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Whirlwind kick

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Battle of Spinning Wheel Kicks

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Me doing the butterfly twist after a really long while...

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Nothing says more that you are a martial artist than wearing a Gi. The Chinese martial art has no distinct attire but the Okinawa martial art manage to set a standard and transit into popular culture easily. The only way for Chinese martial art to transit seems to be a topless man with black pants (think Bruce Lee).

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And who would not have been influenced by Street Fighter to be the best fighter there is out there. Another manga that inspired me when I was younger was Masahiko Nakahira’s Cammy Gaiden, Street Fighter Alpha and Ryu Final. That lone karate-ka whose only mission in life is to fight someone stronger.

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The solid and dynamic fighting art and calm storytelling of the manga, Kenji 拳児, written by Ryuchi Matsuda and illustrated by Yoshihide Fujiwara, featuring some of the most obscure style of chinese martial arts there are out there. This is another great martial arts manga that inspired me to take up the art. It is actually instructional too (just that it is still better to go learn from an actual instructor). The other manga that inspired me is Makoto Niwano’s  Jinnairyū Jyūjyutsu Butouden Majimakun Suttobasu!!

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The dynamic beautiful fighting art of mangaka Makoto Niwano for Jinnairyū Jyūjyutsu Butouden Majimakun Suttobasu!! When I was younger, a lot of influences drove me towards taking up martial arts. From movies to tv shows and even manga. I have to say this is one of the two influential manga that make me take up martial arts. The other is Kenji 拳児, written by Ryuchi Matsuda and illustrated by Yoshihide Fujiwara

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Lots of movies inspired me to take up martial arts when I was young. But definitely as we grow up and reality sets in, it is always the most practical moves that wins the fancy moves. And some fancy moves aren’t executable either.

Four Chinese Action Movie Legends

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The martial arts I learnt

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I’m pretty sure they modelled Ryu after Machida for the new look. Haha.

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The traditional stance - as seen above from the 4 great masters (First 4 photos in black and white) : 1) Sun Lu Tang (Xingyi Quan), 2) Chen You Long (Bagua Zhang), 3) Kenwa Mabuni (Shitoryu Karate), 4) John L Sullivan (Boxing). In the traditional combat stance across different continents and arts, the front hand is usually out stretched in front, to measure the distance or parry, while the back hand is kept closer to the torso, awaiting to defend the lower body or to strike. They are slightly different to the modern MMA, Boxing or Muay Thai where the front hand is kept bend, for jabs or sudden grapple, while the back hand is usually raise higher up at chin level to protect the chin. (Last 2 photos in colour) (I do not own the photos.) An interesting note to Xingyi and Bagua, is that these 2 are the few Chinese martial arts that actually starts practitioner off with their basic combat stance, namely the San Ti Shi (Trinity pile) for Xingyi and Baguazhang Circle Walking, which makes their style iconic as well. Another Chinese martial art that has an iconic and practical stance is Wing Chun. More Chinese martial arts teaches the techniques in the routine/kata/tao lu in a series of movement rather than from a fighting stance.  Here’s an old video a Ng Style Tai Chi Master versus a White Crane Kung Fu Master. Traditional Chinese martial arts without proper fighting stance usually ends up fighting like street brawl than professional fights, sadly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S19VsB7__v0

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TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS Two-handed striking techniques. This is my first analytic article and I’ll like to talk about two-handed striking techniques that are available in Chinese Martial Arts (CMA) and some Asian Martial Arts like Karate and Taekwondo, not found in Boxing/Muay Thai/MMA. These two-handed techniques look more like pretty poses for aesthetic purpose rather than a real strike. The practicality of it is greatly reduced based on the chances of actually executing these in a combat situation. They may still be applicable in a self-defense situation. Combat meaning the 2 fighters are going head to head aware of the other’s martial arts capability. Where else in a self defense situation, the opponent is unprepared or unaware that the user knows martial arts. I am going to use Tori and Uke to differentiate the Attacker and Opponent

The first image is 形意拳 - 虎扑 (Xingyi Quan’s Tiger Pounce) and the second is 罗汉拳 - 猛虎出洞 (Louhan Quan’s Ferocious Tiger exiting the cave).   虎扑 Tiger Pounce - is an open palm pressing strike to the chest of the opponent. It is thought to be one of the deadly strike of Xingyi. The force is internal driven, that is, the Tori is supposed to channel his force into the lungs and organs of the Uke. The open palm surface area, upon impacts, creates a shockwave into the Uke’s body. Imagining this technique in a MMA fight situation, it may end up like a slap on the Uke’s chest as the Uke’s body is usually not in a straight up position and/or parallel to the Tori. One improvisation that the Tori can try is executing this technique in a double hammer fists movement or when the opponent is forced into a wall or corner. 猛虎出洞 Ferocious Tiger exiting the cave - is a block and strike rather than 2 charging fists (usually depicted in movies for comedic purpose), with the upper hand blocking and the lower one striking the groin or chest or face. In a MMA fight, the perpendicular position of Tori’s body is being left too open for attacks and a roundhouse kick by the Uke will topple the Tori easily. Not sure what improvisation can be done to this.  The weakness with CMA is that the movements are structured and it seems that they need to have the perfect angle (of both the Tori and Uke) for the full technique to be executed. Explaining the techniques step by step looks impressive, especially in a situation where the demonstrator punches and left his punch out there without retrieving it back for defense and allowing the Tori to counter with THE technique. But in reality, ALL techniques are hard to apply on moving targets and there is no THE technique in a real fight. The lack of considering a counter or combos by being too confident that a particular strike will end a fight is a dangerous thought for CMA practitioners as well.

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Trying to analyse THE Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic's power left roundhouse kick. Seems like a half snap roundhouse that only starts 1) releasing 3/4 of the way up and 2) it cuts 45 degrees up the skull, and 3) ends just slightly pass the head position.

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Shadowboxing burst for 15seconds

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Somehow feels like something is missing in this piece….

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#Gi of #StreetFighter in sequence of #akuma #ryu #ken #dan  #abel  #allen #sean #graphicdesign #design #poster #karate #minimalist 

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The Hoonigan FORD MUSTANG is such a beautiful piece of art. The attitude of the car is just freaking awesome and cool that being a martial artist, I had to reimagine it on BJJ Gi. Damn it looks good.