Question about kung fu?

Question

My mom believes that kung fu is a inpopular martial art, and because of that, she thinks that karate or tae kwon do are "better". Is that true? I'm not saying is kung fu better but are karate and tae kwon do more effective or are they equal? I've also heard that kung fu is sometimes impratical, but that only applies to some styles. So if some styles of kung fu are impratical, what are some styles that aren't?

Answer 1

Depending on the kwoon and the sifu, kung fu is a very effective method of self-defense.

Look for a Hung Gar, or Wing chun, or Praying Mantis system.

Answer 2

In terms of popularity, I think karate and tae kwan do definitely have more people training in those styles, at least here, but that doesn't make them any more practical or effective than kung fu/wushu.  

All styles are founded in some manner of practicality and usability, the way they do things is the only thing different.  As Bruce Lee once mentioned (I don't have an exact quote, so I'll paraphrase), how can you really have a different style?  We all have the same limbs, our body structure is generally the same, the only difference is what each style calls their techniques.  

In terms of which martial arts are practical/impractical, I'd have to say that Wushu (another name for Kung Fu) can be both practical and impractical, depends on who teaches it and what exactly they're teaching.  If it's the Wushu that's often shown in competitions, that's a very recent style.  It was made into a performance art about the time of the Communist Revolution in China, so what's better-known nowadays as Wushu is very acrobatic, with some schools of it not really focusing on the self-defense aspects from which it would have originated.  

However, if you're speaking about more traditional styles of Kung Fu (Wushu),  they all have what they believe to be practical.  Southern styles tend to be a characterized by very stable stances, low kicks and powerful strikes.  Northern styles tend to have more acrobatics in them, but are also known for amazing fluidity and speed.  It depends on what you want to accomplish.  

If you want something solely for self-defense's sake, you would want to play into something to your strengths.  If flexibility isn't the best for you, then styles like Tae Kwan Do or Northern styles of Wushu probably aren't practical.  In that case, I'd recommend looking into things such as the various styles of karate (Shudokan, Shotokan, Goju-ryu, etc...) or the Southern styles of Wushu, such as the Hung Gar, Wing Chun, etc...

Answer 3

kung fu, karate, and tkd are all more of expressive dance than martial arts.  take boxing, wrestling, muay thai, or brazillian/ gracie jiu jitsu (NOT japanese jiu jitsu, which is also worthless).  or take an MMA class.

Answer 4

Just because something is more popular, does not make it better.  Use the old saying that you mom probably likes "If everyone else was jumping off a bridge, should I jump too?"

In fact, the popularity of Karate and Tae Kwan Do is because there are more low quality schools that teach it.  Many times a person will get their black belt, then go open a school.  Unfortunately this happens in all Martial Arts, but is very prevelant in those two styles.

As for impractibiliy, all styles have some moves that are traditional, but impractible.  Reguardless of what style you choose, you will be looking for the following things:

Long Lineage (who taught who list)

Rank of head Instructor (higher the better)

Length of time teaching

Length of time school has been open

Focus of school / classes

You want an instructor (called Sifu in Kung Fu) that has had several years or more of teaching their style.  They should be happy and willing to show you their lineage (it is a pretty big deal).   And the most important thing is that you want to find a school that focuses on self defense and fighting.  The Kung Fu way of fighting is quite different than most other MA's.  Many people do not understand it, and therefore automatically think that it does not work.

Ask alot of questions.  A quality school will be glad to answer them, and whoever you talk to should be polite and informative.  Be sure to take your mom with you so that she can ask her questions and you can show her how much you want to do this, and better yourself.

Since you are interested in Kung Fu, here are a limited few of the "higher" respected styles, that are also more popular.

Wing Chun

Eagle Claw

Hung Gar

Preying Mantis (prefer Northern)

5 Animals (Tiger, Crane, Snake, Leopard, Dragon)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styles_of_C...

( My personal favorite is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pr... )

Lastly,  Go with your gut instinct.  If you really think you will like a particular style, then do that one.  Chances are that you will love it.

Good Luck!!

Answer 5

I agree almost completely with bluto and he put it much better than I could, the only thing I have to point out is that there are some(very few) styles which simply do not work no matter what, such as Dim Mak and Yellow Bamboo.  some are also very impractical such as Wing Chun(little power, awkward stances and movement, and a focus on an extremely artifical range of combat).

Basically good fighting always ends up looking roughly  the same, no matter what style is being taught.  again as bluto said sportive arts are usually the safest bet for finding a good school(most important part of a determining a good school is that they spar(fight) each other full contact), sporting arts are also usually much cheaper(especially boxing or judo).  Good ones to look at are boxing, judo, kickboxing, muay thai, wrestling(especially if you are still in school, its free and will get in better shape than any of the others), bjj, kyokushin, and enshin.  there is no garuntee that these will be good schools but the ratio of good schools to bad ones for the arts I listed is much much much higher than it is for other arts.

If you really want to do a chinese art, I would recommend San Da or San Shou, which have a good to bad ratio which is about equal to the arts I listed above, but in my experience san da and san shou are very rare, and its hard to find any school good or bad.

Again I'm not saying good schools in other arts don't exist, but there are many more bad schools than good ones, and with out any experiece it will be hard for you to tell the difference, rule of thumb is if they don't spar, walk out, if they point spar, run out and never look back.

Answer 6

almost all martial arts are just about the same

there are some different than others

it also depends on the master that teaches the dojo

i'm in tae kwon do and i thought that tae kwon do was less popular than kung fu because when i tell people i do martial arts there are always thinking either karate or kung fu

and any martial arts are effective if you take pride in it and try your best

if you want to do kung fu then tell your mom that

if your good at it then you can take down any kind of martial arts and everyone does have pros and cons

and there are still a lot others like tai chi, ninjustu, doustus, judo, etc.  

and so what if some of the styles are impractical if your good at them you shouldn't matter how they look

Answer 7

Practicality is not controlled so much by style. The fighting skills are definitely there in Kung Fu as most of the other systems trace back to them. Depending what you are after there are schools just for self defense out there, there are schools just for tournaments or MMA fighting, and there are traditional based schools from all walks of history. What makes them effective is you and how much you practice and make it a part of your life.

Answer 8

dzpmantis already gave you the best answer.   I practice a style of kung fu and I love it.

In many cases, studying martial arts, in general, is unpopular.  It takes up a good bit of your free time, you are always sore, and people who don't do a martial art don't get it.  Especially once you start training weapons.  My friends would ask "what, you think you'll get into a sword fight or something", etc.    

However, the personal benefits you will receive will make it worth the work.

Answer 9

what is practical is determined by training.

any school that trains realistically, which means training against your classmates as if you were really doing it. you train against fully resisting opponents that aren't going to let you get the technique off.

it doesn't matter the style.

tkd is in MOST cases not training realistically at all- they generally train for point sparring (which is basically a game of tag) which is unrealistic rules and will make you a WORSE fighter than no training at all as it teaches bad habits to succeed in thier game of "punch tag" (point sparring), there is also a notable trade off of power for speed as its landing the hit that gets you points not how hard you hit.

look up the rulesets that they train under and you'll see ridiculous competition rules like "no punching the face", "no kicking the supporting leg".

there may be schools that don't train for competition, but these are few and far between.

kung fu- aka chinese martial arts (CMA), generally train poorly as well, there are good schools that train with resistance, but its going to be hard to find one unless you live in a large urban area, many people can easily set up shop and teach "forms" without ever having crossed hands with another person to test thier art. and they will make up excuses like "we don't spar because our art is too deadly to spar", c**p- you can't learn if you don't DO.

karate- same as above, there are lots of "kiddie krotty" schools out there but these are fairly easy to spot. its probably easier out of the three you mentioned to find a legit karate school. the easiest rule of thumb is to steer clear of karate schools that focus on kata overly much (kata is almost worthless in hand to hand training, there is nothing you can't learn and learn better from repeating the same strike over and over and over, instead of a dance like pre-arranged routine), and steer clear of schools that look like day-care centers (too many kids, heavy emphasis on "kid" black belts).

if you are looking for something practical your best bet is a sportative art that has realistic rulesets (for the ranges they cover) like muai thai, boxing, judo, sambo, etc.  if you are trainign boxing you know you will develop good striking abilities, if you train judo, you know you will develop decent grappling and throw abilities, etc.

that way if you want to take cma later, then you will be able to more easily spot a fraud and can incorporate what you learned in all arts.

Answer 10

It really depends on what you are trying to get out of the martial art. Kempo karate is pretty good.  Kung Fu is more traditional. A lot of martial arts will still incorporate some tradition moves\move sets out of respect for the art.  Tae Kwon Do has a lot of impractical kicks (in my opinion).  A lot of martial arts stay current... like defending against knives instead of sticks, and guns instead of whatever.  So I say take Kempo karate, or that Israel martial art Krav Maga that's popular right now.