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The arts that I have been a part of for most of my life are a variety of movement arts. While I enjoy consuming a variety of mediums of art the art that I personally create is pretty much all under the movement arts umbrella. The first and definitely the movement art I have spent the most time is martial arts. I have been studying martial arts for eleven years, starting with karate.

Image: "Karate Kata" by rauschenberger Source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/karate-kata-sport-defend-combat-3961079/

I spent ten years studying karate and the last two and half years of that journey teaching it as well. My time training exclusively karate ended about two years ago when one of my teachers began teaching me shaolin kung fu. This gave me an entirely new avenue to explore my martial arts and lead to me starting an entirely new kung fu style, wushu, in Boston when I started college last year. I have been going back and practicing a lot of my old material while waiting for Covid restrictions to ease up so I can resume classes in person. Martial arts have left a huge lasting impact on my life and even without any classes to take right now I still have plenty of ways to keep myself busy while training. During my martial arts journey I discovered an art that might mean even more to me despite the fact that I have been training it for about half the time that I have been doing martial arts. This art is called tricking. 
Image: "Nelson Zuniga RocketBoi" by Andy M. Ngo Source: https://www.loopkickstricking.com/learn-tricking/how-to-start-tricking-a-comprehensive-beginners-guide/


Tricking is the mix of martial arts kicks with other freestyle movement arts such as gymnastics and break-dancing, it involves blending kicks flips and twists to push the limits of what is possible. I stumbled across tricking while browsing YouTube one day and I was instantly hooked. I tried my best to teach myself using the internet and any other resources I could get my hands on. Over the course of the last six years I have learned a lot through trial and error and met a lot of people along the way. Today I have many people that I train with frequently and have found a community that I am proud to be a part of. The movement arts have given me a way to express myself. Many people from the outside looking in might see what I do as a sport but in my community, it is widely acknowledged that what we do is art.

 


Comments

  1. JsmejiaSeptember 15, 2020 at 6:29 PM

    Hello Josh, I can see that you are very passionate about martial arts and its subcategories. I have a brother and cousin who went to martial arts classes when they were younger and they enjoyed it. I even participated in one of the classes but decided it was not for me. I respect how it is an art that requires patience and many years of practice to perfect. Your passion for martial arts is like my passion for technology. I enjoy finding new things and learning more about it.

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  2. Megan KensingtonSeptember 16, 2020 at 1:50 PM

    Great post, Josh! I love that you used movement as a category here and think it's such a cool idea to consider art in that way. You're absolutely right, and I think that movement-based arts (especially with high degrees of difficulty) have become increasingly prominent over the years. I think these examples and images you included definitely fit our exploration of the arts and I'll also be interested to know more about some of the performance-based creative movements that you like (eg. action / martial arts films, etc!), too!

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  3. Conner HarkinsSeptember 17, 2020 at 3:13 PM

    Hey josh,
    Your passion for karate seems really interesting. I don't know much about it but it has definitely always caught my eye. I would consider it a mix of a sport and art form which makes it really unique and cool. Also I had never really heard about "tricking" but it seems awesome, I'll definitely look up some youtube videos on it and check it out.

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  4. David SparksSeptember 18, 2020 at 9:45 AM

    Hey Josh, I have never been into martial arts. However, I always had respect for those who did so power to you, but Shaolin Kung fu is a whole other level. I’ve done some digging into what they do (at least in the temples) and those guys are a different breed. I had also never heard of tricking before your post. I looked up a couple fights and it was pretty cool. I wish you luck in your martial art endeavors.

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  5. Murph38September 18, 2020 at 5:28 PM

    Josh! Thank you for posting about your martial arts experiences through the years! Finally someone who practices, AND TRICKS!! We definitely need to link sometime and have a tricking session in the quad LOL. I study under Chris Rappold, the ED of Team Paul Mitchell Karate, with a big background in mostly Taekwondo and Point Karate, with some XMA thrown in the mix. I would love to learn exactly what shaolin kung fu consists of! I am always open to learn something new.

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