Top 10 Martial Arts DVD List

Posted on October 6, 2009 by

When people search for martial arts dvd there are two things they could be looking for: martial arts instructional dvd or martial arts movies dvd. This post is about the latter, and I’ll cover the instructional ones in a later post.

This top 10 list of martial art dvds is not necessarily intended to be my choice of the best martial arts movies of all time. Instead I thought I’d give a list of influential movies that demonstrate different martial arts, or which brought any particular one to the public eye, or which was a “coming of age” for an individual martial artist. I’m sure you’ll have your own ideas about which are the best martial arts dvds to get your hands on, so feel free to leave a comment so other readers can benefit. Here’s my list, and they are in no other particular order than alphabetical.

1. Bulletproof Monk

This is a fantasy-type martial arts movie starring Chow Yun Fat, Seann William Scott and Jaime King. A shallow but entertaining flick held together by Bulletproof Monk Chow Yun Fat, who hopes to prevent a sacred scroll from falling into the wrong hands.

2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

A martial arts epic from director Ang Lee, and starring Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is full of depth with breathtaking martial arts scenes mixed with romance and tragedy. Certainly a more powerful and engaging storyline than the usual ‘slap n chop’ kung fu B-movies.

3. Enter the Dragon

The film that saw Bruce Lee enter mainstream Hollywood and also regrettably his last completed movie before his untimely death. In Enter the Dragon, Lee plays a British agent sent to infiltrate a violent Asian crime gang by entering a martial arts tournament; and where Lee seeks to avenge his sister’s murder.

4. Kickboxer

The first of a series of Kickboxer movies stars Jean-Claude van Damme, and showcases his martial arts skills and his ability to do the splits. The storyline is somewhat corny, Kurt (van Damme) and brother Eric (Dennis Alexio) going to Thailand for Eric to fight in a Muay Thai tournament. He gets paralysed by his opponent, and van Damme seeks out a Muay Thai master to teach him, so he can exact revenge.

5. Kill Bill

Starring Uma Thurman, Kill Bill – Volume One is an action-packed and humorous story of brutal betrayal of a bride (Thurman) on her wedding day, and her quest for vengeance after recovering from her near-assassination.

6. Ong Bak

Ong-Bak – The Thai Warrior stars Tony Jaa as the hero, a country boy who, after a sacred statue is stolen from his village, is sent to Bangkok to retrieve it. A classic Muay Thai fight frenzy of a flick.

7. Rocky

The first of the Rocky series starring Sylvester Stallone as the Italian Stallion. Of course, western boxing is the “martial art” here, and each of the series follows Rocky’s rollercoaster of defeats and setbacks and his subsequent triumphs over adversity. Great in their day – perhaps a little corny now.

8. The Karate Kid

Another kind of corny set of movies, the Karate Kid series features Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio as the karate master and his disciple. These movies explore the master-student relationship and more spiritual aspects of the martial arts, rather than simply connecting fight scenes to fight scenes with meaningless dialog. The first of the series is the best one, with the karate competition as the ending climax.

9. When Taekwondo Strikes

When invading Japanese authorities take control of Korea, a Korean patriot (Carter Huang) refuses to bow to them and is attacked by a gang of Japanese fighters. A priest helps him and then they discover the priests gardener is a famed taekwondo fighter and patriot Lee Chung Tung (Jhoon Rhee). When Taekwondo Strikes is a great showcase for the fighting abilities of Jhoon Rhee and Angela Mao.

10. Zatoichi

The 2003 remake of the 1960′s series Zatoichi: the blind swordsman stars Beat Takeshi. This is a must watch Samurai story and is on the scale of Kill Bill in terms of the blood squirt count!

So there is my top 10 martial arts dvd list, something to get you in the mood before thinking about your favorite martial arts movies of all time!

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Bruce Lee Training For Strength And Fitness

Posted on October 2, 2009 by

For anybody interested in learning the Bruce Lee training methods, it is important to understand his philosophy, which was very holistic in nature. Many martial artists spend endless hours practising techniques and forms, and perhaps do some partner work and some sparring. At the opposite end of the scale are the people who train for fitness almost addictively, but would not call themselves martial artists – an example might be ‘iron man’ triathletes.

Bruce Lee felt that many martial artists would never reach their potential because they concentrated too much on martial technique, and not anywhere near enough on the total fitness aspects such as muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular endurance and body flexibility.

So Bruce Lee’s training included all these aspects, as well as the standard martial technique practice, such as kicking and striking. But he was also very careful to teach that physical strength alone is not enough – in other words, don’t discard martial arts practice in order to train physique. A healthy balance of the two is required, along with the correct mental attitude towards training, competing and fighting – Lee considered the mindset or spirituality of the martial artist to be extremely important.

So Bruce Lee training consists of a harmonious mix of three components:  Spirituality (or the correct mindset for fighting); Martial Skills (knowing the techniques, and which ones to use when); and Physique (strength and stamina). To a certain degree these components are very well established and trained by western boxers, and Lee was always interested in other fighting styles to see if their methods were effective and useful.

Bruce Lee Weight Training

The Bruce Lee strength training regime consisted of many of the exercises commonly associated with a gym: bicep curls with free weights, concentration curls, French curls for building triceps, wrist strengthening exercises. He also used exercises such as push-ups and squats, and was methodical about working his abs. Lee always maintained that the abdominal muscles were the key to all martial arts training, as they are used in almost all techniques. They also need to be strong to protect against body blows from opponents – to protect the ribs and prevent damage to internal organs.

Here, Lee’s methods and explanations are very practical, but you can draw the comparison with traditional Chinese martial arts that put an emphasis on the abdomen, as this is where the dantien is located, from where qi – internal energy – is generated.

Bruce Lee Fitness Training

Lee was always experimenting with different training programs, but knew that all the strength and technique in the world wouldn’t matter if he was too exhausted to fight. So he trained his cardiovascular endurance relentlessly. The main three exercises he used were running, exercise biking and skipping rope. His runs would vary in length, and would involve interval training. He would cycle upto ten miles in a sitting on the exercise bike and then use the skipping rope to do hundreds of jumps.

Bruce Lee training has a lot to offer all martial artists, and if we all think about working on that fine balance between mindset, technique and fitness – and address our deficiencies – we can all reach our ultimate martial potential.

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Modern Designs On Martial Arts Clothing

Posted on September 28, 2009 by

When we think about martial arts clothing, most of us probably picture the sparkling white gi – the angry white pyjamas – worn by many of the traditional Japanese martial arts, such as karate, judo or aikido. A few of us might conjure up images of the shadowy ninja, dressed in all black and face covered. Or perhaps the martial arts clothes worn by the kung fu practitioner, a black jacket with white collar and cuffs and toggle fasteners.

All of these types of martial art clothing were worn in the past and in the regions and countries where these fighting arts were created and developed. In most cases, the clothing was worn because it was very similar to normal everyday clothing. Not because it was part of any particular uniform. People who train in many martial arts these days wear these uniforms to uphold the traditions of their respective styles. But such clothing in a normal setting – like taking the dog for a walk, or going out to buy a newspaper – would be considered eccentric (at best) by the neighbors!

Chinese Martial Arts T-Shirt

Chinese Martial Arts T-Shirt - Baguazhang

Most kung fu styles nowadays stick to black kung fu pants, or simple tracksuit bottoms, and a white or black t-shirt, perhaps with a club badge and name, or maybe some Chinese kung fu characters for their style. This is close to what would normally be worn by the general public. It’s good for avoiding unnecessary finger-pointing and whispers behind your back, but also because if you train in normal martial art clothes, you’ll feel mentally prepared to fight if you get attacked in the street.

Some martial arts develop a kind of fashion all of their own, and this has rapidly happened with the modern sports fighting styles of the mixed martial arts (MMA). Although the clothes for competition (fightwear) is very minimal – comprising just shorts and MMA gloves, like in boxing or Muay Thai – a whole MMA fashion scene has appeared, including intricately ornate designs for t-shirts and hoodies. Sort of a signpost to the art they practise, even though these aren’t their ‘work clothes’.

Maybe it’s time for all the martial arts to have a traditional uniform which upholds tradition and is used for demos and other ‘ceremonial’ occasions. But when it comes to practical fighting and self-defense, to use modern clothing, especially for the striking arts. It’s a little more difficult for arts like judo where the gi itself can be used for throwing and choking techniques.

I’m guessing that many schools already do have occasional lessons and seminars in civvies for realistic self-defense purposes. Doing it this way means that students in a real situation don not have to mentally switch into fighting mode – they can just react.

And if you’ve got a nice club logo, and come up with a cool design, your students can wear a club hoodie, and advertise their club as well!

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