Styles of Wushu
Modern Wushu
Modern competitive wushu is composed of two disciplines: taolu (bare hands, duel events known as duilian, short and long weapon forms and sanda/contact sparring. The common taolu forms are categorizsed as follows:
Bare Hands
- Changquan (Long Fist)
- Nanquan (Southern Fist)
- Taijiquan (or Tai Chi Chuan)
Short Weapons
- Dao (single edge broadsword)
- Jian (double-edged straight sword)
- Nandao (Southern single-edged sword)
- Taijijian (Taiji double-edged sword)
Long Weapons
- Gunshu (staff)
- Qiangshu (spear)
- Nangun (Southern cudgel)
The forms comprise basic wushu movements such as throwing fist, push palm, heel kicking, jumping and sweeping in combination with stances such as the horse stance, push down and bare hands sparring. The taolu form can also be modified for competition to highlight the competitor’s strengths. Modern wushu competitors are increasingly training in aerial techniques such as 360, 540 and 720 degree jumps and kicks to add more difficulty and style to their forms.
In contemporary times, wushu has become an International Competitive Sport administered through the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), which holds the World Wushu Championships every two years. The first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing. The latest (Thirteen) World Championships was held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2015.
Traditional Wushu
Like Modern Wushu, Traditional Wushu encompasses a large variety of different styles including barehand and weapons from Southern and Northern Shaolin, Wing Chun, Bajiquan, Fanziquan, internal styles like Taijiquan, Xingyiquan, Baguazhang and many more. Unlike Modern Wushu, Traditional Wushu routines can generally be choreographed by the practitioner and their coach without set movements and do not include scores for degree of difficulty (nandu) for additional acrobatic moves. More recently however, prescribed competition forms for events like Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and Baguazhang have become more prevalent in competition.
