Kung fu fighting and self Defense Tactics

Learning Mixed Martial Arts is popular. However, Kung Fu especially Northern Shaolin is the original Mixed Martial Art. Mixed Martial Arts is based on combining Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Greco-Roman Wrestling and Western boxing. Mixed Martial Arts or MMA goes beyond kickboxing and includes throws, takedowns, submission holds, and joint locks.

In Japan martial skills were separated into specific arts, one for each category. Thus Judo and Juijitsu really focused on throwing and joint locking respectively. In Europe they were separated into different sports thus boxing focuses on punching, and wrestling focuses on grappling on the ground.

Traditional Kung Fu especially Northern Shaolin contains all of of these skills. When you study Northern Shaolin you don’t need to study other arts and mix. Northern Shaolin has many striking techniques that go beyond punching and kicking. Northern Shaolin also contains throws, sweeps, takedowns, joint locks, and breaks. Northern Shaolin is designed to survive on the battlefield and contains many, many lethal techniques that are far too dangerous for a sporting event such as MMA.

MMA fighters are very tough and skillful. However, in a real street fight you are usually outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1. If you take someone down and wrestle on the ground with them, the others stomp on you and kick you in the head. When they kick you in the head they tend to shatter the occipital bone on the outer edge of the eye and the eye pops out. One of my teachers has seen this happen twice. Yuck!! This is why Kung Fu fighters avoid going to ground and when they do, they cover up, roll, attack their opponents legs, and stand up quickly.

In real self-defense you don’t get to spar around for awhile. You need to hurt the first attacker badly as soon as possible and then finish off the others or create an opening to run away as quickly as possible. It is not about winning but about survival. This is what arts like Northern Shaolin and Lan Shou are designed for.

Northern Shaolin and Lan Shou have survived as precious treasures for hundreds of years because they work. If they didn’t work their practitioners would have died off long ago. When you read Chinese history you will see how serious times were. Even in the last 100 years, China has been filled with virtually non stop fighting. These arts were the stealth bomber technology of their time and they were jealously protected!