Martial Arts & Fighting Forms | Asian American Poll

MARTIAL ARTS & FIGHTING FORMS
(Updated Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:39:09 AM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

CONTACT US | ADVERTISING INFO

© 1996-2013 Asian Media Group Inc
No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission.

WHAT YOU SAY

[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]

TSJ,

I think a lot of martial arts in USA are influenced by pop music. If you ever seen the freestyle karate competition they always pump some rock or hip hop during the form competition.

I thought it was crazy the first time I saw forms performed. Multiple high kicking. Very little adherence to traditional philosophy of the forms. Looked more like a floor routine at the olympics than anything related to the martial arts.

I've seen all black kung fu schools compete at some competitions. Not a pretty sight. They remind of what the first chinese kung fu school must of looked like thousands of years ago. Maybe a few thousand years of development in the USA will refine "hip hop kung fu"

Perhaps it is bias on my part. But if asked if I rather watch Westley Snipes or Jet Li perform martial arts on the silver screen. I would much rather watch Jet Li more fluid style.

Wenhao,

I thought Jackie Chan sung the mandarin version. It is a nice song to listen to every now and then.
AC Dropout Monday, March 25, 2002 at 07:30:16 (PST)

AC:

I've seen the forms preformed in TKD and the only hard/slow form was a belt belt form where they did a slow low block and a scooping up palm strike and then punch. But even the advanced forms are not even that advanced.

Most of the forms are named after someone famous in Korea or a mountain top. The forms have nothing to do with the name of the forms.

I thought TKD was devleoped from 5 styles of korean martial arts and the primary style copied was Shotokan because the founder was a pracitioner of it.

You are right that their interpretation of the forms are not what the chinese would consider an advanced form. Forms that are advanced to me are either extremely long or extremely effective.
I can be totally exhasted from a Kung-fu form but a TKD form where you stop and hit I can go forever but also I feel like a damn robot stop and go, stop and go. I guess the lack of flow and continuity of the form is what I don't like in TKD.

In terms of sparring, you need to have a style which is effective and all encompassing which is hard to find nowadays.

RJA Sunday, March 24, 2002 at 17:02:48 (PST)

AC Dropout,
That song sung by George Lam is a great song... I use it when I practice martial arts, it makes it more exciting...I feel like an ancient chinese warrior
Wenhao Friday, March 22, 2002 at 15:18:55 (PST)

RJA,

TKD is developed from 5 different schools of kung fu. I've seen TKD interpretation of praying mantis, because TKD doesn't really have high level forms.

It is definitely different than what Chinese practicitioner would consider a form, but that's what they do.

Since you want to define martial arts in groupings you would also need to divide the practice into forms and sparring.

Since one aspect of the art does not necessary include the other.
AC Dropout Friday, March 22, 2002 at 11:52:14 (PST)

"I never really had one. I just find music to be distrating when you train. Because it is on 4/4 beat. One thing I would train for is to find the rythm or beat of my opponent. Making it easier to set the timing to counter for clean points. Hence, listening to music only set people on a 4/4 beat thus make the excercise useless."

Yeah, but if you do capoeira, hip hop is exactly what you need. Hip hop is based on the African drum beats.

I do a lot of dance type fighting sets that I created on my own. It's what's known as "hip hop kung fu."

A lot of hip hop is actually influenced by kung fu too. Back in the 70's no one loved kung fu movies more than black people. They really identified with it. That's why nowadays, you see more black people who are fans of Bruce Lee than Chinese, and they name all their groups after Chinese movies (Wu Tang, Five Deadly Venoms, etc.).

Yeah, the Wong-Fei Hung theme song is always a good one. The song itself doesn't pump you up that much, but what it represents.
TSJ Eric@KristinKreuk.net Friday, March 22, 2002 at 10:50:21 (PST)

NEWEST COMMENTS | EARLIER COMMENTS