existentialcrisis said:
What are your thoughts on karate vs kung fu? If it were a choice between them, which would you recommend doing?
Now THAT is a difficult question to answer, Brother.
Not gonna say 'impossible' but I'll try to compare the two and give you my thoughts.
I'll start with Karate for the sake of the explanation.
As you may know, Karate, although technically 'created' in Okinawa, is actually the Japanese version of martial arts from China, imported by travelling monks and taught to farmers to defend themselves against thieves and marauders.
The Japanese took the arm related techniques (fists, blocks, elbow strikes mostly) and called it 'Karate' (meaning "empty hand").
The kicks of Karate don't come from Japan, but from France. When France passed a law that forbade people from carrying swords for self defence (as this resulted in a lot of murders on the streets), sailors and seamen thought about something else to try and defend themselves. Fencing was made with swords, but they couldn't carrying swords, so they invented "fencing with feet (with hard shoes)" and called it 'Savate' (which means 'shoe').
Word is, French kicks were somehow imported in Japan and added to the hand techniques of Karate, and thusly modern "Karate" was born.
Karate is pretty static for a martial art, it has simple, stoic stances, and a strong grounding, so it's usually strongly recommended for people who are either bulkier, heavier, or simply prefer to avoid anything overly complicated. It's probably the most simplified martial art, focusing on aesthetics as well as combat, and focuses a lot on ending a fight in the shortest amount of moves, developing a lot of body strength and resistance to pain.
Plus, the "blocks" in Karate, called 'uke', are more than just blocks. 'Uke' means 'to receive' and the techniques that look like blocks are actually 'strikes' (that block attacks) or 'intercepting strikes' which are meant to deviate enemy fists and kicks by reinforcing the wrists.
To put this shortly, Karate is "badass" and values strength probably as much as technique. People who practice Karate usually tend to misunderstand it and only embrace the idea that it's a striking martial art, they disregard real training on the blocks (common mistake) and in combat/sparring they often feel so limited in the use of hand techniques that they resort to only kicking, turning 'Karate' into Savate or Taekwondo (Korean martial art meaning "way of the fist and the foot", although practitioners, like in Karate, also tend to forget about hand techniques and flair their arms around while they only kick).
In my opinion a true karateka is a VERY fierce and dangerous opponent, lacking nothing in terms of combat if not mental preparation (a dojo prepares you physically, but your mind in a stressful situation where you actually face danger, can fuck up your entire training and make you forget you ever learned Karate).
As for kung fu....
When you say "kung fu" you're actually talking about something like a 100 different styles (at least, books report 108 but some are just very similar), so there is a LOT of variety.
I'll cut to the chase and say right away that your ideal kung fu style will depend on the kind of person you are, not just physically (bulky or light on your feet, thin or muscular, tall or short) but also on how you fare mentally (shy or outgoing, extrovert or introvert, kind and gentle or opportunistic and fierce, simple minded or creative).
For example, if you choose for yourself an animal style like the Tiger, you should be ideally stronger than the average person, but also aggressive, never shy, not too creative, sturdy and heavier than your opponent.
While if you choose something like Snake style or Mantis style, you should be ideally light on your feet, strong in a flexible way, not very heavy and bulky, and very creative and opportunistic, as these styles are meant to surprise, feign, strike when least expected, and dodge with higher agility than something like Tiger style.
In that regard, kung fu offers a LOT of choice, but the downside of this is that you may not know yourself very well yet, and choose a style that cannot maximize your potential, OR you may be simply more attracted to something harder to master and fancy looking and choose that instead of a style that could actually teach you how to efficiently defend yourself in combat making good use of what makes you 'you'.
Needless to say, martial arts (real ones, not modern watered down bullshit) require you to know yourself a lot before you can efficiently state that you mastered a style. Sparring in a dojo is a good start to get the grip on how it feels to fight someone (of course in a dojo the danger factor is very low and your sensei/sifu/instructor will stop a fight that gets out of hand), but you'll need to mentally prepare yourself to enter the mindset of someone who actually *is* in a fight.
Meditation here helps a lot in my opinion:
you could visualize an ideal enemy, either someone you know that would deserve a beating, or anyone that you can make up, as long as it feels real in your mind. The goal here is to train your mind to cope with stress, so the scarier and stronger you make your mental opponent, the more stress you'll feel.
If you ever heard of Shadow Boxing, this is basically it, but next level.
In Shadow Boxing you physically train against an opponent that you visualize. He's not there but you imagine him trying to hit you, you dodge, sway, evade and punch and kick him. It's quite the remarkable training and can make you very tired, but it's worth it as your body will learn the muscle memory needed to stay out your enemy's way (this won't be 100% efficient but it'll be pretty good exercise, only real combat can ultimately teach you how to fight).
This is the physical part..
The mental 'shadow boxing' is harder as it necessitates you to find a good opponent and he must be *scary*.
Not gonna lie, mate.. fighting can be scary, especially if you never fought anyone before, or if you haven't fought for a while and you're caught by surprise. The stress escalates quickly and your body listens to your primal brain, telling it 'prepare to fight or die'. It's a pretty unpleasant feel, but you get used to it with time. The important thing, also, is to focus on your breathing.
Karate notoriously advertises using breathing control to enhance technique power, but the real deal here is that
breath is the tool that removes fear of your enemy.
I can't stress this enough: when you enter a fight, even if it's just someone calling you names, raising his voice, trying to look bigger, red in the face, angry, staring at you, displaying hostile body language... your body will immediately tense up and harden. Your blood vessel will contract, making your skin more pale. This is a natural defence mechanism as the paler you are, the less likely you are to bleed if cut or injured. Someone might call you 'scared' because you look pale as a ghost or something, but this is actually good news for you. The dangerous fighter isn't the one red in the face, but the pale one, AS LONG as he breathes and controls his fear level.
Combat paralysis has been known to make martial art masters forger they ever learned martial arts. As we all know here, fear is a powerful tool, and it should be dealt with before it becomes a future problem. There's nothing unmanly or wrong in being scared, but letting the fear win over your mind is a mistake.
_______________________________
Lately, I've been doing a lot of training in martial arts, even got more fit and stronger than I was without doing any gym or weight lifting, so as my body changed I pondered what style I should rely on more.
Karate or Kung fu?
When you're physically stronger and bulkier you may not be at your peak in agility (to say the least), so fancy Kung fu moves and footing may not be the greatest choice here. In that regard, I prefer to use Karate stances, sturdier and more grounded.
BUT... I also know Kung fu, and can't disregard moves that I know to work and that easily maximize my power. For example, I know 7 Star Mantis style (Tanglangquan) and while I'm not even considering the most acrobatic stuff or the lowest stances, I know that some techniques can be well translated into Karate. Mantis style uses a lot of speedy hand techniques that allow you to block or capture your opponent's limbs (like a fist), so I can use that to avoid a punch and retaliate before the opponent can throw a second.
If you learn some Wing Chun (I made another post on this some time ago, you're welcome to check it out) you'll see that, unlike many other martial arts, blocking and attacking is done at the same time, meaning your fist will land on your enemy while your other arm blocks. Can this be translated into Karate or Mantis techniques? Yes? Perfect. Use them.
When people say "MMA", Mixed Martial Arts, I personally call that 'bullshit for a stage'. When I encourage you to 'mix martial arts', I mean.. take the style you feel most comfortable and natural with, and add something from another style.
Does it work? Yes? Perfect, keep it and make it your own.
I hope that wasn't too long (I know it was) and boring. When you ask something like that you'd better be prepared to a lot more information lol..
To give you one final piece of advice, I came up with a deduction lately:
"Martial arts are divided roughly into CONCEPT and STYLE.
The style doesn't define the concept.
The concept may belong to an entirely different style and it's what the martial art is all about.
The style is simply the way the concept is applied."
Hope that helps.
HAIL SATAN FOREVER!
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/uploads/2016/11/16/margaret-fidel-pierre.jpg)
