Is This Move Even Good? Asking the Eternal Kung Fu Question

In kung fu, things can get... vague. Mysterious. Downright elusive.

Unlike Brazilian jiu-jitsu or Muay Thai, where you get tapped out or kicked in the liver regularly enough to know what works, kung fu often dances in a different realm. One without much testing. We don’t spar every class. Sometimes not even every month. So how do we know what’s “good”?

Often, we just trust that someone older, with a deeper voice and more flowy pants, said it’s good. So it must be.

This can be comforting, in a mystical, incense-burning kind of way. But if you’re a bit skeptical (like I am), or if you’ve ever asked yourself “but would this really work?”, then you may understand why I teach a little differently.

Why I Teach With a Different Lens (Yes, an MMA-Colored One)

After fighting in MMA and training in boxing, wrestling, and kickboxing, I’ve developed a bad habit: I like to check things. Is this movement efficient? Could I really use this against someone who wants to remove my head? Does it create openings? Does it close distance properly? Would I survive this in a cage?

These questions haunt me — and they also guide my teaching.

Add to that my ten years living in China, studying traditional martial arts, and my time teaching coaching at the university level... and well, you end up with someone who’s obsessed with comparing things, poking holes, and seeking deeper biomechanics underneath ancient movement.

How I Know If a Student Is “Doing It Right”

Most of my students don’t fight. And they don’t have to.

But the reference point is always combat.

When I teach, we build movement that could be used in self-defense. That means we look at balance, timing, weight transfer, explosiveness. By seeing or even drawing the angles, the weight transfer, the directions... things become visible. Why do you step like this? Why 45 degrees? It's all about the WHYs.