TURTLE KUNG FU
​亀式​功夫​​​

Turtle Style Kung Fu is a combat level martial arts taught at Imperial Combat Arts school in Denver CO. In our martial arts systems the art of Turtle Kung Fu mainly represents being on your your hands and knees and in a crawling or kneeling positions. While this is a very common and important grappling position to master in many arts, Turtle Kung Fu techniques also address weapon applications as well as strike/kick defenses.
Turtle Kung Fu specializes in grappling against opponents who have taken the back as similar in wrestling and other grappling arts. Turtle Kung Fu however uses all manner of devastating combat techniques, strikes and grips, with highly toughened hand and fingers, and numerous Fen Chin and Ts'o Ku style Chin Na applications. In addition Turtle Kung Fu is built against combat techniques with dynamically proven defenses and counters to standing kicks, strikes, weapons, Chin Na, and grappling in all 8 directions of combat.

TURTLE STYLE TOUGHENING

To truly master Turtle Style Kung Fu requires highly toughened shins, feet, and hands as well as full body conditioning. The hand toughening used in Turtle Kung Fu builds off of the extensive toughening developed in the Animal Systems. Turtle Kung Fu strikes with beak style weapons as seen in Crane and Eagle Claw, that can break concreate with the fingertips. In addition Turtle uses devastating grips, ripping and gouging, and clawing techniques that liken to the animals powerful bite.

TURTLE POSTURE

Turtle Kung Fu fights primarily on the ground with just a handful of standing techniques. This style consists of several maneuvers (not counting the many that transition into the other grappling postures) that give Turtle the ability to move quickly in all directions and dynamically align Turtles whole body for it's swimming style blocks, leg and arm captures, chin na, throws, transitions, weapon applications, and kicks that can break baseball bats and cinderblocks from the ground. 

TORTOISE KUNG FU

Tortoise and Turtle are closely related fighting positions that fall under the same style. The main difference between these combat styles is that in Tortoise the front elbows are down instead of the palms. Though similar this position better suits the use of weapons and firearms and changes the manner in which Turtle Kung Style techniques are used. Tortoise can also shield the head and ribs more whereas Turtle is fast and dynamic.

TERRAPIN KUNG FU

The Terrapin is the third of the Turtle Kung Fu postures that crosses the rear legs. This crossing changes the movements and techniques of the style and allows for a fast twisting ability back up into standing. Many bring-downs and throws in Kung Fu may end in this twisted stance allowing for quick transition or joint locks performed against the opponents joints with the legs. These three Kung Fu styles can go simply by Turtle, or Tortoise, though sometimes Terrapin Kung Fu is the primary. In our arts Turtle is the primary used to name all three as it is in most of this page.

TURTLE & WEAPONS

The addition of weapons changes ground-fighting and grappling significantly, and ending up on your hands and knees is not a sought for weapon position. With weapons Turtle excels at dynamically transitioning to standing or to ground postures that offer more protection and attacks. These fast transitions are trained at to occur in the same movement as a block against various melee battlefield weapons often with a counter attack applied in the same move.

TURTLE EXERCISES

Turtle Kung Fu practitioners drill maneuvers, kicks, defenses, and evasion exercises to learn the style. Once students develop the strength and dynamic energy of the art, the basic exercises evolve into fast paced and intense drills vs moving targets, and multiple opponents. This high pressure training involves shouting, throw objects, specialized equipment, and all manner of attacks such as stomps, kicks, and strikes with training weapons. This punishing training helps ensure students can use their training in real combat situations.

STANDING TURTLE

In Turtle Style Kung Fu there are a series of techniques performed from standing, or low realm positions. These techniques apply many of Turtle Styles combat back defenses when a standing opponent has take the back in grappling or with strikes and weapon attacks to the rear. Other applications use the Turtle Position to throw opponents from standing or to deliver full body collision techniques to standing opponents. These back defenses are an important part of combat training.

TURTLE TRANSITIONS

Turtle Style Kung Fu has numerous techniques and maneuvers that transition into all of the other Black Scorpion ground fighting positions. These other styles and positions combine to encompass all aspects of combat ground fighting. Of all of these styles Turtle Kung Fu represents fighting on your hands and knees or on your knees with your hands up in guard. Transitioning to different postures is a big part of training martial arts, as its crucial to be able to fight from any position.

HISTORY OF TURTLE

Turtles have deep meaning in Chinese culture as one of the 4 Sacred Animals alongside, Dragon, Phoenix, and Tiger, which are all fighting styles at Imperial Combat Arts. The earliest writings in Chinese history were on the backs of Turtle and in legend some speculate the first Chinese calligraphy characters as well as the Taoist Trigrams of the I-Ching were first seen in the patterns on the back of Turtle shells and that they gave birth to written language in Asia. 
The Chinese Imperial Army carried flags with Turtles and Dragons as symbols of their undeniable power. The Tortoise is named the Black Warrior, a symbol of power, longevity, winter, and the North. In feng shui Turtle is the symbol of water. The Turtle has legendary meaning in the creation of the world, and statues or Turtle and Tortoises adorn Chinese burial sites, homes, and gardens to this day.
Alongside symbols of military power, the Turtle was also used in various battlefield formations, fighting techniques, and weapons development throughout Chinese history. The large army military formation of Turtle is near identical in application to the Infantry Square used throughout history and well know in the Napoleonic Wars. These formations were most often used by Infantry against Cavalry units. Through this history Turtle Kung Fu has come to represent a martial style.

LION & DOG KUNG FU

While seemingly identical in basic posture to Turtle, Dog and Lion are drastically different fighting styles. Foremost Lion is in respect over a downed opponent at times more similar to a side-mount, though with combat techniques, hand toughening, and throat crushing grips etc. Dog Kung Fu is a much larger and more well known fighting style that fights from these positions vs, standing opponents, grappling from overtop, standing, and kneeling, as well as underneath. Dog is trained as a primary sub-style of Leopard Kung Fu.

BLACK SCORPION SYSTEM

Turtle is just one the many positions trained in Black Scorpion. The different animal sub-styles of Black Scorpion represent all possible ground-fighting & grappling positions the human body can be in. Together these styles create a powerful & complex ground combat system. This complete martial art contains the highest levels of; toughening, body conditioning, strength training, weapon training, striking, kicking, grappling, throws, chokes, strangles, joint locks, and chin na. The Black Scorpion System is trained for real combat vs multiple opponents and blends seamlessly with all standing martial arts taught in The Imperial 8 Animal System and Wu Tang Ch'uan. The Black Scorpion Ground-fighting system had been advertised and taught in the U.S. since 1962. Enter Page> Scorpion Kung Fu