Community Concepts (September 2023)

Community Concepts (September 2023)

09/06/2023

Dojo Philosophy for Everyday Life

The Cuong Nhu Philosophies are a series of lists learned at different ranks that lead to discussions, written papers, and public speaking topics. Often in these articles, I cover one briefly. A few are to help understand the history of this unique martial art style. This is one of those:

7 Martial Arts of Influence
1. Shotokan (Karate) – 2. Boxing – 3. Judo – 4. Aikido – 5. Wing Chun – 6. Tai Chi Chuan – 7. VovinamThe origin of Cuong Nhu is an exciting story about modern martial arts.

Dong Ngo, was the youngest child of a Vietnamese governor. Instead of having their children go out to a school to learn martial arts, they had the status and resources to have masters live with them to train the Ngo boys. The masters would only work with older teenagers (the practice of training prepubescent children is a very new idea), so only one or two brothers would train at a time.The oldest was a student of the founder of Vovinam, Vietnam’s national martial art (imagine Shaolin Kung Fu with exotic weapons and animal based fighting systems). The next two brothers studied Wing Chun Kung Fu (think boxing with lots of elbows and knee kicks) with a Chinese master.

The brothers, however, had no problem teaching each other and went on to pressure test their studies with the gangs and thugs on the streets of Hue, Vietnam. When preparing for a fight, the Ngo Boys would collect Sears catalogs from neighborhood doorsteps and tie them to the front and back of their torsos to protect against knife attacks. Dong, as the youngest, exchanged the principles of the various martial arts and the lessons of the street with equal fluency. As he grew he sought out more teachers, specifically in Karate and Judo.

When he came to America in the early 60s to earn his PhD, he found a population desperately interested in martial arts, so he started to teach students at the University of Florida, where he was studying. Dong Ngo agreed with Bruce Lee’s stance that one should cherry-pick the techniques from all styles that best suit one’s personality (the birth of Mixed Martial Arts). Being a graduate student, though, he felt that a balanced framework needed to underlay that search. Looking back into his own history and outwards to other styles, he came up with the Seven Styles of Influence, and rested the structure of his new style, Cuong Nhu (Vietnamese for “Hard and Soft”) on a progression through principles and techniques of this balanced latticework.

Students would begin with Hard style Karate to build their strength. Folding in Boxing, and Wing Chun would take that strength and add fluidity and a second dimension to their movement. Judo and Aikido would then be added so that a third dimension could be added, allowing the Soft, or yielding principles of movement to control an attacker peacefully. Finally they would add Tai Chi to increase their understanding of yielding, and Vovinam to add nuance and expression to the balance of Hard and Soft Styles.

Once they had gained proficiency in these balanced foundations, they would have the perspective to better explore the world of martial arts to add to their own personal practice. Next month I’ll tell the second half of the story which led to Cuong Nhu’s detailed philosophy of leadership and personal development.