Video Archives - Page 7 of 13 - Martial Development

Jet Li and Jackie Chan Rescued by Awkward Caucasian Teen

A Review of The Forbidden Kingdom DVD

Recipe for Forbidden Kingdom: Take one part Harry Potter, one part Lord of the Rings, and one part Karate Kid; mix and heat until lukewarm; label as “Asian fusion” cuisine. Serves five hundred million.

Jet Li in Forbidden Kingdom
Young Jason struggles in a low horse stance, building kungfu as his teacher Lu Yan stands by. “Go deeper,” Lu demands, “You must taste bitter before sweet.”

Your reaction to this single training scene, will most likely mirror your opinion of The Forbidden Kingdom as a whole.

British Kungfu Hero Demonstrates Qinggong for BBC News

(Qing gong is the legendary Chinese Kungfu skill that enables masters to run up walls, and fly through the air.)

From Manchester, we bring you the unique Mr. Tony McCabe, a man who claims he can jump on hen’s eggs and human noses without breaking them…

BBC Nationwide

Tai Chi in the 2008 Beijing Olympics

On August 8, 2008, Beijing staged most the elaborate opening ceremony in Olympic history. 2008 Tai Chi performers played their form in perfect synchronicity. Enjoy these pictures and video clips from their spectacular demonstration.

Tai Chi in the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Chess Boxing, Horse Wrestling and Umbrella Combat

Recent diversions and entertainments from the world of martial arts

Chess boxing
Credit: Sascha Pohflepp

Nikolay Sazhin new world champion in chess boxing’s light heavyweight division

The 19 year old challenger, Siberia’s Nikolay “The Chairman” Sazhin, was able to execute his strategic chess concept against the more experienced world champion, Frank “Anti-Terror” Stoldt. Sazhin then used his superior boxing skills to ram home the advantage.

After carefully approaching his opponent in the first round with a Slav defense, Frank Stoldt took a heavy right hand to the chin in the following round which led to a standing eight count. Stoldt then demonstrated the experience gained from 3 title bouts, recovering to endure three more rounds without slipping further behind.

At the beginning of the 5th round, however, the contest culminated at the chessboard. The wily youngster Sazhin lured Stoldt into a false sense of security. With his bishop in severe danger near the center of the board, Stoldt made a horrible blunder, overlooking a concealed threat to his queen…
[continued at the World Chessboxing Organization website]

Jeeja Yanin: The Toughest Woman in Thailand?

'Jeeja' Yanin Vismitananda

Yanin Vismitananda, a.k.a. “Jeeja” Yanin, spent two years training for her role in Thailand’s latest martial arts showcase. A Taekwondo expert in real-life, Jeeja plays an autistic Thai boxer in Chocolate.

Jeeja collects on an old debt
(Icehouse scene inspired by Bruce Lee’s Fists of Fury)

This is What Happens When You Skip Stance Training

Jason Chambers
Ten years of professional fighting experience
Zero years of stance training?

Steven Seagal Redeems Himself As Cock Puncher

Steven Seagal as Cock Puncher

Where did Steven Seagal go wrong? His early movies—Hard to Kill, Out for Justice, Under Siege—reinvigorated the action genre, with their breathtaking displays of no-holds-barred Aikido.

His next two-dozen films weren’t so well received, or so I hear. I didn’t watch them myself.

It wasn’t the thin plots or dull acting that eventually turned me off Steven Seagal’s work; it was his characters, or rather his character.

So You Think You Can Dance?

In 2006, I saw a few episodes of MTV’s reality TV show Final Fu. At the time, I thought the performers displayed physical competence, but not greatness, and I found the level of demonstration and competition disappointing. Head judge Ernie Reyes Jr. praised his players’ abilities to throw a variety of high kicks.

When I subsequently watched auditions for Fox’s televised dance competition, So You Think You Can Dance, I was both delighted and appalled by the disparity in standards. Somehow, I had expected martial austerities to result in a deeper achievement, when compared to the frivolous motivations of dance.

Totally Nude Tai Chi: A DVD Review With Pictures

Can the fire of man breathe within the waters of woman? Only if she allows. From Eden’s Gate, through Taoist teachings, through sexual revolutions and on into time eternal, women have been, are, and always will be the masters of ultimate sexuality.

Totally Nude Tai Chi is the most comprehensive, and most bizarre martial arts instructional video I have ever reviewed. Five naked female models demonstrate Tai Chi theory, the solo hand form, sword and saber practice, circle walking and palm changes, push hands and fighting applications, all within one hour.

Reflections on Bruce Lee’s Water: Does Skill Actually Matter?

Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

Bruce Lee said it*—but did he actually do it? Did he flow like water? Judging by his performances in Enter the Dragon, Chinese Connection and Fists of Fury, I’d say: no, not at all.

Bruce Lee in The Chinese Connection

Maybe Bruce didn’t show his real kung fu skills on the silver screen.