Wushu is the official martial art taught within the People’s Republic of China. Wu Shu (“War Arts”) is practiced by hundreds of thousands in China, and is included as a part of the training for all police and military personnel. Though it’s a type of Kung Fu which has been taught in China for hundreds of years it’s a rigid system, and has no attachment to any of the paranormal beliefs of the past. The federal government is more concern with physical points of the martial art and spiritual beliefs been replaced with propaganda, and political training which take up much of the coed’s training time. When a student will not be participating in political training they are going to participate in group and partner exercises in addition to weapons practice.
Contemporary Wushu was created in 1949 as a part of the communist government’s try and create a national sport, and though the people were greater than blissful with the kinds of martial arts that they had already. All previous types of Kung Fu were outlawed and even the Shaolin monks were greatly restricted. In recent times the federal government has tried to take the politics out of sports, but with limited success due to how repressive the federal government is usually. Still tournaments have been running for the reason that early 1990’s, and the game is practiced outside of China. The 2 Wushu forms which can be practiced are Taulo and Sanda, but neither is suited to self defense.
The hand movements are called Ba Ji, tumbling moves are Di Tang, and Tung Bi is full arm movements. The animal katas are called Xing Yi. The weapon katas for Wushu includes a lot of several types of swords, the nine-section whip, three section staffs, spears, and other ancient Chinese weapons. The central Committee of National Physical Culture must accredited all students and teachers who must embody the ideals of communism. At first glance Wushu looks impressive with a lot of moves and a big choice of weapons in its arsenal to select from in battle. The art would appear to be a superb alternative to review until closer examination. For all its flash this way of Kung Fu lacks substance and won’t rise up in real world conditions.
Taulo is taken into account to be a type of Kung Fu, but is not in any respect like several of the effective martial arts types of the past and is like gymnastics. It’s a degree based systems where points are given out based on performances that may last from two to twenty minutes, and there is no such thing as a contact. While traditional weapons like swords, butterfly knives, and staffs are used they’re light weight versions they usually and the routines are useless in combat. The programs are broken up into barehanded, short weapons, and long weapons portions, but include jumps, flips and other impressive routines. This kind of Kung Fu is totally useless in the case of self defense, but is a superb type of entertainment.
Sanshou or Sanda the Chinese combat sport based off of Chinese boxing, wrestling, and kickboxing. Originally, the military used it as a approach to test martial arts, however it developed into a contest sport within the early a part of the 20 th century. Sanda draws from Lei tai martial arts matches where competitors fought barehanded or with weapons on a high platform. Fights would proceed until death, injury, or one in every of the competitors was thrown off the platform.
In Sanda today a competitor can still win a match by throwing their opponent out of the ring. Striking and grappling are allowed, and it’s way more aggressive than Wushu which it is usually paired with in tournaments in China. The military has their very own version of Sanda, however the sport version restricts a lot of moves including elbow strikes, chokes, and joint locks. When competing internationally Sanda practitioners have fought in lots of style-versus-style competitions against Muay Thai, Karate, and Tae Kwon Do fighters.
Unlike the Japanese art of Jujutsu which is pragmatic Wushu is more about looking good whilst you perform the art. A typical student will do many impressive leaps, back flips, and strikes, but while doing so leaving themselves open to attacks, since the art lacks any real defense. In coping with an armed attacker a Wushu student can be unprepared unless they’re carrying a weapon themselves (it is not practical to hold a Chinese broadsword or spear with you in your morning commute).
If a student of combatives and hand handy self defense was to come across a Wushu student the combatives student may take a couple of initial hits, but would quickly close with the Wushu student, and would throw or grapple them and take control of the fight. If the Wushu student was armed with any of their traditional weapons they might find themselves disarmed with their weapon within the hands of the fighter who used practical self defense techniques. In the long run Wushu is a performance art, and at best a combat martial art that may only get you in trouble in a street fight. The art even has its critics amongst modern practitioners of Kung Fu who say the federal government has stripped all tradition and practically from the art.
This manner of Kung Fu is a sport and should not be relied on for self defense. It also needs to be noted that Colonel Fairbairn who fought in 600 non-training fights during his time as a police officer in Shanghai China made an intensive study of many Chinese martial arts including Kung Fu didn’t incorporate them in his many books on fighting and self defense. Fairbairn would base his many books on his experiences, and what he learned on the Kodokan while earning his black belt in Judo. The lesson is winning the fight is more vital then looking good and losing the fight.