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Comment by knodi | Hacker News Reader

As someone who trains in BJJ (grappling), muay thai and boxing. I don't see much utility in spending time learning a skill that has no basis in reality (Kung Fu). I'm not staying that Kung Fu doesn't have techniques that work in a fight, it does like the side-kick (Google Bruce Lee's sidekick) but most of it is for a lack of better word useless in terms of usefulness in a fight. Even Bruce Lee realized that and created his own art because of this realization.

I agree that Kung Fu like all martial arts add discipline to one's life and is a form of meditation which is its greatest gift but in terms of martial use the world has moved on to more lethal arts.

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As someone who trained in kung fu for 20+ years, I don't see much utility in learning to fight when I live in such a safe location and culture. But the strength kung fu gave to my body still serves me well. The experience, as the article mentioned, of your school becoming your community as you all spend your evenings practicing together, was a wonderful one.

Sure, you could kick my ass. I'm OK with that. I've enjoyed a lovely hobby, made good friends, and am satisfied with how I spend my time.

Bruce Lee's sidekick isn't from the Kung Fu he originally studied. It was taught to him by a friend studying Tae Kwon Do.

The idea that Bruce Lee discarded everything from Kung Fu as useless is an oft-repeated misunderstanding.

Many of the concepts from Wing Chun remain in JKD today:

- simultaneous attack and defense (why anyone would not want to do these simultaneously I have no idea)

- occupying the centerline

- forward pressure

- wedging and flowing rather than blocking

- using tactile reflexes as opposed to your eyes

Talk to any modern martial arts practitioner and they will agree that the above concepts are sound. BJJ is all about tactile reflexes, that's why you practice rolling all the time. You can't see what the other guy is doing because you're wrapped up like a pretzel on the mat, but you instinctively know what he's trying to do by how he's shifting his weight.

What he was against was restricting oneself to silly stances and not being able to flow freely. Unfortunately Wing Chun has a lot of that.

even accounting for the various forms of wing chun, how are wing chun stances silly? are there even more than one or two?

I find the adduction stance restricts my movement.

It's not hard to find others who feel the same way, including JKDers.

It may work for you, which is fine. That's the whole idea of JKD - use what is working for you.

By pluralizing stances I was referring to karate as well. Much of Bruce Lee's commentary was actually about how the principles of WC were superior to those of karate - deep stances, kata, etc.

I think comparing Kung Fu to MMA (like many comments here have) is missing the point entirely. Few people who have a genuine dedication to the martial arts do so to become killing machines and, to borrow a parlance, most MMA style martial arts have no basis in reality as fights do not play out like they do on TV.

The virtues of King Fu have been expounded upon elsewhere here, but Kung Fu has been around for as long as it has for very good reasons. People today suddenly aren't better and smarter when it comes to martial arts, they just have new preferences and influences for how they think about it. Doesn't mean older ways are suddenly not valid.

The point of most martial arts is not utility but the practice itself, like meditation which in itself is very passive and non utilitarian in itself but instead gives some sort of clarity afterwards.

One idea behind certain Kung Funstyles is tonallow those who are not as physically adept to still be able to defend themselves. A 70 year old will not be able to throw a Muay Thai roundhouse.

And that response is why most of the skills you mentioned are not arts. They require some memorization but little mental effort. That is why boxers are paid more than MMA fighters there is less technique needed than artistic skill. Martial Arts are more focused on being a path for the whole of a person to interact with their world. And not simply to beat the piss out of it.

Do you think Judo is a martial art?

yes. but on the deeper scale that kung fu, akido, and others even tkd focus on the aspect of self and spirituality to a certain extent.

I'm confused. What are you saying requires memorization but "little mental effort"?

edit: BJJ tends to be the most creative and intellectual thing I do on a given day. I'm a software engineer

beating the sh!t out of people does not make you a martial artist just like using Stack Overflow doesn't make you an engineer.

I don't see much utility in spending time learning a skill that has no basis in reality (Kung Fu).

As judged from events on TV and random videos uploaded by BJJ practitioners to YouTube?

Using sarcasm is one thing, but why not follow it up with points to counter his/her argument? How about giving examples of where it can be useful in real life?

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