History of Fighting, Martial Arts and more

Tracy Elman:	Hi, I'm Tracy Elman and this is Irvin Burton.
Irvin Burton:	Hi, how you doing?
Tracy Elman:	Irvin is an amazing trainer in self defense, kickboxing, boxing, martial arts, and more. Tell us about the history of how all of that originated.
Irvin Burton:	Well, you're talking about the history of martial arts right?
Tracy Elman:	Yes, (affirmative)
Irvin Burton:	Well, martial arts started ... It's been alive as long as man has been alive. It's been on every continent in the world. Everywhere from the Americas to China, to Africa. It's been everywhere, even in places like Europe, Asia, Japan. You name it.
Tracy Elman:	What year was that?
Irvin Burton:	Well, they found evidence of it as early as 4,000 B.C. They've shown pictures on pots in Egypt with boys boxing with boxing gloves on. There's word of 2,500 B.C. where they have wrestling in China. 3,000 B.C. they've got [Pancration 00:01:18], which is the Greek version of MMA. They've got all sorts of things going on. It's been around for thousands of years.
Tracy Elman:	That's fascinating. Boxing? Is that the same?
Irvin Burton:	Well, boxing's a little different. It's evolved mostly into the sport aspect, but boxing itself has been around for thousands of years as well. It's actually older than most martial arts that we are familiar with. It's older than karate, it's older than kung fu, it's older than certainly a lot older than TaeKwonDo. It's older than most martial arts in existence today. It's pretty much been around since the dawn of man.
Tracy Elman:	Wow. Kickboxing? How did that arrive?
Irvin Burton:	Well, kickboxing's arrival was different on pretty much every continent. If you're talking about, let's say, China on the Asian front, kickboxing evolved ... Let's take China for example. Kickboxing evolved from basic boxing and using a lot of techniques, using the feet, a little more exotic than the traditional boxing. They used it. China had a different understanding of boxing. To them, boxing meant the use of all limbs, not just the hands. Chinese boxing was really called ... They used to call it the law of the fists, also known as kenpo to be exact. Chinese kenpo was known as boxing. They used everything. They used the back of the hand, the elbow, the forearm, the head, the knee. That was boxing to them. That was Chinese boxing.
	If you look at the French, the French had their own form of boxing called savate that evolved in the 1800s. Their form was evolved to make sure that basically they didn't get arrested during that time period. You had a minimum five year sentence for hitting anybody with a closed fist, so they evolved their own form of kickboxing known as savate to avoid charges. Most of the sailors who had to fight a lot used their feet. That's what they did. They used their feet. They didn't use their hands. The most they used their hands to block and [inaudible 00:04:03] out of the way so they wouldn't have to worry about jail time.
	In this day and age I teach to a wide range of people, primarily I am teaching to kids, kids kung fu, kids martial arts. They love that. When it comes to adults, I tend to focus a lot more on fitness and/or fighting. It depends on who I'm training with. I've focused a lot on fitness kickboxing, fitness-based boxing, even some martial moves in there added in to spice things up. I've also come in and used self defense training as part of everything.
Tracy Elman:	Tell everybody how they can reach you and be in your classes.
Irvin Burton:	Sure, yes. You can reach me on Facebook. [Tiger Crane 00:04:59] Martial Arts & Fitness. Ampersand. Not and. Tiger Crane Martial Arts & Fitness or you can reach me directly through my phone number, 661-993-8621. The email address is sifu.irvin.burton@gmail.com.
Tracy Elman:	Great. This is Tracy Elman, REALTOR® from HomeSmart Tracy@tracyelman.com. You can go to AskELMAN.com (661)527-3777 for all your real estate buying and selling needs. Again, it's been a pleasure meeting with you Irvin.
Irvin Burton:	Thank you.
Tracy Elman:	Thank you for watching.
Irvin Burton:	Pleasure being here.

Corresponding Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGE23PkENbI 

'Tracy Elman' Bennett is a California licensed Realtor DRE 00983101 since 1988. Her designations include: MRP, Green, SRES®, CIPS.