Posts
(newest first)
Monday, September 26, 2005
Martial Arts 'Tricks'
Tricks and Kicks and stuff...
I was thinking about the phenomenal acrobatics one often sees in martial arts clips and the like, especially the predilection on the continent for 'Sport Karate' competitions and the like.
I don't deny that the practicioners are quite capable and highly acrobatic, but I have to question the usage of the moves in a real situation.
In my years of practice, some of my peers derided the flashy kicking, high kicks, jump kicks, etc (although some of these people were TaeKwonDo practicioners, and really, TKD is rife with acrobatic kicking). I, myself, am not adverse to throwing high split kicks, jump kicks and various spinning kicks, but I never intend to use such moves in any combat situation: they are merely a way of exercising your ability, or pushing your flexibility etc.
However, it is one thing to play in such a way when sparring, but I think it is quite another when you use 'flashy' techniques purely for the performance aspect.
I neither condone nor condemn doing so, each to their own I say, but I see little value in the sport karate forms using music to perform to and performing somersaulting flash kicks etc.
I have seen some excellent displays of acrobatic kicking but combined with real applicable techniques such as the Korean TKD teams performing breaking. Here I can distinguish the difference between mere performance, or dance, with actual combative ability.
Similarly, I've practiced 540s and butterfly twists, but I would never ever imagine using such techniques in a fighting situation, they are just fun exercises to push myself, like kicking higher, or punching faster. But to create a 'form' to display your ability, that is not martial arts - it is merely ego stroking of the type requiring other people to be impressed, or, as I often say, social masturbation.
If you wish to call yourself a martial artist, think about why you study and practice a martial style - is it for others to see or is it for yourself?
Pax
I was thinking about the phenomenal acrobatics one often sees in martial arts clips and the like, especially the predilection on the continent for 'Sport Karate' competitions and the like.
I don't deny that the practicioners are quite capable and highly acrobatic, but I have to question the usage of the moves in a real situation.
In my years of practice, some of my peers derided the flashy kicking, high kicks, jump kicks, etc (although some of these people were TaeKwonDo practicioners, and really, TKD is rife with acrobatic kicking). I, myself, am not adverse to throwing high split kicks, jump kicks and various spinning kicks, but I never intend to use such moves in any combat situation: they are merely a way of exercising your ability, or pushing your flexibility etc.
However, it is one thing to play in such a way when sparring, but I think it is quite another when you use 'flashy' techniques purely for the performance aspect.
I neither condone nor condemn doing so, each to their own I say, but I see little value in the sport karate forms using music to perform to and performing somersaulting flash kicks etc.
I have seen some excellent displays of acrobatic kicking but combined with real applicable techniques such as the Korean TKD teams performing breaking. Here I can distinguish the difference between mere performance, or dance, with actual combative ability.
Similarly, I've practiced 540s and butterfly twists, but I would never ever imagine using such techniques in a fighting situation, they are just fun exercises to push myself, like kicking higher, or punching faster. But to create a 'form' to display your ability, that is not martial arts - it is merely ego stroking of the type requiring other people to be impressed, or, as I often say, social masturbation.
If you wish to call yourself a martial artist, think about why you study and practice a martial style - is it for others to see or is it for yourself?
Pax
Monday, September 19, 2005
What does Kung Fu mean?
I was browsing through my website stats and came across several search phrases which refered to my site.
In particular, there were several entries in search engines asking what does Kung Fu mean, sometimes, what does Kung Fu mean in Chinese.
The latter is easy to answer: it means Kung Fu (like asking what does breathing mean in English...)
"Kung Fu" literally translated into English, however, means hard work, and can be used in that context in any sentence, like griping about how much hard work you have to do for your taxes etc. and the phrase is not necessarily synonymous with martial arts, unless you raise a tensely gripped fist whilst staring intensly at it and rasping through a tooth-clenched grimace "Gung Fu!" (yes, for the final time, Gung, gong, kung and any other way you want to write it in English is the bloody same and the Chinese don't really care, because you don't write it like that at all in reality!).
Kung Fu of course is also taken to mean martial arts, Mou Seut in Cantonese, Wu Shu in mandarin, or literally, War/Fighting Skills/Craft/Art.
Why Kung Fu is hard work is obvious, its bloody hard work training, drilling, building and hard work always hurts else it would be easy.
Any martial art requires great effort, focus, perserverance and dedication, it's as simple as that.
So when some idiot says to you ala Keanu, "I know Kung Fu!", ask him how many years of his life he's put into it. Me? Only about 12, a bit of a slacker one might say.
Toodle-loo
In particular, there were several entries in search engines asking what does Kung Fu mean, sometimes, what does Kung Fu mean in Chinese.
The latter is easy to answer: it means Kung Fu (like asking what does breathing mean in English...)
"Kung Fu" literally translated into English, however, means hard work, and can be used in that context in any sentence, like griping about how much hard work you have to do for your taxes etc. and the phrase is not necessarily synonymous with martial arts, unless you raise a tensely gripped fist whilst staring intensly at it and rasping through a tooth-clenched grimace "Gung Fu!" (yes, for the final time, Gung, gong, kung and any other way you want to write it in English is the bloody same and the Chinese don't really care, because you don't write it like that at all in reality!).
Kung Fu of course is also taken to mean martial arts, Mou Seut in Cantonese, Wu Shu in mandarin, or literally, War/Fighting Skills/Craft/Art.
Why Kung Fu is hard work is obvious, its bloody hard work training, drilling, building and hard work always hurts else it would be easy.
Any martial art requires great effort, focus, perserverance and dedication, it's as simple as that.
So when some idiot says to you ala Keanu, "I know Kung Fu!", ask him how many years of his life he's put into it. Me? Only about 12, a bit of a slacker one might say.
Toodle-loo
