Holy shit that was fantastic. I really like these demos where they duel. The whole āspin the head around the tip of the spearā thing appeals to me with its simplicity.
Looks more like Beijing Opera to me. It seems less an actual martial art but more of an artistic performance of a highly stylized and dramatic āfight sceneā
Renewed respect for stunt people. The stars are only as good as their opponents make them look.
You say that as though martial arts arenāt artistic performances of highly stylized and dramatic fight scenes.
Besides the impressive choreography, but they both have require amazing actual fighting skill to make sure that both people are doing the right thing at the right time, otherwise the girl in yellow gets a blunt stick punched right through the back of her eye socket.
The traditional red ribbon on the end of the spear is to distract the opponent from seeing things like changing the grip on the spear. This is traditionally a womanās weapon.
There are different kinds of martial arts. Some, like jiu jitsu and muay thai, are effective fighting/combat arts. Others, like kung fu and aikido, while having origins in fighting arts, have evolved into things less about real combat and more about form. But theyāre still martial arts.
As I understand it this form of Wushu is considered exactly that a performance art/sport. Iāve heard it compared to rhythm gymnastics, but I think it comes closer to a highly formalized type of stage combat. From what I understand its had a huge influence on Asian martial arts cinema/fight choreography. Thereās another form of Wushu thatās more similar to contact/sparing/fighting sports like boxing, MMA and what have. But either way it isnāt really a traditional martial art. Its a fairly modern creation. And both types are structured around their respective sports, modern scoring systems, etc rather than practical combat training. Its like how regular fencing will teach you to win at the sport of fencing, but comparatively little about how to kill a dude with a sword while not being killed by a dude with a sword.
I agree, but having done all but muay thai over the past 22 years, I will emphasize that not all kung fu and aikido are created equal, they are extremely teacher-dependent, and while I wouldnāt recommend either as a first martial art for someone looking for practical self-defense, they make excellent supplements and have some very useful aspects.
Definitely. I practiced aikido for many years and I consider it to be an essential philosophy in my life. I think many martial arts that donāt work well in mixed-martial arts competitions are fantastic for lots of people. And youāre absolutely right about finding the right teacher.
ItĀ“s called a demonstration. The show value of actual martial arts training that these ladies have surely gone through would be significantly lower.
I see opera as opera. Thatās all. I saw no demonstration of actual martial skill. The performers where fantastic and I applaud their skills in choreography and dance.
What makes you think they have any combat skills at all? This looks like opera to me.
Which why I referenced the Beijing Opera. They do a performance called The Kung Fu Show that has most of the elements seen in this performance. Itās a very good show. Quite entertaining. Here is a sample
Again: you are conflating martial arts with āactual combat trainingā.
Speaking as a person who loves this sort of thing (and THANK YOU MARK for posting it) and who has a little bit of experience here and thereā¦
Only superb athletes can do it this well. I am too old now. I stick to armored combat, where quarter inch mistakes are not potentially lethal. (But I have some scars and some fond memories.)
Itās actually harder than real fighting, because you have to do all of the moves that can harm or incapacitate an opponent ā at full speed and power ā but just off enough that you donāt actually harm the partner youāre working with.
This particular performance reminded me (despite the use of a partner and a weapon) of the katas in Karate, which were my favorite because I came to martial arts from a dance background. As you say: highly stylized and dramatic rather than in-the-moment, but there are different competitions in martial arts; not all of them involve actual bouts.
I knew some teens who worked up a routine like this. It was amazing to watch.
My sensei, Hiroshi Nakamura, was giving a demonstration of judo as self-defence, at around the same the time as this video was shot (my old dojo!).
In one segment, his back was turned to his brother Akio, who, acting as the ābad guyā silently walked up to him and stuck his finger-and-thumb ārevolverā into his back.
Mr. Nakamura deftly moved a little to the side, turned his torso and grabbed the bad guyās wrist with both hands and pulled it hard forward, slamming his brotherās face into his back, ably disabling the attack.
Akio, with a twinkle in his eye, beamed at the crowd, stuck his other handās ārevolverā into his brother back, and cried out āBang, bang!ā
Iām pretty certain either one of them either one of them could KO you before you could say āderp.ā
This is not like going to the strip mall MMA dojo for the summer special. A student has to reach a pretty advanced level before doing weapons training, otherwise the death rate would be too high.
All I could think having been clonked on the head with wooden swords and staffs (accidentally) more times that Iād like to recall (or may be capable of at this point) was āman, I wonder what they trained with, and how many times the woman in yellow got punched in the face with a padded stickā¦ā
