Avatar: Martial Art Bending Styles Explained

each of the four nations has their own unique blend of martial arts style while their elemental bending differs in form and technique so does the way they perform kicks and punches the avatar franchise is strongly influenced by east asian culture as they borrow from various regions fashion elements architecture styles and customs the series which has a whole lot of fighting also finds inspiration for its combat sequences in real martial arts styles in today's video i'll go over various martial arts techniques and styles used in the show while linking them with their proper elemental bending type and in the process hopefully not completely butchering their names are you ready to fight let's go while the air nomads are a peaceful nation they are quite skilled when it comes to fighting their fighting technique is based on bhagwajang which is a chinese martial art coming from the wudang school this combat style can also be referred to as circle walking or eight trigram palm which some of you naruto fans may recognize as a huge family technique while not the only style employed by airbenders bhagwajiang involves quick and sudden evasive moves which in a way reminds me of the element of wind through this technique which draws energy from the fighter's abdomen the airbender becomes almost untouchable or even intangible like the element they bend the technique used by the aeronomads is first and foremost defensive rather than offensive due to their pacifist nature the circle walking technique they use consists of circular movements turning the airbender into some kind of mini tornado which in return makes them hard to attack as their opponent's blows end up hitting nothing but air the fighter's entire body uses smooth coiling movements while also using uncoiling ones and open hand techniques making them ready to grab their opponent and send them flying at any moment a common use of bhagwajang can be seen in avatar when ang confronts hide who's jealous of him talking to his crush anji you can see an amused aang twirling around hide swiftly passing under the other boy and even hiding himself behind his opponent's back one of the strongest points in this style is disappearing just like the wind as you witness your opponent basically kicking his own butt now let's take a look at how waterbenders fight they practice the martial art of tai chi and if you watched any martial arts film you might already be familiar with the style tai chi is also known as shadow shadowboxing and just like waterbending it has various uses such as defense training and health benefits or healing tai chi can also be referred to as taiji kuan the term taiji is a chinese concept which relates to the flux of yin and yang this fact reminds me of how the moon spirit twee and the ocean spirit law performed an eternal dance keeping a form of balance but the idea of flux is also close to how water bending is performed as discussed in another one of our videos water bending was inspired by the push and pull effect that the moon had on ocean tides a type of movement that can also be applied to the art of tai chi tai chi was also chosen as the water tribe's main martial arts style since it features slow and fluid movements making it look like flowing water and since tai chi is also used for health benefits it also makes sense that some water benders like katara have the power to heal the wounded both tai chi and water bending seem to be strongly influenced from age-old healing practices during these ancient times people believe that healers could channel their inner energy and transfer it for healing purposes while water bending can cause quite a mess it is better performed through calm and balance earthbenders use a few martial arts styles to bend giant rocks and metal but their main style of choice is the type of kung fu called hanga this style is famous for its deep low stances like the horse stance which asks its practitioner to keep their legs far apart and lower their body down as close as possible to the ground now if i were to try and do that this is basically what i would sound like if i was away from my microphone because oh my jeans my jeans have ripped oh that was that was a mistake i shouldn't have done that whoops i need new jeans now the very rooted and grounded technique makes it possible for the fighters to keep a great balance and strength when it comes to fighting earthbenders use powerful hand techniques like the fujiao pipe also known as the tiger claw style they mold their hands to resemble a tiger's paws and use it to rip tear claw or grasp as you can see hunga uses very rooted stances making the one who performs the style close to the earth this makes the earthbender in communion with their element which makes it easier for them to bend and control effectively besides strong stances hunga also features powerful and heavy kicks and punches making the technique close to the nature of earth itself to control its mass an earthbender needs to show brute's strength and ambition in contrast to airbenders earthbenders are typically not as spiritual and while they have one of the most useful defense abilities just like firebenders they won't hesitate to throw a boulder or two right at you having been at war for a hundred years the fire nation developed many skills when it comes to martial arts the first i want to talk about is the xiaolin kwan which can also be called northern xiaolin kung fu you can see mostly how the style influenced firebending combat and noticing how firebenders use quite technical kicking strikes often involving twirling movements in the air firebenders both firebend by using their hands in many ways but also their feet to either fly into the air or direct flames at their opponents northern shaolin is one of the most aggressive fighting styles out there and unlike airbenders or waterbenders it is highly external and fast using swift kicks for a longer range as you might have guessed firebending martial art style is all about the attack and less about the defense while they will engage in a few pirouettes to avoid getting an air gust or an ice pick or a boulder thrown at them their element is rather limited when it comes to protecting themselves so it makes even more sense that they would adapt their bending style to a martial art that prioritizes offense over defense the martial arts style known as xing yi kwan or mind heart boxing can be found in airbending fighting techniques but to a lesser extent than the twirly bagua jong xing yikuan can be found more or less translated to shape will fist or form intention fist this martial art style involves aggressive and linear movements where the practitioner focuses all of their energy through their fist this technique allows the airbender to perform an explosive blow causing their opponent to lose balance and crash to the ground combined with bhagwajang's circle walking technique explained earlier the airbender can evade their adversary while ending the fight pretty quick with one single punch if needed the mind-heart boxing martial art style not only differs from bhagwajang in the sense that it is a bit more on the offensive side than the defensive but also in the way that it requires the fighter to move as i've explained with the first airbending technique bhagwajang is a very circular art just like aang's invention the air scooter the bender is constantly moving in circles with xing yi quan you get the exact opposite everything is practiced in straight lines it's as if the first takes the logic of a constant wind going around while the other a sudden gust of air thrown right at the opponent the main purpose of the style is for the fighter to become a spear in a way the attack comes in a single burst and needs to be extra precise to be able to break down the enemy's defenses making them incapable of fighting back needless to say the style fits perfectly with the air nomads as it needs a mastering of one's inner strength and peace in order to coordinate the powerful blow while the earthbenders mainly adopted techniques from hangar they also draw from a few other styles which falls under a collection of chinese martial arts called nan kwon just like hunga nan kwan movements used in this style are very stable and grounded the fighters using non-kwan can use strong hand techniques low stances but also a form of shouting called fasheng used to intimidate most of the techniques used in this style feature strong punches while kicks are rather rare nan kwan which is also known as southern fist includes many martial arts styles originating from southern china like the wing chun style or choigar while i've been talking about earthbending as an aggressive form of bending so far wing chun features a form of softness or a soft technique the main points of soft technique is to turn the attacker's force against them so in a way it focuses more on defense than offense to master wing chun an earthbender has to be able to relax in order to achieve softness by practicing all spheres of themselves be it physical or mental but in a relaxed way one good example of softness would be the moment when toff discovered metal bending and felt the metal impurities inside the cage she was trapped in her relaxed state allowed her to pierce the cage's walls in order to bend the metal escape and well not be so soft on her abductors not to be confused with the southern praying mantis the northern praying mantis is a good example of how firebenders can be careless and super aggressive when it comes to engaging in battle the style uses techniques that are not too far off from street fighter's chun li's signature move the lightning kick while using this style you basically have to abandon any ideas of strategizing and go straight for the win as you may have guessed it features a lot of kicking but this time high speed ones and in a successive manner the fighter has to deal as many blows as possible in a matter of just a few seconds making for a sort of explosion of pain and in the firebender's case maybe even an actual explosion compared to other more fist focused fighting styles this technique requires its user to hold an arm position resembling the praying mantis itself as their fingers are pointed down the fighter's arms are in what is called the praying mantis hook this hook is more useful to deflect incoming attacks and while kicks are the key to the firebending style the attacker can also use their hands to directly hit critical spots like the eyes or throat as i explained in previous entries most earthbenders martial arts styles are based on hunga but like anything else there are exceptions when it comes to toff bae fong the self-proclaimed greatest earthbender in the world she uses a slightly different technique toff uses what we call the southern praying mantis style since the style needs the fighters to have precise stepping skills and only uses a limited number of low kicks it is perfect for the blind earthbender this fact allows toff to keep in contact with the ground giving her her own way of seeing by using the seismic sense technique related to the southern praying mantis is the sticky hands philosophy the practice allows the combatant to predict their opponent's next move sticky hands practitioners are able to know and advance their enemies next play by keeping close physical contact to them while not quite the same but close enough this technique reminds me of how toff can detect movement when her bare feet touch the ground the southern praying mantis style is all about reading your opponent's intentions and anticipating their next punch or kick it's kind of like chess but more violent now wood bending has become a sort of original and treasured creation here at cbr since our writer started developing it in the wood bending is the next sub-element form video now if you saw that video you might recall that the writer was heavily inspired by okinawan culture and created a sort of wood tribe living peacefully somewhere at the far east of the map with smaller woodline turtles compared to firebenders woodbenders prefer close range combat to long range and use the tonfa to fight their enemies the tanfa is one of the many weapons used in okinawan kobudo which means old martial way of okinawa which is basically their weapon systems using their wood bending ability a woodbender would create two tonfas and get ready for battle the weapon also referred to as the t-baton is a melee weapon made out of wood the use of tonfas would classify woodbenders as all-around fighters as these long sticks can be used both to attack and to shield when its wielder fuses the two tonfas together the nunchaku another weapon that's often used in karate a type of martial art to which i will return later would also be part of the woodbender arsenal now if you don't know what that is i disagree just think about michelangelo's weapon from the teenage mutant ninja turtles a woodbender would be able to create nunchakus granted that there was wood in the nearby area they would need to fashion two small sticks but would miss one important component the metallic chain so nunchaku wielders would travel in the forest wearing two chains as bracelets and would use these to link together the sticks that make the nunchaku if a battle erupts man that's cool chiang kwan or long fist in english is another external type of kung fu now that one involves a lot of acrobatics combined with kicks the motto of the style is the best defense is a strong offense now that being said fighters often launch themselves rapidly at their opponent with the goal of giving the first and well last hit the chiang kwan style attacks are so aggressive and in your face that it often doesn't give the person being attacked time to fight back now this was also the fire nation's strategy when they attacked the air nomad temples while the air nomads were peaceful people we know that some of them fought back as is the case with giatso who took a bunch of fire nation soldiers to the grave with them other techniques used in long fist include chin na which is a group of joint locking techniques chin na has a similar use to the qi blocking technique used by the now kiyoshi warrior tailee while it doesn't block anyone's bending it can control or lock someone's joints muscles or even tendons making the poor soul incapable of basically anything but crying for their mommies woodbenders would not only be masters at weapon wielding but they would also be trained in the art of karate karate has its roots in okinawan martial arts while being influenced by kung fu while not as aggressive as fire bending style karate focuses on striking the karateka uses a balance between punches and kicks but also elbow strikes and knee strikes wood benders would amplify the power of their strikes by creating wooden gauntlets greaves for the lower legs knee and shoulder pads the art of wood bending requires the woodbenders to be grounded just like earthbenders while being in perfect harmony with their body as a whole and nature itself unlike firebenders who focus on kicks woodbenders make the most of all they've got capable of jumping high in the air with a little boost from roots woodbenders can come down on their enemies with a powerful sidekick jump they may not be as fast as airbenders but they are quite agile fighters and often seek high ground up in trees when in their natural environment when not using weapons their most notable hand position is the willow leaf palm this position is an open hand technique where four fingers of the hand are pointed straight while the thumb is slightly bent it allows them to perform a powerful knife hand strike as they hit their adversary with the side of their hands the southern dragon claw is the firebender's equivalent of the earthbender's tigerclaw technique while the tigerclaw is used to hit and claw one's opponent the dragonclaw mimics the way a dragon would grab its prey the close range technique is useful when grabbing an enemy and maybe giving them a few lightning kicks while you're at it obviously compared to most firebending styles this technique is not kick focused but don't be fooled by its name the feet are always the root of the fire nation combat style inspired by the mythical chinese dragon southern dragon claw users zigzag the floor with their feet making the firebender in constant movement this type of step is called the lung ying and allows the firebender to move at an unusual angle forcing the opponent to reposition their body every time the zigzagging warrior moves the second type of footwork featured in this martial arts style is called bic bow stepping this one is meant to press your enemy and make them lose their focus as you attack with a fiery rage user aj thomas has a lot of ideas for us at cbr pitching alternate timeline ideas he writes what if cora still gains a connection to past avatars before her well there's actually a theory going around that she would be able to regain the connection like aang did with roku so it does make sense hey thanks for the ideas

Channel: CBR

Views: 228,632

Keywords: karate, kung fu, avatar the last airbender, korra, the legend of korra, aang, waterbending, firebending, earthbending, woodbending, airbending, air nomads, fire nation, nickelodeon, anime, cartoon, zaheer, martial arts, fight, Japan

Id: pD2PLJxjHJU

Length: 16min 4sec (964 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2021