If one had to choose between Kung Fu skills and Aikido skills, the better choice would be Kung Fu. If asked, a lot of people would not know the difference between Kung Fu and Aikido. They may know that both Aikido and Kung Fu are types of martial arts, but that wouldn’t tell us much about Kung Fu or Aikido.
Kung Fu is juxtaposed with Aikido because of the different cultures they came from, which determines how one approaches one’s enemy, whether it is more defensively or offensively. Kung Fu is both defensive and offensive because of the cultural influences.Kung Fu is a Chinese Martial Art with many variations in which it strengthens one’s mind and body. Since Kung Fu was created about a hundred years after the Zhou Dynasty, also known as the “period of warring states”, it was crucial that Kung Fu need to include both an offensive portion and a defensive portion.
Chinese Martial Arts usually focuses a lot on one’s offense. In order to achieve the skills needed to be a good Kung Fuist, one needs to be a hard worker and have a lot of patience. After working hard, one will get the advantage of using one’s entire body as a weapon.In general, Kung Fu is more aggressive and is usually more offensive because it uses an equal or greater force to both fend off attacks and to attack. In addition, Kung Fu uses many fast combinations of punches and kicks to one’s advantage. When using a fast combination of attacks, the defender would have a difficult time defending all the attacks thrown at them by the attacker.
Since Kung Fu tends to have a narrow stance, it gives one an advantage. In addition to the strong offense, self-defense is also taught in Kung Fu.The self-defenses learned in Kung Fu are relevant when one is being attacked in any direction, whether it is from behind or from the side etc. In addition, in Kung Fu, one learns how to defend themselves from a variety of weapons like a sword, a spear, a dagger, or perhaps even a staff.
While defending oneself from a weapon, one learns to do so with whether the same weapon, a different weapon and sometimes even with your bare hands. Imagine someone attacking you with a sword or spear and your only weapons are your hands and feet.How would you defend yourself, against a weapon longer than your arms, while doing the least amount of damage possible to yourself? Aikido is more defensive because of the time period it was created in gave the creator more time to be influenced. Unlike Kung Fu, Aikido is a form of Japanese Martial Arts that was recently created. It was created in the early 20th century and is a combination of many martial arts that Morihei Ueshiba, the creator of Aikido, learned over his lifetime.
Aikido is highly based on self-defense; however, it is very effective. Aikido redirects the opponents’ motions and attacks to the defender’s advantage by catching the attacker’s limb, and ultimately taking down the attacker. The benefit of learning Aikido is you get to defend yourself while protecting the attacker from any severe injuries. A skilled person who practices Aikido will have rapid responses to aggressive attacks the offender uses.Because Aikido does not oppose the attack, it requires little physical strength and is not overly damaging to the opponent.
The problem with Aikido is that it defends well on aggressive attacks, but when fighter a skilled Kung Fu master, it would be difficult to redirect a fast combination of attacks. Another issue with going against strong and fast combinations is that it is difficult to predict what the next attack would be in time to deflect it. Since Aikido focuses on defense, there would be a lot of throwing others around and being thrown around.It is crucial that one learns how to fall properly so one would not be hurt.
In addition, Aikido uses short weapons, so one would not be able to easily attack an offender that is farther away. Aikido’s longest weapon is a wooden sword, and also has a staff-like weapon, but the difference is in Aikido, the staff is less than a quarter of the size of a staff in Kung Fu. Aikido does a really good job with self-defense; however, the offense is the damage done to the offender with the self-defense.Aikido and Kung Fu are two different types of martial arts from two different periods of time as well as two different cultures.
Kung Fu is more offensive because the time period it was created in called for both defensive and offensive needs. Aikido is more defensive in that you don’t need to apply much force to take down an opponent because you use the attacker’s force to your advantage. Aikido and Kung Fu are both martial arts that one should learn.
