Nothing can break this Shaolin kungfu master

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Kittamaru, Mar 27, 2015.

  1. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    Okay... I have to admit, I'm a little mystified here - I understand sleight of hand and all that jazz but what the actual hell...?
     
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  3. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    Takes crazy to a whole new level.
     
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  5. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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  7. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    silly
     
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  8. OnlyMe Valued Senior Member

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    They never showed the drill bit actually in contact with his head or that it was sharp.

    Laying on the points of the spears has been done and done and done. They look sharp but may have been just pointed and his weight was spread over five spear points? (What all of his 80 or 90 lb?) The breaking of the paving stone on his back is a gimmic, since the stone itself absorbs most of the force of the impact. That is just plain physics.

    It is hard to tell in the video, but it did not look like he cut the vegetable stem with the same part of the blade he used to pull with... Even so you would be suprized how well a dull blade, in the hands of a skilled martial artist can cut through something... I once saw a demonstration where a martial artist using a blade that was not just not sharp, but dulled to a rounded edge, cut clean through a piece of bamboo that looked about 4 inches in diameter.

    Most of what was shown in the video, while it requires training, could also be a bit of magician's tricks.

    Years ago my brother inlaw a surgeon, saw a martial arts exhibition of TV, where a fella broke a railroad tie with the heal of his foot. Impressed by the on stage live performance he called his twin the next day, also a surgeon, to tell him about it. His twin responded by telling him yes he had head about it. In fact he had been on duty in the ER when they brought the man in to have the heal pad of his foot sewen back on.

    Things are not always as they seem.

    BTW Kung Fu translates as Work Done and was historically about the same as our PhD. Naming a martial arts style Kung Fu, is mostly a westernization. Chinese martial arts are Wushu roughly translated as Chinese boxing, so you could be Wushu Kung Fu, meaning you had completed your training. The really mythical feats of ledgend I think were mostly attributed to Tai Chi masters, or similar internal energy techniques, but those systems generally took 20-30 years to master as a martial art. Not to be confused with Qigong, another modernization, at least as it is popularly presented today.
     
  9. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    There is no doubt in my mind that Penn & Teller could do the same amazing thing. We all know that a drill can go through skin, flesh and bone with no problem; so we are left with 2 options, the monk is magic or it is a trick. I am guessing he is not magic.

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  10. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Who really cares? This doesn't help anyone and could actually cause others to try this sort of thing and only to find out they can and do get hurt.
     
  11. cluelusshusbund + Public Dilemma + Valued Senior Member

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    Just qurious... sinse you understand "sleight of hand and all that jazz"... what is it you'r mystified about.???
     
  12. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    The article actually has the monk explaining that he did hurt himself training for this (though there is no "Kids, don't try this at home" warning on it)

    As I said, I'm familiar with sleight of hand and other such tricks, but some of those just confused me...

    For example, the pulling the car with the blade on his neck - even if we assume a rounded blade... wouldn't that still crush the windpipe? I know gripping the trachea from the sides, it only takes something like seven PSI to crush it - from the front, with all the musculature in the way, I don't know off hand. I'd still think he was placing well over a hundred PSI upon it though, given how narrow it was.

    With the spears bit, again - even if they are rounded off, most people that do the "laying on a bed of nails" type tricks have several dozen to several hundred placed fairly close together - this reduces the weight on each point. In this case, with a total of five spears, it still seems that should be enough to pierce the skin - I know I was stabbed with a pencil once (a #2 Ticonderoga to be precise) that wasn't fresh from the sharpener... and this was something being held by a 12 year old.

    Stage magic wouldn't surprise me one bit - just kind of curious how though

    The part with the metal tube against the wall - even if we assume it to be something relatively flimsy, as opposed to steel or iron, shouldn't the force it takes to bend it be enough to pierce the skin before it bends (Unless, of course, it's actually some sort of rubber core with just a thin layer of metal around it, which I guess is possible... but shouldn't that have sprung back to shape after he let the pressure off?)
     
  13. OnlyMe Valued Senior Member

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    I worked for a short time when I was young for a railroad. During my two week breakin one of the things I was shown was that a 60 ton box car, with roller bearings on flat rail.., would roll away if I just leaned on it. I weighed in at maybe 140-145 lbs at the time. Leaning against that box car could not have been more than 20-30 lbs of force, if that.

    I am sure the blade rested against taught muscles and ligaments running from the sternum to the front base of the skull, not his windpipe.

    The spear point at his neck appeared to be against the top of his sternum, not his wind pipe. Then two on his femurs and the middle two hard to place, but likely muscle and ribs.

    The way it bent it did appear to be metal to me... Given the right kind of metal, the longer it is the easier it would be to bend it.., it was resting probably once more against his sternum? And what purpose was breaking a stick across his back supposed to serve? Sensationalism?

    As I implied earlier, the fact that he was billed as a Shaolin Kung Fu master (Kung Fu and Master being a bit redundant in Chinese), makes me believe that not everything is as it seems. Shaolin refers to his Shaolin Buddhist background, Wushu would be the more likey term for his martial art and Kung Fu that he had mastered it. He seems to be billed and promoted as an act...
     
  14. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    If you read the article, he ran off to a Shaolin temple at sixteen, spent two years there, then went to study under various Kung Fu "masters" (no names given) - dunno how that all adds up in terms of mastery of any given art to be honest
     
  15. Stoniphi obscurely fossiliferous Valued Senior Member

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    Wushu is contemporary Chinese 'martial arts', created and purposed by the current government to show off various gymnastic skills rather than to allow the Chinese citizenry to once again become proficient at self defense or fighting as when they started the Boxer Rebellion. A very long time ago Bodhidharma went to Shaolin and added his Buddhist meditation practice, Indian yoga and pressure point training to the 5 animal form martial arts that were already being practiced there. Shaolin was the closest thing to a university they had back then in rural China and the students learned more than just martial arts. The 'new style' created then was termed "Gung Fu" AKA "Kung Fu". When the Imperial Chinese government destroyed the temple at Shaolin, the monks left alive scattered. A Buddhist nun named Wing Chun was given the task of preserving both Kung Fu and the practice of the Wooden Warrior. The wooden warriors were each designed so as to allow the student to practice certain techniques on a life - sized moving figure made of wood. From the hall of 50 wooden warriors she had to pick the traits that would be preserved in just 1 wooden warrior and pass that on along with Kung Fu. That tradition was kept alive by such famous teachers as Yip Man who taught Bruce Lee the Gung Fu upon which he based his new martial art - Jeet Kun Do. Other arts also spun off of Gung Fu.

    The Chinese government, in response to the growing popularity of Shaolin and Kung Fu in the rest of the world, allowed the Shaolin temple to reopen, though with close supervision. Many martial arts masters can do similar feats of strength, though some are certainly closely related to the 'miracles' done by yogis (masters of Indian yoga). I have myself kicked through concrete slabs identical to the ones that were broken on this master's back and punched through 7 inches of pine boards. Repeatedly. I also have some pretty righteous arthritis now. Many of those demonstrations are indeed 100% real world stuff, shown by masters to demonstrate what the body can do when it is not held back by the mind. I had a picture of a Taekwondo Buddhist monk (my discipline) doing a double flying front kick to show this aspect of the arts, but my gallery seems to have gone away with the implementation of our new software.

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    There is a Grand Master in Taekwondo in my life, he can do some pretty amazing things. He has been practicing them since the invention of TKD though, and "practice makes perfect".

    At any rate, while somewhat extreme and dramatic (also perhaps with some edges dulled a tad etc), this fellow appears to be demonstrating his self control and his mastery of his chosen art. If nothing else, he may encourage some impressionable young minds to get involved in the martial arts, and I would consider that to be a good thing.

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    Ahh, I found another copy of that pic of the monk.
     

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