Surfing the net I found this article which was published in "Inside Kung Fu Magazine"

http://www.chinastrategies.com/flying.htm

According to the second paragraph Chinese infantrymen used flying kicks against Mongol cavalryman in order to make them fall. What do you think? I believe it is very unlikely but, as a matter of fact, have no concrete data to base my supposition on.

Newton's principle tells me, for every push there is an equal and opposite push.

Applying it here, unless the cavalryman is standing still like a pumpkin on a stall, it is almost impossible to commit such feat unless they are kicking a boy off a pony.

I think whoever wrote that watch way too much Chinese movies.

First off--

My response to the whole article:



I agree with Marius. I think we actually had a discussion about this before. Just more Kung Fu Magazine trash. It's impractical, and why do that when at that range, you're already close enough to use a weapon? Makes no sense at all. Plus, it doesn't really solve the whole range difference that they hyped up in the sensationalistic beginning--how do you unhorse a horse archer with a flying kick if he's that far away? (Mongols invented stay-away-and-shoot? I had to laugh).

Hailong, put it this way. They made the claim. Burden of proof is on them. They don't meet it.

Just be careful about what Kung Fu Magazine says. A lot of the stuff is just martial arts lore (a lot of downright untruths, all meant to help generate popularity), and this is one of the examples. I'd like to see this backed up with credible historical evidence.

Just more Kung Fu Magazine trash. It's impractical, and why do that when at that range, you're already close enough to use a weapon? Makes no sense at all. Plus, it doesn't really solve the whole range difference that they hyped up in the sensationalistic beginning--how do you unhorse a horse archer with a flying kick if he's that far away? (Mongols invented stay-away-and-shoot? I had to laugh).

Hailong, put it this way. They made the claim. Burden of proof is on them. They don't meet it.

Just be careful about what Kung Fu Magazine says. A lot of the stuff is just martial arts lore (a lot of downright untruths, all meant to help generate popularity), and this is one of the examples. I'd like to see this backed up with credible historical evidence.
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Yes I think it's incredible that anyone is authorised to make similar statements in a magazine which has international distribution. I also thought that to make that kind of jump soldiers would have had to use a stick (which seems to be a pretty bad choice for a weapon to kill enemies) and that since the chinese spear is wider at its basis and thinner on the top part it would be hardly let a soldier make such a kind of jump (notwithstanding the fact that, if you already have a spear why should you try to use it to jump???)

Precisely! Why not just...use it to stab the person? I'm sure that's pretty lethal, or at least more than a flying kick.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of people who accept claims simply because they're made in Kung Fu Magazine, so they tend to repeat the claims, which are repeated, and repeated...without verification for accuracy by historians or academia. It's sad, really. Kung Fu Magazine is a very efficient vehicle for distributing CMA and Chinese History untruths.

Isn't there a picture from Osprey Publishing military book on China showing red turban rebel flying kicking Mongol horseman (without a stick)? Well, more like accidently slipping in mud.

Are you guys talking about Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine, or Inside Kung Fu Magazine?

They're both Gene Ching's stuff right?

Neither of them are very academic.

Peng--I remember that thread. I hate McBride's illustrations for the Chinese.

Inside Kung Fu isn't Gene's stuff, and is usually way worse.

My mistake.

But as a whole, I tend to cast a very wary eye towards these Kung Fu Magazines.

There is a book about Chinese armor (I forget the name) that mentions how high kicks were used against the Mongols. I have a feeling that is where they got their info. I have doubts about the claims as well.

It is this type of ugly exageration that tends to degrade kung fu to uselessness and unrealistic.

Flying Kicks on a Raging Mongol riding his horse in a charge.....very unlikely. I doubt if there is any use at all of high kicks in martial arts, not to mention the flying ones.