Fighting Styles

Shaolin   |   Jeet Kune Do   |   Kung Fu   |   Wu Shu   |   Karate   |   Tae Kwon Do   |   Judo   |   Aikido   |  Mugen Tenshin   |   Ninjitsu   |   Capoeira   |   Vale Tudo   |   Jujutsu   |   Brute Force   |   Boxing   |     Shin Yi   |   Pi Qua Quan   |   Hakke Sho/ Hikka Ken   |   IESA   |   Special Edenian Arts   |   Basic Skills   |

Shaolin

Shaolin Kung Fu is the oldest Martial Arts style we know. It was invented by the famous monks of Shaolin, who still live in the province Henan, in China.

The Shaolin style is highly infected by nature and is subdivided in a lot of other styles. Many forms copy animals, for example: the white tiger form, the praying mantis style, the monkey style, etc.

But the monks didn’t just copy animals, they even copy flowers and wind, for example: the Lotus fist or the tornado wind kick.

Shaolin took all the techniques from the real life, from their hard work in the temple and from what surround them.

Shaolin Kung Fu was invented firstly to gain strength, power and health. Later the monks used Shaolin to protect their temple from other Kung Fu organizations and from the Japanese conquerors.

Shaolin Kung Fu uses all kinds of weapons such as staff, nunchaku, broad sword, hook sword, whip, short knives, long knives, battleaxes, double handed axe, one handed axe, tiger swords, three-bodied. staff, etc.! Most of this weapons are based on old farming tools.

Nowadays the monks travel the world to spread their knowledge to others, even Shaolin temples were invented in Europe and America.

In MKC Shaolin Kung Fu is used by: KUNG LAO, LORI

Jeet Kune Do:

Jeet Kune Do, in English the Way of the Intercepting Fist, was developed by Bruce Lee based on his large study of martial arts. His intention was to create an effective fighting art which is not drilled into a system. He took techniques which seemed good to him and used them in his own “style”.

In creating JKD he drew from a wide variety of martial arts and fighting styles. Bruce Lee himself did not call JKD a style, he said that JKD is a philosophy, and many today refer to his methods and ideas as JKD concepts. Bruce Lee’s theories are practiced as Jun Fan Gung Fu. Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee (1940-1973) changed the history of kung fu in the West, doing more to popularize the Chinese martial arts in the world than anyone else before. His films brought the kung fu genre into the mainstream with Enter the Dragon.

Bruce Lee’s JKD is weapon-based kind of related to Kali, and uses nearly the same weapons: kali-sticks, short-knife, nunchaku, tonfa. All this weapons are very short and good to carry.

In MKC JKD is used by: RAIN, BAGMAN

Kung Fu:

Today we have over thousands of styles in Chinese Kung Fu, but all remain their roots on Shaolin.. Mainly we can say that Kung Fu is subdivided in hard/outer and soft/inner styles. It is very difficult to describe every Kung Fu style, because some of them arose from already existing styles. The variety of Kung Fu is so big that it would take several books to describe all of them.

So I will give a small overview of the basics that make out a style:

Hard styles (Outer Styles): all Kung Fu styles in which you have hard blocking, breaking, punching and kicking are mainly hard styles, there is not much of throwing or grappling in it, for example: Nan Quan, Sanda, San-Shou

Soft styles (Inner styles): these styles use throwing kind of grappling and evading. Some of these soft styles even do not lecture fighting itself, they lecture us how to get stronger and healthier in our mental ways and how living without violence, for example: Tai Chi, Qui Kung.

In Kung Fu nearly every weapon is used, like in Shaolin. The most popular weapons are the broad sword, the Tai Chi sword, the bamboo staff or the iron lance.

In MKC Kung Fu is used by: KREEYA, QUAN CHI, REPTILE, TOMAS

Wu Shu:

Wu Shu is nearly the same as Kung Fu. It uses kicking, punching, grappling, throwing, jumping and nearly the same forms are used as in Shaolin.

Wu Shu can’t really be separated in hard or soft style, because it used techniques from both and even invented some new forms and techniques. Maybe the most popular and spectacular style of Wu Shu is drunken boxing, in which the fighter acts like a drunkard.

Wu Shu includes a big variety of weapons, so does drunken boxing. (It’s very spectacular if you watch someone showing his drunken-sword, or drunken-staff form!!!)

In MKC Wu Shu is used by: KUNG LAO, SHANG TSUNG, QUAN CHI

Karate:

Karate means the way of the open hand/fist. Karate-Do is maybe the best known style of Martial Arts in the West. This Japanese way of fighting is a very straight style in case of punching, kicking and blocking. Today there exist about twenty styles of Karate. The most popular is Shotokan.

Karate-Do spread some really interesting styles, like Kyokushin-Karate or Kyokoshinkai. Kyokoshin is mainly full-contact Karate and maybe the most spectacular Karate-style. Other styles are Wado-ryu, Goju-ryu, Shinto-ryu and some others. Today Karate is spread all over the world.

The most popular and even the most effective weapon Karate uses is the famous Katana, which was the main weapon of the Samurai. Other weapons used in Karate-Do are the tonfa, the sai, nunchaku, wakisashi, bo and a few more.

In MKC Karate is used by: BAGMAN, RAIN, SCORPION, SMOKE, SUB-ZERO, TOMAS

Tae Kwon Do:

Also called the Korean Karate. It uses maybe the most effective kick-techniques (beneath Kung Fu). Tae Kwon Do was invented in 1955 in South-Korea by Choi Hong Hi, 9th Dan.

TKD arose from Hwarang-Do, which is a fighting style by the Hwarang (Korean soldiers)! Todays TKD is a Olympic Competition and very respected all over the world. It is known for lightning kicks and spectacular jumping. It includes not very much punching and just a few throws. So kicking is the most important in TKD and there are a lot of “kick-variety” such as three different side-kicks, front slap kick, front snap kick, roundhouse to hook kick, etc.! Experienced TKD-Fighter has a great repertoire of kick combinations, which look really very difficult.

As far as I know TKD doesn’t have a lot of weapons to fight with! But you can combine a broad-sword very good to the kicking. For TKD a very quick weapon would be the best, as I said: broad-sword, iron-bo, chained-whip!

In MKC TKD is used by: SIRO, SHANG TSUNG, RAIDEN, MILEENA, SCORPION, SUB-ZERO

Judo:

Judo is a Japanaese way of self-defence! It uses only throwing, locking, grappling and holding techniques! Judo was the first Martial Art which went Olympia. Judo has some similarities with Sumo.

Todays Judo was invented by Prof. Jiguro Kano in 1881, who took the best systems from Jiu-Jitsu and changed them to a more “soft” style. It is also used for people to gain strength and health back.

In Judo there are no weapons used!

In MKC Judo is used by: TAJA, RAIDEN

Aikido:

Aikido founds it’s origin in Japan. The philosophy of it is to take the aggression of the attacker and then to use his power to get rid of the attack! This sounds quite simple but is very difficult if you think about it!

Aikido was invented at the beginning of the 20.century, so it’s a very “young” and innovative fighting style. The main movement is based on throwing, grapping, locking and evading the opponent. There are not really punches or kicking as an attack, but for your own defence! Aikido is very beautiful to watch, in case when two masters fight, it never looks like their fighting, but more their using nature and become one with their opponents attack.

Aikido weapon’s are a long staff similar to the bo, but quite thinner and the bokken or bokuto, which is kind of a wooden katana without handle.

In MKC Aikido is used by: SCORPION, RAIDEN

Mugen Tenshin:

Mugen Tenshin style is similar to the “normal” Ninjitsu! The Mugen Ninja Clan were killers in the ancient Japan, too and were highly respected by the Japanese imperor and other Ninja clans.

Mugen Tenshin is first of all an assassination fighting style, which means the fighters have to be very quick, strong and quiet by fighting. The Mugen style of Ninjitsu is a very acrobatic style, which includes a lot of flips, backflips, doubleflips, fall downs, etc.!

As far as I know Mugen Tenshin uses the same weapons as Ninjitsu which means: the ninja-sword (similar the katana), sai, wakisashi, hand-claws (look a lot like wolverines adamantium claws), chained-whip, poison-arrows, bow and arrow, etc. you see ninjas, nearly used every weapon!! And they were real good in medical and technical treatment!

In MKC Mugen Tenshin is used by: KIRI

Ninjitsu:

Ninjitsu is THE assassination fighting style. Every Ninja learned it from their birth, even as a very young child they had to learn to swin, climb, fight, doing acrobatics and learn how to use medicine, poison and technical stuff.

In the former Japan Ninjas were kind of special-agents and assassins, in some cases they are the opponent of the Samurai, because Ninjas don’t think very moralic and kill in the darkness. But some Ninja Clans even worked for the imperor. But the main ideais, who pays them the most for whom they will kill.

To be a Ninja you have to be born into a Ninja Clan, because their skills have to be trained from their early childhood. Nowadays there still are Ninja clans, but they don’t act like in the ancient Asia.

Ninjitsu uses all kinds of weapons, poisons and mechanical things: they learned to fight with the ninja-sword, with bow and arrow, with sai, bow and arrow, chained whip, normal whip, nunchaku, tripe section nunchaku, section whip, bo, iron lance, mechanical things, fire works and medicine!!!

In MKC Ninjitsu is used by: MILEENA, SUB-ZERO

Capoeira:

Capoeira was created by African slaves in Brazil, about 400 years ago. But Capoeira is not “only” a Martial Art, it is kind of a game, maybe a dance. When you see Capoeirista fight against each other they don’t touch their opponent. It is like a dance, that shows others how to use the moves but not aggressive and not in the case to hurt the opponent.

The next thing that stands out is, that when Capoeirista fight is that a group of people stand around them playing all kinds of instruments, this give the whole thing the similarity to a dancing session.

The movements are also based on dancing and look a lot like break dancing, which developed from Capoeira. Today Capoeira is very popular in America and even dropped to Europe.

As far as I know, there are no weapons besides some kind of Kali sticks used in Capoeira. But you can combine it to a whip or nunckakus quite well.

In MKC Capoiera is used by: REPTILE, BAGMAN, NOOB SAIBOT

Vale Tudo:

Originating in Brazil, Vale Tudo is portugese for ‘Anything goes’ and is among the most lethal fighting systems.

Vale Tudo takes the most effective combat techniques from styles such as Jujitsu, Muay Thai, Sambo, Wrestling and Western Boxing.

Vale Tudo is taught as a means of self defence and a way of entering the ring in Full Contact. Great emphasis is placed on physical training and technique. So Vale Tudo is a very aggressive fighting style, it is much of a self-defense system.

Vale Tudo weapon systems are not known!

In MKC Vale Tudo is used by: SIRO, BAGMAN, MIKA

Jujutsu:

Jujutsu, also written jujitsu or jiu jitsu, is the ancient hand-to-hand fighting art of the samurai.

Recorded as early as 230 BC. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, aikido and judo were created from the study of various schools of Jujutsu.

Jujutsu specializes in close techniques like locks, chokes, throws, holds, and grappling techniques, but it also includes strikes, kicks, blocks, and movements to counter attackers.

These days Jujutsu is not as popular as Judo in Europe but has a high standard in Asia.

Jujutsu is a style which includes weaponless fighting as well as weapon based fighting. As you red on the top Jujutsu was created by the Samurai the weapons of Jujutsu are “samuraiish”: Katana, bokken, bo, jo

In MKC Jujutsu is used by: KUNG LAO, LORI

Brute Force:

Not much to say about that! It includes kind of instinctive fighting like grabbing the opponent, locking, punching and minor kicking (because to kick real good and fast, you have to train hard!!!). Mostly in this case it goes with your physical abilities, the stronger you are, the harder you punch. Some things are also popular for these “fighters” is that they like to use their head, knee and elbow! As I said this is instinctive!

When you fight this way, nearly everything that is hard can be taken as a weapon. But maybe an iron staff or a hammer would be nice for a Brute Force fighter, but nothing what needs skills, like nunchaku, tonfa, sai, or three-section-staff.

In MKC Brute Force is used by: SHAO KAHN, REIKO

Boxing:

Maybe Boxing is the oldest fighting system we now, because boxing comes instinctive and was used far by the old greeks maybe far before.

Todays Boxing founds it origin in England in which the first rules for a fight were set and the first real system was founded. Boxing as the name says just uses punching techniques, but these techniques can be real effective! There is not a real blocking, more evading and dodging and no kicking or throwing (hell, how can u guys fight without kicking???)!

Boxing doesn’t use any weapons!!!

In MKC Boxing is used by: TAJA (but I have to say that in a freestyle fight nearly every fighter uses the box-based punches!!!)

Shin Yi:

Shin Yi is a form of Kung Fu! It founds its origin in China and is a very well distributed style in case of kicking, punching, throwing and grappling. In some ways it developed from Shaolin and Wu Dang (as most of the Kung Fu styles), but stays its own origin.

Shin Yi uses a very interesting art of movements, the fighter moves in circles and triangles to get his opponent, and it is a very spectacular fighting style, because of its jump kicks, flips, etc.!

As far as I know, Shin Yi uses the same weapons as Kung Fu: broad sword, hook sword, double tiger sword, staff, lance, etc.!

In MKC Shin Yi is used by: SHANG TSUNG

Pi Qua Quan:

In this fighting system the combination of high distance to short distance is very important! A good “Pi Qua Quanist” never let his opponent to come near him/her.

In some cases Pi Qua Quan can be compared with a windmill, because of its flowing movements.

Very interesting seems that it gained its name from the movements of the hands during the offense. Pi Qua Quan can be very good and effective used with a whip.

In MKC Pi Qua Quan is used by: VORPAX

Hakke Sho/ Hikka Ken:

These styles have their roots in China. Maybe Hakke Sho is a little different to Hikka Ken but both styles nearly fight in the same system! They use a lot a disturbing techniques, a lot of rolling, evading and acrobatic movements.

Both styles find their origin in the Chinese Shaolin, for example some techniques: Pubu Chaunzhang Lunbi Zaquan or Fanyao!!! A fighter who fights these styles has to be very quick and movable!

These styles look very beautiful and graceful but were used often by Chinese assassins!!!

Both these styles are likely compatible to a broad sword or a straight sword, and maybe a whip!

In MKC Hakke Sho and Hikka Ken are used by: VORPAX and MIKA

International Escrima Serrada Association:

In 1989, IESA was founded by Master Sultan Uddin to continue the tradition of openly teaching the Philippine martial arts to the public.

It is a very weapon based Martial Arts system, as you can read before. In some ways IESA is related to Kali, mainly to Inosanto Kali, which was invented by Dan Inosanto, a close friend of Bruce Lee.

In MKC IESA is used by: NOOB SAIBOT

Special Edenian Arts:

SEA as it is said is a system invented by the Edinian kingdom far befor the dead of Kitanas father!

So because I have no background of SEA I will just tear the techniques apart Kitana uses.

First of all in SEA you have the basic Boxing punches, some Shaolin stances such as Mabu and Gongbu. Then a lot of the Kung Fu animal forms, for example: tiger strikes, and snake bites! But in some cases Kitanas defensive style reminds me a lot of Wing Tsung (self defense system).

Some kicks of Kitana are related with TKD and some with Kung Fu! As seen in MKC Kitanas is unlikely to throw or grapple, maybe of her physical abilities!

Kitana often changes her “way” to fight! In the first scene she is straight like in Karate and then she moves in circles as in Shin Yi!

Kitana uses the double iron-fan, which is just used in Shaolin Kung Fu! I think that SEA uses nearly the same weapons as Kung Fu, Karate and Eskrima

So when I have to compare her style to others I personally think it is JKD based, because of the variety, but Kung Fu like in some ways!

In MKC SEA is used by: KITANA

 

Basic Skills:

Here are some moves which nearly every fighting system includes, I will call them the Basic Skills:

Punching:Jab/ Oi Tsuki (Japanese way)/ Chongquan (Chinese way)
Cross/ Gyaku Tsuki (Japanese way)
Hook
Uppercut
Pushing Palm Strike
Hammering fist
Swinging punch

Kicking (Every kick can be slapped or snapped):
Straight Kick/ Mae Geri (Japanese)/ Zhengtantui (Chinese)
Side Kick/ Yoko Geri (Japanese)/ Cetitui (Chinese)
Roundhouse Kick/ Mawashi Geri (Japanese)/ Sorry guys I don’t know how to say it in Chinese!
Reverse Kick
Double Kick/ Mae Geri Combination (Japanese)/ Erqjiao (Chinese)
Foot sweep/ Ashi Barai (Japanese)

Blocking/ Evading/ Dodging:
High/ Mid/ Low Block
Dodging

Grappling/ Locking/ Throwing:
Shoulder throw
Head Lock

This looks like it is very much for Basic Skills, but it isn’t really, nearly every technique is in nearly every fighting style.

 

Special thanks to Shiro (Christopher Postel) for the research.

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