have any of you seen the vcd you can buy with kung fu vs boxing? the chinese kung fu guys are more thai style and hardly use a kung fu technique, and when they think they are going to be punched they tackle the boxers legs.
i think that the fights where pretty bad and the fighters where even worst! :o
some boxers won but i think the kung fu guys won more out of the 5-6 fights on the vcd.
what are your view on boxing vs kung fu, do you think that kung fu guys should equal a boxer in the hands and easily beat them in the legs?
What’s the difference between Traditional Chinese Martial Arts and boxing or Kick-boxing?
Kick-boxing is a sport. It’s all about scoring points in competition ‘fighting’ where there are a clear set of rules, gloves, pads and a referee to control things. Traditional Shaolin training is not concerned with competitions of this nature. The techniques as taught are given to deal with real life situations where there are no rules and no referee to step in and save your life! Traditional techniques were developed to save lives under the most extreme circumstances - no really conclusive test is possible between students of traditional Shaolin, unless they choose to get involved in a all-out, real fight since Shaolin techniques are inherently dangerous and do not lend themselves to control measures.
One Shaolin Master recently wrote: “Shaolin in its orthodox form, is not a game to be played for
the entertainment of an audience or the whims of sports-minded exponents. Although there have
been competitions between Shaolin experts, none of these have proven satisfactory to orthodox
practitioners.”
True and traditional kung fu schools teach you skills, techniques and strengthening exercises where you can stand the beating and most important of all, attack with such controlled force and power that the opponent cannot stand more than 3 hits.
Have you seen Shaolin Monks fight. You can kick them in the nuts and break bricks and metallic rods over their heads and they walk away without injury. I have kicked some fellow disciples their in training and they feel no pain.
i do understand the difference between real life fighting and ring fighting, but are you telling me that shaolin kung fu is no good in the ring. with gloves on or off, rules or no rules you should be able to adapt to any encounter. kung fu has much hand work and should beat these boxers with other techniques rather than jabs, straight hooks and uppercuts if you know what i mean.
Kungfu is about change as in continuous changing flow of yin and yang. So shouldn’t we as kunfu people be able to adapt to “ring” and “gloves”.
How about in the street when we’re in jeans, boots and heavy winter coats ? Will we have the luxury of not adapting to our environment.
Let not make excuses. We can only make our art better by examing our art closer.
Kungfu (we all agree thats not the correct translation for what we do?) is more aptly called chuan fa,wushu,or chinese boxing. Kungfu is chinese boxing! We even have our full contact tournaments-namely san da (san shou),shuai jiao (ahhh-grappling, the other half of the equation!) and kuoshu (which until the early 90s was a bloody spectacle.)
Sadly most Chinese boxing exponents don’t spar or don’t spar full contact. They also spend way to much time on forms and such. They don’t spend their time hitting things-dummies,wall bags,heavy bags, each other.
it is like Comparing Oranges and Apples Impossible !!
first of all i dont think that it is possible
to compare two Styles and come to a Conclusion
of what is best beacuse nearly all sTyles have the
same Potential to be great or bad
second i want to say that i Belive that
Training is the most Important Thing without
proper Trainning you can have a million of techniques but they will only work against
you Physical Condition is important atleast
as far as i know to some Degree but you also
need to put alot of effort in each Application
technique you learn i can say that i know 15
Kicks but i cannot make 15 kicks Work in a fight
only 3 but i dont need anymore
i think that Boxing is something that should
not be taken as a joke a good Boxer knows pain
and hits Hard and fast that is a Dangerous
combination of course a good Kung fu Practioner
also knows this but many times the Boxer is
Tougher and the Kung fu has alot of techniques
but sadly he has forgot to Train in any of them
i have great Respect for Western Boxing beacause
the training Methods are really great and no i dont Trained in boxing
i think it comes down to the Practioners if he has
a fighting Spirit
i am Going to fight a Boxer in approximatly 4 weeks he just need to get his Thumb Outta his ass
and get his gloves and then i will Show him the Power of Hung gar Kung fu i will Beat Him
Sorry, I practice Kung Fu and it is NOT WuShu. Kung Fu is Kung Fu and WuShu is WuShu. I DO NOT dance around all day in gymnastic moves, period! It is those scholars in mainland China who have never practiced Kung Fu and never understood the difference that made the claim. To me that is uneducated generalization! Kung Fu is referred to most Shaolin traditional martial arts. WuShu is just about any martial arts. To say Kung Fu is WuShu is to forget history and origin of Kung Fu. It should not be accepted. I am not a fan of Bruce Lee but one thing I always respect him for is that he would say “I am a Kung Fu man!”
Boxing is a great art rules or not, the same goes for Kung Fu.
Kung Fu has a greater variety of techniques and a larger scope in fighting abilty.
Boxing is mostly hands, taking hits and some quick footwork.
I think that if you were to take a boxer of 5 years and a kung Fu man of 5 years (both having good absorption and retention and ability to apply their respective arts) and put them in a square circle and allowed them to use their arts fully that the KF man would be at a definite advantage.
Boxing although it can be brutal and the hitting is fast and hard just doesn’t have the defenses against trapped arms, low kicks, sweeps, takedowns and all the other stuff that the Kung Fu guy would have learned. (never mind the brutal stuff of KF like eyepokes, groin strikes et al)
Folks, Gongfu is wush! Kung fu translation=skill in effort or hard work. Wushu=war arts. More aptly=wu kung, skill or concentrated effort in combat arts. Chuan fa=fist way, or chinese boxing. Kuoshu is a politically charged term from Taiwan.
To not know the real meaning of the term kung fu is illiterate. The only reason people associate kung fu with shoalin or fighting is because of us big bad round eyes and our inability to understand another language. I am not a Chinese linguist or historian, but I know one who I have used for information.
Most people in the west and the east have come to know the term Kung Fu to mean Traditional chinese martial arts.
you are correct in your literal meanings, but the line of contention is drawn between traditional stylists and those who perform contemporary wu shu.
This is because much of contemporary wu shu with it,s hyperextended limbs and prolonged stance holding is viewed as a performance art and is not considered street viable.
sure, a wu shu player can have traditional skills, but the main focus of cws is performance and flash. there is not a lot of readily usable martial application in the regimens.
The contemporary wu shu stylists are very fit and have terrific athletic ability, but without traditional fight training, performing during a street fight isn’t going to help defend oneself.
IMHO Kung Fu has an advantage over boxing. Kunf fu is not a combat sport so you must train it to protect your entire body. Boxing’s legal targets are only the front of the head and torso, so it depends on the practitioner’s natural talent and ability to successfully adapt it to a non-sporting situation. But hand technique for hand technique, boxing can match any art. Also, as Kung Fu people, we have an advantage over western boxing because we have all been exposed to it all of our lives. We have a good idea of the way it works, while many of kung fu’s methods of attack and defense should be very unfamiliar to a pure western boxer. Peace.
“I’ll kick you square in the nuts!!!” -Eric Cartman
Honestly, I see just as many “traditionalists” who don’t train to fight in a realistic manner as contemp. wushu people. It’s the coach not the art. Contemporary wushu can be taught to be used for fighting just as well as any “traditional” art out there. GLW has explained this very well(much better than I can) many times in other posts. Some predjuduces just take longer to get rid of I guess. Traditional fighting skills is a part of contemporary which can not be removed. If you take this aspect out then you are not doing wushu. I feel you have to know as much as you possibly can about what the movements are used for and how to use them in order to give the best performance possible.
My apologies, folks, for the outburst. It is not a good reception to a new member. First off, thank you Kung Lek, you articulate part of my point. I am passionate about not letting Kung Fu mix up with WuShu. On the Kung Fu forum, Kung Fu is under attack already, now another “scholar” claim again. Sorry, please check all my posts. I have been extremely clear on every board, even on Cyberkwoon, that Kung Fu is more than a sport. WuShu is just a sport if not a dance. They have different focuses - enlightenment (Kung Fu) Vs entertainment (WuShu). Talking the path and walking the path is very different thing. Kung Fu is beyond acadamic pursuits. BTW, I am Chinese from Hong Kong. I read and write Chinese (the full Characters as in the old days and in use in Taiwan)as well. At no time have I or would I confuse those terms. It’s okay to term it according to your own believes, but please do not assume everyone would agree on the ultimate meaning of things.
I will probably never agree with you and will most likely allways use the terms kungfu and wushu interchangably for the rest of my life. I know I can use my mainland china originated wushu to defend myself and all the history about origins etc. is never going to change that fact. I also don’t understand your point aboutYou argue a lot about history, focus, what so & so is good for. Isn’t that what scholars do?
About boxing vs. kungfu,
In a pure punching match a good boxer is going to win almost everytime because that’s about all they do. Once you add in kicking or grabing the advantage will go towards the kungfu guy. On the average though, I think there are more well trained western boxers than kungfu artists, in the US at least.
I hear you, and I respect what you are saying. If WuShu does give you what you needed, self defense wise, more power to you. Ironically, most of my Sigungs and Sifus are from mainland China. Make no mistake though, they would tell you they do Kung Fu not WuShu. We are here to present a voice, we don’t have to agree on anything. In the case of my Sigung in Tai Chi Praying Mantis, when ask about the scars, which he received during his many physical confrontations, he would tell you that it is Kung Fu that saved him. Kung Fu, the merit of hard work, saved him from being perrished. He learned a skill Geh Gik(WuShu as you would term it) but it is the intimate knowledge (Kung Fu) that saved him. It is the Kung Fu which I strive for. That’s why I caution the difference.
As for the scholar part, I am aganist the attitude that those learned people without going into studying the whole nature of the subject and making authority statements that everybody is a fool but they KNOW it all which include actually practice in it. That is neither prudent nor scholarly. But then again, there is an Chinese adage “Everybody is intoxicated yet I alone is sober; everybody is sober yet I am intoxicated.” To each their own.
Boxing is the development of certain skills for sport, which coincidentally work well on the street as well. I forget the boxer Mike Tyson got in a street fight with, but keep this in mind it took 12 rounds to go to a judges decision in the ring, and 3 seconds to knock him out in the street. Boxing is crosstrained with other styles if you want to be a good fighter.
From what I understand, kung fu & wushu do mean the same thing in essence, but in modern usage there is a distinction. To me (and many other martial artists I have spoken to), wushu usually implies the flowery dance-like movements that wushu practioners demonstrate. Kung fu means the more traditional fighting arts (not to say wushu has no tradition :)).
Anyway, back to the original question, I consider boxing to be a martial art. It may have different principles to, and be more limited in its repertoire of techniques than Asian martial arts, but it is an art nonetheless. I have nothing but the utmost respect for boxers.
But ultimately, it comes down to the practitioner. You don’t have to practice any martial art to be a good fighter.
Could somebody tell a lttle history of Wushu, like when it was created where , why etc?Theres a view it was created to apease the masses as practising kung fu is illegal in china but its a part of the culture so made to replace the fighting arts.
Is it a political art?
