Karate and Kung Fu Differences

Hong Kong reader contribution

Edited by James M. Kelly

photo credit: Thomas Duchnicki :: Location Scout

For many folks, particularly those that aren’t acquainted with self-defense skills, the question regularly turns up on what the difference between karate and kung fu is. On watching someone doing martial-arts, the untrained eye will find it tough to inform whether or not that individual is doing karate or kung fu.

Traditionally, the folk living in the islands of Okinawa slightly to the south of Japan got exposed to Chinese kung fu self-defense skills thanks to the a convenient position to China. Over time, the Okinawans and Japanese developed their own styles of martial-arts now known as karate from the first influence of Chinese kung fu.

Though both karate and kung fu employ many similar self-defense skills strategies, most kung fu styles will often have greater variety of strategies compared against karate systems. It is nearly like the Japanese streamlined the amount of methods from Chinese systems to develop karate. This is particularly clear in the forms or katas ( conventional sequence of set moves ) where karate strategies are performed with crisp movements that have distinct stop and go motions. These circular motions give kung fu forms a rather more visually classy look as systems appear to flow from one to another. There’s less stop and go with many kung fu styles. This is the reason why some martial artists, particularly in Northern America, often refer to Chinese kung fu as ‘soft’ styles while karate and tae kwon do are ‘hard’ styles. This isn’t to claim that hard styles like karate or tae kwon do are rather more dynamic karate skills than kung fu and other soft styles. The term ‘soft’ is a bit fooling as the power from circular kung fu moves is typically concealed. Circular moves can generate as much power as linear ones found in hard styles. To most martial artists, a kung fu form will look much more exotic while a karate form will look more straight forward vis martial-arts techniques. Curiously enough, there are karate styles like goju which do have rather a lot of circular methodologies like kung fu. Kempo styles are thought to be a composite of Chinese kung fu and Okinawan karate strategies with both circular as well as linear strategies.

Kung fu skills weapons is present in both kung fu and karate styles but different sets of weapons are made use of in each martial-arts system. As predicted, there’s lots more spread of different Chinese kung fu weapons than found in the Japanese karate styles.

Historically, disciples of karate wear a white uniform called a gi which features the overlapping kimono-like top.

Less standard faculties like those in Northern America will permit coloured uniforms. A coloured belt will be the final polish to the gi with naturally the black belt for those at instructor level ranking. Most kung fu stylists will wear a totally different looking uniform. Kung fu uniforms often are comprised of tops with Chinese ‘frog-style’ buttons instead of overlapping fronts like the karate gi top. The modern acrobatic Chinese kung fu skills of wushu can feature satin uniforms with many various bright colours. Many kung fu faculties simply utilize t-shirts and saggy pants as uniforms. Satin coloured sashes are sometimes worn to indicate rank of scholars but this is really more of a northern US style as most kung fu colleges in the East don’t show rankings in uniforms. Nonetheless that is not to say that one system or type of martial art is better than another. They’re just different and to the observer, it might come down to personal choice. Some like kung fu and some like karate. Some bold martial artists who want a full broad-based education practice both kung fu and karate.

Hong Kong

Reader contribution

Edited by James M. Kelly

The Tiger Prowls

photo credit: OctopusHat

Tiger Woods’s company brand might have been irretrievably spoilt by four months of scandal nonetheless it appears his aura remains intact, with his peers queueing up to testify the world No1 is prepared to win the Gurus when he makes a return to sport this month.

Woods has spent the last 2 weeks practising at his home club, Isleworth, in Florida but travelled to Augusta Nationwide and played 2 practice rounds on Monday and had at least another round yesterday. In the meantime , 2 dozen leading players turned up at Isleworth to challenge in the Tavistock Cup, including one or two of Woods’s pals.

John Cook, a previous PGA Tour player who now competes on the Champs Tour, asserted he played 3 times last week with Woods. “From what I saw the last a few days of ball striking, I do not see anyone hit the ball like he does. It was vintage. If he’s taking that game up there [to the Masters], I do not see anyone thrashing him,” he claimed.

The two US players were joined during last week’s practise sessions by the PGA Tour pro Arjun Atwal, who described Woods’ mood as “mellow”. “He’s extraordinarily chilled out,” asserted Atwal. “When he is out with us, you can see he’s more at peace right now. I suspect he is doing all the proper things. He is also hitting it longer than before, there isn’t any doubt.

He is slaughtering it, fully murdering it. If he gets that putter going at all, he’ll possibly win [the Masters],” Atwal told Bloomberg reports. “He just feels like he is fully not prepared.

But I have seen him win with what he has at this time masses of times on tour.” Atwal added that he and Woods hadn’t debated private matters. “What’s going on at home, I do not even know and I don’t ask him. It was not ungainly for me or him.

As a chum, I just felt for him.

I know he probably did all that stuff, but he is the one going thru it now, so as a buddy of his I felt for him.” Seve Ballesteros, who made a rare public appearance yesterday to support a bid by Madrid to host the 2018 Ryder Cup, was another who foretold Woods would be a robust contender in Augusta. “I am pleased he made the choice to come back and has finally made a decision to compete. I believe this is the top news that golfing can have right now,” the Spaniard announced.

“I think that Tiger Woods takes over such a lot that if he was not around, if he had retired, the golfing world would be in significant difficulties.” Yet if Woods’s pals and associates have no real interest in probing farther into the circumstances surrounding last November’s car crash and the successive, and wide-ranging, fallout, the taste for details remains powerful notwithstanding endeavours by the world No1′s media handlers to defuse the long-running scandal. The choice to give 2 five-minute interviews on Sun.

to ESPN and the Golfing Channel was an effort to address some questions but instead backfired, with a 3rd network, CBS, declining the chance to talk to Woods unless there wasn’t any cutoff point on the interview, and most researchers in the USA saying most questions on the scandal stayed unanswered.

Hong Kong

Reader Contribution

Edited by James M. Kelly

photo credit: cliff1066™

World No. One golfer Tiger Woods, who withdrew from the game late last year after a damaging infidelity scandal, related today he would make his comeback to pro golfing at the U.S. Experts in early Apr. “The Experts is where I won my first major and I view this competition with great respect. After a long and obligatory time off from the game, I feel just like I am prepared to start my season at Augusta,” Woods said in an announcement made public on his site.

The Masters at Augusta, Georgia will be held on Apr 5-11, and Woods has won the event 4 times. “The major championships have invariably been a special focus in my career and, as a pro, I believe Augusta is where I want to be, although it has been awhile since I last played,” said Woods, who is one of the planet’s's most recognizable and well-paid sportsmen. Woods, 34, claimed in December he was withdrawing from pro golfing to save his wedding after revelations appeared of repeated marriage adultery.

He has says sorry to his folks and fans but hadn’t indicated until Tues.

when he’d return to the game. The scandal exploded after he crashed his automobile outside his Florida home in the middle of the night in Nov , a bizarre situation that caused a tempest of media conjecture over his private life. Last month Woods made a scrupulously managed first public appearance since his impressive fall from grace that rocked his multimillion-dollar sponsors. He said that he was sorry for cheating on his spouse and said that he was undergoing care, but didn’t give details of the treatment.

He revealed then that he planned to come back to golfing “one day,” potentially this year, but failed to identify when. “I have experienced just about 2 months of inpatient treatment, and I’m continuing my treatment. Though I am returning to competition, I have a large amount of work to do in my personal life.,” Woods declared in his statement on Tues. .

Osaka
Reader Contribution

Edited by James M. Kelly

2020 summer Olympics Bid by Hiroshima and Nagasaki

photo credit: twicepix

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities which bore the brunt of the American atom bombs, wish to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. This announcement came just a week after Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics was rejected. Rio de Janeiro won the bid for the same.

The proposal to host the Olympics has been put forward by the mayors of these two cities. In a press conference, which was also attended by the Nagasaki mayor Tomihisa Taue, the mayor of Hiroshima Tadatoshi Akiba said ‘‘The Olympics symbolizes the abolition of nuclear arms and world peace, and we want to work to realize our plan to host it. By jointly hosting it, we will be able to propose a new path for the Olympics, which have been hosted single-handedly by a large city”.

Taue also added that ‘‘It will be a new challenge for the atomic-bombed cities.’’

A joint committee will be formed to invite the Olympics to their cities. Akiba has also made plans to let his proposals known to the Japanese Olympics Committee and the Government.

In an international peace meeting held in Mexico City, Akiba had let the world know of his hope to see a nuclear weapons free world by 2020 and to celebrate the herald of a new era by hosting the Olympics in their cities.

The Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda praised the two cities to have come up with such an admirable concept but also stated “we have to analyze the Olympic charter” as only one city only is allowed from each country to bid. He also stated that “we have to look at Tokyo’s failed bid first and assess whether a candidate can win a bid for 2020”

The response to the announcement drew varied reactions from different people. People like Sunao Tsuboi, head of Nihon Hidankyo or Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Suffers Organization are in approval of the move while other A-bomb survivors were not so generous. They questioned the credibility of hosting such a big scale event which would drain the resources of these cities.

Hong Kong
Reader Contribution

Edited by James M. Kelly

photo credit: Laika slips the leadGames Convention Asia 2009 allies with online games

LMI Asia said that Southeast Asia is “the world’s fastest growing online games market”.

The organizers of the GAMES Convention Asia (GCA) 2009 have entered a partnership with Infocomm Asia Holdings (IAH), a primary Southeast Asian operator and dispenser of online games.

The constantly escalating prominence of the Asian gaming community is touched by the GCA ’09 organizers LMI Asia in one of their written company statement. Dealing in interactive entertainment, infotainment and edutainment, the GCA is very much aware of the fact that the popularity of online games is shooting up at a rapid pace.

With the current online gaming market on its all-time high, an annual growth of 10 % in the digital games sector in the Asia Pacific region has been predicted by several analysts. This is not all! They expect a swooping rise from $11.7 billion market in 2006 to as high as $18.8 billion market in 2011.

The deal between LMI Asia – an alternative name for the new sales office of German event organizers Leipziger Messe International – and IAH will be materialized in Asia’s largest ‘e-gaming’ event being held this September at GCA ’09. Singapore, being a state with a game sector presently valued at $285 million, is chosen as the ideal location for organizing the tournament. The episode will also allow developers and industry experts to swap knowledge and know-how in panels and lectures and develop their international set of contacts of business connections.

“GCA is the perfect launch pad for our plans to widen our portfolio beyond distribution into game development. Leveraging the GCA connection, we would be able to increase IAH Games’ visibility and tap into new business opportunities, said Ronald Ong, CEO, and IAH Games.

Southeast Asia is “the world’s fastest growing online games market”, said Jorg Zeissig, Managing director, LMI Asia.

Hong Kong
Bureau

Edited by: James M. Kelly
20-20 in 2010

The prestigious world of Olympics is just a few steps away from having a new discipline added to it. Recently, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) passed a resolution; thus adding cricket to the Asian games in Guangzhou (China) from 12th-27th November 2010. Cricket has been included as a medal sports for both men and women in the 20-20 format. The main reason for this addition is the ever increasing popularity of the shortened version of this game, worldwide.

Cricket could feature at the Olympics quite soon, because the 20-20 version was awarded the status of provisional recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2007. The first time cricket featured at the Olympics was in 1900, when Great Britain beat France to win the coveted gold medal. Cricket also appeared at the 1998 Commonwealth games, where South Africa beat Australia to win the gold medal. Cricket was supposed to be included in the 2006 Asian games in Qatar, but had to be dropped since none of the teams were able to send their best players to the games.

This time test-playing nations Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will qualify automatically along with host China. All other subcontinent teams will have to fight it out to qualify for the remaining three places. According to the chairman of Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), teams India and Pakistan will be the driving force for this competition, since they are the heavyweights of this game and they have also promised to send their best teams to this competition.

This could prove to be a significant step in the history of cricket. China along with the United States of America are the two biggest countries of the world. If cricket is able to leave a positive impact on them, there is a wonderful chance that it would spread to other smaller parts of the world as well. China is already making a bid to become a test playing nation in the coming few years. There could be some exciting times ahead for Asian cricket.

Beijing Correspondent

Edited by: James M. Kelly
China athletes sporting top Forbes positions

With more athletes appearing on this year’s Forbes China list of the top 100 celebrities it seems that some sports stars are riding the wave of success after the Beijing Olympics which captivated the Chinese imagination and media attention.

On March 17 Forbes China reported a total of twenty-two athletes made their way into the line-up this year, up from 18 last year and 17 in 2007.

NBA star Yao Ming topped the list with the most media exposure and the highest pre-tax annual income of 357 million yuan ($52 million), just beating actress Zhang Ziyi whose ever-present coverage in entertainment magazines contributed to her claiming second spot.

It is the sixth time in a row for the 2.29-m-tall Yao to stand atop a list mostly made up of people in the entertainment industry this year.

Also among the top celebrities is rising basketball star Yi Jianlian, who ranked 53 in 2007, he soared his way into fourth place last year then managed to step up to the third this year.

Forbes cited the wide acclaim Yi received for helping the Chinese men’s basketball team reach the top eight at last year’s Beijing Olympic Games.

Also on the rise is Beijing Olympics multiple gold medal diver Guo Jingjing she shot up 24 places to fourth position for her dazzling spins and somersaults as well as her high-profile romance with Kenneth Fok, the grandson of the late Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok.

Other Olympic stars made their debut in the list this year and they were gymnasts Yang Wei, Zou Kai and Li Xiaopeng, as well as table tennis player Ma Lin, weightlifter Chen Xiexia and diver Wu Minxia.

Wei Jizhong, director of the Beijing Olympic Economy Research Association told the China Daily that obviously, more athletes are on this year’s list because of the 2008 Olympic Games.

He believes that because the Games were held on China’s home turf; put the country’s athletes in the spotlight more than usual.

China clinched the most number of gold medals in last summer’s Olympics with 51 gold medals in 28 sporting categories; the country’s best showing in the Games.

Over 4.7 billion people worldwide viewed the Beijing Games, which was widely seen as the coming out party for the largest developing nation.

Wei strongly believes that there will be fewer athletes on the Forbes list next year because there are no more epic sporting events scheduled for this year.

Liu Xiang, the 110m hurdles gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Games, dropped from his second placing of the past two years to fifth this year. He withdrew from a highly anticipated Beijing Games heats because of an injury.

It seems that Wei may be onto something because Liu was a favourite on the Forbes list but quickly fell after he withdrew from the Olympics.

Wei added that the focus should be on athletes’ performance and sportsmanship on the field, not their personal life.

The Forbes China celebrity ranking, which started in 2003, is designed to reflect the social influence of a celebrity in any one year, based on how much estimated income a celebrity makes excluding returns on investment, and how much press, Internet and TV coverage they get.

Judging from the above information maybe it does matter what athletes do on and off the field to make the list.

Written by:
Amber Butler-Davis

Edited by: James M. Kelly
Photo courtesy of Topnews.
Liu Xiang, Chinese 110m hurdle star left for China on February 27 after a successful foot surgery and three months of rehabilitation in the United States.

The 25-year-old Athens Olympic and world champion had a successful foot surgery in December last year at the Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston where he had four calcium deposits removed from his right Achilles tendon.

Feng Shuyong, vice-president of the Chinese Athletics Association explained that Liu’s recovery was even better than what they had expected.

The doctors believe that after only three months of rehabilitation and training, he has been able to achieve the level of recovery that generally needs four months to happen.

Feng explained how Liu will return to Shanghai, his hometown, for training on track and rehabilitation. The Chinese doctors will take over the rehabilitation and his coach Sun Haiping will be in charge of his training programs.

Liu may be able to resume to a normal training on the track in May.

Feng expressed how he and Liu are very grateful for the people in the United States who helped and support them. His thanks go especially to the US doctors, China’s consulate general in Houston, the Rice University which offered them their training arena for free, and many other overseas Chinese.

American surgeon Tom Clanton, who performed Liu’s surgery, together with Liu’s rehabilitation therapist, had a thorough examination on Liu’s Archilles tendon on the Thursday to make sure he is suitable for returning home. The doctors mentioned that the results are encouraging.

The doctors explained how the scar from the operation has gradually become smaller and softer. Ultrasonic and other tests showed that the movements of Liu’s right ankle are close to normal and his muscle strength of his right foot is basically the same as left foot.

The only problem now is that the surgery caused the loss of part of Liu’s muscle and tendon on his injured foot.

They are expecting new muscle and tendon to grow but the new one mainly consists of type II collagen instead of type I. Type I is responsible for muscle strength and flexibility.

Feng told the China Daily that it will take some time for type I collagen to grow and replace type II collagen on Liu’s right foot. This is why Liu needs to gradually increase intensity of his rehabilitation and training before trying to resume a normal training regime.

Doctors have warned that Liu should be cautious with his injured foot and not be in a hurry to return to normal training. But they have also agreed that in the next phrase, rehabilitation can be gradually reduced and training be increased for Liu.

Doctor Clanton has said that Liu’s chances for running in the future are quite good.
While, Feng was quick to mention that have been similar cases where top athletes have returned to their peak after a foot surgery like Liu’s.

Liu’s future plans for training and competition will depend on how well he recovers, and I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping that the Chinese idol will work hard to help his recovery so he can return and try his best to come back to peak.

The foot injury had forced the defending champion Liu to withdraw from the 2008 Beijing Olympics after he limped out the Bird’s Nest national stadium in the first heat.

Written By: Amber Butler-Davis

Edited By: James Kelly

Teen invited to play Masters.

The Masters Tournament committee has announced that teen pro golfer Ryo Ishikawa has in fact received a special invitation to play.

Ishikawa just turned 17 four months ago so he will be the second youngest player to compete in the Masters. This is only one of the four Grand Slam tournaments that Tommy Jacobs played in as an amateur in 1952 at 17 years, one month and 21 days.

Tournament Chairman, Billy Payne, said on the Masters’ Web site that even at such a young age, Mr Ishikawa has shown the skill and competitiveness which makes him a deserving recipient of this invitation.

Mr Payne is optimistic and believes that Mr Ishikawa’s participation in the Master’s will inspire other young players to succeed while hopefully increasing the interest of golf in Asia and beyond.

Ishikawa turned pro on January 10 of last year, he has however already won two Japan tour titles, but he does not rank among the world’s top 50 players, who automatically receive invitations to play in the Masters Tournament.

Competing along side Ishikawa will be Japan’s tour money king, Shingo Katayama, and US PGA Tour regular Ryuji Imada. These players have already earned their spots to play in the Masters Tournament.

Written by: Amber Butler-Davis

Edited by: James Kelly

On Friday February 6, South Korea’s Kim Yu-na won gold at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver, Canada.

Kim who is a two-time world championship bronze medallist, managed to score 116.83 points at the free skating competition after a world-record short program performance of 72.24 points on the Wednesday, leaving her with a total of 189.07 points in the competition.

Kim was able to hold off the fierce challenger Joannie Rochette, who came in second with 183.91 points, and also last year’s champion, Mao Asada from Japan who settled for the bronze medal with 176.52 points.

Kim’s victory of the championship has now raised an expectation throughout Korea, saying that she will now be able to take the gold medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics, which is being held in the same Canadian city.

Kim told the Korean Herald who she wanted to do a triple loop but I missed it, she however pleased with the rest of the programme and is ecstatic to receive gold in Vancouver.

Kim also explained how she was unable to win last year’s competition because of her injuries. This year she is concentrating on keeping her health in an excellent condition.

Dressed in red, the talented 19-year old skated to “Scheherazade” which is by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Kim successfully pulled off a triple flip-triple toe loop combination in the opening moments of her winning performance.

During the performance, the crowd sighed as Kim fell while trying to attempt the difficult manoeuvre, a triple loop jump, but luckily she was able to make up for the lost points by skilfully completing the rest of her jumps which also included a double axel-triple toe combination.

Being the first South Korean to ever win a medal at a senior international figure skating event, Kim has captured and made herself a large fan base while competing in the last five Grand Prix series events since 2006.

Kim recently graduated from high school and gained admission to the top university in Seoul.