So Im kinda curious. For those of you who train for fighting ability, what is your art's attack strategy and fighting principles?

For Feeding Crane, our attack strategy is basically use explosive short movements to neutralize an attacker, mostly going for limbs. (Note Im still rather new to this styles)

Trained Wing Chun for a while then left in pursuit of boxing and wrestling. Over the years I always found myself going back to It. Wing Chun is simply fascinating. It's ingenious, I have this intimate relationship with it. The concepts and principles are ahead of its time. It does have limitations most notably within its defence, counter-blocking measures, distance control but it's actually really practical and ideal for self-defence. Wing Chun is at its best when it's used in conjunction with other arts and styles. A tool, supplement, a means to an end if you will. The one thing it's severely lacking is conditioning. Students are as soft as butter. If you train Wing Chun make sure you condition your body. My second instructor was a former Muay Thai expert and he would incorporate the drills in our training to toughen us up. This helped and improved our overall skills immensely. My instructor said and I quote. "If a Wing Chun man adopts the mindset of a Thai boxer, you have a dangerous Wing Chun man."

Hi - this might be unusual, but I genuinely love and have a deep respect for Kung Fu. As a Goju Ryu practitioner, my dojo seems to place a very large emphasis on concepts that appear in Chinese martial arts:

For example, my dojo explicitly teaches:
-6 harmonies
-sanchin/sanzhan concepts
-bubishi is constantly referenced
-vital points from bubishi
-Chinese element destructive cycle
-sink, swallow, spit, float
-body hardening (kote kitae) training
-moving as “one unit” through the dantien
-“whip” like power from tendons/fascia usage
-qigong

I used to train in world Oyama karate, and NONE of these concepts were ever touched on.
My sensei often mentioned that Goju Ryu is “more Chinese” than other karate styles, and I’m aware that karate is not a monolith.

Basically -what I’m asking is, are these concepts above found in Chinese martial arts (I’m certain they are)? If so, where? I’m curious about diving more into this Chinese connection - I’ve read and watched several documentaries/videos about White Crane, I’ve watched Jesse Enkamps videos, I just want to explore more!

I’m aware of the “Hakka” martial traditions, and that southern Kung fu seems to have more of that connection I’m looking for.

Stories, explanations, anecdotes from kung fu practitioners, books or videos to watch…please advise me on where I should take my reading to next.

Thank you very much in advance- Onegaishimasu!

I've been practising martial arts since 1999, and one thing I've noticed is that Kung Fu can be surprisingly difficult to understand from the outside.

What does Kung Fu actually involve? What's the difference between the styles? What do you practise in a typical class? And do you need to be young, flexible, or already fit to begin?

I put together a short series called So, What Is Kung Fu? to explore these questions.

It's aimed at curious adults who want to understand Chinese martial arts without having to dig through hours of videos or navigate all the myths and stereotypes first.

The series covers everything from styles, stances, and forms to what training actually looks like and whether you can learn at home.

I have a background in traditional Chinese martial arts, sports psychology, and competitive fighting, so I approach the subject from both a practical and an educational perspective.

The series is free to watch: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWLahbNSvfpo

Hope it will offer you a good starting point to understand kung fu/Chinese martial arts! :)

Noticed these videos on my library. Thought I share it here.

Quick origin & history

Shuai Jiao is China’s traditional wrestling art, with thousands of years of history. Ancient names include Jiao Li (角力).
It was practiced in royal military training, festivals and competitions. Modern competitive Shuai Jiao was standardized in the 20th century.

Core rules & what it focuses on

Shuai Jiao’s main goal: throw your opponent to the ground.

• Victory condition: Make the opponent land with any part of their back or hips touching the mat.

• Unlike judo: More emphasis on standing throws; less ground fighting (ground grappling is limited, match usually stops once someone falls).

• Wrestlers wear a thick, heavy cotton jacket called a da lian 褡裢 (dā lián). You grip this jacket to execute throws.

• Lots of leg trips, hooks, pulling and pushing throws.

Style branches

1. Beijing Shuai Jiao (北京摔跤) – most famous competition style, fast, explosive.

2. Inner Mongolian Bokh / Mongolian Shuai Jiao (蒙古摔跤) – separate but related traditional variant.

3. Shanxi & Tianjin regional styles with slightly different throw techniques.

Not the most popular form since the stereotype is that somebody who should be doing this type needs to be (big and strong), and it’s mainly popular on northern China.

MMA fighters from China will train in Sanda which borrows steals takes (whatever you want to call it) techniques from Shuāi jiāo.

This short glimpse features drone footage from the in-depth lessons on the rare Hebei Xingyi Quan Ba Zi Gong (Eight Word Skills Practices), available through the Hua Jin Online Learning Program.

Detailed technical teaching is at the heart of every lesson. Alongside explanations, demonstrations and close-up views, I use a variety of filming methods and visual tools to help learners understand the practices more clearly aand more deeply.

An aerial perspective offers another way to see the movements, changes of direction and relationships between individual actions, complementing the detailed instruction in the full lessons.

Learn authentic Xingyi Quan and Liang-style Bagua Zhang with Byron Jacobs, a disciple of Di Guoyong, from anywhere in the world.

Explore the lessons and enrol in the Hua Jin Online Learning Program:
https://www.patreon.com/mushinmartialculture

Discover more:
https://www.mushinmartialculture.com

This is from a Wing Chun comp in St. Petersburg. Not sure if this has been posted here before.

Is this legit? I see they're thrown off balance constantly and stuff but tbh I feel like it's acceptable in this scenario because they're fighting and using short range at long (boxing) range.

Does anyone know a place to learn Tan Tui in the San Francisco Bay area? Ideally the East bay (Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond)

Estuvo bueno (no fui),lo vi en vivo por YouTube.

Fue mi profe a competir y gano 2 en puño y primero en sable,si escucharon "nehuen villar",ese es mi profesor de kung fu ヽ(≧∀≦)ﾉ

Hello, how is everyone?

Im a 23 year old blue belt kung fu student who's been practicing kung fu for 13 years. The school that I go to was established by the master and founder of the Armenian Black Belts Association in Lebanon, and the representative of Artsakh in Lebanon, Master Garo Kebabjian.

I wanted to know if anyone here practice what I practice or is it only Wushu Kung Fu?

Has anyone else here read it? I found it rather facinating. Some seem pretty standard as conditioning practices, but some just sound rather bizarr.

Do any of you practice any of the methods listed in the book? If so, which ones, and have you seen any positive results?

Im currently attempting the rubbing palms or "the hands of the golden dragon" training. Im pretty skeptical of the outlandish claims, but overall it seems a good way to train crushing force. Im still pretty early in this practice.

Im pretty interested in fun and interesting conditioning methods that would be a good suppliment to my training.

I love Feiyue, but I find the rubber on the bottom wears out too quickly for daily street wear.

Any recommendations for daily shoes?

Any recommendations on YouTube channels or websites I can use to improve my kung fu please!

Qinna (擒拿) is a Chinese martial arts skill set, often translated as seizing and controlling, or simply joint locks & grappling.

It focuses on:

• Grabbing, twisting, and controlling an opponent’s joints (wrist, elbow, shoulder etc.)
• Using leverage to immobilize, subdue or disable someone without necessarily striking hard
• It is a core part of traditional Chinese fighting systems like Sanda, Kung Fu, police combat training

Note: Qinna includes joint locks, tendon grabs, pressure point controls, and pain compliance techniques. It is not just wrestling; it emphasizes capturing and restraining the attacker.Qinna (擒拿) is a Chinese martial arts skill set, often translated as seizing and controlling, or simply joint locks & grappling.It focuses on:Grabbing, twisting, and controlling an opponent’s joints (wrist, elbow, shoulder etc.)
Using leverage to immobilize, subdue or disable someone without necessarily striking hard
It is a core part of traditional Chinese fighting systems like Sanda, Kung Fu, police combat training

Note: Qinna includes joint locks, tendon grabs, pressure point controls, and pain compliance techniques. It is not just wrestling; it emphasizes capturing and restraining the attacker.

If anyone is interested is watching this once ot releases.

https://www.sfmolum.com

I think we need something like this. A detailed document on the many different styles of Chinese martial arts, what their differences are (and similarities), their conditioning practices, and their combat stategies, and posdibly the histories of said styles.

Granted, this would be a crazy undertaking, but a man can dream.

Now it would not have to be a how to guide for each style, but more a way of summarizing what these arts are all about, and being a streightforward explaination of each art.

Granted the one doing this would have to be someone with no biases or agendas to get this to work.

Does a book like this already exist? Im genuinly curious.