Chinese Boxing is not Kickboxing but Chinese Boxing is Kung Fu. There is often a bit of confusion with regard to the names Chinese Boxing and Kickboxing but there is a difference because the origin of these two names do have their own starting points in history.
The Chinese martial arts do have more than a few names that have been used as an umbrella title that covers all the various styles over the years, including originally the name Chuan Fa, however this gave rise as to what to call it when it first became more popular in the western world. Back in those early days many thought of it as a Chinese version of boxing so the name Chinese Boxing became the main title at the time, but of course unlike western style boxing Chinese Boxing is not a combat sport, although the sport side of it is included. Chinese Boxing is a martial art that covers many different things including practical self defence methods, hand to hand combat, weapons and to a degree survival techniques in a war zone conflict situation. By the time the 1960’s and the early 1970’s came along the term Kung Fu became the main title to cover all of those various forms of combat that originated in China, however unlike the term Chinese Boxing, Kickboxing on the other hand is a totally different story. Kickboxing is a name that came along based upon the term ‘sparring’ that was very much part of many martial art classes in both the Japanese and the Chinese martial arts back in those days. Kickboxing is not however a traditional martial art or style, Kickboxing of course is a competition contact sport or freestyle sparring as it was commonly called within all traditional martial art styles back then. Although not all martial art classes included sparring as part of their training sessions many clubs and classes did. Back in the day sparring was very much part of all traditional martial arts and was just one part, one discipline, to master along with set forms, self defence training and so on. There was no way you could pass for a black belt unless you could not only do all the disciplines but was also good enough at sparring. Simply called sparring in those days some instructors ended up teaching only sparring and nothing else. They called themselves ‘freestylers’ but the name lacked popularity so the now popular name of Kickboxing or Freestyle Kickboxing took over in the end. It is worth noting that the history of the martial arts is somewhat diverse and complex in nature with many names and terms used over the decades that vary a great deal from country to country. With that in mind therefore it is no surprise that a mix and match of terms and names have come along over the decades. Chinese Boxing and Kickboxing is a perfect example of this situation when some people call it Chinese Kickboxing, which of course when you think about it, is a mixed term name. For related articles from the archives on this subject, that can be found on this site, click on the article name links below. Kung Fu Is Chinese Boxing Freestyle Kickboxing Comments are closed.
|