Kicking martial arts in Wuxia

[Ken Cheng]

In real world martial arts, kicking is as much part of the technique as throwing punches. Although the characters in wuxia fiction definitely use their legs and feet in fights, we don't hear too much about foot-fighting systems that are actually identified with names (and we're not counting hing gung skills here). Everybody knows about Hong Lung 18 Palms, 1 Yeung Finger Technique, Sad Palms, Iron Palm, etc., which are all hand and arm-based martial arts. Are there any famous foot and leg-based martial arts in wuxia fiction, which feature mostly kicking attacks?

[CC]

One of the Shaolin 72 arts is kick based. Linked Formless Image Kicks or something like that.

Actually not having much leg techniques might make some sense in wuxia world. In real life, the main advantage of the kick is the larger muscles found in the legs compared to the arms. Legs might have more range but you give up movement and the faster reaction and flexibility of arm strikes. However, in wuxia you have neigong which gives the main power of your strike. So the stronger leg muscles don't count for much.

[- L1n -]

ummm linbo wei bu, but if ur tqalkinga bout physical attacking then i guest that kikinbg technique within the 72 shaolin techniwues can't remeber wat it was called but ji mo zhi used it.

[Xiao Feng]

Lets see, there is Lip Fung's Fung San Tui, Wong Fei Hung's Fut San Mo Ying Keuk, Wong Siu Fu's Hong Lung 18 Tui

[charbydis]

It is much easier creating a cool name for a hand/arm technique than for a kick stance. And arms can reach more angles than the leg and is much faster in movement.

Would you rather shove both hands at an opponent, or kick both legs at an opponent?

[Candide]

Huang Yao Shi had the Sweeping Leaves Kicks, or something like that. He usually used it in conjunction with his Falling Leaves Divine Sword Palms.

[Battosai]

It's probably because kicks do not feature prominently in the traditional wushu, from which wugong is based upon. Kicks are there, but they're mostly secondary to the hands. Just as true grappling doesn't feature prominently in wushu either. Kicks and grappling seem more prominent in traditional Japanese fiction.

[Ian Liew]

The only one which comes to mind is the Heavenly Cruel Foot, or Tian Can Jiao, from the Buddha's Palm.

That leg technique from Huang Yaoshi - was that the one which he passed on to Lu Chengfeng to heal his legs?

[kamii]

Punches are much faster than kicks and u can repeat punched but how many kicks can u do consecutively?

[Ardor]

Sad Palms has a lot of kicking and stomaching and head butts and sleeve rolls

[kamii]

Sad Palms has a lot of kicking and stomaching and head butts and sleeve rolls

It does? Dam they neva showed it in the serials!! And i'm too dam lazy to read the book!!

[CC]

Originally posted by kamii
It does? Dam they neva showed it in the serials!! And i'm too dam lazy to read the book!!

It actually uses sleeves and all parts of the body to attack in strange unpredictable manners. It was strange enough to stun ZBT.

[kamii]

Cool!! I saw YG use it against WYS i think

[Wu Wudi]

What were some elite kicking MA in Wuxia? Were there any fighter that consistenly used their legs to attack?

I was inspired to make this topic because of Cung Le's victory over Frank Shamrock. Le did most of the damage with his "unorthodox" (by Western standards) kicks. Shamrock's right arm broke just from blocking the kicks too many times with his arm. Imagine what someone with high internal power can do!

I can't recall any such MA in Wuxia novels. But I know that in the Tian Xia comics (stormriders/Wind & Cloud), Wind is famous for his Wind God kicks.

[kyss of the sword]

HYS had a high level kicking skill, and yang guo had kicking moves in his sad aplms set. OYF's reverse 9yin turned his toad stance palms into toad kicks.

[Wu Wudi]

In the early days of Tian Xia, there was also a XL18 kicking art. Luckily, that was the only instance when the author ripped off JY's works.

[Snafu3721]

Going with the Tian Xia theme...

There is the "Feng Sheng Tui" (Wind God Kicks) that Ne Feng uses.

Quite a cool set of martial arts too

[CFT]

In the early days of Tian Xia, there was also a XL18 kicking art. Luckily, that was the only instance when the author ripped off JY's works.

Wasn't that Long Hu Men (Dragon Tiger Gate)? XL18 tui of Wang Xiao Hu.

[PJ]

Other than Jiumozhi's Pursuing Shadow Kick, which kicked Xuzhu 6 times before the latter had a chance to respond, there's not many kicking arts in Jin Yong universe.

That's why we came up with the Great Flaming Blade Foot.

[Wu Wudi]

Wasn't that Long Hu Men (Dragon Tiger Gate)? XL18 tui of Wang Xiao Hu.

The nephew of the 1st gen Sword Saint in Tain Xia also had such a moveset. That was the only instance in Tian Xia where something was copied from JY and it only involved a side character. I don't read Dragon Tiger Gate but I know that many of their main characters use MA that are copied from JY. I would prefer that comics not do that unless they're giving credit to JY. Also, I think less of a work if the author isn't even creative enough to think of his own MA names.

Other than Jiumozhi's Pursuing Shadow Kick, which kicked Xuzhu 6 times before the latter had a chance to respond, there's not many kicking arts in Jin Yong universe.

That's why we came up with the Great Flaming Blade Foot.

That sounds awesome. I wish JY had such a martial art for his characters with extreme Yang internal power.