Once you understand these differences, then it should be much easier for you to make the right choice for your martial arts training. It is also known as quanfa or wushu depending on where in the country you are based. It becomes a martial art when the art is associated with a school of teaching. The most common forms of Kung Fu available to study in the West, however, tend to be related to a few styles and most notably Shaolin given its prominence in movies and literature.
Some schools of Kung Fu have no religious affiliation at all. Chinese Kung Fu has had a major influence on the development of martial arts in Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka and the knowledge of the different schools would initially have been shared by traveling monks acting as emissaries for their monasteries.
Taekwondo, on the other hand, is not Chinese but instead hails from Korea. It is particularly famous for its emphasis on a fighting style based around kicking techniques that include fast kicking, spinning kicks, jumping kicks and high kicks. Taekwondo fighters are taught to kick their opponents at the waist or above and do not aim for their legs.
It is a relatively modern invention and Taekwondo was codified and formalized during the s and s. It takes its inspiration from karate, Kung Fu, Taekkyon, Subak and Gwonbeop the latter 3 are all older less well-known Korean martial arts.
What is definitely true is that Tae Kwon Do was developed for the Korean Military at the urging of the then President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee , who had been very impressed with a demonstration of martial arts he had witnessed and felt that the infantry could benefit from a refined system of its own.
It is easier to define Taekwondo than Kung Fu because it is, essentially, a single discipline and while there are more than one school, the differences between them are much smaller than with Kung Fu. Most of all, Taekwondo places a very great emphasis on speed and power. Newtonian physics and biomechanics were combined to develop a martial art based around speed when it become clear that increasing the mass of a blow had a linear relationship to the power of that blow but increasing the speed offered an exponential improvement in the power.
Thus, they reasoned it was easier to get faster to be more powerful than it was to gain weight or muscle bulk to achieve the same end. You may not have a huge choice of styles near to your home but if there is a choice, it is likely to come from these 5 styles of Kung Fu:.
Taekwondo, on the other hand, as you would expect is much easier to define in terms of styles and there is not a huge amount of difference between them — they relate to the 5 main organizations in Taekwondo.
They believe in the art of harmony and balance within the fighter and with the universe as a whole. The practice of Kung Fu is intended to lead to the happiness and well being of its fighters. In the main, both systems have philosophies that are meant to help the fighter better themselves and to help them establish an ordered and valuable presence in the world around them.
All schools of Kung Fu, will have specific weapons that they train with. They use everything from swords to whip chains in Kung Fu and it would take more than one lifetime to master all the different weapon fighting techniques from all the schools.
The American schools, however, do teach weapons and provide training in swords, nunchucks and staffs, among other weapons. Most kung fu forms are also usually more complex and longer in duration than most karate forms. To most martial artists, a kung fu form will look much more exotic while a karate form will look more straight forward in terms of martial arts techniques.
Interestingly enough, there are karate styles such as goju which do have quite a lot of circular techniques similar to kung fu. Kempo styles are considered a hybrid of Chinese kung fu and Okinawan karate techniques with both circular as well as linear techniques.
There are also many more different styles of kung fu compared to karate. Martial arts weaponry is found in both kung fu and karate styles but different sets of weapons are utilized in each martial arts system. Much like the empty hand forms, the kata with karate weapons are also more linear compared to those with kung fu weapons which have more circular movements. As expected, there is a lot more variety of different Chinese kung fu weapons than found in the Japanese karate styles.
Traditionally, practitioners of karate wear a white uniform called a gi which features the overlapping kimono-like top. Less traditional schools will allow coloured uniforms.
A coloured belt will be the finishing touch to the gi with of course the black belt for those at instructor level ranking. Most of the time and especially inside a dojo, karate stylists will not wear any shoes while training.
Most kung fu stylists will wear a very different looking uniform. The uniforms can be black or a variety of colours with often lighter fabrics such as satin and shoes are commonly worn. The modern acrobatic Chinese martial arts of wushu can feature satin uniforms with many different bright colours. Many kung fu schools simply utilize t-shirts and baggy pants as uniforms.
Like in Taoism, the purpose of Kung Fu is to keep harmony and balance within the lives of practitioners. It goes beyond just the physical movements of the arts and gives a guide to live a life of peace and happiness.
Hard techniques for Yin and Yang for soft techniques. Practitioners learn proper breathing techniques and when to use soft and hard techniques against an opponent. Forces of Yin and Yang are demonstrated in the nature of water.
Water can be calm or powerful and is very adaptable. Being shapeless and taking any form like water is something strived for in Kung Fu. Similar to Kung Fu, the purpose of TaeKwonDo goes beyond the mental and physical coordination of performing the techniques. The purpose of the martial art is to develop a spirit within yourself that carries over to all aspects of life.
Ji Do Kwan, which is one of the original TaeKwonDo schools has a symbol that represents the philosophical goals of the martial art. It is a circle called an o-de-key is made up of three circles with one representing the Earth, and the other two representing aspects of life. They are all connected to one another, which have no beginning or end and represents the journey through TaeKwonDo and life.
The o-de-key has eight phrases around it that explain how a student of TaeKwonDo is to conduct their self. They are:.
Kung Fu and TaeKwonDo share similarities in philosophies that go past just performing the movements of the martial arts. They both strive for students to be the best people they can possibly be. Moving fluidly through life and continue to pursue being a better person and martial artist.
Probably the most known form of Kung Fu developed that has been practiced at Buddhist monasteries for centuries. These martial artists train their bodies and minds to be strong and peaceful warriors that train in all forms of combat including with weapons.
It is known for the techniques being simple, yet effective. Master Yip Man is credited for helping spread the ideas of Wing Chun throughout the world. Is the national martial art of China. Moves are practiced slowly and methodically to develop internal power. This martial art practiced short and explosive movements.
It is closely related to what the Chinese military teaches and used by bodyguards of politicians. This Kung Fu style has been used in many martial arts films. Praying Mantis mimics the movements of the insect with your hand like hooks for hand play and fast and agile footwork. It is a little easier to list forms of TaeKwonDo as they have similar hand to hand combat techniques.
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