July 31, 2023
In the wake of Michelle Lin & Quentin Lopes chat with Gene Ching about their new "Barehand vs Staff Sequence", Staff Writer Gene Ching explores the legacy of two-person training sequences in the Chinese martial arts.
July 17, 2023
The new China had turned its back on the glorious past. But the martial arts were a part of that past that could not easily be destroyed.
July 25, 2022
There are countless kung fu forms across innumerable schools and lineages, but sometimes different schools share the same form. While reviewing the Shaolin Long Fist Kung Fu Complete Collection, YMAA Staff Writer Gene Ching discovered some overlapping forms between his Northern Shaolin tradition and YMAA’s curriculum and discusses the shared roots and divergences.
April 18, 2022
This is Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming's official YMAA External Arts Curriculum, which outlines his recommended order of study for Kung Fu students.
February 11, 2021
Needle Through Brick is a documentary that poses these questions by taking an intimate look at some surviving traditional Kung Fu and Tai Chi masters of Malaysian Borneo, particularly Sarawak and Sibu. There’s a large Chinese population here, a diaspora of masters who fled the Japanese occupation and the communists. Needle Through Brick presents insightful interviews of Borneo’s unique elder masters as the precious disciplines that they have dedicated their lives to face extinction.
I am always careful to remind my students that the practice of traditional taekwondo is not easy. I tell them that if it were, everyone would train. And it is not difficult to see why.
O treino na Ymaa Portugal aborda três áreas distintas, formando classes com características peculiares e uma entidade distinta.
Bij YMAA België worden er drie stijlen gevechtskunsten beoefend: Shaolin zuidelijke Witte Kraanvogel (Baihequan of Bai He Chuan), Shaolin Lange Vuist (Changquan of Chang Chuan) en Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan). Het zijn alle drie traditionele stijlen die al honderden jaren bestaan.
Grandmaster Nam is an exceptional instructor, nimbly moving from one component of the taekwondo curriculum to the next. From basic movements he continues on with one-step sparring drills, fourteen in all, ranging from axe kick/round kick combinations to spread block/double upper cut in twist stance techniques
In what to me represents the epitome of Korean hospitality, our group is invited to the headquarters of the Korean National Tourism Organization in downtown Seoul, for an official welcoming ceremony
Traditional taekwondo philosophy teaches us to cultivate, among other things, courage, perseverance and indomitable will. Clearly, these virtues go hand in hand with transforming dreams into reality.
Training does have to be adjusted and changed for modern day, but the principles and essence should remain the same. We are constantly striving to preserve the teachings of our masters, and we should be very cautious when to modify them.
The Jian (Cantonese: gim), a narrow-blade, double-edged sword, has been respected as the “King of Short Weapons” in China for millennia. Wielding the Jian requires the highest of skill, and the sword user must strive to the heights of spirit and morality.
There has been a clear and obvious downward shift in the average skill level of students, and even masters, of today compared to the masters and students of old.
In ancient times, many students would unconditionally sacrifice their lives to their training and beg masters to take them, often striving to prove themselves worthy for many weeks, months or years before they were accepted.
My Long Fist grandmaster, Grandmaster Li, Mao-Ching, spent 23 years and 1 month in the Chinese military during harsh wartime conditions while he trained everyday, under Great Grandmaster Han, Chin-Tang, one of the foremost traditional martial artists and graduates of the Nanjing Central Guoshu Institute
It was sad enough that NBC did not cover the Taekwondo at the Olympics, and that the Lopez family did not sweep the gold, but what is worse is the unsportsmanlike actions of Cuban Angel Matos and his coach Leudis Gonzalez.
Martial art training is complex and significant and can be important to people for various reasons. I believe that it’s important, however, for everyone to be very clear as to what the reasons are for training.
Over the years I have seen many people train many times a week on regular basis, yet make very little progress in their martial arts ability. They spend a lot of time practicing their sequences, yet after many months of practicing their sequences they have made very little progress.
Taekwondo made its debut as an official full-medal sport in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, where 103 athletes from 51 countries participated. In 2004 the competition was held in Athens, Greece.
Any successful martial arts school can be enhanced through the development of a children’s program.
Any successful martial arts school can be enhanced through the development of a children’s program.
Traditional martial arts is not supposed to be glamorous, and conditioning is not a very glamorous process, being a very repetitive and monotonous type of exercise requiring many years of training.
Traditional martial arts is not supposed to be glamorous, and conditioning is not a very glamorous process, being a very repetitive and monotonous type of exercise requiring many years of training.
Through many years of history, experience, and practice, martial artists realized that in a fight, there are generally three factors that determine victory.