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What is kung fu?
Kung fu (or gong fu) literally means work, time, skill.
More specifically: martial skill. Kung fu has been practiced for thousands of
years.
Students learn how to strike using various parts of the body, misplace bones,
seize muscles, target vulnerable areas and take their opponents to the ground.
Martial skill
Kung fu is the martial expression of your skill. A person may study for
decades, but if they cannot fight or defend themselves competently, they have
no kung fu.
Kung fu is thousands of
years old and is a highly developed system of martial art. The student who
locates a good kung fu school will find the training thorough and
challenging. Kung fu skills, which have been refined over centuries, are not
learned easily or quickly. The sincere student, however, through hard work
and dedication, will not be disappointed with the results.
(Adam Hsu)
Internal or external?
This is a tricky one. Many kung fu methods claim to be 'internal' but how
they use their art is decidedly 'external'. In order to fully understand the
question, it is important to research the matter further:
Neijiquan (internal
martial arts)
The Taijiquan Classics
The essence
of the art
Taijiquan principles
What do
we teach?
Baguazhang (8 trigrams palm),
chin na (seizing),
jing (whole-body power),
neigong (whole-body strength),
self defence,
shuai jiao (take downs),
taijiquan (supreme ultimate fist) and
weapons.
Study options
People with no martial foundation start with tai chi for
self
defence.
More experienced exponents may want to explore the
kung fu
syllabus
(chin na, shuai jiao & taijiquan) and perhaps
baguazhang.
If youre looking for
something easy, then kung fu is probably not for you.
(Anna Spysz)
Further
reading
The Sword Polisher's Record: Way of Kung Fu
More...
baguazhang chin na jing neigong neijiaquan self defence shuai jiao syllabus taijiquan weapons
Page created
21 May 2003
Last updated
02 September 2021