Wushu (sport)
Wushu is a sport that is originated from traditional Chinese martial arts. It was created in China after 1949. It was created to nationalize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts. Most of the competitions had influences of martial arts. This was created by government committees. Wushu has become an international sport through the International Wushu Federation (IWUF). The IWUF holds the World Wushu Championships every two years. The first World Championships were held in 1991 in Beijing.
Competitive wushu is made up of two disciplines: taolu (Tao Lu ; forms) and sanda (San Da ; sparring). Taolu involves martial arts routines. These are judged and given points according to specific rules on quality and difficulty of movements. The movements could be stances, kicks, punches, balances, jumps, sweeps and throws. Competitive forms have time limits that can range from 1 minute, 20 seconds to over five minutes. Modern wushu competitors practice jumping techniques such as 540 and 720 and even 900 degree jumps and kicks.
Sanda (sometimes called sanshou or Lei tai) is a modern fighting method and sport. It was influenced by traditional Chinese boxing, Chinese wrestling and Chinese grappling. Sanda has all the combat features of wushu. Sanda is similar to kickboxing or Muay Thai, but it involves more grappling techniques. Sanda competitions are often held alongside taolu competitions.
References
Books
Mastering WUSHU by Jiang Bangjun and Emilio Alpanseque, .
Fundamentals of High Performance Wushu: Taolu Jumps and Spins by Raymond Wu, .
Kung Fu Elements , Liang, Shou-Yu and Wu, Wen-Ching,
Other websites
International Wushu Federation - Official Website
The Web's Most Comprehensive Wushu Site Covering the Beijing Wushu Team, US Wushu and Wushu in the Olympics. Contains pictures, videos, animation, articles and competition results and resources.
FM - Wushu - A list of Techniques and free animated tutorials for Contemporary Wushu Techniques
What is Wushu - Contains information about the history of wushu
http://www.nardis.com/~twchan/liang.html - Info about the history of wushu
Martial art techniques
Sport in China