“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it become the cup. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
— Bruce Lee, Martial Artist
29/07/2020
Martial Arts
1hr 8min
Starting this episode, the discussion begins with a breakdown of the different styles of martial arts but not before Mr. Beard drops a podcast bomb. Most discontinued podcast shows end at episode 7. Druid’s Exchange has reached this inflection point in this episode and shows no sign of slowing down. Onwards and Upwards!!
The episode begins with reminiscing about initial childhood exposure to martial arts, for Mr. C it started with Nintendo, no surprise, with games like Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Tekken and Mortal Kombat. Following on from this, a brief background into the different styles of martial arts that Mr. Beard tried in reality as a child, and finally settled on Tae Kwon-Do, ‘The Art of Hand and Foot.’
The History of these different styles are broken down. The dates they were first developed some back as long ago as millenia, and the differences and philosophies folded into these styles. Kalaripayattu set up in South India about 300BC, Bodhidharma brought Zen Buddhism to China, Judo, Tai Chi and more. Mr. C brings up a YouTube channel ‘Ronin Man’ podcast and that a Ronin is a ‘masterless’ Samurai who is on the run or exiled. Ronin Man podcast is a channel devoted to this philosophy of self resilience as a lone wolf or Samurai, and all of the virtues and skills required to go it alone.
This relatively short episode from Druid’s Exchange standards, finishes up with some light hearted conversation about great martial arts movies that have been made over the decades like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Mortal Kombat, Enter The Dragon, Seven Samurai and more recently Kill Bill. Included here are the great martial artists and actors: Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Lee, and Jean Claude Van Dam.
For each episode, we will highlight the main topic discussed and share a video from YouTube we think is worth watching.
Check out this video on Kalaripayattu, arguably the oldest martial art in the world. From Kalaripayattu, we get Judo, Kung Fu, Thai Chi, Tae Kwon-Do and many more martial arts.
Found something interesting discussed in this episode? Chances are, we found it interesting too and we went off and did a bunch of reading online about it.
So why not dive further into the topic! Here are some handy links we think you might like.
Bruce Lee was a Chinese, Hong Kong American actor, director, martial artist, martial arts instructor and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that is often credited with paving the way for modern mixed martial arts (MMA). Lee is considered by commentators, critics, media, and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West. He is credited with helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films.
Check out the official brucelee.com website for his full bio, more about Jeet Kune Do and about Shannon Lee, his daughter who carries on the legacy of Bruce Lee and his philosophies.
Described as an Afro-Brazlian martial art developed in the 16th Century, believed to have originated in Angola, Africa by slaves of the Portugeause colonists there. The art form was brought to Brazil and retains its Angolan music tradition, combining acrobatic and dance styles unique to this martial art. Capoeira is now practiced throughout the world, and in 2014 was granted special protected status as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.
Ido Portal is up there with the most well known practitioners of Capoeira through international acclaim.He has adapted a style of Capoeira with his own flavour of moves combining animal mimicry, from which he promotes his style and methodology of ‘Movement Culture’. He famously trained Conor Mc Greggor in his preparation for his boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather.
Somewhere in-between actually training in martial arts and watching a martial arts movie are martial arts video games. Much more involving and testing than simply watching a movie, but without the sore ribs and bruises that real world training can bring.
The first ever video games Mr. C and Mr. Beard played were Kung Fu and Double Dragon on the Nintendo Entertainment System. And they have come a long way since, with such series as Tekken, Soul Caliber, Dead or Alive and Street Fighter.
Martial arts movies come in all shapes, sizes and budgets. They can be genre-defining like The Matrix, Kill Bill or Game of Death, or they can be action comedies like Rush Hour, The Tuxedo or Shanghai Knights. The less said about the desperately poor martial arts movies the better (even though they can gain somewhat of a cult following in their own right!).
Personal favourites of our hosts include Mortal Kombat, Seven Samurai and of course The Matrix. IMDB has list after list of the ‘best martial arts movies’ (such as this one), but martial arts movies maybe more than other genres are very much a ‘personal taste’ kind of thing.
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