By: Antonio Graceffo
Karate, Judo, Arnis, Tae Kwan Do, Muay Thai, Bokator, Kuntaw, Lai Tai… the list of Asian martial arts goes on and on.
Karate, Judo, Arnis, Tae Kwan Do, Muay Thai, Bokator, Kuntaw, Lai Tai… the list of Asian martial arts goes on and on. Even for seasoned martial artists, the question always comes up, “How is Jeet Kun Do different from Ssireum?” Basically, “How is this one different from that one?”
For someone unfamiliar with the arts, or maybe just trying to pick one to study, the myriad of choices may seem infinite. This article will attempt, in as few words as possible, to explain the differences between the many martial arts. Asian martial arts have a history of more than 2,000 years, with the Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu generally being recognised as the oldest art form. In the fifth century, when the Indian Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma (Da Mo in Chinese) brought Kung Fu to the Shaolin Temple, in Henan, China, the modern myth and legend of martial arts was born. The Shaolin Temple and their brand of Kung Fu are often seen as the predecessors of modern martial arts. Nearly every country in Asia has at least one type of traditional martial art, with wrestling being the single most universal fighting form on the planet.
Here is a list of some of the more prominent martial arts in the region:
Cambodia
Bradal Serey is a kickboxing art, similar to Muay Thai. It includes punches and kicks, done with the shins, knee and elbow strikes, and stand up grappling. Bradal Serey is a professional sport, the most watched sport in Cambodia. Fights are held every weekend, in a boxing ring. Competitors wear gloves and fight five, two-minute rounds.
In Jap Bap Boran Khmer (Khmer wrestling), wrestling bouts are held in villages on certain Buddhist festival days. A national championship is held in Phnom Penh once each year. The goal is to throw the opponent on his back. If he lands on his belly, there is a restart. Competitors wear traditional Khmer trousers, and dance to Khmer music while fighting
Bokator is a traditional Cambodian art, which includes both wrestling and kickboxing. It also has animal styles and weapons. Bokator claims to have over 1,000 movements. Practitioners earn coloured Krama, like belts in other martial arts. They don’t fight for money, but compete for medals in the national championships in Phnom Penh.
Philippines
Arnis can be called by other names, such as Escrima, Dos Palos and many others. The art is closely related to Filipino Kali, which is different from Kali practiced in Malaysia and Indonesia. Arnis is generally defined as Filipino stick fighting.
The practitioners have one stick in each hand. They strike and block, and move, never allowing the two sticks to move in the same direction at the same time. So, one stick may strike the head, while the other strikes the thigh. Generally students start out with sticks.
Next, depending on the teacher, as there are many variations, they will learn to incorporate two knives in the fight. At the highest level, they will fight barehanded. The beauty of Arnis is that there is only one set of identical moves. You do the same moves with the sticks that you do with blades and then with bare hands.
Because Chinese martial arts, especially Kung Fu, have so thoroughly dominated moves from “Kill Bill” to “The Matrix” to “Charlie’s Angels”, the producers of the Jason Bourne movies were seeking a new, more interesting martial art for Bourne to use. They chose Arnis. And in most of the fight scenes, Matt Damon uses the unarmed techniques of Arnis, which include a lot of figure eights and circles of the arms.
Yaw Yan is Filipino kickboxing, similar to Muay Thai but with kicks and grappling borrowed from not only Thai, but also Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino martial arts. Hybrid Yaw Yan is Filipino MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), which includes traditional Yaw Yan and adds ground fighting, which is a mix of wrestling, Brazilian Jiujitsu and Russian Sambo.
Vietnam
Set to the south of China, Vietnam has a culture much closer to the Asian giant than to its
neighbours, Cambodia and Laos. The Vietnamese practice a brand of Shaolin Kung Fu, called Thieu Lam, which is just the Vietnamese transliteration of the Chinese characters for Kung Fu.
In some villages you will find traditional wrestling and a few traditional stick fighting or empty hand martial arts, but they are nearly extinct now. The national martial art of Vietnam, which is flourishing, is called Vo Vienam. It is also sometimes called Viet Tu Do. Vo means fighting in Vietnamese, Vovinam is “Vietnamese Fighting”. Although, there have been martial arts in Vietnam almost as long as in China, they weren’t codified, complete systems of martial arts. Vietnam did, however, hold annual martial arts exams, which qualified people for promotions in the military or government service.
This tradition continued into the 20th century when the French more or less put a stop to it. The codified martial art of Vovinam is a synthetic martial art, invented in the 1920s. It has test and belts. The art is a mix of Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian martial arts.
Vietnam
Set to the south of China, Vietnam has a culture much closer to the Asian giant than to its
neighbours, Cambodia and Laos. The Vietnamese practice a brand of Shaolin Kung Fu, called Thieu Lam, which is just the Vietnamese transliteration of the Chinese characters for Kung Fu.
In some villages you will find traditional wrestling and a few traditional stick fighting or empty hand martial arts, but they are nearly extinct now. The national martial art of Vietnam, which is flourishing, is called Vo Vienam. It is also sometimes called Viet Tu Do. Vo means fighting in Vietnamese, Vovinam is “Vietnamese Fighting”. Although, there have been martial arts in Vietnam almost as long as in China, they weren’t codified, complete systems of martial arts. Vietnam did, however, hold annual martial arts exams, which qualified people for promotions in the military or government service.
This tradition continued into the 20th century when the French more or less put a stop to it. The codified martial art of Vovinam is a synthetic martial art, invented in the 1920s. It has test and belts. The art is a mix of Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian martial arts.
Japan
Japan has a very large number of traditional martial arts.
Judo is a wrestling art. In the old days it was one of the most deadly fighting forms on the planet. Today, the art has been watered down to be a competitive sport, which is included in the Olympics.
Karate is an art which uses kicking and striking. Karate generally belongs to a group of martial arts called external martial arts. Compared to Chinese martial arts, the generally held belief is that karate is more direct and more force-on-force than Chinese martial arts, such as Tai Chi, which redirect the attacker’s force. There are numerous styles of Karate with vast differences between them.
Jujitsu is a Japanese martial art, which contains both elements of Karate and Judo. It has grappling and throwing movements, as well as kicks and punches. (The most common form of Jujitsu practiced today is Brazilian Jujitsu (BJJ), which is nearly exclusively a grappling art, designed to choke or submit an opponent, while the practitioner fights from his back.In other words, laying on your back you may be in the dominant orwinning position.)
Ninja-Do or Ninjitsu is a semi-mythical martial art. Ninjas were assassins in ancient Japan. There may be no singular, codified martial art here. It is likely that they practiced a variety of martial arts, if not every known martial art, particularly weapons forms, focusing on stealth and the ability to get into a heavily guarded compound and kill a specific person.
Korea
Tae Kwon Do is the national martial art of Korea. The art relies almost exclusively on high fast kicks. The competitions are based on point sparring. The fighters wear headgear and body armour. They achieve points only for kicks to the chest, midsection or head. After each point, they are re-set and start fighting again.
Hapkido is a Korean martial art which includes some of the kicks from Tae Kwan Do but which
focuses on stand-up grappling, joint locks and manipulations. Hapkido is an excellent martial art for bouncers, police officers, or celebrity bodyguards because it allows them to subdue an assailant without hurting him.
Israel
Krav Maga is a complete fighting system, which includes kicks, punches, strikes, grappling, chokes and submissions. Krav Maga is a modern fighting form invented for Israeli commandos. At higher levels, students learn knife and gun defences but even tactical shooting and knife fighting can be part of advanced Krav Maga courses. Krav Maga is very similar to MMA in that it borrows from nearly every effective martial art in the world, but it focuses on quickly killing or subduing your opponent, even ripping out his throat or eyes. The art was not designed for the ring, but for the battlefield.
Uzbekistan
Kurash is a form of upright jacket wrestling native to Uzbekistan, practiced since ancient times. It is a Turkic wrestling art, related to the Turkish yaýlı güreş and the Tatar Köräş. It is an event in the Asian Games. There is an effort to include Kurash in theOlympic Games.
This Central Asian sport was developed thousands of years ago as a form of training for fighting, for both self-defence and war. This is reflected in the rules, where clothing is required which mimics armour or battle-garb, and where grips on the trousers and ground fighting are banned, since bending over low or going to the ground make a fighter vulnerable to weapon thrusts. The emphasis on standing fighting develops strong balance and quick footwork, which help greatly when fighting with weapons.
