For five thousand years, China has developed myriad styles of Shaolin kung fu, WuDang internal systems, modern wu shu and sanda. And now? This is how China streamlined their vast array of fighting techniques for modern soldiers?

Damn! Looks a lot like MMA, krav maga, JKD and plain old kick boxing/ grappling.

This raises questions:

Where are the classical horse and bow and arrow stances that characterize Shaolin kung fu forms that Jet Li displays when dispatching attackers?
Where are the tiger claws, snake strikes, crane beaks that characterize deadly kung fu techniques we’ve seen in Shaolin movies?
And where are the deadly internal open hand and cotton palm strikes of taiji, ba gua or xingyi?

Interesting. Bruce Lee predicted that martial arts would evolve into a universal style; that’s why these moves, despite stylistic and biomechanical variations, are similar to karate, tae kwon do, MMA, krav maga, and savate. Notice the incorporation of western boxing, jkd lead straight punch, bent phasic stance and boxing footwork. Although there may be bio-mechanical and stylistic differences, the front, side, round kick, joint locks, trips and throws seem pretty standard.

These Chinese military hand-to-hand techniques are core kick boxing/grappling movements distilled for practical combat. Simple, practical and effective. It works. Absolutely. It is designed for soldiers – not necessarily martial artists – who have to learn to fight fast and effectively. The secret tradition and stylistic purity is overshadowed by modern martial arts. Is traditional kung fu obsolete?

For martial artists whose path goes deeper and goes beyond fighting, this is the core kick boxing/grappling stage that is the foundation of realistic fighting.

But, from the traditional perspective of those on the life long martial path, it is regarded as low level kung fu. Animal techniques and internal open hand moves are too sophisticated and subtle to learn in a short period of time.

Evolving Martial Artists are students of comparative combat. While grounded in real fighting, they are open to exploring advanced strategies and techniques and go beyond by exploring forms, meditation, healing and health, the depth of the martial way as developed by the Shaolin monks and WuDang priests.

Although this is a long video piece, save it and study it over time. It’s a treasure for martial art scholars and those interested in the historical development of fighting.

What do you think?

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