Fight Fu Blog

Nelson karate black belt an inspiration to all

Fight Fu — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:27:27 +0000

Daniel Younghusband, a 26 year old Nelson man faced with adversities to the extent of near blindness, type 1 diabetes, skeletal stiffness and congenital dwarfism, has valiantly earned his black belt in Seido Karate last week.

With a standard 3 hour, grueling grading that would be difficult for any Karate practitioner, Daniel charged through. ‘Stopping and giving up is not in my dictionary’ he said.

Being legally blind, he is an inspiration as he has been able to learn the combinations of moves from Seido Karate by using his hearing alone.

Read the full article here.

Do you have what it takes to be a Shaolin monk?

Fight Fu — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:12:50 +0000

If you’re into martial arts, and if you’re not, what are you doing here? Then, you’ve probably heard about the Shaolin monks. Surrounded by myth and legend, they are the reason why Kung Fu is so popular today and a large of part of the reason why martial arts in general are, for that matter. In this article on the Shaolin monks, we take a look at the origins and birthplace of Kung Fu at the Shaolin Temple more than one thousand years ago, and give an overview of what it takes to be a Shaolin monk, what life is like for these real life super human; martial arts masters.

What is the best martial art?

Fight Fu — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 09:42:10 +0000

It’s something every martial artist wonders and fair enough too. Why spend your time studying a martial art if it isn’t the ultimate martial art, but “What is the best martial art?” – out of literally hundreds to choose from – how do you know which one to learn?

In this article on what is the best martial art, we take a look and try to answer just that.

The martial art of Wing Chun Kung Fu

Fight Fu — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:14:13 +0000

Wing Chun is one of the most recently developed Martial Arts and it might be the only martial arts style developed by a woman. Wing Chun is a brutal, lightning-fast martial art which makes use of some scientific angles and theories. It can be practiced as a softer style or a harder style. Even Bruce Lee, based his own martial art from his 14 years experience in it.

Learn more about Wing Chun here

Top 5 funny martial arts clips

Fight Fu — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:17:35 +0000

I like humour as much as i like martial arts, so i decided i’d go and grab some of my favourite funny martial arts clips for you and merge them into my top 5 funny martial arts clips. Hope you enjoy!

Click here for the full article.

What does Kinect mean for martial arts?

Fight Fu — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:10:05 +0000

With all these new-fangled gadgets being released, it’s interesting what kind of implications this means for your martial arts training at home. Will there be full-on martial arts games that let you learn Karate in the privacy of your own home?

Read the full article here

The 5th commandment, worst martial arts movie?

Fight Fu — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:01:19 +0000

Probably not the worst martial arts movie ever made, but the 5th commandment was definitely not the greatest. Asides from the sub-par acting, lack of martial arts and crappy plot, even gangsta-assed music failed to give the film any decency.

Check out the full review here.

Ip Man (2008) movie reviewed

Fight Fu — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 21:09:40 +0000

Ip man, is one of the best Kung Fu movies to release in the last decade. Full of real Wing Chun Kung Fu combat techniques, instead of the usual hero running along thin bamboo branches and stepping through air all too familiar these days. The fight scenes are done incredibly well, the acting is strong, and the story of Ip Man is definitely well portrayed.

This movie pleasantly surprised me.

Read the full article here.

The truth about martial arts

Fight Fu — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:30:24 +0000

The truth about martial arts
Okay so, before you start spending money on a Gi and memberships….it’s a good idea to have some idea of the truth about what you’re getting into.

The truth about martial arts is skill
Skill, in this sense means not just the type of martial arts you study, but also how good you are (natural ability included), how long you’ve studied for and what kind of physical condition you’re in. The more skilled you are, the more chance you’re going to stand against a combatant(s). As long as you’re in the right circumstance or real world scenario.

The truth about martial arts is circumstance
Let’s face it, when you’re so inebriated you can’t get a key to fit in the lock at your house, and that’s because you’re not even at YOUR house, you’re probably going to have difficulties defending yourself. That said, due to the nature of any kind of physical training, the longer you’ve practiced it for, the more your body will react naturally by way of programming it through repetition, so even in states of complete shit-facedness, your body will still likely react in a more self preserving way than if you’d never spent a day in your life studying martial arts.

Outside of the dojo it’s a whole different ball park
For those of you who are terrified by the words “real world” you may want to stop reading at this point. Again, the truth about martial arts is the “real world” scenario you find yourself in. In the real world, people follow through when they’re trying to stab you in the head, people follow through, when they’re trying to tackle you the ground from behind and smash your face into the concrete.

Harsh as it may be, the effectiveness of martial arts or any self-defence system is going to be severely challenged when you have 10 drunken combatants surrounding you, attacking you from behind with cheap shots, using makeshift or real weapons and not conforming to rules. I’m sure any of you who say “WAIT! Let’s not be hasty, okay, no groin shots! No face shots! And no weapons…” would be beaten into a bloody pulp in many scenarios and some dojos don’t really train for the real world, instead just using quite rigid punch comes in on this 67 degree angle and i block at this 24 degree angle…

The truth about martial arts is they are probably more for spiritual, self-improving reasons; than they are for defending yourself or others, but they can certainly still do that.

If you’re really concerned about using martial arts as a system for defending oneself and others, then you can at least cover as many bases as possible. By this, I mean you will always fall prey to what life throws at you, you might be drunk, they might have a knife, whatever, it could be pretty grim.

As all my Sifu has ever told me is ‘do everything possible to avoid fighting’, he is a detective who has been on the force for many year and awarded for disarming knives among other accolades, he also told me that 90% of fights end up on the ground!

I’m sure many of the reasons I’ve listed above are why such martial arts as MMA are becoming ever increasingly popular, for myself, I’ve spent most of my time studying Wing Chun Kung Fu, and Doce Pares, which covers weapons, effective self defence from a hand to hand perspective as well as ground fighting.

In summary, the truth about the mystifying martial arts is, while they certainly can be highly effective, powerful and fantastic means for survival. They’re also dependent on how much you put in, the scenario you find yourself in and the real world – sometimes that just won’t work in your favour. However, what you can do, is cover as many bases as possible, learn ground, weapons, hand to hand, origami, okay that last one might not help, but you get the idea. And keep yourself safe, unless you really want to fight, maybe avoid that dodgy looking alley way, and keep yourself in good fighting shape, train as much as you can, for as long as you can.

We fit martial arts into … wii fit

Fight Fu — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:23:04 +0000

After having a decent crack on the Wii Fit, we wondered how it could benefit a martial artists training. Turns out there’s probably quite a few ways it can. In particular the yoga and balancing, which seem like they could be of real use with helping to find your center of gravity. You get a visual aid of just where your center of gravity is, and have the ability to practice each day to help align it quicker. That might just help you grade a few weeks faster.

Read the full article on Wii fit for martial arts, here.