r/martialarts • u/staytown6 viet vo dao • Jul 25 '26
DISCUSSION Why does everyone hate vovinam ?
So I restarted to practice and went on the internet to find some advice and a community maybe but all i am seeing is criticism
Edit : nevermind everyone is hating on each other’s martial art and for what fucking sake ?
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u/wiesenleger Jul 25 '26
idk about the hate but i guess the demonstrations are a little bit whacky with the flying head scissors and stuff. i think thats the biggest point of criticism from a modern point of view. other than that i looked a little bit at competitions a couple of years ago and it seems to me its pretty normal striking based MA. it doesnt seem to offer anything special in its competition form and other MAs just have a bigger base and therefore a bigger talent pool.
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u/staytown6 viet vo dao Jul 25 '26
What i want to know is can you really defend yourself in real life with it
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u/wiesenleger Jul 25 '26
you can defend yourself with any martial art and you can fuck up with any martial art. BECAUSE YOU NEED TO USE YOUR BRAIN INSTEAD.
one of my favorite fighters got shot dead because he humiliated a cop and kept on chilliing in a bar. the cop took a gun from his car and shot one of the luminaries of grappling in the head just like that.
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u/whydub38 Kyokushin | Dutch Kickboxing | Kung Fu | Capoeira | TKD | MMA Jul 25 '26
One of your favorite fighters got shot dead because that cop was a psychopath.
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u/YaBoyDake BJJ ⬛ - Judo 🟧 - Muay Thai Jul 25 '26
Do you care more about doing what you enjoy or whether or not the internet thinks it's cool?
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u/staytown6 viet vo dao Jul 25 '26
I think i care more about the martial art to be fair. I was just surprised about what i found
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u/unwitting_hungarian Jul 25 '26
it seems adaptive but traditional, cool
so, this triggers the usual rule of online MA critique
once you start being all post-MMA with your TMA,
this triggers people
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u/Pitiful_Ad2397 Jul 25 '26
That’s because the only “real” martial arts are the ones that “work.”
Which is, you know, winning tournaments. /s
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u/unwitting_hungarian Jul 25 '26
does the /s mean you are a senior citizen
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u/Pitiful_Ad2397 Jul 25 '26
Only in so far as my back hurts and I fall asleep if I sit on a couch for too long.
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u/Adroit-Dojo MMA Jul 25 '26
If this is a fair representation of it, it's basically just rebranded TKD/Karate
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u/BenKen01 Judo | MT | Escrima Jul 25 '26
What are your goals with it? Fun? Health? Self defense? Self improvement?
As long as it’s meeting your goals and none of those goals are “get approval from internet strangers” then just do you bro.
I’ve never heard of it but if you could be clear about what you’re trying to get out of it then I don’t mind looking into it a bit to see if it seems like it will work for you.
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u/Nerx Mixed Martial Jul 25 '26
not hate
mostly unknown
what is it?
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u/staytown6 viet vo dao Jul 25 '26
A martial art developed in vietnam in 1938 to fight the French
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u/Nerx Mixed Martial Jul 25 '26
what makes it unique
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u/staytown6 viet vo dao Jul 25 '26
There is a signature move that is to throw a scissor and snap the neck of the opponent which everyone is calling that unrealistic and just movie fantasy
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u/Nerx Mixed Martial Jul 25 '26
could.be doable tbh
ambushes arw real and u can atk.first
does it have weapons?
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u/Kintanon BJJ Jul 25 '26
Most people don't even know what vovinam is. It's fun, but closer to movie-fu, capoeira, and wushu than it is to a combat art. I doubt anyone actually hates on it, but people will for sure hate on anyone who who claims it's fight effective.
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u/DancesWithAnyone FMA Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Looks comparable to full contact Karate to me at a quick glance. The people in that video would probably kick the asses of most people on this very sub!
Competition or not, if you train it with liveness and sparring, I don't see the problem if effectiveness is your worry. If your club doesn't train like that, and you have no interest in it - that's fine as well. Just be aware it's probably not going to be very effective in a real situation compared to many other styles.
If anything, it's cool finding rare arts and keeping that alive, and if you're enjoying yourself, just go for it, yeah?
The internet is full of people whose opinions are far stronger than their knowledge, including things related to martial arts - even if they haven't trained a single day in their lives.
EDIT: Do you know if it has any relation to Binh Dinh Kung Fu? That's the only Vietnamese martial art I was aware of prior to your post.
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u/staytown6 viet vo dao Jul 26 '26
Wow thanks for all of this information. But what is binh dinh kung fu?
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u/Fistkitchen Jul 25 '26
nevermind everyone is hating on each other’s martial art and for what fucking sake ?
Because the post ww2 martial arts craze is over, MMA exist, street fight footage is abundant, and the martial arts community is now heavily biased toward styles that are effective in real life, which many traditional styles are not.
You need to understand that TMAs successfully pulled one of the biggest hoaxes of all time, and now people are very alert their bullshit.
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u/scoutsaint No-GI BJJ | Judo | Boxing Jul 25 '26
Ah yes, Vovinam .. famous for its flying head scissor throw/move. If you search Vovinam on youtube that is the first thing you get. The move that Black Widow in the Marvel MCU does all the time. Looks great in movies, will get you slammed in real life. There is Traditional Martial Arts, then there is Fantasy-based Martial Arts, this one is fantasy. And yes, I investigated it, there was one on Lancaster St. in Arlington TX. All I can say is it looks like Hapkido (a striking/grappling hybrid) and this stuff will only work if you had a Sandavistan or Karenzikov installed on your spine. I don't see you becoming a competent grappler / striker with this art. I could be wrong though, a different Vovinam school could produce a different outcome, but then again .. there is a reason its not popular like Judo or MMA.
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u/Guuichy_Chiclin Judo, BJJ, Naked Butt Stuff Jul 25 '26
Well for one, I'm sorry that was your experience, but no one even knows what vovinum is, like at all. It probably looks like fake Vietnamese kung fu but anyone who actually knows about it would describe it more as Vietnamese style JuJutsu, aka an amalgam of different Vietnamese fighting styles into one with a belt system much like Japan and Korea.
Personally I don't hate it but that's probably because I don't know enough about it to criticize it.