In the 50s of the 19th century, the world didn’t know anything about Tai Chi Kung Fu before the grand master Yeung taught Tai Chi in Beijing. The Tai Chi system he taught was called the Chan’s Tai Chi. In the 30s of the 20th century, the famous master Chan was invited to teach Tai Chi in Beijing. His kung fu was so good and personality so kind that people called him the Tai Chi Man.

When Chan came to Beijing and started gaining fame due to his exceptional abilities, there were many well known Tai Chi teachers teaching other forms of Tai Chi. One of them was master Lau who taught the Ng’s Tai Chi. Lau and his students wanted to see whether Chan was as good as people was saying and invited him to their place for some demonstration. Chan came with the invitation. He greeted everyone and started demonstrating his rountines right away.  Read more...

Letting children learn about marital arts is a great way for them to build skills and have fun. The benefits of Karate for kids go past the great little uniform that makes a great picture. It is also a valuable tool that they can carry with them for life and build their self esteem.

Karate is a way that children can defend themselves when they get to a certain level of training. They also can gain pride in their accomplishments as they progress. Many places hold competitions as well that they can earn trophies for competing like any other sport.

It also can teach children discipline. In learning martial arts children need to learn self control in the moves that they do. The repetitive exercise can help with the discipline that a young person needs at certain times of their lives in certain situations. It also teaches respect for the skill that they learn.

It is also a great way for children to work out aggression in a positive way. For the extra hyper child it can help them with energy and expel the aggression that they may have. It can do this along with teaching the skills that build their self esteem.  Read more...

The martial art of Kung Fu is an exchange of culture, a type of exercise, and also a way of defending yourself. The art is very popular throughout the world, also being known as Gung Fu, Wu Shu, and even Kuo Shu. It shares some common traits with Karate, such as using both hand and foot techniques. Kung Fu is one of the most popular forms of martial arts – and also one of the oldest.

There are a number of different styles with Kung Fu, each boasting slightly different techniques. One of the greater known styles is that of the Shaolin Temple. Surprisingly however, Kung Fu was in use in China many years prior to the existence of the original Shaolin Temple.

A majority of martial arts enthusiasts think of self defense as being the ultimate goal of any martial art, including Kung Fu. While self defense is involved with Kung Fu, the martial is so much more than just fighting and defense – it is a true art, one that develops the mind, body, and the soul.  Read more...

Martial arts can be used for numerous things, they can simply be used as exercise, meditation techniques, maybe a bit of fun. More often than not they will be used for self defense however. There are a number of martial arts that are used all over the world.

Bruce lee can be credited with making martial arts specifically popular and famous. Jeet Kune Do is the fighting style created by Bruce Lee, the essence of this style is lightening fast striking with exceptional counters. When Bruce Lee became well known, people were amazed at his speed and became interested in martial arts.

There are different styles of martial arts. Depending where you study and who trains you, will depend on which style you learn. Each country will usually have its own specific form of martial art. In Japan you will find Karate, Brazil has Brazilian Jui-Jitsu, Muay Thai will be found in Thailand and China has Shaolin, with France having Savate. Each style is different from the rest, and as such offers different experiences.  Read more...

Morihei Uyeshiba, in 1925, was 42 years old. Many people came to call upon him, for everybody knew he was one of the top martial artists of the times. One day a naval officer was visiting, and the discussion between the two men escalated into an argument.

The naval officer held that it was impossible to avoid a well swung sword, and O Sensei held that it was possible. The two faced each other, argument became reality, and O Sensei succeeded in avoiding a sword that was well swung. After the match, Master Uyeshiba stepped to a well and poured water over his head, and had a moment of profound realization that was to shape the martial arts forever.

The essence of this realization was that men are spiritual brothers, and all should live in peace. Undoubtedly, other martial artists over the ages have experienced similar moments of enlightenment, but Uyeshiba’s realization was crucial in history, and unique to the founding of a specific method. Aikido is a method which results in people realizing that they are spiritual brothers.  Read more...

Anybody who’s even a casual student of the martial arts has probably seen a pair of nunchaku being used at one time or another during the course of their studying of the martial arts. It may have been in a so-called “karate movie,” or it could have been in the dojo — martial arts school – where you train in your chosen martial art. They’re so popular, in fact, that they’re known in many parts of the world today as “nunchucks,” or “numchucks.”

The “twin sticks” (that’s what the word “nunchaku” means in native Okinawan language), in the right persons hands, are a tornado of motion that can be very hard for a person to follow when they’re moving at these great speeds. And they can pack a serious hit when they are used to strike at somebody during an up close confrontation.

They can be used alone as a pair of sticks joined together by a short length of rope or chain, or in pairs (one set for each hand) for double the trouble. The nunchaku (aka. Chucks) has a long and interesting history, starting from when they first appeared on the island of Okinawa off the coast of Japan sometime in the early to mid 1600s. Nowadays, few craftsmen like the ones at Buki Yuushuu still turn out modern customized versions of this beloved and cherished classic weapon.  Read more...

It makes no sense to let an attacker get close enough to use his hands. If he’s got a knife or club, or just a fist that is fast, the best strategy is to kick low and keep him at a distance. The problem is that many Martial Arts schools do not teach the right way to use the legs.

A couple of things to remember before we get into making your kicks into powerful tools of destruction. Practice kicking high so you have strength and flexibility, but keep your kicks low in a real fight so you don’t get a leg grabbed and tossed. And, the best strategy is to avoid the fight altogether.

Practice kicking over a chair or similar height object. This will train you to raise your knee high for the kick. When your knee is high your foot can go straight in and deliver the goods, and not scrape up the body in a rising arc.

Turn your hips into the kick. Always turn, or tilt, your hips so that the weight of the hips is committed to the action. This will also give you a little more reach, and it will help put the whole body into the action.  Read more...

One of the most important things you can have, if you want to be a good fighter, inside the ring or out, is the gunfighter mentality. The best fighters, like Chuck Lidells and Anderson Silva, have this intuitively in their personality. The losers don’t.

Interestingly enough, the Gunfighter Mentality used to be part of the training in the classical martial arts. I remember training back in the middle of the last century, and everything we did was geared towards this ability. While there were many factors involved in the death of this principle, people like Bruce Lee probably drove home the spike.

Bruce added the circling strategy of boxing to kumite in the martial arts. The Gunfighter Mentality depends on creating an inner stillness, being set like a black mamba, and here was this fellow acting like Mohammad Ali, circling and jabbing and destroying the mindset of the Gunfighter. Now Bruce Lee would have won most any fight anyway, but everybody wanted to fight like he did, and they gave up the deadly zen stillness of the Gunfighter when they did so.  Read more...

This is going to be the oddest article on tai chi you have ever read. I’ve never had a lesson in the art of Tai Chi Chuan, you see, but my tai chi is the best. I don’t mean to be self serving, but let us see if you can argue with me after you have read how I came up with my tai chi.

I began learning tai chi out of a book, Modified Tai Chi for Health by Lee Ying Arng, back in 1976. Every night I spent hours going over the form, trying to figure out how to apply it, trying to figure out the meaning. And, to behonest, it didn’t mean much.

So I went through books by Chen Man Ching, and I read Chen and Yang and Wu and Sun, but they all spoke this gobbledegook that didn’t make sense. So I began doing my Karate, I had near ten years experience in Kang Duk Won karate, and the thing started to resolve. I was using good, old karate power to juice up the form, and it worked, and then I was able to make what was happening into Tai Chi power.  Read more...

Mixed Martial Arts gladiators circling the octagon, searching for the chance, and, BAM, somebody is punched out. The roaring crowd, the price of the ticket, the cost of good brewski, it is all worth it if you can see a good knock out. What most people don’t realize is that a good knock out, given a little thought and hard work, is actually easy.

Forty years ago, in Kang Duk Won Karate my instructor told me that A tight fist is a heavy fist. Man, what good advice. Just make the fingers into steel bands, tie it together with a thumb, and, zingo bingo, you have yourself a brick busting fist.

The trick, of course, is to be totally empty before, and to be totally empty after. This is the idea of focus, and it is vital to knocking an opponent all the way out. Hard to do it the way they wrap hands before a fight, but there it is.  Read more...