Official IWS Traditional Martial Arts Thread

[SPX]

Watched the second one last night. I didn't like it near as much as the first one, there seemed to be alot more fighting just for the sake of fighting and traditional martial arts movie-esque acrobatics in it. It honestly reminded Me of Jet Li's Fearless.

I still haven't seen the second. I should give it a watch.

But it's interesting that you brought up Fearless, because that's how I felt about the first one. But not a bad thing, in my opinion, because Fearless was fucking awesome.

[Ludo]

I still haven't seen the second. I should give it a watch.

But it's interesting that you brought up Fearless, because that's how I felt about the first one. But not a bad thing, in my opinion, because Fearless was fucking awesome.

I liked Fearless but the first Ip Man seemed like a different kind of martial arts movie. It had the element of "unreal" but it stayed within cognitive reality if that makes sense. There was nobody flying through the air bicycle kicking or performing feats that challenge gravity and physics in the first one. Watch the second one and you'll see why I compared it to Fearless.

[SPX]

Went and checked out a TKD class tonight. I think I might try to do it along with wado.

[SPX]

Billy Blanks getting knocked out. . .

[Mr. IWS]

^^^^^LOL, he looked terrified right before he got frozen.

[SPX]

BOL. I've actually heard that he was quite the tournament fighter back in the day. Can't find any other vids, though. . .

[Ludo]

I didn't even know Blank was a legit martial artist, I thought he just created that persona to help sell those workout videos.

[MMA_scientist]

TKD is an amalgamation of about 9 or so martial arts schools that opened up in Korea following liberation in 1945 from Japanese occupation. During the occupation, the only martial arts allowed were karate, judo, and kendo. So yes, these nine schools that opened up were basically karate, which the founders of those schools picked up at universities.

About 10 years or so following the liberation, the Korean government felt a need to re-establish a "national Korean identity", so they did away with everything Japanese, including an attempt to merge the nine schools under the name "TKD". That's why sometimes these days you will see "Chang Moo Kwan TKD" or "Moo Duk Kwan TKD", these schools giving a shoutout to whichever lineage they spring from.

"Tang Soo Do" in Korean means the same thing as "Karate", but these days usually refers to the line of schools descending from the Moo Duk Kwan. The forms in this system are Anko Itosu's Heian/Pinan sets, as well as Bassai, Kusanku, Tekki, Lohai, etc, just given Koreanized names (Pyung Ahn, Bassai, Kong Sang Koon, Nai Han Chi, Rohai).

"Korean Karate" is a term popularized by servicemen and Koreans who came over to the US to spread korean martial arts. Since most of today's korean MAs (TKD, Tang Soo Do, Kuk Sul Won, Hwarangdo, etc) all stem from karate, this would be an accurate term.

None of today's modern Korean MA have a direct lineage to the Silla Dynasty, or the Hwarang, or ancient Korea in general. That is all bullshit propaganda to try and give korean MA's some sort of historical cred, which is stupid because take a look at their forms and you can see where exactly they hail from.

The only true Korean MAs these days are taekkyun and ssireum. Anyone who tells you otherwise is full of shit.

Agree?

Taken from this thread:

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f12/purple-belts-does-annoy-you-little-laymen-dont-take-you-seriously-1970153/index10.html

Starts out about the general gayness of the color purple, but devolves into a TMA history and comparison. Thought you might find it interesting. Pretty good thread

[Svino]

I didn't even know Blank was a legit martial artist, I thought he just created that persona to help sell those workout videos.

[Ludo]

He's wrong on several points. Tang Soo Do doesn't mean "karate" it's a korean translation on chinese wording that means "china hand way" and the Tang is referring to a particular dynasty in china. He is correct that it holds roots in many other arts and that the term had become a generic term for martial arts in general. But it was five schools, not nine, that opened toward the end of the japanese occupation.

I also found it a bit comical that the guy's handle is "eternalrag3" when one of the three main principles of tang soo do has to do with graceful motion.

[Ludo]

Too bad he didn't do that neck exercize from 2:45 in on that one fateful night...

[SPX]

I didn't even know Blank was a legit martial artist, I thought he just created that persona to help sell those workout videos.

No, he was the real deal for sure. He just saw an opportunity to make a shitload of money and capitalized, which I don't blame him for. Tae Bo has helped a lot of people get in shape anyway.

I posted this on Sherdog and this is what one guy said in response:

"He and his Brother both won just about everything in the US there was to win. I used to have an old VHS HL video that featured him, and in it he leveled a guy with the same kick he got leveled with there, ironically enough.

He also boxed as an Amateur. If Blanks had continued fighting as a Profession, he would have been very similar to someone like Pete Spratt, or Dewey Cooper, someone who would fight under any rule-set and not care.

And there were rumors that he and Jet Li fought on a movie set, rumors that came out of Hong Kong's stunt circles, which aren't known for lying, just that the two of them didn't get along at all and got into a bit of a scrap."

Did you ever see any of his movies?

[SPX]

Agree?

Taken from this thread:

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f12/purple-belts-does-annoy-you-little-laymen-dont-take-you-seriously-1970153/index10.html

Starts out about the general gayness of the color purple, but devolves into a TMA history and comparison. Thought you might find it interesting. Pretty good thread

Wow, Scientist, for some reason I'm surprised you even had enough interest to actually post this.

Anyway, the history of TKD is quite complicated and rife with politics and I don't pretend to understand it all. The World Taekwondo Federation (which governs Olympic-style TKD) has an official story about how modern-day TKD is a direct descendant of Korean martial arts that are 2,000 years old. TKDists who actually know anything though agree that while TKD may have been influenced by these styles, it is most directly a descendant of Shotokan karate. Early TKD film clips show something that is very similar to Shotokan and even today ITF TKD is quite similar. (WTF TKD has traveled quite far away from its roots, though.)

But as the poster you quoted mentions, yeah, it was the Korean's hatred for the Japanese that caused them to want to disavow all ties to karate.

Here's a thread where a guy goes off about it, calling Koreans liars and thieves:

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?100755-curious

[SPX]

Fucking BOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Repped.

[Svino]

Too bad he didn't do that neck exercize from 2:45 in on that one fateful night...

Challenge his martial arts cred all you want, but you can't say the dude didn't know to apply a choke.