Martial Arts Articles by Kent Fung

Kent Fung - Professionally, I am a freelance writer, concentrating on financial writing. I was previously the business editor at a Boston daily newspaper and previously worked as a freelance political and commercial writer and as a graphics specialist. I have an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Chicago. Much of my spare time is devoted to learning and practicing the martial arts. I have been training, in one style or another, for just about 20 years. This includes intense study in two styles (I hold instructor ranking in one) and dabbling (less than one year instruction) in a handful of others. (Read Biography)

In the old days, the Chinese believed that a trained martial artist should never use his skills, for fighting an untrained opponent is unfair and unethical while fighting a trained warrior will result in one fighter being killed and the survivor being maimed for life.
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Ads extolling the benefits of martial-arts training for your children seem to be ubiquitous. Drive down the street on a lazy weekend afternoon and you'll pass a few generic karate schools with large signs hawking children's classes, while a quick flip through the paper or the yellow pages reveals ads promising that enrolling your kids will instill confidence and self discipline, lead to an improvement in their report cards, and teach them how to defend themselves in an increasingly dangerous world. (Read Article)

A common query of parents considering enrolling their children in a martial arts class is the question of how young a child can begin training. To answer this question, a parent needs to consider a child's mental maturity and physical development, as well as the style of martial art involved. Many parents consider martial arts training to be the same as any other physical activity such as swimming, soccer or Little League. To a certain extent, they are right. But martial training brings with it issues that sports do not. (Read Article)

For years, I had searched for a teacher of the so-called “internal” martial arts – Taiji, Xingyi, and Bagua – who understood that these arts were not just health exercises for hippies, new agers and old people, but potent, practical and effective fighting styles. But every teacher I encountered was only interested in what seemed to be a stylized version of slow-motion yoga or aerobics. (Read Article)

If you've never been exposed to the martial arts, the first thing you'll probably notice when you walk into a martial-arts school for the first time is a bizarre series of rituals, mannerisms, and behaviors. The strange behavior and unfamiliar actions lend the school an exotic, otherworldly atmosphere -- even if the classes are just being taught at the local Y or community college. (Read Article)

Martial arts training is largely a physical activity. In this, it can be compared to any other high-intensity sport. What that means is that martial artists are just as prone to getting hurt as other athletes. Aside from the usual soreness and bruises that can come from any intense physical activity, most injuries in the martial arts are caused by overuse. If you are at a reputable school with a responsible, intelligent instructor, sparring-related injuries - cuts, broken bones, and such - should be virtually non-existent. This is true even in schools where a lot of emphasis is placed on realistic training. So if you train hard, you'll likely develop tendonitis, or sprain an ankle, or pull a muscle, or something like that. (Read Article)

Seeking training in a second (or third or fourth) martial art is not a novel concept. Monks at the legendary Shaolin temple often traded techniques and strategies with each other and with visitors to the temple, and many Baguazhang and Hsing I practitioners complete their training by learning each others’ respective styles. (Read Article)

A prevailing image associated with the martial arts is that of an intense guy in pajamas screaming as he breaks a board, or a brick, or a concrete slab, or something along those lines. There was once even a karate team in Pittsburgh, Pa., that got publicity by volunteering to "demolish" condemned homes with their bare hands. (Read Article)

Many martial arts schools claim that studying their art is a great way to get fit, lose weight, and improve health. In reality, however, the relationship between martial arts and fitness/health is a little more complicated. Using the martial arts to get fit and healthy To be perfectly blunt, if you're a fat slob whose main exercise for the past year or 10 has been opening a bag of chips while operating a TV remote control, then yes, starting a martial art will probably get you much more fit than you are now. But so would any number of other physical activities, such as taking long walks, joining a health club, yoga, hiking, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. (Read Article)

Many readers have written me in response to "The Link Between Martial Arts and Fitness," and not all of you were complimentary. In particular, there were a lot of question about whether fitness means different things to a martial artist and an everyday Joe Schmoe. I've decided to elaborate on the subject here. (Read Article)

A common refrain heard at many McDojo’s is the hyperbolic truism that “Size/Strength doesn’t matter.” Do me a favor. If you ever hear a sensei or sifu telling you this, reach out, smack him real, REAL hard, and walk out the door. Anyone who believes that has clearly never been on the wrong end of an incoming haymaker delivered by a large, beefy biker and thus has little to teach you about dealing with the realities of violence. Which is why you’re at a martial arts school right? Right. (Read Article)

I’m not generally a big fan of this whole blogging phenomenon, but I recently discovered this blog written by a bouncer at two New York City "mega clubs." Inspired by his entertaining and usually intelligent entries, it’s occurred to me that quite a few martial arts students, possibly including some of you reading this, are into the arts to become a “tough guy.” You don’t want to take any sh*t from people, and you want to be the “man” – the guy who goes around enforcing what he thinks is justice, but is in reality his own selfish desires. Possibly you think doing so will garner you a “posse” and a score you a lot of sex with hot girls. (It won't, in case you had to ask.) (Read Article)

I've never portrayed myself as a top-level martial artist or fighter. But I like to believe my skills and competency level are respectable and that I can take care of myself. This belief is rooted in not just the opinions of martial artists that I respect greatly, but also a confidence that comes from having successfully used my skills in real life. (Read Article)

Anyone who's been involved in the martial arts for the past 10 years has heard of Gracie jujitsu ("GJJ"). A Brazilian modification of old-time Japanese jujitsu, the art (also known as Brazilian jujitsu, or "BJJ") is mostly known for its emphasis on systematic groundfighting.
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1. Your husband never wants to see any movie anymore unless it stars Jackie Chan, Jet Li, or Bruce Lee, or was directed by Akiro Kurosawa, or made in Hong Kong. Martial-arts themed movies were probably a big reason your husband decided to start training in the first place, and you might even have enjoyed Jet Li’s “Fist of Legend” the first or second time he made you watch it. But you’ve now seen the ^%$!@% flick 302 times and counting, and you hate that you can now remember all the dialogue, word for word. (Read Article)

Regarding Falun, if you look at their situation, you have to realize that they are at least partly to blame for their troubles in China. There are dozens if not hundreds of styles of qigong in China. Some of them make some pretty astounding and unbelievable claims. I know of one guy who claims he can transmit qi over phone lines and that he had done so for various world leaders including Clinton, for instance. Yet China chose to brand Falun a cult and order it shut down. It was only after these guys started protesting the decree that the imprisonments began. I'm not saying the beatings and jailings are the right thing to do, but why, out of all the qigong schools and esoteric practices in the country, were these guys singled out? (Read Article)

Controversies come and go in the martial arts community, but one topic that can always be relied upon to start a loud argument is the concept of qi, (or ki, if you are studying a Japanese or Korean style.) Qi is variously thought of as a real phenomenon, a trick of the mind used by charlatans, or a mental construct that is useful in helping students understand martial-arts concepts. (Read Article)

Flip open any martial-arts trade magazine, and you’ll find page upon page of ads for merchants selling instructional books and videos. Learn the ancient techniques of the Taoist sages! Let the grand champion Invincible Warrior™ personally show you how you too can be an indestructible force of nature! Just buy this book or video! (Read Article)

When any two serious martial arts enthusiasts meet, the conversation will inevitably turn to these questions: Who do you train with? And who was his teacher? And … well, the questioning will go on ad infinitum until a name pops up that has an unmistakable aura of legend. In a further elaboration, each step of this “family tree” will eventually be examined for the person’s skills as a fighter and how complete his understanding and training in the art was. (Read Article)

I saw a banner the other day proclaiming the existence of a Christian martial arts association and was reminded of the relationship between martial arts and religion. It seems appropriate, with the approach of a major Christian holiday, to examine the ties between these two fields. (Read Article)

Even if you don't live in New York City, you've likely heard by now of an aspiring actress who was shot and killed during a robbery in Manhattan's Lower East Side last Friday. Much has been made of this killing - particularly, I believe, because the victim, Nicole duFresne, was young, pretty and blonde. (But that's another issue altogether.) The killing was a tragedy, and I extend my condolences to Nicole's family and friends. (Read Article)

In fiction, the portrayal of the martial arts and those that study them tends to be have a certain sci-fi plausibility. It's mildly plausible, if you take one tangental scientific fact or theory and mix it with a series of extrapolated possibilities - each one wilder than the next - and believe in a working tractor beam or time travel or a self-aware, intelligent viral computer. Likewise, it's sort of plausible to believe in a martial artist with mystical or near-superhuman powers if you look at the heightened powers of balance, focused power, or concentration that many martial artists develop at the height of their skills - then make a series of fantastical interpolations. (Read Article)

To many old-school Chinese martial artists, an important part of training was (and is) acquiring an understanding of how the human body works – how to destroy it, and conversely, how to fix it and make it stronger. This tradition is philosophically rooted in Taoist duality – if you know how to maim, you should also know how to heal. On a practical level, the golden age of martial arts was purely based on developing real-world fighting skills, and thus extremely hard core. Students were injured all the time, and in an age before health insurance, hospitals, and doctors in white lab coats, a master had to know how to treat injuries and sickness if he wanted any of his students to survive long enough to complete their training. (Read Article)

Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" held the undisputed title for best martial-arts movie of all time for nearly 20 years. But two recent releases have knocked the classic off of my No. 1 spot. The first of these is "Fist of Legend," a Jet Li remake of the Bruce Lee classic "Chinese Connection."
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A fine cinematic rendition of wing chun and its pre-eminent practitioner, February 23, 2009 Modern martial arts films fall into two categories: the fantastical wuxia variety, with its flying swordsmen fighting off whole battalions while emitting chi blasts with their palms, and the more realistic variant that seeks to depict an actual human fighting at the peak of human potential. Ip Man is the latter, and quite probably the finest example of this type of kung fu movie. (Read Review)