatever level of unarmed and gymnastics you've bought) to get jujitsu, clinch and specialise which is a lot for being able to do one maneuver so why penalise you even further. That's cost you more than a 1st initiation or submersion which gives you a whole lot more in my opinion for less karma (again an argument for another day).
Back to the original question. Ignoring my do martial arts have a mental aspect that can be carried over into astral space, I believe if you've paid karma for the privilege of doing something you should be able to then use it in any circumstance where it could be applicable.