'Shaolin Soccer' will destroy both soccer and Kungfu

Soccer team members perform daily exercise at Songshan Shaolin warrior monks' training base in central China's Henan province on August 13, 2013. According to the head coach of the training base, they began the Shaolin Kung Fu soccer team in 2011 and now there are more than 500 team members, aging between 8 and 15. [Photo: CNS/Zhou Xiaoyun]

If Chinese Soccer wants to flourish, it needs to go step by step, following the successful experience of modern soccer and respecting the relevant laws. Applying the useless label "Kung-fu" to soccer will achieve nothing.

Recently, talk of "Shaolin Soccer" has been hyped by the mass media. One martial arts coach claimed that Kung-fu could combine successfully with soccer. He suggested that kicks in Kung-fu such as the twelve-routine of snap-kick boxing, Standing Qigong, and other fist positions would help to improve the students' footwork, impact resistance, and physical coordination. He hoped that applying these techniques in regular training would enhance soccer skill levels.

The news that Shaolin Temple is going to establish a soccer school together with Henan Jianye Soccer Club, and bring Kung-fu into soccer training, comes as something of a shock. It can be seen from the Tianshan Martial Art Festival that some schools of martial art have nothing to do with real combat, and to a certain extent they are no more than a form of cosplay. An incident where the head of a school was almost defeated by an ordinary member of the public highlights the fact that much of Kung-fu is no more than a legend.

Modern football was invented in UK in 1863. Developing over the course of more than one hundred years, especially since professionalization in the European countries, football has become a sports with clear rules, skills, tactics and training methods. During its development, there was no connection with Kung-fu and Martial Arts. Soccer's specific rules already provide clear answers to questions such as which parts of body can touch the ball, and what constitutes legitimate contact. A combination of Kung-fu and soccer would result in nothing but confusion.

There are two likely outcomes of trying to combine Kung-fu and soccer. The first is that China's dreams of becoming a high-level soccer country will die. Football would become an exuberant Kung-fu show instead of a contest of will, skill, triumph, and tragedy. Secondly, having lost its opportunity to achieve worldwide popularity, Chinese Kung-fu will lose its credibility.

In any case, Kung-fu will never make China a powerful force in the world. Many Chinese have dreamed for years that Kung-fu would make China powerful. Various films and television programs encourage this myth, showing Chinese thrashing foreigners to demonstrate the strength of the nation. In Ip Man, which has been filmed several times - as True Legend, Fist of Legend, and Fei-hung Wong, the audience sees a handsome and simple individual - a 'national hero' - who strikes down a powerful foreigner at the end of the movie.

If Chinese Soccer wants to flourish, it needs to go step by step, following the successful experience of modern soccer and applying the relevant laws. The government should increase its investment in the sport and build more soccer fields, providing more teenagers with the chance to engage in the sport. Government regulation also needs to be separated from club management. Applying the useless label "Kung-fu" to soccer will achieve nothing.

As a matter of fact, there is no reason why an individual who is talented at Kung-fu should not be able to make a contribution to soccer, but it has to be done sensibly. Soccer and Kung-fu belong to different sporting disciplines. Let us not mislead the public by suggesting that Shaolin Kung-fu will enhance training levels, for the sake of commercial gain.

Kung Fu soccer team trains at Songshan Shaolin training base

According to the head coach of the training base, they began the Shaolin Kung Fu soccer team in 2011 and now there are more than 500 team members, aging between 8 and 15.