Vietnamese Martial Arts

[LoneRider]

Having read Dr. Haha Lung's Lost Fighting Arts of Vietnam (note: I am well aware of his dubious reputation in the MA community, hence this post), I have recently come away with a curiousity about Vietnamese fighting styles.

Just logically thinking I imagine some South Chinese Kung Fu styles (i.e. those emphasizing stable stances and emphasizing hand (fist and open hand strikes) as opposed to kicks like the Northern Chinese techniques) and Thai and Cambodian kickboxing, and even various blade fighting styles from the Philippines and Malaysia had their influences.

What sort of martial arts are unique to Vietnam?

[Carol]

Cuong Nhu was developed in Vietnam, and moved to the States shortly afterwards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuong_Nhu


Also Vovinam:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vovinam

[LoneRider]

Thanks Carol, I greatly appreciate it.

[blackdiamondcobra]

In vietnam,there is an enormous assortment of chinese martial arts both northern and southern, japanese martial arts, etc and they are greatly enjoyed. I was pretty amazed. It was odd though that there was little to no interest in any form of kickboxing( like muay thai, pradal serei variants)but they did have a bare knuckle art and i only found one old person who learned from this grandfather who said there was little to no interest remaining in it. They did have kickboxing because i was shown many old tapes of the matches by ex fighters and i even saw one vietnamese against a cambodian fight so they fought outside the country. So they had the three ancient forms of indigenous arts being bare knuckle, weapons and wrestling. Wrestling still survives and some masters of weapons. There are hybrid arts which were born in vietnam and thus vietnamese but many of them are modern like vovinam. There needs to be more investigative research within the country to say what exactly is still there and remains, some people have claimed that the bare knuckle didnt exist nor the kickboxing but it did clearly exist as the weapons and wrestling. Sometimes certain cultures dont enjoy certain sports as evident in vietnam with boxing and kickboxing forms(though they seemed to be well attended when they were popular), and likewise in Thailand with wrestling, it existed at one time but slowly eroded with key moves assimilated into the bare knuckle arsenal. My research and training was pretty tight in vietnam to what i was looking for so thats all i can report and help you with.

Here are some links to wrestling:

http://www.vietnam-beauty.com/vietnamese-culture/13-vietnam-culture-value/259-vietnamese-traditional-wrestling.html

(http://www.vietnam-beauty.com/vietnamese-culture/13-vietnam-culture-value/259-vietnamese-traditional-wrestling.html)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe_85Zg-Cdg




(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe_85Zg-Cdg)

[fenglong]

In vietnam,there is an enormous assortment of chinese martial arts both northern and southern, japanese martial arts, etc and they are greatly enjoyed. I was pretty amazed. It was odd though that there was little to no interest in any form of kickboxing( like muay thai, pradal serei variants)but they did have a bare knuckle art and i only found one old person who learned from this grandfather who said there was little to no interest remaining in it. They did have kickboxing because i was shown many old tapes of the matches by ex fighters and i even saw one vietnamese against a cambodian fight so they fought outside the country. So they had the three ancient forms of indigenous arts being bare knuckle, weapons and wrestling. Wrestling still survives and some masters of weapons. There are hybrid arts which were born in vietnam and thus vietnamese but many of them are modern like vovinam. There needs to be more investigative research within the country to say what exactly is still there and remains, some people have claimed that the bare knuckle didnt exist nor the kickboxing but it did clearly exist as the weapons and wrestling. Sometimes certain cultures dont enjoy certain sports as evident in vietnam with boxing and kickboxing forms(though they seemed to be well attended when they were popular), and likewise in Thailand with wrestling, it existed at one time but slowly eroded with key moves assimilated into the bare knuckle arsenal. My research and training was pretty tight in vietnam to what i was looking for so thats all i can report and help you with.

Here are some links to wrestling:

http://www.vietnam-beauty.com/vietnamese-culture/13-vietnam-culture-value/259-vietnamese-traditional-wrestling.html

(http://www.vietnam-beauty.com/vietnamese-culture/13-vietnam-culture-value/259-vietnamese-traditional-wrestling.html)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe_85Zg-Cdg




(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe_85Zg-Cdg)

This wrestling reminds me of the wrestling I have seen in Mongolian culture.