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This Korean report follows a hand that has all the moves. I don’t understand Korean, but the comments at YouTube indicate the puppeteer is a high school girl. Watch this little fighter try to split a board! -via Buzzfeed
Why don’t you apply? You’re not getting paid for that office clerk internship anyway.
Nidar Singh of Wolverhampton, UK, may be the last living master of the Sikh martial art shastar vidya, which means the “science of weapons”. He himself was taught by an octogenarian in Punjab who thought that he was the last serious practitioner. Singh remembered the first day of his training:
On his first day of training, the frail old man handed him a stick and instructed Mr Singh to hit him. When he tried, the master threw him around like a rag doll.
“He was a frail old man chucking me about and I couldn’t touch him,” he says. “That definitely impressed me.”
Link -via Geekosystem | Photo: Beyond Exposure Photography
This sounds like a documentary from the 1970s, but after looking around, I believe it’s a comedy skit taken out of context. And I have yet to find the context. But these sisters have the moves! -via reddit
Previously: The real Karate Nuns.
A few years ago, we mentioned that Keiko Fukuda of San Francisco is a judo master, despite advanced age, arthritis, and triple bypass surgery. Now, at the age of 98, she’s been awarded the highest rank in that martial art:
Only three people in the world, all men living in Japan, have ever reached that mark.
The martial arts promotion by USA Judo brought 98-year-old Fukuda to tears at the women’s dojo where she still teaches in Noe Valley.[...]
She gave up marriage and left her homeland to dedicate her life to judo, fighting gender discrimination that kept her at lower belt levels decades longer than men less skilled than she.
Link -via Nag on the Lake | Photo: Lance Iverson/San Francisco Chronicle
There’s the silent, contemplate-y monks, and then there’s the Shaolin Monks, who attain spiritual harmony by mastering the sort of skills you tend to see in Mortal Kombat. I mean, they can’t freeze you or anything, but it’s not impossible to imagine that some of them could remove the spine from your still-living body with a single stroke.
Check out this guy’s action, as he throws a needle through a sheet of glass. Oh, and better yet – the clip is slowed down to 1000 frames-per-second. Badassery personified, ladies and gentlemen.
We don’t usually go see martial arts movies because of the plot, but there are a few that stretch credibility to its utmost limits. Cracked investigated these movies. Take, for example, Heart of the Dragon, one of two movies in this list about mentally-challenged martial arts experts.
…when we first meet Danny, he’s goaded into ordering all kinds of food from an expensive restaurant for his friends, none of which he can pay for. He’s embarrassed and wants to go home. This is a mentally challenged man who’s been taken advantage of by people he thought he could trust. Tragic.
At least, it would be if the staff at the restaurant didn’t respond by instantly kung fu-ing the ass of a clearly disabled man, complete with wacky sound effects–every punch to his stomach sounds like Moe beating up on Curly.
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
You’ve seen these men in black everywhere, usually in a group, threatening a movie hero. But how much do you really know about the dark warriors of feudal Japan? It’s time to separate the men from the myth.
1. The ninja were a clan of evil assassins for hire.
Myth! In the movies, ninja are portrayed as evil mercenaries crawling out of the woodwork to make sashimi out of the good guy. In reality, they were mountain people of Japan who were systematically harassed by the samurai ruling class 400 years ago. Mostly they farmed. For self-defense when outnumbered, the ninja created a fighting system call Ninjutsu, “the art of stealth”. When money got tight the occasional ninja would sell his skills. These few renegades created the stereotype of ninja as the warrior killer.
2. One ninja could sometimes defeat five soldiers.
Fact! Ninja specifically trained to fight more than one opponent. But they considered escape a victory. Their big-city oppressors outnumbered them, so training involved “dirty” fighting tactics that would scare or injure adversaries just long enough for ninja to get away. The samurai were trained in one-on-one fighting against an opponent who actively engages, not a slippery man in black who kicks you in the toe and disappears. Ninja learned to get the job done quickly. A ninja boxing match wouldn’t make a good spectator sport: one pokes the other in the eye and climbs a tree.
(Image from the film Sengoku Yaro. Source: Vintage Ninjas)
3. All ninja were male.
Myth! Lady ninja were called kunoichi. Occasionally, some wielded swords like the men, but most often, they were trained as spies and messengers to help gather information that would help their clan. Kunoichi used the illusion of helplessness to their advantage, wielding secret weapons like sashes, fans, combs, and umbrellas when forced to fight. n occasion, they assassinated unsuspecting “suitors”. They even carried a bag of little, bladed finger gloves that gave them the equivalent of iron press-on nails of death!
(Image from the film Kaze no Bushi. Source: Vintage Ninjas)
4. Ninja practiced black magic and had supernatural powers.
Myth! While ninja may have appeared magical, they put their pajamas on one leg at a time, just like everybody else. In battle, though, they used this legend to frighten their enemies. The height of ninja activities was during the 1600s; but by the 1800s, most ninja action involved farming or looking for work. Yet ninja buzz kept growing through art, theater, and word of mouth. By the 1900s, ninja were portrayed as practically superhuman.
(Image credit: Flickr user Jérôme Sadou)
5. Ninjas always wore black.
Myth! In real life, ninja dressed for the job at hand; they usually looked like everyone else. When sneaking into an enemy lair, they wore the uniforms of their adversaries to trick them. By the Edo Period (1603-1867), their exploits were famous enough to hit the Kabuki theater. Taking the stealthy reputation of the ninja into consideration, Kabuki troupes decided to portray ninja the same as stagehands-dressed all in black so as not to be seen by the audience. Henceforth, all ninja were portrayed in black.
6. Ninja in training walked through fire, stood under freezing waterfalls, and dangled themelves over cliffs.
Fact! As Japan’s Edo Period wore on, the ninja became less secretive. There were no more feudal wars left to fight. Ninja masters wrote books, opened schools to teach others, and became scholars. And their fighting became world famous. In the 1980s, the American film Enter the Ninja set off a brief ninja craze in the United States, and lots of schools opened (some more authentic than others). There are thousands of practicing ninja in the United States today.
(Image credit: Flickr user RodrigoFavera)
______________________________
The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into History Again.
The book is a compendium of entertaining information chock-full of facts on a plethora of history topics. Uncle John’s first plunge into history was a smash hit – over half a million copies sold! And this sequel gives you more colorful characters, cultural milestones, historical hindsight, groundbreaking events, and scintillating sagas.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute
Sheila Radziewicz of Massachusetts was born without arms or kneecaps. But she hasn’t let that prevent her from accomplishing her goals, including getting a black belt in Taekwondo:
Sheila Radziewicz was scheduled to take her test next month at Bruce McCorry’s Martial Arts in Peabody. The 32-year-old brown belt, who was born with thrombocytopenia-absent radius, or TAR syndrome, told The Salem News she’s been training in martial arts for three years. [...]
The Salem resident, who works as an advocate for victims of domestic violence, said she has never let her disability stop her. At 23, Radziewicz earned her driver’s license. She uses a car that she controls with her feet.
Link | Photo: AP
From De Arte Athletica by Paul Hector Mair (c. 1500) at the Bavarian State Library
Just because they wear colorful, puffy pants, it didn’t mean that these medieval martial artists weren’t deadly. Paul Hector Mair documented the various gruesome weapons used by fighters during medieval times in his manuscript De Arte Athletica.
You can browse the entire manuscript online (it’s 600 pages long), but if you’re short on time, BibilOdyssey has some choice illustrations: Link
This is an oldie but goodie: here’s the audition reel of various martial artist-wannabes testing for a movie. They were supposed to show off their skillz against the boxing dummy … but the dummy won! (Includes the infamous Afro Ninja)
An Internet classic: Link [embedded YouTube clip]
