NTD:s tävling blåser nytt liv i traditionell stridskonst | NTD NYHETER

Welcome back to NTD Good Morning. Next, we have a story about reviving tradition. While modern martial arts competitions usually involve some kind of hand-to-hand combat, that wasn't how this ancient Chinese traditional practice first began. Traditional martial arts were once about martial virtue, and that practice is now being revitalized in NTD's traditional martial arts competition, which kicked off yesterday. NTD's David Martin has more. NTD's traditional martial arts competition is going on right here in New York City. But what is traditional martial arts, and how does it differ from today's modern martial arts? I asked around to find out. Traditional Chinese martial arts is the art of your body, basically, of moving your body in the most efficient and the most natural way, and being able to fight is just a side effect. It's not the goal, it's by far not the goal, and it's not the reason why you should actually start traditional Chinese martial arts. Ike, up from Manhattan, who won gold in this event in 2024, says he's lucky that he's only practiced real traditional Chinese martial arts as opposed to the modern form. So my journey began when I was eight. I saw the Monkey King TV series, the really old one from 19, I think, what is it? 1986, something, that one, with the real bad animations. But it was great, and I told my mother, yeah, I want to be like Monkey King as well and do wushu. And so she learned a little bit when she was younger and introduced some just basic movements, and that's how it started. But Opperman isn't the only one who got interested in this practice through TV. I grew up watching the old Star Trek TV series with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy and all that, and the old Avengers detective show and I Spy and stuff like that. So I was always watching somebody put their hand on a table, jump sidekick somebody, or William Shatner chopping somebody. So that was cool to me, that was cool. So that's how I actually got into it. Ronald Wheeler, who's practiced martial arts for nearly five decades, says explaining traditional martial arts to today's mixed martial artists has its challenges. They box, they kick box, they do Muay Thai, they do Krav Maga, they do MMA, they do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and everyone always says, Ron, what is all that stuff that y'all are doing waving your hands in the air, what is all that? And I'm like, first of all, it's not a bunch of stuff, so let's calm that down. Secondly, it works. But according to Opperman, it doesn't work without someone having martial virtue or wu de. He describes that wu de as not using what you were able to do to do bad, but to do good. That's very easy to put it, and I think wu de traditionally wasn't something that was taught specifically. It was more something that was transferred by the teacher living by it, and paying attention to who he chooses as his students. And then I realized doing that is quite important, and I had many students, or many people who wanted to learn who I said, I'm sorry, maybe in a few years, when your mindset changes. Fellow competitor Chris Chappell says the training teaches him to relax. And if you're constantly training yourself to relax and be calm in order to do the system, you're not gonna be the kind of person that will explode if somebody accidentally bumps into you into the street. NTD's traditional martial arts competition features both a weapons category and an unarmed category with men's, women's, and junior divisions in each. The semifinals start Friday afternoon with 60 competitors in action. Meanwhile, the finals will take place on Saturday and will be live streamed on NTD, so make sure you tune in. This is Dave Martin for NTD News.