What's the difference between Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu, and Karate?

Question

This is just a question that came to me when I was watching a Jackie Chan movie

Answer 1

Tae Kwan Do is a Korean striking style, and Karate is a similar Japanese style. Kung Fu signifies "Great Achievement" technically in any area in Chinese, e.g. an emperor had a kung fu chef. Wu Shu specifically means "Martial Arts" and is the term used in Red China for them now. The Korena and japanese styles are derived from Chinese styles, but Chinese styles have many moves their imitators do not have.

Answer 2

Karate is a self defense martial art that involves kicks and punches. Tae kwon do is a martial art that is all kicking and kung fu teaches you how to defened yourself from close range.

I have done all these martial arts so feel free to ask me more questions.

Answer 3

Karate comes from kung fu in early china.  this is extremely evident in such styles as Kenpo karate which still use many techniques found in kung fus today (leopard fists and tiger claws etc)

TKD was influenced by both karate and kung fu

a big difference is that karate and TKD are not as adaptive as kung fu.  kung fu is adjusted and reevaluated by each master of the style and passed down to a sole disciple.

the MAIN difference is that to be a Kung Fu master, you must have been chosen as the SOLE disciple of your master you trained under.  once the master retires he continues to train his disciple (while the disciple takes over his school) for as many as 20+ years.

in karate or TKD nowadays you can practice for 5 or 6 years and make your own school.

at my kung fu school it takes a minimum of 6 years continuous (atleast 3 sessions weekly) training to even reach the rank of black sash.   this is not the case in most karate and TKD schools out now (where 2-3 years black belt is the norm)

also kung fu requires immense flexibility and there are hundreds of kung fu styles (whereas there are less than 10 of either TKD or karate)

Answer 4

The primary, and really, only differences between TKD, kung Fu and Karate is geographic and philisophical.  All are terms for martial studies, and are designated to a specific country and language used.  Years ago the term "karate" was popularly accepted in the U.S. as referring to asian martial arts training, as opposed to european or american martial arts (such as savate or boxing, or even greco-roman wrestling).  Many americans returning from japan during WWII were viewing these arts for the first time and brought the term and study back to America.  Later into the century with the Korean war and resurgence of korean autonomy, the practice of TaeKyon was restarted, and of course General Cho instituted the Tae Kwon Do system for the Korean military.  Kung Fu (sometimes referred in asia as Gung Fu) is generally considered to be among the oldest forms of martial arts training and dates to times of buddhist monks and the understanding of nature to incorporate into an exercise program.  Wing Chun (sometimes referred to as Wing Chun Kung Fu) is currently the national fitness program of china and is praciticed in some instances during the work day as a meditative and exercise program at work.

Many historians believe that due to Japans' occupation of China, Karate became far more popular in Japan due to seeing Kung Fu in China. However, to lump most of japanese striking arts into the term Karate is a simplification of the types of karate and similarly with Kung Fu.  So the essential answer would be the difference between TKD, Kung Fu, and Karate is that TKD is a martial art system, Kung Fu is a chinese term used most commonly to refer to several, or multiple martial art systems widely used in China, and Karate is the common japanese term used to refer to many of the japanese and okinawan martial art systems focusing mainly on strikes.  The other key difference between the three terms, is that Kung Fu or Gung Fu was originally almost exclusively taught to and practiced by Buddhist monks in the mountainous areas of China, and was an important part of the religion practiced at the ShaoLin monastery.

The religious presence of Kung Fu is to my knoweldge unique to that art alone.  Most, but not all of todays' martial arts have their roots in Kung Fu and it is believed that Shao Lin kung fu was the first ordered system of self defence techniques ever taught in a structured environment, though this is sometimes still debated.

Answer 5

Tae Kwon Do - a Korean art that is derived from Okinawan fighting techniques.  TKD is a striking art that focuses mainly on kicking (around 70% of TKD strikes are kicks)   The main means of delivery is utilizing varying angles of attack to get to the target.  Tae Kwon Do is a more sport-oriented art now, but wasn't always.

Kung Fu - generalized term for Chinese Boxing - there are dozens of variations and schools of Kung Fu, but overall they utilize obstacle removal (trapping and indirect multiple attacks for example) and linear attack concepts to deliver blows - straight forward attacks rather than angular attacks.

Karate - another generalized term, but this is for Japanese and Okinawan striking arts.  There are multiple schools here as well, but many of them are based on similar principles of counter-striking.  They redirect the opponent's momentum and energy against them - draw them in or force them to over-commit, then strike.  (A lot of the 2 fist techniques in "karate" are one to block, one to strike - as one example.)

There are many many exceptions to those general rules, but that's the general overview of the concepts you are asking about.

Answer 6

nothing..they are all equally useless in actual combat....i prefer lead pipe to skull style