Wushu (sport)
Wushu is a sport that is originated from traditional Chinese martial arts.[1][2] It was created in China after 1949. It was created to nationalize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts.[3] Most of the competitions had influences of martial arts. This was created by government committees. Wushu has become an international sport through the International Wushu Federation (IWUF). The IWUF holds the World Wushu Championships every two years. The first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing.[4]
| Wushu | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 武術 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 武术 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | martial arts | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Competitive wushu is made up of two disciplines: taolu (套路; forms) and sanda (散打; sparring).[5] Taolu involves martial arts routines. These are judged and given points according to specific rules on quality and difficulty of movements. The movements could be stances, kicks, punches, balances, jumps, sweeps and throws. Competitive forms have time limits that can range from 1 minute, 20 seconds to over five minutes. Modern wushu competitors practice jumping techniques such as 540 and 720 and even 900 degree jumps and kicks.[6]
Sanda (sometimes called sanshou or Lei tai) is a modern fighting method and sport. It was influenced by traditional Chinese boxing, Chinese wrestling and Chinese grappling. Sanda has all the combat features of wushu. Sanda is similar to kickboxing or Muay Thai, but it involves more grappling techniques. Sanda competitions are often held alongside taolu competitions.
References
Books
- Mastering WUSHU Archived 2012-05-04 at the Wayback Machine by Jiang Bangjun and Emilio Alpanseque, ISBN 978-1-933901-31-2.
- Fundamentals of High Performance Wushu: Taolu Jumps and Spins Archived 2007-08-17 at the Wayback Machine by Raymond Wu, ISBN 978-1-4303-1820-0.
- Kung Fu Elements Archived 2008-08-08 at the Wayback Machine, Liang, Shou-Yu and Wu, Wen-Ching, ISBN 1-889659-17-7
Other websites
- International Wushu Federation – Official Website
- The Web's Most Comprehensive Wushu Site Covering the Beijing Wushu Team, US Wushu and Wushu in the Olympics. Contains pictures, videos, animation, articles and competition results and resources.
- FM – Wushu Archived 2007-05-15 at the Wayback Machine – A list of Techniques and free animated tutorials for Contemporary Wushu Techniques
- What is Wushu Archived 2012-03-01 at the Wayback Machine – Contains information about the history of wushu
- http://www.nardis.com/~twchan/liang.html – Archived 2012-07-21 at the Wayback Machine Info about the history of wushu
