I've learned too much about fighting to care about this choreographed stuff anymore. It's like watching dancing. Does wu-shu really teach you to block strikes with the largest, slowest possible motion? That being said, I appreciate wu-shu aerials and I upvoted the vid.
No, DD, the weapon is actually a spear (qiang if you want to be all ethnic about it). You can tell by the stabbing motions made, as well as the characteristic tassle tied to the top near the head to distract enemies from the actual path of the blade.
I'm with Budzos on this, though, after getting into actual martial arts, I can't even look at wushu the same way. Neat acrobatics, I suppose.
To be fair, choreographed fights are only one form of competition (the other being full contact sparring), so just because we usually only see the exaggerated exhibitions doesn't mean it's all "fake".
It's just choreographed...think of it as a dance. A ballet almost.
Of course it isn't real fighting. If you're really fighting you wouldn't be jumping around like that. Just whack the guy a few times with the spear as a big stick (make sure it's not flimsy either like the one here, but a solid hunk of hickory). He'll block it or try to a few times, but after his forearms and elbows are broken, it's easy to come in to whack him on the head a few times, then when he's passed out, a quick stab with the spear should finish him off.
EDIT: Wow, after reading what I wrote I realize that I sound like a total psychopath. Sorry....
Don't forget forms pyrex. Sure it may not be 'real' fighting but it's the preperation and concentration that are involved in the sport that make it. And Goofball, yeah that sounded pretty irrational. It's not like a guy is going to sit there while you break his arms with a stick. Heck I know I wouldn't.
Pyrex: Either you're mistaken, or I've misinterpreted what you've said. Wushu doesn't have any sparring, and certainly doesn't have any full contact sparring. These choreographed fights are as close as it gets. Kung fu does have sparring, but there the vast majority of it is a long way from full contact (e.g. no punching to the head, no kicks to the legs).
Personally I think Wushu's just as worthwhile as any other martial art, depending upon what you want to get out of it. It isn't going to help you much at all in a real fight, but it's damned good exercise and a lot of fun...
Baqueta, you've hit the nail on the head. If you're looking for a martial art to learn to fight and have for some reason decided to limit yourself to kung fu, san shou/san da, maybe Hung Gar, and possibly Shuai Jiao would be your best bets. If you want to learn to do flips and somersaults and stuff, wushu is the bees' knees.
I'm surprised that neither of those two individuals had "earned" an eyepatch during whatever practice sessions are necessary to choreograph such a performance.
Even in the modern sense of the word, Wushu does involve sparring. It is composed of 2 things, "Taolu"(forms) and "Sanda" (free-fighting) or "Sanshou" (free-hand). At Wushu competitions both events are normally held, the former being the choreographed fights and the later being full contact.
To be really padantic though, Wushu is not actually a specific martial art, it literally means "martial arts" and while it is often used to refer to the choreographed fights, it also refers to free-fighting and in fact any martial art, so it's wrong to say it doesn't involve sparring either way you look at it.
EDIT: The reason for the misconception is, I think, largely due to the fact that Wushu taught in the west largely focuses on the acrobatic forms and jumps. There is generally not even any mention of the actual fighting side of Wushu.
I remember the last competition I was in, just holding my combat steel broadswords and looking at any and all wushu blades. Those things are practically made of aluminum foil; they're so light, most divisions didn't allow weapons forms with wushu weapons, and a good thing too. Swinging around twin 5 pound swords, then stopping on a dime better not be compared to wiggling a sword lighter than a cardboard cutout. I guess they do serve their purpose of being light and weak, for fancy stuff, though. But the worst wound you would get if fighting against that would be a deep papercut, maybe; it would probably just slap you a bit.
Sorry, but this is sort of lame. Oh yes of course the martial artists pictured here are extremely skilled, and I don't doubt that they must have trained really hard to achieve such a high level of coordination. But this is no simulated fight, instead, it was more akin to dance.
Unbelievable the amount of debate a clip like this can generate - that's a good thing of course.
Maybe I should've given the following title...
'Wushu Dance (nothing resembling fighting contained within, real hard knocks would just go for the neck with a broken bottle or their massive hairy man-fist)'
No personal offense to you, but you've never trained wushu, san da, or san shou, have you? Because uhhh....Wikipedia isn't the source of all knowledge, contrary to popular belief.
To be TRULY pedantic, your interpretation of the word (via Wikipedia) is completely wrong. Although "wu shu" may translate figuratively as "martial arts" (it more accurately translates as "martial skill", similiar in many aspects to the comparison of "do" versus "jutsu" in Japanese martial arts), it is not generally used in the martial arts world as a blanket term for martial arts or even Chinese martial arts (CMA). This is similiar to Tae Kwon Do, which means "the art of kicking and punching", but which trains most practitioners much more on kicking techniques than punching techniques. The "meaning" of a word isn't always the definition of the thing it represents, dontcha know.
Wushu nowadays is generally used in China and in CMA communities around the world to describe this gymnastic/acrobatic activity, while the blanket term used for CMA is "kung fu" or "gong fu" if you really want to be anal about it. Also, san shou/san da is a style in and of itself (originally the ruleset under which the style developed), not a subset of wushu. In fact, if you look into the history of CMA and its transformation over the years, wushu developed into what you see in this video due to influences by the Beijing/Peking Opera House, which mimicked or incorporated CMA movements into choreographed theater fight scenes, rather than any Western influence. As a result of the change of wushu, along with the rising popularity of kung fu flicks in the U.S, "kung fu" was slowly adopted as the new blanket term for CMA.
Wushu practitioners nowadays practice forms and choreographed sequences like this one, while san shou/san da practitioners generally practice by sparring. There is very, very little overlap between the two.
The misconception of what wushu and kung fu are, I think, is largely due to the fact that people like to share their own beliefs on topics that they actually have little to no experience in.
But what do I know? Good, bad? I'm the guy with the 4 oz. gloves.
LOL Wow, I got owned. In my defence I didn't just use wiki to try pretend like I know what I'm on about. It is true I have not done wushu, instead comments didn't sit right with things a friend of mine who has done a number of martial arts told me. I just wanted to convey what he had told me, but couldn't remember properly. My mistake was using wiki to try remind myself of the specifics of what he said which, having read your post, I realise I instead warped badly. I will in future try to comment only when I am confident in my own understanding of a given issue and don't need to compensate for bad memory by checking potentially questionable sources... sorry -_-;;
Hey, no biggee. Like I said, I wasn't going after you personally, just clearing things up a bit. People, even martial artists, still get this particular issue all flipped about due to their misunderstanding/ignorance of Chinese culture and history pertaining to martial arts. I just do my best to clarify such things when the opportunity presents itself.
Anyways, take everything I say with a grain of salt, too. I mean, I do punch people as a hobby, after all.
Stumble This
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nangun
I'm with Budzos on this, though, after getting into actual martial arts, I can't even look at wushu the same way. Neat acrobatics, I suppose.
I was just impressed with the speed at which they were dodging the qiang. Just very impressive choreography and precision.
Of course it isn't real fighting. If you're really fighting you wouldn't be jumping around like that. Just whack the guy a few times with the spear as a big stick (make sure it's not flimsy either like the one here, but a solid hunk of hickory). He'll block it or try to a few times, but after his forearms and elbows are broken, it's easy to come in to whack him on the head a few times, then when he's passed out, a quick stab with the spear should finish him off.
EDIT: Wow, after reading what I wrote I realize that I sound like a total psychopath. Sorry....
Personally I think Wushu's just as worthwhile as any other martial art, depending upon what you want to get out of it. It isn't going to help you much at all in a real fight, but it's damned good exercise and a lot of fun...
To be really padantic though, Wushu is not actually a specific martial art, it literally means "martial arts" and while it is often used to refer to the choreographed fights, it also refers to free-fighting and in fact any martial art, so it's wrong to say it doesn't involve sparring either way you look at it.
EDIT: The reason for the misconception is, I think, largely due to the fact that Wushu taught in the west largely focuses on the acrobatic forms and jumps. There is generally not even any mention of the actual fighting side of Wushu.
Maybe I should've given the following title...
'Wushu Dance (nothing resembling fighting contained within, real hard knocks would just go for the neck with a broken bottle or their massive hairy man-fist)'
No personal offense to you, but you've never trained wushu, san da, or san shou, have you? Because uhhh....Wikipedia isn't the source of all knowledge, contrary to popular belief.
To be TRULY pedantic, your interpretation of the word (via Wikipedia) is completely wrong. Although "wu shu" may translate figuratively as "martial arts" (it more accurately translates as "martial skill", similiar in many aspects to the comparison of "do" versus "jutsu" in Japanese martial arts), it is not generally used in the martial arts world as a blanket term for martial arts or even Chinese martial arts (CMA). This is similiar to Tae Kwon Do, which means "the art of kicking and punching", but which trains most practitioners much more on kicking techniques than punching techniques. The "meaning" of a word isn't always the definition of the thing it represents, dontcha know.
Wushu nowadays is generally used in China and in CMA communities around the world to describe this gymnastic/acrobatic activity, while the blanket term used for CMA is "kung fu" or "gong fu" if you really want to be anal about it. Also, san shou/san da is a style in and of itself (originally the ruleset under which the style developed), not a subset of wushu. In fact, if you look into the history of CMA and its transformation over the years, wushu developed into what you see in this video due to influences by the Beijing/Peking Opera House, which mimicked or incorporated CMA movements into choreographed theater fight scenes, rather than any Western influence. As a result of the change of wushu, along with the rising popularity of kung fu flicks in the U.S, "kung fu" was slowly adopted as the new blanket term for CMA.
Wushu practitioners nowadays practice forms and choreographed sequences like this one, while san shou/san da practitioners generally practice by sparring. There is very, very little overlap between the two.
The misconception of what wushu and kung fu are, I think, is largely due to the fact that people like to share their own beliefs on topics that they actually have little to no experience in.
But what do I know? Good, bad? I'm the guy with the 4 oz. gloves.
Anyways, take everything I say with a grain of salt, too. I mean, I do punch people as a hobby, after all.
but yeah, brilliantly correographed.